The Tampa Bay Buccaneers need every advantage they can get if they’re going to pull off a huge upset and earn their first win of the season on the road against the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday Night Football.
Well, they just got handed a massive break. Joey Porter Jr., who Dallas just traded for to shore up its struggling secondary, was unexpectedly ruled out for tonight’s game due to an illness.
News just a couple hours before kickoff: The #Cowboys have ruled out CB Joey Porter Jr. with an illness.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) October 8, 2026
The Cowboys are also without Cobie Durant — suddenly leaving them dangerously thin at cornerback. The Buccaneers have a real opportunity to capitalize on a depleted Dallas secondary and potentially get their lifeless offense back on track.
Buccaneers have a golden opportunity to attack Cowboys’ depleted secondary with Joey Porter Jr. ruled out
The Cowboys are expected to start DaRon Bland and Shavon Revel Jr. at outside cornerback with Porter Jr. out. The other potential starting option is Ameer Speed, who has only logged 31 snaps all season.
Bland ranks as PFF’s No. 72 cornerback out of 103 qualifying players, while Revel comes in at No. 87. They’ll miss Porter, who was targeted just once in 24 snaps last week and didn’t allow a single catch.
The Cowboys rank No. 30 in total defense and No. 24 against the pass, which is why they brought in Porter in the first place. For as bad as the Buccaneers have been offensively, they’ve still got legitimate receiving threats in Chris Godwin Jr., Emeka Egbuka, Ted Hurst and Tez Johnson.
The Bucs will be careful about how much to put on rookie Jalon Daniels’ plate, but there’s a real chance to air it out here against the Cowboys and finally show glimpses of what this offense is capable of with taking more shots downfield, rather than at or behind the line of scrimmage.
Tampa Bay will need all the offense they can get if they want to keep pace with a red-hot Cowboys team that has scored 30+ points in three straight games led by Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens.
It’s still not a favorable matchup for the Buccaneers, but it just got a lot less daunting as Dallas goes to battle without its star cornerback. With Porter's absence, this is shaping up to be, by far, the weakest defense Tampa Bay has played to this point, and perhaps all season. If their offense is ever going to break out, it’s now or never.
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