3 Bucs who should be cut, and 2 who earned a roster spot in preseason Week 2 win over Jets
By Josh Hill
It was a glorious Saturday night in New Jersey for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The team notched its first win of the preseason and a handful of players showed off much improved performances from last week’s opener. Notably, Kyle Trask played almost the entire game as the Bucs starting quarterback and shone in ways we haven’t really seen from him yet.
After starting the entire first half, Trask came back in when John Wolford was injured in the third quarter. Todd Bowles mentioned after the game that Baker Mayfield was meant to play but he decided to stick with Trask not only through the whole first half but when he needed someone to replace Wolford.
Most folks interpreted Mayfield’s absence as a clear sign he’s going to be named the starting quarterback, but Bowles comments after the game challenge that notion.
Trask wasn’t the only Bucs player who had a good night, but there were also a handful of guys who didn’t do so well. With Week 1 quickly approaching, the Bucs are going to start trimming own the roster and Saturday night was a good indicator of who is are and who might be on their way out soon.
Cut: Ke’Shawn Vaughn
Ke’Shawn Vaughn is going backwards in just about every sense. He carried the ball four times and finished with -8 yards against the Jets on Saturday, which brings his preseason rushing total to -4 yards.
He’s averaging negative yardage per game — that’s a pretty sure fire way to lose a roster spot. A bad game against the Jets came just over a week after Vaughn rushed for four yards on seven carries against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
This is now back-to-back poor performances turned in by Vaughn, and they’re being juxtaposed against solid outings by his competition. Everything good that Sean Tucker does seems to be met with an equally bad thing that Vaughn does, which might make the decision on who is the RB3 entering Week 1 one of the easiest roster decisions of the offseason.