We are just days away from the start of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers season, but it seems the team might already be encountering some locker room turbulence.
As the Bucs prepare for a Week 1 matchup with the Minnesota Vikings, one player was notably — and unexpectedly — absent from practice. Fourth-string running back Ke’Shawn Vaughn was listed as not having participated in practice but it’s unclear exactly what the real reason was.
Whatever the reason was, Bucs coaches were apparently caught off guard by his absence and weren’t given a heads up that he wouldn’t be there.
After practice on Wednesday head coach Todd Bowles addressed the media and revealed that Vaughn’s absence was unexcused. Bowles mentioned that Vaughn is healthy and didn’t miss practice due to injury, rather it was ‘personal reasons’ that caused him to skip out.
Bucs coaches didn’t know Ke’Shawn Vaughn wouldn’t be at practice
“We’ll see tomorrow,” Bowles said when asked about Vaughn’s absence. “He’s healthy and he has personal reasons and we’ll deal with it and see where he’s at.”
That doesn’t sound like the first conversation Vaughn has with his coaches is going to be a pleasant one.
The Bucs running back was one of only two players who didn’t practice on Wednesday, as rookie Calijah Kancey remains questionable for Week 1. Vaughn’s status is now also up in the air, with much depending on whether he shows up to practice on Thursday.
Should Vaughn miss — or be held out of — Sunday’s game against the Vikings, the offensive depth chart won’t take much of a hit. Rachaad White is the starter with undrafted rookie sensation Sean Tucker listed as his backup. Chase Edmonds is behind Tucker which leaves Vaughn as RB4 in the Bucs running back rotation.
That’s a drop from where Vaughn was in the pecking order last season, as he was RB3 behind White and Leonard Fournette.
Perhaps that’s a factor in why he didn’t show up on Wednesday, but all we have to go off of is speculation. It’s never a good sign when nobody knows why you didn’t show up to work, especially when one of the people asking that question is the one in charge of whether or not you remain employed.