Rachaad White added to injury report, downgraded for Colts game

With the season potentially on the brink in Week 12, the last thing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers can afford is an injury to a key player.

That seems to be exactly what has happened in the hours leading up to Sunday’s game against the Indiapolis Colts. On Saturday the Buccaneers downgraded running back Rachaad White’s status due to what the team is calling a knee injury.

He’s otherwise been healthy this season, and it’s not clear when he suffered the injury. White being downgraded from a healthy player to being on the injury report is a less than ideal situation and one worth monitoring as game time approaches.

Rachaad White listed as late addition to injury report

There’s slight macabre silver lining to White being added to the injury list and the panic it sent Bucs fans into. Earlier this year White was the poster child of the league’s worst rushing attack, but he’s since been able to break free from that and has proven to be a critical piece of the offense right alongside Mike Evans and Chris Godwin.

So the fact that we’ve reached a point where his absence — or the thought of him not playing — is a major hit for the team is an endorsement of his development this year.

As for his status on Sunday, it’s potentially not as bad as it might seem. Greg Auman clarified after the news broke that White is being listed as ‘questionable’, and it’s still very likely that he plays against the Colts on Sunday.

If White is unable to go, Chase Edmonds would become the lead back for the Bucs with a likely combination of Sean Tucker and Ke’Shawn Vaughn behind him. Tucker has struggled to make the sort of impact fans were hoping he would during training camp, and Vaughn might be running the clock out on his time in Tampa Bay. He’s been a healthy scratch the last handful of weeks and hasn’t done much with the opportunities he’s been given.

Tampa Bay is a significantly worse team without White in the lineup, which again is a huge endorsement of his talent starting to shine through. It’s also why his addition to the injury report is less than ideal and is hopefully nothing more than a precaution.

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