Tampa Bay Buccaneers inactives list for Week 12 game vs. Giants

It's been over a month since the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have won a game, but everything is lining up for that to change on Sunday afternoon in East Rutherford. The Bucs begin a jog through the softest part of their schedule, with a matchup against the hapless New York Giants kicking things off.

New York has been truly awful this year, and the chaos culminated in Daniel Jones's benching and then released this past week. The Bucs are facing that team, and while the makings of a trap game are there, it shouldn't be as stressful as it might feel.

If the Bucs play the way we saw them capable of playing at the beginning of the season, there's no reason they shouldn't easily run away with this game. That's the tricky part, though, as we haven't seen Tampa Bay play complete football since October as the failure to close out games has cost them at least three straight wins.

All of that can change with a bounceback game on Sunday, as there's plenty of time for things to turn around and the Bucs to save their season.

Full inactives list for Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 12 vs. Giants

The biggest name everyone was watching this week wasn't Mike Evans but rather Tristan Wirfs. Despite spraining his MCL in the loss to San Francisco, Wirfs wasn't placed on IR, and the belief was that he might be able to use the bye week to get healthy enough to play.

It's been a miraculous recovery for Wirfs, who ended up returning to practice on Friday -- albeit in a limited capacity -- and wasn't ruled out ahead of time for Sunday's game. The only player ruled out over the weekend was rookie safety Tykee Smith, who has been battling a concussion.

Evans was already set to return from a hamstring injury that has held him out of the last three games and he's primed to help power a turnaound now that he's back.

Here's everyone who has been ruled out for today's game against New York:

Wirfs being ruled inactive isn't a total surprise, even if things were starting to get exciting late in the week. There's simply no need to rush him back when having him healthy against teams like the Chargers and Saints is far more important than getting him back against the Giants.

Perhaps a bigger issue is Tyreek Funderburk being ruled out alongside Tykee Smith. Tampa Bay's secondary is already getting thin, but that news is chased with the fact that both Zyon McCollum and Jamel Dean are active and set to play.

Dean is returning for the first time since the Thursday Night Football loss to the Falcons, and his return could be a big boost that the defense desperately needs.

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