The Buccaneers may be considered as a rebuilding squad, but that doesn’t matter much to the players fighting for roster spots in the late preseason. As the regular season inches nearer and nearer, two starting positions are starting to come into focus, according to Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times.
On offense, center Ryan Jensen has not returned to practice as he continues to recover from three knee ligament tears that he opted not to have surgery on. In his absence, Robert Hainsey and Nick Leverett have been competing for the starting job. Hainsey likely has a bit of an edge after playing the position in college and starting all 17 games last season for Tampa Bay, but Leverett has meshed well in new offensive coordinator Dave Canales‘ new zone-blocking scheme. Even if Hainsey can’t hold onto the job, Leverett may keep the position competitive.
On defense, Dee Delaney has really stepped up at nickelback after the team opted to move Antoine Winfield Jr. back to free safety full-time. Delaney, who spent four years at The Citadel before transferring to Miami (FL) and going undrafted, has stuck in Tampa Bay, playing 32 games over the past two seasons while starting three of them. Delaney has had a great camp as reflected in a stellar performance in last week’s preseason game against the Jets. Undrafted rookie Christian Izien has also impressed with physical play throughout the preseason, while rookie sixth-round pick Josh Hayes has fallen a bit behind in the position battle.
Here are a few more roster battles to watch heading into the final weekend of preseason games this season:
- Nate Sudfeld was viewed as a solid backup option at quarterback for the Lions last season. Coming into 2023, though, he may be struggling to retain a roster spot, according to Justin Rogers of The Detroit News. Obviously, Jared Goff has the starting job locked up, but recently signed veteran Teddy Bridgewater has made a strong case for the QB2 role behind him. Sudfeld still has value to the team, but head coach Dan Campbell made it clear that his roster status depends on if he adds more value to the team than depth at other positions on the roster. If CB5 or CB6 end up adding more value than Sudfeld as QB3, he may find himself missing out on the initial 53-man roster.
- As starting guard Austin Corbett waits to be cleared following ACL surgery, the Panthers‘ situation at guard is feeling a bit precarious. A tweet from Joseph Person of The Athletic tells that a decision on the starting right guard job in Corbett’s absence has been delayed until the returns from injury of rookie fourth-round pick Chandler Zavala and undrafted rookie Nash Jensen. Head coach Frank Reich wanted both rookies to have a chance for the spot before making the decision. Zavala was recently activated from the physically unable to perform list and hasn’t seen much action. Jensen was impressing early in the offseason before a back injury slowed his progress. They’ll compete with Cade Mays and Justin McCray for the position, but Person believes that Carolina may pursue some added competition at roster cutdowns.
- Last week, the Packers‘ seventh-round pick from last year, Rasheed Walker, got the starting call at left tackle ahead of usual backup Yosh Nijman, according to Matt Schneidman of The Athletic. Nijman has been the usual go-to at tackle when starter David Bakhtiari isn’t available, but Schneidman thinks that Walker may have worked his way past Nijman on the depth chart as of late.
I suppose it could be that Nijman is losing his spot on the depth chart, but I have to wonder if perhaps GB just knows what they have in him, and chose to get a better look at Walker against better competition.
That would make sense, given that they have a body of work to compare for Nijman. The Packers’ line will be much different this year without Rodgers calling protections, however. I expect there to be a lot of growing pains no matter who starts. The Packers also like to move their linemen a lot, for some reason, so they might just be testing the waters to see how that particular alignment looks.
It could be even more complicated if Meyers loses the starting Center job. It was still a competition as of tuesday or Wednesday this week. I believe it’s down to him or ZTom now, with Hanson injured and gone. They really like Tom, but I thought they were grooming HIM as the eventual replacement for Bak.
I think I read several places about the future hopes for Tom coming into this year. Either the Packers truly change their o-line hopes at the drop of a hat, or they’ve done a fantastic job leading the beat writers on a mission of mystification. I’m not sure if it’s intentional, but it certainly is rather hard to predict. Kudos, if it’s the former.
I don’t think the Packers’ talent level there is good necessarily, but I don’t think that it’s bad, either. They seem to have a bunch of good backup level players all around, with the exception of Jenkins (who has started all over the line). Like I said, an elite quarterback can affect a lot of line play through his protection calls, so seeing them communicate on their own (perhaps that’s one factor affecting Meyers’ job security?) will be key. Bakhtiari is a wild card to me at this point; even at 50%, he’d be a good tackle, but at his best he was the best pass protector in the league. I don’t expect quite that on his return, given how long it’s been since he was regularly playing, but it does make me wonder how interested a certain team could be that has had poor line play with a familiar face…
I’ll start with the trade idea..GB claims they’re NOT moving him. As long as he’s healthy/playing I really hope they don’t. Or they’ll be eating another pile of dead money (they will anyway as I am convinced they’re moving on after this season no matter what).
As for Meyers, I just happened to catch on the game today they supposedly believe he’s having a great camp. Yeah, it all changed in 5 days (probably saying that because 1 of his potential replacements is gone and need Tom elsewhere).
And they had Runyan playing C for a stretch today. Not. Good.
It sounds like they may just to testing their options. I would like to see them have some steady consistency in their young linemen, though. I agree with what you’ve said.
I don’t enjoy saying negative things about players, but Jensen might be the dirtiest player in the NFL today, at least that I’ve seen. That’s not a light accusation, especially from someone who’s not on the field, but I really don’t enjoy watching his terrible attitude on the field. That said…he’s decent as a center, but he’s also not irreplaceable. Normally that wouldn’t be an issue, but there is some uncertainty in my mind for the interior of that line as a whole.
The Bucs aren’t contenders as it stands now, and their line has lost a lot of good pieces since Brady’s day a short time ago. Aside from Jensen, their two starting guards were both very good players in Marpet and Cappa. Wirfs is a stud, but he is playing a new position and looks to be the only returning player from that championship line this year.
Mayfield is going to have a task playing behind that line, especially if Jensen remains out. Even with him, the line would still be a concern. Tampa was really quite awful running the ball last year, but part may have been Brady experimenting with some new found freedom after Arians was cut loose with fewer attempts. It figures that they’ll have many more this year. You’d think that Shaq Mason would have been more valuable to Tampa this year. I suppose much will depend on Cody Mauch, who will be leaned on a lot in an attempt to address their lethargic run game.
It really makes no sense to be a dirty player because sooner or later you’ll find yourself on the receiving end of a career ending cheap shot.
There’s no way the Lions keep Sudfield over an extra corner or WR that has more value. He didn’t play well at all and I’m sure they can stash him on the practice squad for insurance if they like the guy.
Sudfield may have made the Lions’ decision easier — he had to be carted off last night after twisting his ankle on a scramble at the sideline.