The Tampa Bay Buccaneers formed their first 53-man roster for the 2024 regular season roster with a series of moves on Tuesday afternoon, and it currently tilts a bit towards the defensive side. Three of 53 spots necessarily go to the specialist trio of punter-kicker-snapper, leaving 50 spots to be divvied up between the positions on offense and defense. The Buccaneers current roster devotes 27 of those spots to defensive players, including 11 defensive backs.
The Buccaneers were able to keep an extra defensive back as well as six outside linebackers because they chose to keep just two quarterbacks on the active roster and will almost certainly carry a third on the practice squad. Last year, the team started the season the same way before eventually promoting John Wolford to the 53-man roster and carry three quarterbacks. The Bucs also went one lighter than usual at running back, carrying three and placing Chase Edmonds on season-ending injured reserve.
Tampa Bay’s 2024 roster is also quite young, with nine rookies and 30 players added as draft picks or undrafted rookies in the last three years. Forty of the 53 are 26 or younger and only three are over 30: Lavonte David, Mike Evans and Will Gholston.
Starting Wednesday, the Buccaneers will begin building a 16-man practice squad, which means that many of the players who did not make it through Tuesday’s cuts will be back in the building.
Listed below is how the initial 53-man roster breaks down, with the players listed alphabetically at each position (rookies marked with an asterisk).
Quarterbacks (2): Baker Mayfield, Kyle Trask
As noted, the Buccaneers will go with just two quarterbacks on the active roster. If they do carry a third quarterback on the practice squad, as expected, Wolford would be an obvious candidate. Trask took competition from Wolford for the number two spot behind Mayfield but held him off with a strong preseason performance that included three touchdown passes, one interception and a 91.6 passer rating.
Running Backs (3): Bucky Irving *, Sean Tucker, Rachaad White
Edmonds suffered a knee injury early in training camp and never got back on the field. White and Tucker are incumbents from the 2023 running back room and Irving was a valued fourth-round draft pick. The only other backs in training camp were the undrafted rookie duo of Ramon Jefferson and D.J. Williams, and one or both could come back on the practice squad. White is…
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