The Bills are signing free agent defensive lineman Greg Gaines, Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reports.
In a corresponding move, Fowler reports the Bills have released defensive tackle Tommy Akingbesote.
Gaines, 30, spent last season with the Buccaneers. He appeared in all 17 games with four starts, seeing action on 369 defensive snaps, and he totaled 23 tackles and two sacks.
The Rams selected Gaines in the fourth round of the 2019 draft, and he was with the team for four seasons. He signed with the Bucs in 2023 and spent three seasons in Tampa.
In his career, Gaines has appeared in 108 games with 34 starts. He has totaled 186 tackles, 14.5 sacks and 35 quarterback hits.
Bucs Clips
It gets a little exhausting when an NFL franchise finds motivation from the fact that: (1) the team hasn’t performed up to snuff; and (2) others have noticed.
Regardless, every team needs a reason to try a little harder. For the Bucs, their late-season collapse has created an earned narrative that they’ll now try to defy.
“I think we’re going to shock a lot of people this year,” Mayfield said Tuesday, via JoeBucsFan.com. “And so I’m excited.”
And, yes, the motivation is coming from the noise that the Bucs aren’t expected to fare very well, after missing the playoffs last year for the first time since 2019.
“You can’t avoid it,” Mayfield said. “The TVs [are] everywhere. Everybody’s picking us probably to have a losing record.”
Well, they had a losing record last year. A 6-2 start was followed by a 2-7 finish and, thanks to the Falcons beating the Saints on the last Sunday of the season, a lost tiebreaker to the Panthers for the NFC South crown.
The 2026 road for the Bucs begins in Ohio, against the Bengals. Baker relishes starting the season on the road.
“You’re with your guys, and it’s just the Bucs against everybody else in that city you’re going to, and so I think it’s a good opportunity for us against the Bengals,” Mayfield said.
The Buccaneers pulled off a road upset in Mayfield’s first game with the team, beating the Vikings to start the 2023 season. The Bucs won their first road game in 2024, upsetting the Lions at Ford Field. Last year, Tampa Bay beat the Falcons in Atlanta to open the regular season.
The Bucs will need a fast start and something other than last year’s disintegration in order to get back to the postseason. And they’ll be using the natural conclusions drawn from the sluggishness to cap 2025 as the spark for 2026.
Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield didn’t play at all in the 2025 preseason, but the team is taking a different approach this summer.
Head coach Todd Bowles said on Monday that Mayfield will be in the lineup for Tampa’s second preseason game. The Bucs will host the Chiefs on Saturday night.
Bowles said that the team’s other healthy starters will also see playing time against Kansas City. The Bucs did not play their first string against the Jets in last Friday’s preseason opener.
Mayfield is heading into the final year of his contract and spent the offseason looking for a new deal, but has been practicing at training camp despite the lack of movement toward an agreement.
Monday brought a significant change to the practice field at Buccaneers training camp.
Videos shared from the team’s practice showed left tackle Tristan Wirfs in full pads as the workout got underway. Wirfs injured his hamstring during a conditioning test at the start of camp and had been seen working on the side, but had not taken part in any practices this summer.
The two-time All-Pro is a key part of any offensive plans in Tampa and his presence on the practice field is a good sign that Wirfs will be fully ramped up in time to play in the season opener next month.
Reporters at practice note that quarterback Jake Browning is also back at practice. Browning missed the first preseason game after hurting his back in practice last week.
The Buccaneers announced a handful of roster moves ahead of this week’s second preseason game.
They have signed running back Barika Kpeenu and safety Robert McDaniel. They take the spots previously held by running back Kadarius Calloway and safety Marcus Banks. Both players were waived with injury designations, so they will revert to injured reserve if unclaimed.
Kpeenu went undrafted out of North Dakota State this year. He ran for 1,005 yards and 20 touchdowns in his final college season.
McDaniel spent last season on the Commanders’ practice squad and he was waived by Washington earlier this month. He entered the league as an undrafted free agent.
Buccaneers undrafted rookie quarterback Jalon Daniels is fourth on the depth chart, but he looked in his preseason debut like he might have an NFL future.
Daniels played the second half on Friday night and completed 10 of 15 passes for 111 yards, and also ran for a touchdown. Third-string quarterback Connor Bazelak started for the Buccaneers on a night when starter Baker Mayfield and backup Jake Browning were both off, but Daniels looked better than Bazelak, and Bucs coach Todd Bowles praised Daniels after the game.
“I thought he was very poised,” Bowles said. “He went in relaxed. We knew he could make off-schedule plays out of the pocket, but he played very confidently in the pocket. He made the right reads. He zipped some throws in there. I thought he played very well.”
Daniels spent six years at Kansas and developed a reputation as a quarterback who made plays with his legs as much as his arm, but Bowles said after the preseason opener that he appreciated Daniels trying to work within the Buccaneers’ offensive system rather than rely on his running.
“He took what they gave him,” Bowles said. “He didn’t try to get out of there too fast and he was calm under pressure, and he let the system work for him as opposed to just trying to make a play. He did some very good things tonight from a poise standpoint.”
Daniels said he’s been hard at work on learning to play in an NFL system, rather than the more improvisational style he had in college.
“We’ve worked on a lot of different things to get me out of certain habits I had in college,” Daniels said. “I have a better understanding of it than when I first got here.”
He put that on display in his preseason debut.
The Jets made a late change at quarterback on Friday and rookie Cade Klubnik got the start against the Buccaneers as a result.
Klubnik opened his first NFL appearance with a short pass to tight end Mason Taylor that turned into a 12-yard gain. The pair hooked up again for seven yards and Klubnik then found wideout Garrett Wilson twice for 32 yards. Wilson made an impressive leaping grab in traffic for a 21-yard gain on the first completion.
The Jets settled for a field goal on that drive and Klubnik let running back Braelon Allen do the heavy lifting on the next drive. Allen ran for a 31-yard touchdown on Klubnik’s final play of the night.
Klubnik finished 5-of-7 for 56 yards.
Geno Smith was expected to start the game, but the Jets scratched him just before kickoff with what head coach Aaron Glenn called ankle soreness on the CBS broadcast. Glenn said the team does not believe it is a serious issue.
Defensive tackle Vita Vea remains at odds with the Buccaneers over his contract and thus is not practicing. He wants a trade. The Buccaneers insist they aren’t trading him.
Mike Garafolo of NFL Media reports that the Bills, 49ers and Bears are among the teams who have called the Bucs about Vea.
Vea requested a trade ahead of training camp after spending the offseason seeking a new contract.
Philadelphia’s Jalen Carter, Dallas’ Quinnen Williams and Tennessee’s Jeffery Simmons all have signed extensions recently, with Carter now at the top of the defensive tackle market at $38 million annually. Williams ($35.3 million per season) and Simmons ($35.276 million) are close behind.
Vea now ranks 16th with an annual average of $17.75 million.
He is entering the final year of his deal, set to make $17 million in base salary.
The Buccaneers received good news about wide receiver Emeka Egbuka’s injury on Friday.
Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times reports that Egbuka underwent more testing on his injured toe and a specialist diagnosed him with a sprained toe. The Bucs are confident Egbuka will play Week 1.
Egbuka limped off the field during the joint practice at the Jets’ facility in New Jersey on Wednesday and did not return.
He had 63 catches for 938 yards and six touchdowns during his rookie season and is expected to have an even bigger role with Mike Evans now in San Francisco.
Jets head coach Aaron Glenn said this week that the team’s starters would play against the Buccaneers on Friday night, but there’s one significant change to that plan.
Mike Garafolo of NFL Media reports that quarterback Geno Smith has been scratched due to foot soreness. Per the report, the Jets are not concerned about the injury and Smith would be playing if this were a regular season contest.
With Smith out of the lineup, fourth-round pick Cade Klubnik will get an extended run in his first NFL game action. The Jets listed Klubnik as the No. 2 quarterback on their initial depth chart and he will now get the start against Tampa.
Brady Cook and Bailey Zappe are the other Jets quarterbacks.
