Bucs Clips
The NFL’s first punt return touchdown of the 2026 season belongs to Vikings wide receiver Myles Price.
Price fielded a Riley Dixon punt at his own 14-yard line and broke loose for an 86-yard score. The touchdown pushed the Vikings’ lead to 10-0 with 8:43 left to play in the first quarter.
It was the first touchdown of Price’s NFL career.
The Vikings opened the scoring with a seven-play, 40-yard drive that ended with a Will Reichard field goal. Wide receiver Justin Jefferson caught two passes for 32 yards from Kyler Murray on the drive. Murray is returning after being cleared from his Week 1 concussion.
Linebacker Ivan Pace did not travel to Tampa with the Vikings on Saturday, but he made it to Florida in time to play on Sunday.
Pace was listed as questionable for personal reasons, but he avoided the inactive list and will be in the lineup against the Buccaneers. The 2-0 Vikings are trying to send the Buccaneers to their third straight loss.
The Bucs will not have defensive tackle Rakeem Nunez-Roches after he hurt his ankle during pregame warmups. Linebackers Rueben Bain and Josiah Trotter are also out with injuries for the home team.
Cornerback Ayden Garnes, guard Luke Haggard, and guard Billy Schrauth are also inactive for the Bucs. Punter Brett Thorson, cornerback Zemaiah Vaughn, safety Jakobe Thomas, safety Tavierre Thomas, offensive tackle Caleb Tiernan, defensive lineman Elijah Williams, and quarterback J.J. McCarthy are inactive for Minnesota.
The NFL means plenty of things, from No Fun League to Not For Long. That’s never been more true for coaches.
Last year, 10 of 32 jobs became open. Whatever the number this time around, the number will be closer to nine than none.
Through two weeks, more than a few seats are getting hot. Or, as the case may be, hotter.
We’ll start with Colts coach Shane Steichen, mainly because of what team owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon said after the 2025 season ended: “We have been very clear with [G.M.] Chris [Ballard] and Shane that giving them another opportunity means that the sense of urgency for them to deliver and perform has never been higher.”
So far, the Colts are winless. The defense has given up more than 500 yards in each of the first two games. Obviously, something needs to change or there will be a housecleaning in Indianapolis.
Next on the list is Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles. Since starting 2025 with a 6-2 record, the Buccaneers are 2-11. Imagine the angst in the Glazer suite last week while they had to sit there and wait two hours for the likely loss to the lowly Browns to become official. A turnaround is a must.
Jets coach Aaron Glenn wasn’t one-and-done after 2025, in part due to a buyout that would have exceeded $40 million. The season started with a suffocation of the Titans and former Jets coach Robert Saleh. In Week 2, a blown 10-point lead, widely-criticized late-game clock management, and a decision to receive the opening kickoff of overtime have increased the pressure on Glenn to do more this year than he did last year.
Things are looking grim for Dan Quinn in D.C. For some, it’s already become a given that Quinn will be gone after his third season — especially if it’s another 5-12 showing, or worse. The latest Jayden Daniels dislocated left elbow likely won’t buy Quinn a mulligan.
Packers coach Matt LaFleur is facing an uprising in the land of beef and cheese. Yes, he got an extension after the 2025 season. But he wouldn’t be the first coach who received a new contract one offseason and a pink slip the next.
Lastly, we’ll mention Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh. He made the playoffs in each of his first two years on the job. This year, however, has started in disastrous fashion. He has two years left on his five-year, $80 million contract after 2026; the buyout could buy him one more year. It all comes down to whether the Chargers play dramatically better than they did against two teams that combined in 2025 for a record of 6-28.
Any, some, or all of the coaches listed above could turn things around. After all, 15 games remain. And other coaches who are currently safe could end up in hot water as the season unfolds.
Either way, it makes sense to be watching the situation closely, because the NFL head-coaching industry has proven to be a high-turnover business. And, as former Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon acknowledged once it became clear he was on the hot seat in 2025, it’s the business they’ve chosen.
Vikings quarterback Kyler Murray’s return from a Week 1 concussion adds a separate wrinkle to the Week 3 game against the Buccaneers.
The game means that former Oklahoma teammates Murray and Baker Mayfield will have their fourth NFL meeting. Murray leads, 3-0.
Mayfield won the Heisman Trophy at Oklahoma in 2017. Murray replaced Mayfield in 2018, and then Murray won it.
Their personal rivalry takes a back seat to the bigger picture. The Vikings hope to get to 3-0, and the Buccaneers need to avoid slipping to 0-3.
And there’s one interesting wrinkle that plays into the home team’s favor. Mayfield has faced a Brian Flores defense twice in his career. In 2019, Mayfield and the Browns beat the Dolphins. In 2023, Mayfield and the Bucs stunned the Vikings in Flores’s first game as the team’s defensive coordinator. Mayfield had five touchdown passes and one interception in those two games.
The Buccaneers elevated safety Ifeatu Melifonwu from the practice squad on Saturday, the team announced.
It is the final elevation for Melifonwu, as he played in the first two games. The Bucs will have to add Melifonwu to the 53-player roster for him to play again this season.
Melifonwu’s elevation gives the Buccaneers help on special teams and insurance at safety. Starters Antoine Winfield Jr. and Tykee Smith and backup Miles Killebrew are the only safeties on the 53-player roster, with rookie defensive back Keionte Scott playing in the slot.
Melifonwu has not played on defense, but he has logged 32 snaps on special teams.
He signed a one-year deal with the Bucs at the start of training camp after spending last season with the Dolphins. A third-round pick of the Lions in 2021, Melifonwu spent four seasons in Detroit.
He has appeared in 53 games with 22 starts and has totaled 125 tackles, 5.5 sacks, three interceptions and 14 passes defensed.
The Vikings traveled to Florida for Sunday’s game against the Buccaneers without linebacker Ivan Pace Jr.
Pace could still play.
The Vikings downgraded him to questionable upon announcing that he didn’t make the trip. Obviously, he’ll need to get to Tampa Bay another way.
Undrafted in 2023, Pace is in his fourth season with the Vikings. No longer a starter, Pace was on the field for 10 defensive plays against the Packers in Week 1 (plus 26 on special teams) and for 14 defensive plays against the Bears in Week 2 (plus 18 on special teams).
The Vikings have won seven games in a row, dating back to last season.
Eight teams entered Week 3 at 0-2. One of them — the Falcons — avoided an 0-3 start. For the others, it becomes imperative to avoid starting the year with three straight losses.
In NFL history, only seven teams have made the playoffs after starting 0-3. The group includes the 2025 Texans, the 2018 Texans, the 1998 Bills, the 1995 Lions, the 1992 Chargers, the 1982 Buccaneers, and the 1981 Jets.
Only the ’92 Chargers made it to the postseason after starting 0-4.
It’s easier now than it once was, thanks to 17 regular-season games and seven playoff spots per conference. It’s still not easy.
For starters, plenty of teams that start 0-3 do so for a very good reason — they’re not very good. Those that are have a reduced margin for error over the final 14 games.
This year, one game features two 0-2 teams: the Texans at the Colts. The other winless teams are the Dolphins, the Titans, the Chargers, the Commanders, and the Buccaneers.
Vikings running back Aaron Jones worked his way up to a full practice on Friday and he’s set to play against the Buccaneers on Sunday.
Jones did not practice on Wednesday due to a knee injury and he was limited on Thursday, but the team did not give him any injury designation for the game. Jones has 35 carries for 145 yards and a touchdown so far this season.
Linebacker Jake Golday (ankle), running back DeeJay Dallas (toe), defensive lineman Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins (oblique), tackle Brian O’Neill (knee). and defensive lineman Jalen Redmond (elbow) also avoided injury designations.
Punter Brett Thorson (hamstring) and center Nick Samac (knee) have been ruled out. The Vikings signed Johnny Hekker to the practice squad this week and he will be elevated for Sunday’s game.
The Buccaneers will be missing a pair of rookie starters on defense when they face the Vikings on Sunday.
Head coach Todd Bowles said on Friday that first-round pick Rueben Bain has been ruled out with a groin injury and that second-rounder Josiah Trotter will miss the game with a shoulder injury.
Bain has gotten off to a slow start. He has one tackle through two games and has not provided the kind of pressure off the edge that the Bucs were hoping to get when they snapped him up in the first round.
Trotter has made more of an impact. The linebacker has 24 tackles, a sack and an interception return for a touchdown so far this season.
The Buccaneers are 0-2, capped by a 23-19 loss to the Browns in the Tampa Bay home opener. And the sluggish start is having an impact.
Via JoeBucsFan.com, Hall of Famer Ronde Barber said this week that the vibe in the building is not ideal.
“Look, the mood is not great,” Barber said on his WFLA show. ”There’s too many mistakes. There’s a lack of urgency, if you will, in my mind when I look at them going onto the field. There’s got to be a little bit of a sense of a defining characteristic of your team through Week 2. I don’t know what that is. It’s mistakes. It’s busts. It’s lack of execution.”
Barber believes the Bucs simply weren’t ready for the games that count.
“Week 2 can’t be the fifth preseason game,” Barber said. “At some point you have to start hitting your stride. And it doesn’t feel like they’re in their stride right now on either side of the ball.”
“I feel like for much of the secondary, especially the coverage unit, they’re so focused on what they’re trying to do that they don’t know how to do it now.”
Barber also singled out former Lions linebacker Alex Anzalone, who signed with the Bucs as a free agent.
“There’s some dynamic going on, whether it’s not understanding what his role is in the defense, not understanding angles, maybe not having enough tackles in the preseason, I don’t know what it is,” Barber said. ”Something is hamstringing this defense in critical moments.”
It puts even more pressure on the Buccaneers for Week 3, the second of three straight home games. The official attendance last week was 61,391 — nearly 8,000 below capacity. (Often, the actual attendance is lower than the reported number.)
By the time the game was over, the fans who stuck it out through the lengthy weather delay weren’t happy. Those who show up for the next game will be even saltier if the Bucs slip to 0-3.
That makes it a dangerous game for the Vikings, who have overachieved to get to 2-0. This is exactly the kind of game in which the team that has done better than expected can step into a pothole against a team that has done worse than expected.
