Buccaneers left tackle Tristan Wirfs underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right knee earlier this month. Wirfs could miss the start of the season, but coach Todd Bowles isn’t ready to rule Wirfs out.
Bowles expressed optimism despite uncertainty about whether doctors will clear Wirfs for Week 1.
“That I cannot tell you,” Bowles told Joe Bucs Fan about Wirfs’ availability for the season opener. “I just know he’ll be ready sooner than later. I don’t know if it’s Week 1, 2, 3. He’ll definitely put the work in, so I don’t have a problem with that.”
Wirfs recently posted a workout video on Instagram.
“I would feel better if you told me he put out a video jumping out of a pool on one leg,” Bowles said. “Then I’d know he’d be close to being ready to play.”
Wirfs’ knee was expected to be fine with rest, with Bowles saying during the offseason program that Wirfs would be full-go at training camp. Instead, Wirfs required surgery after the offseason program, and additional damage was found during the procedure.
Bowles, though, defended the team’s medical staff.
“Obviously, there have been talks since the season ended and for it to heal,” Bowles said. ”And [the medical staff and Wirfs] each other decided to get the surgery done. Sometimes when you let things heal, they don’t heal the right way. That’s just part of it.
“That’s just like going for it on fourth down. Either you get it or you don’t. Either it heals or it doesn’t and you have to get surgery. But there was great communication throughout and Tristan’s in great spirits right now. And if I was a bettin’ man, I’d bet he’d be back sooner than later. And we can do is get the next guys ready.”
Charlie Heck is expected to fill in for Wirfs.
After facing each other 17 times during their careers, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning came to think of each other as friends. But Brady says he didn’t let himself think of Manning that way while they were trying to beat each other.
Brady wrote on TomBrady.com that he had to convince himself to dislike Manning in order to play his best against him.
“When I look back on my relationship with Peyton Manning, my respect, admiration, and appreciation for him as a competitor has grown with each passing year,” Brady wrote. “It was always there, don’t misunderstand, but while we were competing against each other I couldn’t let that get in the way of the fact that he was my enemy, that he didn’t respect me, that he thought he was better than me because he was a #1 pick from an SEC school—or at least that’s what I made myself believe. Convincing myself that those things were true created a sense of urgency within me to prove him wrong, and it provided the extra bit of energy and motivation necessary to lock in and focus and execute just that much more so that I could beat him more often than he beat me.”
Brady wrote that rivalries are at their best in sports when the athletes think of themselves as enemies, not friends.
“I also believe—and this is kind of an old school point of view considering where we are with social media these days—that you have to allow your rivals to become your enemies,” Brady wrote. “True enemies, in your mind and on the field. You can, and should, respect them, but you can’t look at them like ‘friendly competition.’”
Brady considered his teammates to be his only friends in the NFL during his playing career.
“I didn’t have any real friends on any other teams when I played,” Brady wrote. “I had the guys on my team and that was it.”
The Buccaneers agreed to terms with second-round cornerback Benjamin Morrison, Mike Garafolo of NFL Media reports.
Morrison will have 96 percent of the third year of his four-year deal guaranteed, per Garafolo.
The Bucs used the 53rd overall pick on Morrison.
He appeared in 31 games for Notre Dame in his three seasons in South Bend, and he totaled 61 tackles, nine interceptions and 18 passes defensed.
He underwent hip surgery in 2024 to repair a torn labrum in his left hip, which prematurely ended his season. Morrison required surgery on his right hip in high school to repair a torn labrum.
General Manager Jason Licht previously said the team expected Morrison to be cleared for training camp.
Morrison is expected to back up Jamel Dean and Zyon McCollum this season.
The Seahawks and Buccaneers are both marking their 50th NFL season in 2025 and they’ll be breaking out some vintage threads as part of the celebration.
Both teams announced that they will be wearing throwback uniforms when they meet in Seattle in Week 5. That will mean the white jersey version of the Buccaneers’ Creamsicle look and royal blue jerseys for the Seahawks. Both teams will also sport the helmets that they wore in the past.
The look will be similar to the ones that the two teams sported when they met during their inaugural season in 1976. The Seahawks prevailed 13-10 for one of their two wins on the season. The Buccaneers went 0-14 to open their NFL run.
The Bucs will also be wearing the home version of their throwbacks for their Week 3 home opener against the Jets.
The Buccaneers had a season to forget as an expansion franchise in 1976, becoming the first 0-14 team in NFL history. But the Bucs’ original uniforms are worth celebrating, and those uniforms will be featured as part of the team’s 50th season this year.
The Bucs will wear their original 1976 uniforms in their home opener on September 21 against the Jets, marking the first time since that inaugural season that the Buccaneers have worn their complete original uniforms. The Bucs have worn the famous Creamsicle look in other throwback games, but this year will be the first time that the players will wear a uniform identical to the one the team wore in 1976 — with one exception, a Creamsicle 50th season patch on the jerseys.
“The ’76 Jersey represents a piece of Buccaneers history and serves as a tribute to the generations of fans and players who shaped this franchise,” Buccaneers Chief Operating Officer Brian Ford said in a statement. “As we launch into our 50th season, we’re proud to reintroduce The ’76 Jersey and the tradition it embodies. It is a reminder that every Buccaneers fan, from the originals to the newest generation, is part of an evolving story that started in 1976 and continues being written today.”
The Buccaneers’ original white jerseys with orange numbers outlined in red and sleeves featuring one orange stripe between two red stripes were worn only in 1976, and the home opener will mark the jerseys’ triumphant return. The Bucs will also wear their original white helmets, white pants and striped socks.
Throwback uniforms have become popular with fans and lucrative for the NFL’s merchandising, and the Bucs’ original uniforms are among the NFL’s most distinctive throwbacks. Bucs fans hope the team never throws it back to the quality of play they put on the field at the outset of the franchise, as they lost their first 26 games. But fans will gladly celebrate the team’s original look.
