The Buccaneers won’t have one of their key defensive depth pieces for the rest of the season.
Tampa Bay announced on Thursday that the club has placed defensive back Christian Izien on injured reserve.
Izien suffered a pectoral injury during the Week 16 loss to the Cowboys.
In his second season, Izien has recorded 75 total tackles with three passes defensed, an interception, and one forced fumble. He’s appeared in 14 games with 10 starts, playing 75 percent of defensive snaps and 30 percent of special teams snaps in games played.
At 8-7, the Buccaneers will host the Panthers this weekend before facing the Saints to end the regular season.
Panthers quarterback Bryce Young popped up on the team’s practice report with a hamstring injury. He was a full participant.
The Panthers practiced Tuesday and took Wednesday off for Christmas, but they didn’t issue their first practice report of the week until Wednesday.
Young played all 68 plays in the Panthers’ overtime victory over the Cardinals.
Right tackle Taylor Moton (knee), cornerback Jaycee Horn (hip), and cornerback Chau Smith-Wade (illness) were held out of the Tuesday session while running back Chuba Hubbard (rest) was given the day off to rest.
Otherwise, everyone else was a full participant in a practice coach Dave Canales termed “half-speed” given it came two days after a game.
The full participants were outside linebacker Jadeveon Clowney (knee), offensive tackle Ikem Ekwonu (shoulder/illness), center Cade Mays (illness), linebacker Josey Jewell (quadriceps/hamstring), wide receiver Xavier Legette (hip/wrist), defensive lineman A’Shawn Robinson (knee) and outside linebacker D.J. Wonnum (shoulder/knee).
The Buccaneers need wins along with some help from Falcons opponents in the final two weeks of the season to win the NFC South and safety Jordan Whitehead might be able to help with their end of that equation.
Whitehead has been designated to return from injured reserve. The veteran has missed the last four games after injuring his pectoral muscle.
The move opens a 21-day window to activate Whitehead and he could be back in the lineup as soon as this weekend’s game against the Panthers.
Whitehead started the first 11 games of the season for Tampa. He has 76 tackles, two tackles for loss, three passes defensed and one quarterback hit.
The Buccaneers fell out of first place in the NFC South on Sunday night, with their loss dropping their record to 8-7, the same as the Falcons’ record, and the Falcons owning the head-to-head tiebreaker. But the betting odds say the Bucs should still feel confident.
Tampa Bay remains the favorite to win the NFC South: The Buccaneers are -135 favorites at DraftKings, while the Falcons are +110 underdogs.
Because the Falcons have clinched the tiebreaker, the Buccaneers have to finish ahead of them in the standings to win the division. The most likely way for the Buccaneers to do that would be to win both of their final two games (against the Panthers and Saints) while the Falcons lose one of their two remaining games (against the Commanders and Panthers.)
The Falcons are 4.5-point underdogs at Washington on Sunday night, so the oddsmakers are expecting an Atlanta loss to open the door to Tampa Bay. A week from now, the Bucs could be back in first place, and the Falcons could be the ones scoreboard watching in Week 18.
The Buccaneers picked a bad night to have a bad night in Dallas.
A four-game winning streak moved the Bucs into first place in the NFC South and gave them a clear path to the postseason, but Sunday night’s 26-24 loss to the Cowboys erased any advantage that they were able to gain. They now have the same record as the Falcons, but their two losses to Atlanta means the Bucs do not control their playoff destiny as they head into the final two weeks of the season.
On Monday morning, Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles said the key for the team is to concentrate on their business rather than on what anyone else is doing.
“It won’t be difficult,” Bowles said, via Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times. “We’ve got to win a ballgame. If we don’t win a ballgame, we don’t give ourselves a chance. We’ve got to focus on ourselves like we’ve been doing and we’ve got to correct our mistakes and we’ve got to go out and win Sunday and we’ve got to win the next week and we’ll what happens after that.’'
Winning out and missing the playoffs would be a bitter pill for the Bucs to swallow, especially since they have beaten both the Lions and Eagles this season and would not have a chance to do so again in January.
