Buccaneers wide receiver Jalen McMillan had a promising rookie season last year, but he hasn’t played at all this year because of a preseason neck injury that coach Todd Bowles says includes broken bones.
The injury, which had previously been described as a “strain,” sounded more serious based on the way Bowles described it on Ira Kaufman’s podcast.
“He’s still in the brace, but he’s getting better. He’s getting better,” Bowles said, via ESPN. “But necks are not like ankles or arms where you see progress where you can lift on ‘em and work ‘em out when you’re still on the brace and you say, ‘Oh, he looks good today. He’s getting stronger, he is getting faster.’ It’s a neck injury. And those, like you said, it’s a life thing if it doesn’t heal the right way. So they’re saying it’s healing the right way.”
It’s unclear when McMillan will be able to get back on the field.
“Until he puts on a helmet and it starts working out and everything else, you just don’t know,” Bowles said. “I don’t know what getting better means as well because they say it’s not like you can see inside the neck and say, ‘Well he’s moving it a lot better.’ I’m sure he can turn it, but it’s just a matter of the bones healing the right way, and those are such difficult bones to judge inside the neck. And I’m not in a medical profession, but he’s coming along. I think he’s in good spirits, and I think he’s getting a lot better. I just don’t know how close.”
Tampa Bay outside linebacker Anthony Nelson had a big day against New Orleans and now has been recognized for it.
Nelson has been named NFC defensive player of the week.
Nelson registered 2.0 sacks, a forced fumble, and returned an interception for a touchdown in the victory. Nelson became just the third player from 2000 to put together a game with two sacks, a forced fumble, and a pick-six. It’s the first time that happened since Week 16 of the 2007 season.
A fourth-round pick in 2019, Nelson has spent his entire career with the Buccaneers. This is his first player of the week award.
The Buccaneers have called on Chase McLaughlin to make a number of game-winning field goals this season, but they didn’t need those kind of heroics in Week 8 against the Saints.
After building a 14-3 lead, the Bucs offense struggled to get the ball into the red zone for the rest of the second half. That did not wind up costing them because McLaughlin was able to make all three field goals he tried in the final two quarters of the game.
All three of McLaughlin’s makes came from beyond 50 yards and McLaughin is now 8-of-8 on kicks from that distance this season.
McLaughlin’s effort was recognized with the NFC special teams player of the week award on Wednesday. It’s the first time he has taken the NFC honors, but he did win the AFC version during the 2022 season.
The Buccaneers bounced back from a Week 7 loss to the Lions to beat the Saints 23-3 and move to 6-2 on Sunday, but quarterback Baker Mayfield wasn’t thrilled with the team’s offensive performance.
The Bucs only picked up 212 yards and went 3-of-13 on third downs during an outing that the quarterback said “wasn’t nearly good enough or close to what we want it to look like.” Four takeaways by the defense and three Caleb McLaughlin field goals from more than 50 yards made sure that the meager output was enough for the win, but the Bucs will need more from the offense in the weeks to come.
Getting it will be easier if they can get some players back to health and head coach Todd Bowles had that on his mind when discussing the team’s Week 9 bye.
“It will be huge,” Bowles said, via the team’s website. “It’s halfway through the season. We need it more than anybody. I credit those guys for fighting week-in and week-out, people stepping up and people moving to different positions and helping us win, which you have to do in order to be a good team. So we’ve done that the first half. We’ve got to rest up. It’s going to be a hell of a second half so we’ve got to be ready for it.”
Wide receiver Chris Godwin and running back Bucky Irving are at the top of the list of missing pieces and having them back for Week 10 against the Patriots would be a good way to kick off the second half.
In the second quarter on Sunday, Saints receiver Rashid Shaheed fumbled, Buccaneers cornerback Antoine Winfield scooped the ball up and raced 47 yards to the end zone. But Winfield did not score a touchdown.
That’s because an official blew the play dead after Winfield recovered. Why? No one seems to know, but referee Ron Torbert said after the game that the official who blew the play dead was on the other side of the field.
“We ruled that there was a fumble. It was recovered by the defense, but there was a whistle blown from the other side of the field. The official thought that the runner was down. We were able to award the defense the ball after the fumble but because the whistle had been blown, we could not award the advance afterwards,” Torbert told pool reporter Luke Johnson.
That explanation makes no sense. Why would an official on the other side of the field make that call, when officials closer to the play could clearly see that the runner wasn’t down?
That hasn’t been explained, but Torbert said that the crew discussed what happened and when one official admitted blowing the whistle, that meant everything that happened subsequently didn’t count.
On a bad day for NFL officiating, this play stood out: Winfield lost a touchdown because an official messed up.
