The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had to make 38 roster moves on Sunday evening to get down to the NFL-mandated regular season limit of 53, but a large chunk of the players who lost their roster spots are already back with the team in another capacity. Once cut players cleared waivers on Monday, the Bucs re-signed 15 players who had been trimmed off the roster to their newly-formed practice squad.
Tampa Bay has 17 spots to fill thanks to the International Pathway Player exemption carried by rookie tackle Paul Rubelt; one of the remaining two was used to bring in quarterback Easton Stick, who was terminated as a vested veteran by the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, making him immediately available to sign with any team. The Bucs will likely finish the process with a 17th signing before they return to the practice field on Tuesday.
Six of the 16 players brought back on Monday were rookies the Bucs added after the draft in May, including wide receivers Dean Patterson and Eric Rivers Jr. After cutting down to just eight total defensive backs on the active roster – the team typically keeps nine or 10 corners and safeties – they addressed that depth concern by re-signing cornerback Roman Parodie and safeties Ifeatu Melifonwu, J.J. Roberts and Rashad Wisdom. Also on the list is third-year tight end Devin Culp, who was waived after spending his first two seasons on the active roster when the Bucs elected to keep rookie Bauer Sharp as their fourth tight end.
Here are the first 16 players signed to the Buccaneers' 2026 practice squad:
• TE Devin Culp
• WR Garrett Greene
• OLB Yasir Holmes
• DL Jayson Jones
• G Henry Lutovsky
• S Ifeatu Melifonwu
• CB Ramon Parodie
• WR Dean Patterson IV
• WR Eric Rivers Jr.
• S J.J. Roberts
• T Paul Rubelt*
• C Ben Scott
• QB Easton Stick
• RB Josh Williams
• S Rashad Wisdom
• LB Javin Wright
* International Player Pathway exemption
Holmes, Lutovsky, Patterson, Rivers, Rubelt and Wright were all undrafted rookies signed by the Buccaneers in May. Culp was drafted in the seventh round in 2024 and has played in 18 regular season games across two seasons. Greene, Jones and Scott spent all of last season on Tampa Bay's practice squad as rookies (Jones was on practice squad injured reserve from Week Five on). Roberts, another undrafted rookie in 2025, spent his initial NFL campaign on the Bucs' injured reserve list. Williams made the active roster as an undrafted rookie last year but only saw action in three games. Wisdom was on the Bucs' active roster last season, with a stint on injured reserve in the middle. Parodie went to camp with the Buccaneers in 2025 and returned to the team in mid-August this summer. Melifonwu signed with the team at the start of training camp.
Culp, Melifonwu, Stick, Williams and Wisdom all have NFL regular season experience. Stick was a fifth-round draft pick by the Los Angeles Chargers out of North Dakota State in 2019. He spent six seasons with the Chargers, appearing in a total of six games with four starts and completing 111 of 174 passes (63.8%) for 1,129 yards, three touchdowns, one interception and an 85.7 passer rating. He was with Atlanta in 2025, working with current Buccaneer coaches Zac Robinson and T.J. Yates, and then signed with the Colts in June.
The four defensive backs signed to the practice squad could potentially provide immediately depth help on game days, thanks to the practice squad elevation option that was first introduced in 2020. That has made the practice squad an even more important resource for NFL teams, as has its expansion to 16 (or 17) players. During the regular season, each individual player can be elevated three times, and each team can elevate up to two players per game. In the postseason, the limit of two elevations continues but individual players can be elevated an unlimited number of times.
