On Saturday, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers used one of their practice squad elevation options in Week 13 to activate first-year safety Marcus Banks for Sunday's game against the Arizona Cardinals. The Buccaneers also signed rookie quarterback Connor Bazelak to the active roster off the practice squad. To make room for Bazelak on the 53-man roster, the team waived first-year running back Owen Wright.
Banks will likely reprise his Week 12 role of pitching in on special teams. He played nine special teams snaps against the Rams in his regular season NFL debut after being signed to the Bucs' practice squad earlier in the week.
Bazelak gives the team some added insurance at quarterback position, as starter Baker Mayfield is expected to play but is dealing with a left shoulder injury. By signing him to the 53-man roster, the Buccaneers will have the option of designating Bazelak as an "inactive third quarterback," which would make him eligible to play against the Cardinals if both Mayfield and Teddy Bridgewater were out of the game due to injury or ejection. That option may not be used on a player who is just elevated from the practice squad for game day.
Banks landed a spot on the Buccaneers' practice squad as an undrafted rookie in 2024 and stayed there for the entire season before re-signing to a reserve/future contract in January. He went back to training camp in Tampa this summer but was waived/injured in the first week. After reaching an injury settlement with the team, he was not eligible to return to the Buccaneers until after the sixth game of the season. He was re-signed on November 18.
Banks started his college career at Alabama and finished it at Mississippi State, seeing action in 49 total games with 73 tackles, five passes defensed, one interception, one fumble recovery and one defensive touchdown.
Bazelak signed with the Buccaneers as an undrafted free agent in May and has been on the practice squad since the start of the season. In the preseason, he played in all three games and completed 32 of 46 passes for 261 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions. Bazelak finished his collegiate career with two seasons at Bowling Green after previous stops at Missouri and Indiana, and he earned starting assignments at all three schools. As a third-team All-MAC selection in 2024, he had his most productive season, completing 66.9% of his passes and throwing for 3,044 yards in 13 games, with an 18-5 touchdown-to-interception ratio. He was an SEC All-Freshman selection for the Tigers in 2020 and he started nine games in his one season at Indiana in 2022.
Wright has played in four games for the Buccaneers, two after being elevated from the practice squad and two since being promoted to the active roster. He has carried the ball three times for six yards and returned three kickoffs for 73 yards.
The NFL introduced the practice squad elevation option in 2020, allowing teams to activate up to two practice squad players for each game. By utilizing both options in Week 13, the Buccaneers have increased their game day roster to 55 players for their matchup with the Cardinals. They will be able to keep 48 of those player active for the game, naming seven inactives prior to kickoff.
Each player on the practice squad can be elevated up to three times during the regular season and an unlimited amount of times in the postseason. After the game, elevated players automatically revert to the practice squad without having to pass through waivers. This is the second elevation for Banks.
The practice squad elevation option was introduced as part of the new collective bargaining agreement in 2020. The new rule was something of a compromise, as it did not expand the active rosters beyond 53 players but did give teams a few more options on game days.
