The Tampa Bay Buccaneers trimmed 38 players from their active roster on Tuesday to get down to the mandated regular-season limit of 53, but many of the players waived or released have already returned to the team. The Buccaneers announced the signing of 14 players to their initial practice squad on Thursday whow were with the team during training camp.
The Buccaneers actually had 17 practice squad spots to fill (including an international exemption on tackle Lorenz Metz), and finished the exercise with three players recently cut by other teams. For now, they have gone heavy on players who operate in the trenches, which was foreseeable after the team went relatively light at those spots on the 53-man roster, keeping eight offensive linemen and five interior defensive linemen. The team carried nine offensive linemen throughout the entire 2024 regular season and always had either six or seven interior defensive linemen on the team. On Wednesday, the Bucs brought back five offensive linemen and three interior defensive linemen for their first iteration of the practice squad.
Rookie Connor Bazelak also gives the Buccaneers a third quarterback for the practice field after the team went with just Baker Mayfield and Teddy Bridgewater on the active roster and released long-time backup Kyle Trask.
Here are the first 17 players signed to the Buccaneers' 2025 practice squad:
- QB Connor Bazelak
- DL C.J. Brewer
- DL Adam Gotsis
- WR Garrett Greene
- G Luke Haggard
- CB Bryce Hall
- S Jack Henderson
- WR Dennis Houston
- DL Nash Hutmacher
- LB Nick Jackson
- DL Jayson Jones
- G Michael Jordan
- OLB Mohamed Kamara
- T Tyler McLellan
- T Lorenz Metz
- C Ben Scott
- TE Tanner Taula
Bazelak, Greene, Hutmacher, Jackson and Scott were all undrafted rookies signed by the Buccaneers in May. Haggard and Taula were originally 2023 undrafted free agents who have spent the entirety of the past two seasons on the Bucs' practice squad. Metz is in his second year with the team as an international exception and also spent all of last year on the practice squad. Jordan and McLellan were added near the beginning of training camp. Brewer, Gotsis and Hall were all signed to the practice squad as veteran exceptions; Brewer first joined the Bucs in 2023 and has split time between the practice squad and the active roster while Hall spent 2024 on the Bucs' injured reserve list and Gotsis was added to the practice squad in the final week of the season.
Those nine trench players could help out the team 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 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.
Brewer appeared in 12 games for the Buccaneers last season and contributed 12 tackles, 2.0 sacks and two passes defensed. Other players on the Bucs' initial practice squad list who have previous regular-season NFL experience include Gotsis, Hall, Houston and Jordan. Gotsis has played in 126 games with 54 starts across nine seasons for three different teams. Hall signed with the Buccaneers as an unrestricted free agent in 2024 after four seasons and 26 starts with the Jets but suffered a season-ending knee injury in the preseason last summer. Jordan has played in 67 games with 40 starts for Cincinnati, Carolina and New Orleans. Houston appeared in two games with Dallas in 2022.
Henderson, recently released by the Panthers, spent the first three years of his collegiate tenure at Southeastern Louisiana before transferring to Minnesota. He posted six sacks and nine tackles for loss during his 2024 campaign. Jones was added to the practice squad in Tampa Bay after being released by the Ravens. The 320-pound lineman began his career at Auburn before transferring to Oregon and had an impressive preseason showing (seven tackles). He plugged run lanes and adds depth up front for the Buccaneers. Tampa Bay added Kamara to its pass rush arsenal. Kamara, the Dolphins' 2024 fifth-round draft pick, finished his college career at Colorado State with 30.5 sacks and appeared in five games last year for Miami.
