Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Final Auditions: Five Roster Battles to Watch in Bucs' Preseason Finale

From inside linebacker to the tight end corps, there are roster spots still up for grabs at a number of positions as the Bucs' prepare for their preseason finale and the cuts that will follow over the weekend

Aug 27, 2026 at 02:00 PM

Senior Writer/Editor

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will play their 2026 preseason finale on Friday night in Jacksonville. Or to be more exact, some of them will.

As has become customary, the Buccaneers are expected to hold their starters and key regulars out of the contest; the Jaguars likely will as well. As such, the last game of August becomes a proving ground for mostly young players trying to latch onto some of the last spots on the 53-man roster. It's one final audition for dozens of roster hopefuls, and it really does matter. After the game, Tampa Bay coaches will spend the weekend, whittling a 91-man group down into what they feel is the best 53-man combination to win games.

So where will these roster battles be waged most fiercely on Friday night. Let's take a closer look at some of the positions where the lineup decisions may be coming down to the wire. A caveat: There will be a lot of assumptions made below. If we're trying to guess who will get the sixth receiver spot, we have to first determine what we think are the five chosen before that. There's no guarantee we will get all of those assumptions right. Furthermore, we are making educated guesses as to how many players the Bucs will keep at each position, using last year's Week One 53-man roster as a guide.

Here are five positions to watch on Friday as the Bucs take on the Jaguars at EverBank Stadium.

1. Fifth Inside Linebacker

First, the assumption here is that Alex Anzalone, Josiah Trotter, SirVocea Dennis and Christian Rozeboom will lock up four spots. Last year the Buccaneers started the season with only four off-ball linebackers, but in previous seasons they have generally carried five, particularly if the third through fifth players on the depth chart are key special teams contributors.

The candidates if there is a fifth spot at inside linebacker are Nick Jackson, John Bullock, Caden Fordham and Javin Wright. Rewind a year and Jackson and Bullock, then undrafted rookies, were battling for the fourth and final LB spot on the roster. Bullock was the choice based on his special teams work, but both players ended up seeing regular-season action at some point and Jackson even started a game. Now they are joined by a new pair of undrafted rookies in Fordham and Wright. Fordham has nine tackles, two tackles for loss and a pass defensed through two games and has drawn praise from Head Coach Todd Bowles on multiple occasions. He also has a tackle on special teams. Could he leapfrog last year's young contributors to be first in line for a potential fifth spot in that unit?

2. Fourth Tight End

The Buccaneers broke camp with four tight ends on the 53-man roster last year but eventually went with three for most of the season after Ko Kieft was lost to injured reserve. Notably, all four of those players – Kieft, Cade Otton, Payne Durham and Devin Culp – are back in 2026 and are now joined by rookies Bauer Sharp (a sixth-round draft pick) and Kenny Fletcher (undrafted free agent). The Buccaneers could simply run it back with the same four as last year.

If we make the assumptions that Otton is the obvious lead man at the position, Durham is a valuable blocker and Ko Kieft brings an element of toughness and meanness to the position that the Bucs' prize, then we have three with which to begin. As such, it seems quite possible that the fourth spot is a direct battle between the incumbent Culp and the rookie Sharp. Sharp, who has six catches for 37 yards this preseason, has recently gotten a dose of first-team snaps in practice while Otton has been limited by an injury. The athletic Culp still offers the promise of downfield big-play ability though he caught just one pass for six yards last season.

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JACKSONVILLE, FL - August 26, 2026 - Defensive Lineman Rakeem Nunez-Roches #56 of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during 2026 Training Camp joint practice with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Photo By Tori Richman/Tampa Bay Buccaneers