Veteran wide receiver Julio Jones will miss a second straight game as it was determined during pregame warmups that his injured knee has not yet sufficiently recovered. That means the Buccaneers will be without three of their top receivers: Jones, Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. Godwin was ruled out for Sunday's game against the Green Bay Packers on Friday and Evans is serving a one-game suspension.
Tom Brady will have five receivers at his disposal: Russell Gage, Breshad Perriman, Scotty Miller, Jaelon Darden and Cole Beasley. Beasley was just signed to the practice squad on Wednesday and elevated to the active roster on Saturday. Gage and Perriman were also listed as questionable on Tampa Bay's Friday injury report due to knee and hamstring ailments, respectively.
Starting left tackle Donovan Smith will also be sidelined for a second straight contest, marking the first time in his eight-year career that he has missed consecutive games. With veteran reserve Josh Wells landing on injured reserve this week, first-year player Brandon Walton is expected to get the start at left tackle. Walton played the second half of last Sunday's game against the Saints after Wells sustained a calf injury.
Veteran tight end Kyle Rudolph will be active for the first time since signing with the Buccaneers. Rookie tight end Cade Otton is unavailable and inactive while attending to a personal matter. The Bucs are also without starting defensive lineman Akiem Hicks, who sustained a foot injury a week ago. The team promoted defensive lineman Deadrin Senat from the practice squad during the week to maintain a six-player rotation at that position.
The Buccaneers and Packers submitted their list of inactives at 2:55 p.m. ET on Sunday, 90 minutes before the scheduled kickoff of their Week Three matchup. The Buccaneers had elevated Beasley and guard John Molchon from the practice squad on Saturday, giving them a 55-man roster for the game. That means they had to name seven inactives in order to get down to the active game limit of 48. The Packers elevated wide receiver Juwann Winfree from the practice squad and thus had to name six players inactive on Sunday.
The Packers will welcome tackle David Bakhtiari back to action on Sunday. Bakhtiari has played in just one game since suffering a knee injury in 2020, a season in which he earned his second AP All-Pro first-team honors. After right tackle Elgton Jenkins made his season debut last week, Bakhtiari is active in Week Three and will presumably step back in on the left end of the line. The Packers also put wide receiver Sammy Watkins on injured reserve Saturday and have ruled out rookie receiver Christian Watson for the game.
BUCCANEERS INACTIVES
- WR Chris Godwin
- DL Akiem Hicks
- WR Julio Jones
- CB Zyon McCollum
- TE Cade Otton
- T Donovan Smith
- QB Kyle Trask
Godwin, Hicks, Jones, and Smith are out due to injury, and Otton is unavailable due to personal matters.
PACKERS INACTIVES
- DL Jonathan Ford
- T Caleb Jones
- T/G Sean Rhyan
- WR Samori Toure
- T Rasheed Walker
- WR Christian Watson
Watson is out due to injury.
