The Buccaneers lost their top two wide receivers during Monday night’s loss to the Ravens and head coach Todd Bowles suggested on Tuesday that they’ll be sticking with in-house options to replace them.
Chris Godwin is expected to miss the entire season after dislocating his ankle and Bowles confirmed that Mike Evans is out for multiple weeks with a hamstring injury, so it was no surprise that Bowles was asked about the prospect of bringing in outside help for the group. Bowles said he didn’t like the idea of giving up “half your team” in a deal for another player.
“We’ve looked at outside the building, but to get a true No. 1 in here you gotta make a massive trade and give up quite a bit,” Bowles said. “That’s not where we are at this point. We feel comfortable with the guys in the building.”
Bowles said the team expects to have Rakim Jarrett back from injured reserve this week. Trey Palmer, Sterling Shepard, and rookie Jalen McMillian are the other wideouts on the 53-man roster. Bowles said the team “won’t ask them to be Mike and Chris” and added that the team will “have to be creative” with deploying running backs Rachaad White, Bucky Irving, and Sean Tucker as well.
Whatever direction the Bucs go, they’re going to have to adapt quickly to the new reality in order to remain in the hunt for the NFC playoffs.
