The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are heading into their preseason finale with a few things still unsettled, and the biggest one sits right at quarterback. The team is still weighing Jalon Daniels and Drake Browning as it decides who gets the start, and tomorrow’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars should go a long way toward determining who opens the season as the backup.
That matchup also comes with a roster crunch right around the corner. Tampa Bay has until Sunday at 6:00 p.m. ET to trim its roster from 90 players down to 53, which adds a little extra urgency to every snap in the final preseason game.
The Buccaneers’ work against Jacksonville in joint practices offered a mixed but useful snapshot. Tampa Bay had a rough first day, then bounced back with a much better second day. That kind of adjustment matters, and it’s the sort of response the team will want to carry forward once the regular season arrives.
The Bucs are done practicing in training camp for the 2026 season, so the focus now shifts entirely to the preseason finale and the roster decisions that follow.
Around the league, the NFL has introduced a new “3 strikes” suspension system for dangerous tackles, a change that could shape how defenders approach contact this season. The league seems to be taking a much stricter stance in 2026 than it has in the past.
As for Jacksonville, Trevor Lawrence is expected to play little, if at all, in the preseason game against Tampa Bay. The Jaguars are also working on how to better simulate his scrambles in training camp.
In Other News...
Bucs Rookie LB Is Forcing His Way Into A Bigger Role
Josiah Trotter has spent Buccaneers training camp and the joint work with Jacksonville making the kind of impression that gets coaches attention quickly. The rookie inside linebacker has shown up in all the ways Tampa Bay needs from the position, whether it is stopping the run, getting after the quarterback or holding up in coverage, and he even picked off a Trevor Lawrence pass during practice with the Jaguars.
With injuries thinning the group around him, Trotter appears to be pushing his way toward a starting job next to Alex Anzalone. Todd Bowles has already singled out Trotters instincts and football intelligence, while the rookie has sounded confident he can handle an every-down workload, which leaves the final decision less about whether he belongs and more about how soon the Bucs fully turn the job over. [Read more 🡒]
Bucs Suddenly Have A Rueben Bain Jr. Concern Before Week 1
Rueben Bain Jr. was supposed to spend August building momentum, not dealing with a setback, but the Buccaneers first-round pick hurt his AC joint during a joint practice with the Jaguars and will miss the rest of the preseason. Before the injury, he had already flashed enough in his lone exhibition game to earn strong marks, which only made the interruption more frustrating for a team that was trying to see its top rookie continue to settle in.
For Tampa Bay, the bigger issue now is less about the preseason and more about keeping Bain on track for Week 1 against the Bengals. The expectation is that he will be available when the games count, but any missed time for a player with this kind of early promise is enough to create a little extra concern heading into the opener. [Read more 🡒]
Buccaneers Rookies Are Separating And Two Paths Stand Out Most
Training camp has wrapped for the Buccaneers after the joint practices with the Jaguars, and with one preseason game left, the attention is shifting from daily reps to what the rookie class might actually mean once the games count. Tampa Bay used seven draft picks this spring, and the early returns have given the staff a clearer read on who is pushing for real involvement in 2026 and who still needs time to settle in.
A few of those first-year players have already carved out attention in different ways, with injuries slowing some along the way and others making a stronger impression at their positions. The most interesting part now is how those separate paths continue to develop over the final exhibition tune-up, because the rookie group is starting to sort itself into distinct lanes, and a couple of them look far closer to meaningful roles than the rest. [Read more 🡒]