Will Bucs Starters Play In Preseason Week 2?

It seemed unclear at the time whether the team’s regulars would suit up for Week 2 of the preseason, especially since they’d get the chance to square off with the Jets during a couple of joint practices before Saturday’s contest at MetLife Stadium.

Bowles even said in his day-after press conference on Saturday that joint practices are a great way for veterans to prepare and that when it comes to the game, more of the young guys can get their reps in.

“It’s good for the veteran guys to go up there because, in preseason, you hardly show anything. It’s pretty vanilla. You can get all of your stuff in during the week in practice,” Bowles said. “It’s really played like a game – that’s why you’re allowed to rest those guys come game time.

“The practices aren’t on film, so you can really run your defense and your offense and they can run their defense and their offense. You can get a look at live stuff full speed. Come preseason games, everything is very vanilla. That’s when the younger guys usually get their experience to fly around and play. The practices for us are like games for the veterans and the game itself is really for experience for the rookies.”

Bowles then gave a little insight into how he and his coaching staff would decide if they’d hold their first-teamers out again for Saturday’s game.

“If they can get a lot of reps in, yeah,” Bowles said. “Those who don’t get a lot of reps in will play in the game. If we can get the reps that we need to get in in those two practices – which they will take the bulk of – we’ll evaluate that probably that Thursday or Friday.”

That’s a pretty straightforward answer from Bowles, only it came before the Jets canceled Thursday’s joint practice. Instead of two practices between Tampa Bay and New York, the hosts elected to have just the one — on Wednesday — and practice separately on Thursday.

So, now what?

Will The Bucs Change Their Plans For Saturday’s Game?

If Todd Bowles wanted his starters to get their reps in against a true opponent during two joint practices and then sit out for the game on Saturday, does anything change now that the Bucs only got to have one joint practice with the Jets? Was Bowles disappointed to only get one day of work in against New York?

“I don’t want to say disappointed. It’s always good to work against somebody else because you see all kinds of different looks,” Bowles said. “But we’ll go against ourselves [Thursday] because we know what we need to see come the season, so we’ve got some things we need to get accomplished. So we’re pleased with that.”

But does that mean the plan changes for the Bucs’ starters?

“No, we’ll have a good practice [Thursday],” Bowles said. “They’ll see most of the work tomorrow too, so we’ve got a lot to put in that they can learn from.”

It sounds like Bowles still plans to sit a good number of the Bucs’ starters for Saturday’s game even without the second joint practice, but is that the right move?

You never want to risk injuries in exhibition play, but if the starters don’t take the field on Saturday and are also held out of the preseason finale next week, their first real team-on-team action will come in Week 1 of the regular season at Minnesota. Of course, they could play against Baltimore in the final exhibition game, but that seems unlikely based on track record with that last game of the preseason.

In another sense, though, having the same group of starters on the offensive line and at wide receiver for Week 2 of the preseason might make sense in the context of the Bucs’ quarterback competition.

Baker Mayfield got the start last week, with an offensive line of Justin Skule, Aaron Stinnie, Robert Hainsey, Cody Mauch and Luke Goedeke in front of him. He was without Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and Russell Gage at receiver, too.

So with Kyle Trask getting the start in Saturday’s game against the Jets, having the same general group around him on offense should give Tampa Bay’s coaching staff a good look at where its quarterback battle stands.

We’ll see if the Bucs continue to hold their offensive stars and entire starting defense out again come Saturday, but it sounds like the direction they may be heading in.