The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have had injury problems. They’ve seen quite a few players go down in-game, but there’s also a specific problem the team has had — injuries during practice.
The Bucs have suffered a number of injuries this weekend on Fridays. The team saw linebacker J.J. Russell and cornerback Josh Hayes suffer hamstring injuries on the Friday practice before the Raiders game on Sunday, and cornerback Tykee Smith, who had returned that game, injured himself before the team’s game against the San Francisco 49ers in Week 10 on that Friday, as well. Going even further back, Bucs defensive tackle Calijah Kancey also re-aggravated his calf injury ahead of Week 1 during that Friday’s practice.
Head coach Todd spoke to media on Monday after the team’s win, and when asked about these Friday injuries, he told reporters that he was looking for answers just as much as they were.
“I wish I could tell you,” Bowles said. “We had this schedule last year, we were one of the healthiest teams in the league, and we had the exact same schedule,” Bowles said. “This year, we have a lot of people injured doing that. We’re taking a look at everything. We’re trying to find if there’s a common denominator and things that we can do better on Friday… freak accidents happen in this game. You just gotta be ready.”
The problem before the Raiders game was hamstrings. That’s also been a problem across the year, with players like Russell and Hayes, Zyon McCollum, Mike Edwards, Mike Evans, Jamel Dean and more all dealing with hamstring injuries at various points. Bowles couldn’t point to a specific reason for those, either, but mentioned that the team isn’t running more — in fact, it’s running less often.
“We did more running last year than we’re doing this year,” Bowles said. “These things happen. We gotta make sure to keep an eye on it, we gotta make sure we try to see what the problem is. If there is a problem, we’ll try to act accordingly.”
The Bucs will try to avoid another Friday injury this week before they head to California to play the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium in Week 15.
