The Tampa Bay Buccaneers may not know exactly how their wide receiver group is going to shape up until game day in Week 17.
The Buccaneers' final injury report in advance of their road game against the New York Jets on Sunday listed four players as questionable and three of them are wideouts: Antonio Brown, Mike Evans and Justin Watson. Evans was a late-week add to the list because he was just activated from the reserve/COVID-19 list on Friday. He missed last week's win at Carolina due to a hamstring injury but was able to get in a limited practice to close out Week 17.
Brown made his return from an eight-game absence last weekend and caught a team-high 10 passes against the Panthers despite being limited in practice all week by the same ankle injury that previously kept him out of five contests. This week, Brown was limited in the Bucs' walk-through on Wednesday and then held out completely on Thursday and Friday.
Watson, who made his 2021 debut last week playing on special teams, was added to the report Friday after apparently sustaining a quadriceps injury in practice.
The Buccaneers have also ruled out their two starting outside linebackers, Shaquil Barrett (knee) and Jason Pierre-Paul (shoulder) and have listed cornerback Richard Sherman (Achilles tendon) as doubtful. Tight end Rob Gronkowski and defensive lineman Ndamukong Suh were given the day off on Friday but do not have an injury designation on the report.
The Jets only had one player with a game-status designation on their final injury report of the week, as wide receiver Jamison Crowder sat out practice all week and is considered doubtful for the game due to a calf injury.
Here are the full Friday injury reports for both teams:
Buccaneers
- OLB Shaquil Barrett (knee) – Did Not Participate – OUT
- OLB Jason Pierre-Paul (shoulder) – Did Not Participate – OUT
- CB Richard Sherman (Achilles) – Limited Participation – DOUBTFUL
- WR Antonio Brown (ankle) – Limited Participation – QUESTIONABLE
- WR Mike Evans (hamstring) – Limited Participation – QUESTIONABLE
- S Antoine Winfield, Jr. (foot) – Limited Participation – QUESTIONABLE
- WR Justin Watson (quadriceps) – Limited Participation – QUESTIONABLE
- QB Tom Brady (not injury related – resting player) – Full Participation
- S Mike Edwards (elbow) – Full Participation
- TE Rob Gronkowski (not injury related – resting player) – Did Not Participate
- WR Breshad Perriman (not injury related – resting player) – Full Participation
- LB Grant Stuard (elbow) – Full Participation
- DL Ndamukong Suh (not injury related – resting player) – Did Not Participate
Jets
- WR Jamison Crowder (calf) – Did Not Participate - DOUBTFUL
- LB C.J. Mosley (not injury related – resting player) – Full Participation
- DL Sheldon Rankins (knee) – Full Participation
- S Elijah Riley (concussion) – Full Participation
*bold denotes change from previous day
