The 2023 NFL season is not yet complete – Super Bowl LVIII will be played on February 11 – but the construction of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' 2024 offseason roster is already underway. On Tuesday, the Buccaneers added four players to that roster, signing defensive tackle Eric Banks, long snapper Evan Deckers, linebacker Vi Jones and defensive tackle Lwal Uguak to reserve/futures contracts.
The Bucs now have 18 players currently on futures contracts, having re-signed 14 of the 16 players whose practice squad contracts expired at the end of the season. Those contracts will take effect when the new league year starts in March.
Deckers and Jones have had previous stints in Tampa. Deckers signed with the Buccaneers as an undrafted free agent in May and went to training camp with the team. He also spent one week on Tampa Bay's practice squad in December. Jones had two separate stints on the Bucs' practice squad totaling six weeks.
Banks (6-4, 304) began his NFL career with the Los Angeles Rams as an undrafted free agent out of Texas-San Antonio in 2020. He initially made the Rams' 53-man roster out of training camp but spent the latter half of the season on the team's practice squad without appearing in any regular season games. Banks went to camp with the Rams again in 2021 but was eventually waived and claimed by the Los Angeles Chargers. He played in three games with the Chargers before being waived and claimed by the Detroit Lions, who later moved him to the practice squad. He was cut at the end of the Lions' 2022 preseason and signed by the Arizona Cardinals in November, appearing in three more games over the next two seasons. In his six career games he reocrded four tackles.
Deckers (6-4, 244) played his first three collegiate seasons at Massachusetts before finishing up at Duke in 2022, where he handled the snapping duties in all 13 of the Blue Devils' games. He played in all three preseason games for the Buccaneers in August but was waived during the final roster cuts.
Jones (6-2, 225) originally entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent with the Seattle Seahawks in 2022 after playing his college ball at USC and North Carolina State. He spent most of his rookie season on the Seahawks' practice squad but was elevated for game day three times and appeared in three contests, playing on special teams. He went back to training camp in Seattle this past summer but was waived with an injury settlement at the end of the preseason. In his two seasons at NC State, Jones tallied 80 tackles, 9.0 sacks, 13 tackles for loss and five forced fumbles in 23 games.
Uguak (6-4, 269) played four seasons of college football, the first three at Connecticut before a fifth campaign at TCU in 2022. He was with the UConn program for four years but the team did not play in 2020 due to COVID-19. Uguak was drafted in the first round (seventh overall) by the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League in May of 2023, and he played in 18 games and recorded 16 tackles, 3.0 sacks, a forced fumble and five passes defensed. In college, He played in 43 total games for the Huskies and Horned Frogs, recording 79 tackles, 4.5 sacks, 10 tackles for loss four passes defensed, one forced fumble and two fumble recoveries.
