Judge Culpepper won't be the only son of a former Tampa Bay Buccaneers player to suit up for practice at the AdventHealth Training Center this weekend. Mayan Ahanotu, who played his college ball at Rutgers, will participate in in the team's rookie mini-camp as one of 26 players to do so on tryout contracts. Those two are the sons of Brad Culpepper and Chidi Ahanotu, who were Buccaneer teammates for six seasons from 1994-99.
The elder Ahanotu played a total of nine seasons in Tampa (1993-2000 and 2004), appearing in 121 games with 109 starts. He ranks seventh in franchise history with 34.5 career sacks as a Buccaneer. Judge Culpepper was one of 16 undrafted free agents the Buccaneers signed on Thursday, and his father ranks ninth on that same franchise sack list with 33.0, including a career-best 9.0 in 1998.
Mayan Ahanotu, like the rest of the 26 players on the tryout list, will be trying to secure a longer stay in Tampa. The Buccaneers typically make a few tweaks to their 90-man offseason roster after rookie camp after seeing promise in some of the tryout players. Last year, the list of tryout players produced four players who were then signed to the roster, including two rookies in outside linebacker Markees Watts and safety Kedrick Whitehead, and two players with previous NFL experience in wide receiver David Moore and defensive lineman C.J. Brewer. Watts made the 53-man roster to start the regular season and is back in 2024 seeking a larger role on defense. Moore spent much of the 2023 season on the Bucs' practice squad but got a shot to play near the end of the season and produced several big plays in key moments.
One of the best success stories to spring from Buccaneers rookie camps and their tryout players is that of Adam Humphries. The Clemson wide receiver was not immediately signed by any team after the 2015 draft and thus accepted an invitation to take part in the Bucs' camp on a tryout contract. That turned into a spot on the training camp roster and then on the 53-man active roster, as he survived the final cuts. Though he spent some on the practice squad as a rookie, Humphries was fully entrenched on the roster by 2016 and would go on to catches 219 passes for 2,329 yards and nine touchdowns over four seasons with the Buccaneers. He later earned a lucrative deal with Tennessee in free agency.
Here are the 26 players who will take part in the Buccaneers' rookie minicamp on tryout contracts (all rookies unless otherwise noted):
- LS Tucker Addington, Sam Houston State (1st-year player)
- DL Mayan Ahanotu, Rutgers
- K Valentino Ambrosio, Tulane
- WR Caleb Chapman, Incarnate Word
- S Don Chapman, North Carolina
- LB BJ Davis, East Carolina
- C Jack Freeman, Houston
- RB Anthony Grant, Nebraska
- P Pressley Harvin, Georgia Tech (4th-year player)
- DB Andrew Hayes, Central Arkansas
- QB Michael Hiers, Samford
- RB Ramon Jefferson, Kentucky
- CB Anthony Johnson, Iowa State (1st-year player)
- TE Hunter Kampmoyer, Oregon (1st-year player)
- S Jeremy Lucien, Vanderbilt (1st-year player)
- WR Zach McCarron-Mathis, North Dakota State
- QB Jeremy Moussa, Florida A&M
- OL Lokahi Pauole, UCF
- T Jasper Parks, Charlotte
- LB William Shaeffer, Lafayette College
- K Colton Theaker, Washington State
- DL Mike Thompson, Long Island
- CB Josh Valentine-Turner, Florida International
- T Brey Walker, Texas State
- LB Julius Wilkerson, Davenport
- DT Daymond Williams, Buffalo
