The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had an open spot on their 53-man roster and a pair of cornerbacks on the injury report, so it was not surprising when they filled that vacancy on Wednesday with another corner. And, since it's Halloween, it was also fitting that the newcomer had a name like "Gorrer."
That would be third-year cornerback Danny Gorrer, most recently of the Seattle Seahawks. The Buccaneers claimed Gorrer off waivers after he was released by the Seahawks on Tuesday. The team had a spot to fill after placing both guard Carl Nicks and tight end Danny Noble on injured reserve on Tuesday but only immediately replacing one of them with the promotion of guard Roger Allen from the practice squad.
It wasn't immediately necessary to replace Noble with another tight end, because the team has been carrying four of them since signing Nate Byham on October 2. On the other hand, the team's once impressive corner depth has been thinned lately by the suspension of Aqib Talib and the injuries suffered by Eric Wright (Achilles) and Brandon McDonald (ankle). Wright is the team's starting right corner and McDonald was getting most of the snaps as the nickel back before he was limited by his nagging injury last week in Minnesota.
So in comes Gorrer, who was in Tampa for a tryout in September before signing with the Seahawks. He didn't play in any games during his two months in the Pacific Northwest, but he saw regular-season action last season with Baltimore and as a rookie with St. Louis in 2009.
The 6-0, 180-pound Gorrer first entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent out of Texas A&M, signing on with the New Orleans Saints in May of 2009. He started his rookie season on the Saints' practice squad but was quickly plucked off that crew by the Rams, who put Gorrer on their active roster. He then played in three games with one start for St. Louis, pitching in with five tackles and one pass defensed before spending most of the second half of the season as a game-day inactive.
The Saints got a chance to get Gorrer back in 2010 when he was cut by the Rams before training camp, but he was in New Orleans for just two months before hopping to Indianapolis and then Baltimore. After a season on the Ravens' practice squad, he got his most extensive opportunity to play last year and got into 11 games, making five tackles and breaking up four passes.
