The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have placed third-year wide receiver Scotty Miller on injured reserve, which means he will miss a minimum of three games. Miller suffered a turf toe injury in last Sunday's game against the Los Angeles Rams, and on Monday Head Coach Bruce Arians referred to the injury as "pretty severe."
In addition, the Buccaneers announced that outside linebacker Cam Gill and guard John Molchon have returned to practice. Gill and Molchon began the season on injured reserve but are now eligible to return to the active roster after missing three games. They will have up to three weeks to practice without counting against the 53-man roster limit, after which they will either return to the active roster or remain on injured reserve.
Miller played an expanded role in Sunday's game with wide receiver Antonio Brown unavailable, logging 32 snaps on offense after seeing just 20 snaps over the season's first two games combined. He was targeted three times, catching two passes for 21 yards. Brown was placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list last Wednesday and has not yet been activated.
In his career, Miller has played in 29 games with seven starts and has recorded 48 receptions for 712 yards and four touchdowns, averaging 14.8 yards per catch. One of the team's fastest players, Miller had a career-high 33 catches for 501 yards and three scores during the regular season in 2020, then added four catches for 80 yards in the postseason, including a critical 39-yard touchdown grab in Green Bay in the NFC Championship Game. He was originally a sixth-round pick out of Bowling Green in 2019.
Both Gill and Molchon were initially kept on the 53-man roster to start the regular season, which made them eligible for short-term injured reserve. To add roster flexibility during the pandemic, the NFL revised its IR rules in 2020 to allow teams to bring an unlimited number of players back from injured reserve during the season.
Gill made the Buccaneers' active roster as an undrafted rookie out of Wagner last year. He played in 12 games during the regular season and contributed three tackles, plus two more stops on special teams. He recorded his first career sack in Super Bowl LV, splitting a takedown of Patrick Mahomes with Ndamukong Suh.
Molchon also made the active roster as an undrafted rookie last year, signing with the Buccaneers out of Boise State. However, he was then placed on injured reserve and, upon coming off that list, was waived and then re-signed to the practice squad, where he remained for the rest of the season.
