The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who announced their offseason practice schedule on Thursday, continue to expand their offseason roster towards its limit. On Thursday, they added a third new player to their defense, signing second-year cornerback Nate Brooks. The team had added safety Ravon Greene and inside linebacker Joseph Jones on Wednesday.
Brooks most recently spent the last two months of the 2020 season on the Baltimore Ravens' practice squad. During that time, he was elevated to the active roster for one game in Week 17, getting 11 snaps on defense and 14 on special teams in a Ravens win over Cincinnati.
Brooks originally entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent out of North Texas in 2019, signing with the Arizona Cardinals, but he spent most of that season on the New England Patriots' practice squad. In December, he was signed off that unit to the Miami Dolphins' active roster and he saw action in the last three games of the season. Brooks started two of those three games and recorded 11 tackles and two passes defensed.
At North Texas, Brooks played in 48 games over four seasons and intercepted 10 passes, including six in 2018 to earn second-team all-conference honors. He joins wide receiver Jaelon Darden, the team's 2021 fourth-round draft pick, as North Texas products on the Bucs' current roster. Tampa Bay has not had a player from North Texas appear in a regular-season game since 1985.