USF DE Jarriett Buie earned an invite to training camp with a strong rookie camp performance and now will be given another chance to prove his value
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have four days to determine which 53 players will make up their optimal regular-season squad. In the meantime, they're still tweaking the 75-man roster from which that team will be carved.
On Tuesday, the Buccaneers re-signed rookie defensive end Jarriett Buie and claimed center Jonathan Compas off of waivers from the Oakland Raiders. To make room on the 75-man roster, the team waived cornerback Marshall McDuffie and guard Ryan Schmidt.
That quartet of moves involved two young men who played at nearby University of South Florida (Buie and Schmidt) and a third who is a former Bay area high school star (McDuffie). Compas hails from Carlsbad, California and played his college football at UC Davis.
The 6-3, 294-pound Compas earned Associated Press third-team All-America honors last season after winning first-team All-Great West Conference honors in each of his last three years with the Aggies. He played in and started a total of 40 games at UC Davis, including all 34 over the past three years, and drew starts at both right tackle and right guard. He was listed as a guard by the Raiders but the Buccaneers intend to try him at center.
The Buccaneers greatly value versatility in their reserve offensive linemen and though the cutdown to 53 is looming Compas will have an opportunity to prove he is worth keeping around.
"You're looking for the guy who creates the most value on game day," said Buccaneers Head Coach Raheem Morris, discussing the prospective depth along the offensive line. "You're looking for the guy who can play backup inside or backup pretty much outside, both sides, so when you go to the game with seven you feel comfortable doing that. That's the type of depth you're looking. Then you're looking for that valuable guy that's going to be on the practice squad. When somebody goes down or something happens on your team and you've got to make a decision, boom, here we go. You roll him right in."
Buie will also get another opportunity to showcase his skills after previously being released on Saturday. The Buccaneers had until Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. ET to trim their roster from 80 players to 75 but began early over the weekend with four cuts. The Raiders did the same thing with Compas on Monday, and the Buccaneers immediately put in a waiver claim.
The 6-3, 260-pound Buie, a speedy pass-rusher, was signed by the Buccaneers on May 4 after he impressed in a post-draft rookie camp on a tryout contract. He played in the Bucs' first three preseason games, contributing two tackles and a tackle for loss. At USF, Buie started all 13 games as a senior in 2008 and finished the year with five sacks, 31 tackles and two forced fumbles.
Schmidt was Buie's teammate at USF for the last two seasons and also a former teammate of Buccaneers rookie quarterback Josh Freeman at Kansas State. Schmidt transferred from K-State to South Florida after two seasons and, in two years with the Bulls, played in 26 games with 25 starts. He was signed by the Buccaneers on August 2, two days into their 2009 training camp.
McDuffie, a rookie like every other player in Tuesday's transactions, was signed by the Buccaneers as an undrafted free agent out of Florida International on April 30. He also played in the first three preseason games and tallied 10 tackles to tie for third on the team.
