In the week following the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' painful (in more ways than one) Monday night loss to the Baltimore Ravens, the team placed one wide receiver on injured reserve and activated another wide receiver from that same I.R. list. Chris Godwin was lost for the season due to a dislocated ankle and subsequent surgery, while Rakim Jarrett came back after seven weeks of unavailability.
The Buccaneers don't have a one-for-one replacement for Godwin, who was leading the NFL in receptions and yards after the catch at the time of his injury, and they certainly didn't expect Jarrett to be the entire answer. But Tampa Bay's first game after the losses of Godwin and Evans (out roughly a month with a hamstring ailment) was, impressively, in line with the sort of offensive production it had been generating over the first seven weeks.
In a 31-26 loss to the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, Baker Mayfield threw for 330 yards and the Bucs' offense tallied 432 net yards. The yardage was actually about 50 more than the Buccaneers had been averaging through the first seven weeks, while the 26 points was just a few below what they had been putting up per game.
The solution to the absences of Evans and Godwin, who had accounted for roughly 50% of the passing game and 11 of Mayfield's first 18 touchdown passes, was a lot of touches for the three-headed backfield monster of Rachaad White, Bucky Irving and Sean Tucker; a ramp-up of targets to reliable tight end Cade Otton; and a handful of key plays from what remains of the receiving corps.
Perhaps the most surprising piece to that 423-yard puzzle was the 58 yards that Jarrett provided on three catches. As an undrafted rookie who made the active roster last year, Jarrett had a total of four catches for 60 yards in 10 games played. His efforts to make the team again in 2024 were hampered by a knee injury that caused him to miss most of the preseason and he started the regular season on injured reserve. He had surgery on his injured knee and has spent most of the past two months recovering and rounding back into form. As late as Friday of last week, Head Coach Todd Bowles wasn't completely sure that Jarrett was ready for game action.
"For him to come back off of surgery and only have practiced [for] the week and then come in and play and make some plays like that and some tough catches says a lot about him," said Bowles on Monday. "He's a tough kid, he has outstanding hands in traffic and to come off an injury like that and not having practiced a full fall or summer and everything else, he did a heck of a job."
Jarrett played 20 defensive snaps against the Falcons, or 27% of the team's total. He caught all three passes that were thrown his way, all in the fourth quarter when the Bucs were trying to come back from 14 points down. His first catch of the season went for 20 yards, and his second was a 19-yard grab that converted a third down and led to Cade Otton's four-yard touchdown catch two plays later. Jarrett's final catch of the afternoon was Mayfield's last completion of the game, another 19-yarder that got the ball into Atlanta territory and gave the Bucs a shot at a Hail Mary pass.
The Bucs are not quite halfway through with their schedule. There's a long way to go in the season and the offense will be getting Evans back at some point, likely after their Week 11 bye. For now, though, the Atlanta game seemed to indicate that Offensive Coordinator Liam Coen has found some new ways for his group to operate. Jarrett is part of that new picture, as are the likes of rookie Jalen McMillan, second-year man Trey Palmer, veteran Sterling Shepard and practice squad call-up Ryan Miller. Those four combined for 12 catches and 101 receiving yards.
"I thought Liam did a good job putting up points and manufacturing plays for guys that were down and the guys that were up did a heck of a job," said Bowles. "Jarrett, 'JMac' Shepard, all of those guys did a heck of a job when they played out there. Miller, as well. We just have to continue to keep finding ways to score points and we have to find ways to stop people."
