Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Ronald Jones II will get his first taste of the NFL playoffs, as he has been cleared to play against the New Orleans Saints in a Divisional Playoff game on Sunday night.
Ronald Jones, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' leading rusher in 2020, was active for the team's Wild Card playoff game in Washington last weekend but didn't play after aggravating a quad injury during warmups. Barring another unexpected setback, Jones will get to make his NFL postseason debut on Sunday night against the Saints.
Leonard Fournette picked up the slack in Jones' absence in Washington, rushing for 93 yards and a touchdown and adding 39 yards on four catches. On Friday, Buccaneers Head Coach Bruce Arians indicated that Fournette would start in the Divisional Playoff game even if Jones was active.
Safety Jordan Whitehead, who suffered a knee injury during the week of practice and was considered questionable to play on Sunday, has also been cleared, as has reserve safety Andrew Adams (not injury related).
The Buccaneers announced their list of inactives at 5:10 p.m. ET, 90 minutes before their scheduled kickoff against New Orleans. With inside linebacker Kevin Minter still on the reserve/COVID-19 list, the Buccaneers came into the weekend with 52 active players, then elevated inside linebacker Deone Bucannon, safety Javon Hagan and guard Ted Larsen. That pushed the number of available players to 55, meaning they had to declare seven of them inactive in order to get to the game day limit of 48.
The Saints placed reserve guard Will Clapp on the COVID list on Saturday but activated wide receiver Tre'Quan Smith from injured reserve and elevated two players from the practice squad, so they also had to name seven inactives on Sunday. New Orleans also has issues in its offensive backfield, with reserve running back Latavius Murray (quad) declared inactive. In addition, backup quarterback and all-round offensive weapon Taysom Hill is unable to play due to a knee injury. Murray and Hill combined for 1,113 of the Saints' 2,265 rushing yards during the regular season.
BUCCANEERS INACTIVES
- TE Antony Auclair
- QB Ryan Griffin
- S Javon Hagan
- DL Jeremiah Ledbetter
- RB Ke'Shawn Vaughn
- G Earl Watford
- WR Justin Watson
Ledbetter is out due to injury.
SAINTS INACTIVES
- CB Ken Crawley
- QB Taysom Hill
- WR Juwan Johnson
- OL Derrick Kelly
- RB Latavius Murray
- DL Malcolm Roach
- CB Patrick Robinson
Hill, Murray and Robinson are out due to injury.
