The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will take on the Carolina Panthers Sunday at Bank of America without their usual starting left guard, as Ali Marpet will miss a second straight day due to a concussion. Marpet remained in the NFL's concussion protocol at the end of the week and was downgraded on the injury report from questionable to out on Saturday.
However, cornerback Carlton Davis III was cleared to play on Sunday after being deemed questionable on Friday due to a knee injury. Davis, who leads the team with four interceptions and 13 passes defensed, will be a key part of the Bucs' efforts to slow down Carolina's ultra-productive trio of wideouts in Robby Anderson, Curtis Samuel and D.J. Moore.
The Buccaneers announced their list of inactives at 11:30 a.m. ET, 90 minutes before their scheduled kickoff against the Panthers. After placing wide receiver Jaydon Mickens on the reserve/COVID-19 list on Saturday, the Bucs went into Sunday with 52 players on the active roster and they did not elevate any players from the practice squad. Thus, the Buccaneers only had to name four players inactive in order to get down to the limit of 48 active players.
Carolina's offense will be missing two key players as both running back Christian McCaffrey and left tackle Russell Okung are sidelined by injuries. McCaffrey hurt his right shoulder late in last week's narrow loss to Kansas City, which was his first game back after he had missed the previous six with an ankle sprain. Mike Davis has filled in for McCaffrey and fared well, with 631 yards from scrimmage and four touchdowns this season. Okung will miss his third straight game due to a calf injury; in his absence, Greg Little, Dennis Daley and Trent Scott have all taken snaps at left tackle over the past two weeks.
The Panthers do get standout rookie safety/linebacker Jeremy Chinn back from a one-game injury absence. Chinn has recorded 66 tackles, five passes defensed, two quarterback hits and one interception and he was named the NFL's Defensive Rookie of the Month in October.
The Panthers added two players to their active roster to get back to 53 on Saturday and also used both of their practice squad elevation options. That means they had to declare seven players inactive to get down to 48.
BUCCANEERS INACTIVES
- DL Khalil Davis
- QB Ryan Griffin
- G Ali Marpet
- RB Ke'Shawn Vaughn
Marpet is out due to injury and Mickens is out due to being place on the reserve/COVID-19 list.
PANTHERS INACTIVES
- DB Sean Chandler
- QB Will Grier
- DT Bruce Hector
- RB Christian McCaffrey
- T Russell Okung
- G Michael Schofield
- CB Stantley Thomas-Oliver
McCaffrey and Okung are out due to injury.
