Buccaneers Camp — Aug 31: Daniels Is the Only Backup Quarterback

The Buccaneers are carrying two quarterbacks, and the only backup behind Baker Mayfield is an undrafted rookie. Tampa Bay named Jalon Daniels the number two at Sunday's cutdown, released veteran Jake Browning and waived Connor Bazelak, leaving just two quarterbacks on the initial 53, per Josh Alper at Pro Football Talk. On the team's website, Scott Smith wrote that Daniels "leap-frogged" both veterans on the depth chart. The beat's explanation has two parts. The first is the player: Scott Reynolds at Pewter Report framed it as upside over experience — "Jalon Daniels is no ordinary rookie QB. He's been a very pleasant surprise in Tampa Bay." The second is arithmetic. On the eve of cutdown, Todd Bowles walked through the interlocking depth decisions — "That's a matter of keeping four running backs, three quarterbacks; there's an extra receiver involved; obviously a corner involved, a defensive lineman" — and said of a third quarterback: "It's difficult because you probably need the spot for somewhere else," per Smith. General manager Jason Licht, on Friday's broadcast, said of carrying three: "If you have to do it, you have to do it," per TJ French at Heavy.com. The spot went somewhere else. The timeline, for the record: Daniels started Friday's finale, went 8-of-15 for 57 yards, took three sacks and played into the third quarter of a shutout, per Smith — Bowles said the team "definitely wanted to see more of him" — and on Sunday the job was his.

The finale itself: Jaguars 19, Buccaneers 0 at EverBank Stadium on Friday night, after two August comeback wins. Bowles afterward: "Not good enough. Anytime you get shut out, you know. I didn't think we protected the quarterback enough. We couldn't run the ball," per Smith. The particulars matched the quote — the line gave up five sacks and the run game finished under 50 yards, per Collin Haalboom at Sports Illustrated's Buccaneers site. Two performances read differently now the 53 is known. Undrafted outside linebacker Jack Pyburn had two sacks, per Haalboom — and was waived Sunday. Cornerback Benjamin Morrison — the vague midweek absence our last episode flagged, now attributed to a hamstring — played his first preseason action, completed the first half and broke up a pass in the end zone, per Michael Epps at Bay News 9. He made the roster.

The full ledger, compressed: 38 announced moves to reach 53, per Smith — the contracts of three vested veterans terminated — Browning, long snapper Scott Daly and safety Ifeatu Melifonwu — 30 players waived, three waived with injury designations, and cornerback Josh Hayes and wide receiver David Sills V placed on injured reserve with designations to return, which means each must miss at least the first four games, per Alper. Three of the team's 2024 draft picks — outside linebacker Chris Braswell, guard Elijah Klein and tight end Devin Culp — were waived, while all seven 2026 picks made the roster, per Smith. Among the waived-injured, outside linebacker Mohamed Kamara suffered an apparent serious knee injury in the third quarter of the finale, per Haalboom. And a name from our last episode: Roman Parodie, the undrafted corner whose interception set up the game-winner against Kansas City, was waived, while the other undrafted corner, Ayden Garnes, made the 53, per Smith. So did rookie wide receiver Ted Hurst III, in a six-receiver room. The shape of it, per Smith's accounting on the team's site: heavy in the trenches at 10 offensive linemen and seven defensive linemen, lighter behind — eight defensive backs, five corners and three safeties, +3 running backs and the two quarterbacks. Reynolds' read on the offensive line number was less charitable: keeping 10, including the injured Billy Schrauth, speaks "to the lack of quality depth," he wrote. The specialists resolved too: Chase McLaughlin at kicker with B.T. Potter waived, Dixon at punter, and Evan Deckers over the released Daly at long snapper, per Smith.

Now the receiver room, where the week contradicted us. Our last episode had Jalen McMillan back on the practice field, "just warming up," in Bowles' words at the time. That reversed. McMillan — a knee injury, which we called a leg injury then — did not travel to Jacksonville for the joint practices and finished the summer without playing in a preseason game, per RotoWire, citing Pewter Report. He made the 53 anyway. Emeka Egbuka answers our other watch item the same way: no practice before cutdown, with the team deliberately preserving the toe for the September 13 opener against the Bengals, per Greg Auman's reporting — and he, too, made the 53 rather than injured reserve. The Tristan Wirfs item resolved upward: the left tackle practiced in pads and took a limited number of 11-on-11 snaps in Tuesday's joint practice at Jacksonville, his first team-drill work since the camp-opening hamstring strain, per JoeBucsFan.com, and he is on the roster. One new entry: first-round pass rusher Rueben Bain Jr. sat out the second joint practice with a shoulder sprain — Bowles: "He has a sore shoulder... but he will be fine" — and the team says he will be ready for the opener, per Brianna Dix on the team's website.

Back in July we previewed this team as the favorite with no rebate — an earned eight-and-nine record the regression rules won't subsidize, a price that bets on health returning to the skill positions and on a fifth offensive coordinator in five years being a fix rather than churn. Cut day kept that bet alive without settling it: both injured receivers made the 53 instead of injured reserve and Wirfs is back in team drills, but one of those receivers reversed a return we had already reported, the other opens game week without a camp practice behind him, and the insurance behind Mayfield is one undrafted rookie. The July framing wanted health to return; the roster is built as if it will, before it has.

What to watch next: the waiver wire clears and the practice squads form behind it — where Browning, Parodie, Pyburn and the rest of Sunday's names land is the next episode's job. Pewter Report's staff expects roughly 16 to 17 practice-squad signings once waivers clear, with Browning and running back Josh Williams among the names floated to return — and Reynolds writes the team kept three backs and three safeties partly on the expectation that Williams and Melifonwu come back. Expectations, not transactions: nothing is signed until the claims clear. Beyond that, the Week 1 question: whether Egbuka is on the practice field when preparation for Cincinnati opens, and whether the quarterback room is still two deep when the opener arrives. We'll check back once the claims and the practice squads are in.

_Data via nflverse._