Buccaneers lose practice time for safety issue

Buccaneers lose – Tampa Bay’s offseason schedule was disrupted after the team was flagged for having “too many guys on the ground” during an early practice. Coach Todd Bowles said Tuesday was planned as a day off, Wednesday was removed by the league, and Tampa Bay cleaned up th

The Buccaneers walked into their offseason like they normally do—until the schedule suddenly wasn’t theirs anymore.

Tampa Bay didn’t practice on Tuesday, by choice. Coach Todd Bowles said Thursday that Tuesday was already set as a day off for the team: “We gave them off Tuesday; Tuesday was their day off,” he said, per Scott Smith of Buccaneers.com.

Wednesday was a different story. Bowles said the league took it away after an early practice created a safety problem when there were too many players involved at once on the ground. “Wednesday was by the league. because at the first practice we had too many guys on the ground. so they took a practice from us. ” Bowles said. “So Wednesday was by their doing, Tuesday was already set in motion by our doing. And they cleaned it up after that. We understand. We aren’t trying to get anybody hurt. That was the basis of it.”.

Bowles pinned the issue on a specific scope inside the session. He said “about three or four plays” were what created the problem, and the staff moved to correct it. “We’re trying to practice safety as well,” Bowles said. “We’ve got a lot of new guys trying to learn how to practice. but we cleaned that up and kind of took care of it.”.

The timing matters because every offseason rep is pressure-tested by the reality of roster limits. It’s not easy to slow things down. especially for players pushing to move from the 90-man offseason roster down to the final 53-man roster. Even when the mistakes are small, the team still carries the responsibility for keeping them from turning into something bigger.

Bowles also framed the situation against how workouts used to look years earlier. “Even with periodic glitches, it’s not as bad as it used to be,” he said. “Twenty years ago, contact was rampant in offseason workouts. To the point where some offensive linemen wanted to wear pads, since their shoulders were getting banged around by helmets.”.

This time, the Buccaneers’ offseason slip wasn’t about intensity—it was about control. The league’s decision to remove Wednesday’s practice time, followed by Tampa Bay’s cleanup after the identified plays, left a clear message: safety isn’t optional, even when the calendar is.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers Todd Bowles offseason practice NFL safety roster battle 90-man roster 53-man roster