Tampa Bay Buccaneers will play their regular season final on Sunday without two of their main defensive owners and another major reserve.
On Friday, the Buccaneers placed internal linebacker Devin White, external linebacker Shaquil Barrett and striker Steve McLendon on the reserve / COVID-19 list. They will miss Sunday’s game against the Atlanta Falcons, in which Tampa Bay will try to secure the Wild Card’s first place in the NFC playoffs with a win.
The new reserve list category was created for a player who tested positive for COVID-19 or who was quarantined after being in close contact with an infected person or persons. If a player falls into any of these categories, your club must immediately place the player on the reserve / COVID-19 list. Under NFL-NFLPA policy, clubs are not allowed to comment on the player’s medical status, except referring to the squad’s status. Clubs cannot disclose whether the player is quarantined or is positive for COVID-19.
White and Barrett are two of the three Buccaneers players who have more than eight sacks this season, along with linebacker Jason Pierre-Paul. Bucs and Steelers are the only two NFL teams with three players and at least eight sacks. McLendon, who came in October in a negotiation with the New York Jets, has since provided valuable depth in the interior line.
White is the main tackler for the Buccaneers with 140 stops, who is tied for third in the NFL. He also has 15 loss tackles, 9.0 sacks, 16 quarterback hits, four defending passes, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. He is the only NFL player with at least 100 tackles and nine bags.
Barrett recorded 57 tackles, 8.0 sacks, 11 missing tackles, 16 hitting strikes, three defending passes and two forced fumbles. According to NFL statistics service Radar360, Barrett is tied for fourth place in the NFL with 40 quarterback pressures.
McLendon has played in all nine games since the exchange and contributed 17 tackles and two loss tackles, mostly serving as a reserve against Rakeem Nunez-Roches.
White and Barrett started each of the Buccaneers’ first 15 games. They helped the Tampa Bay defense stay sixth in allowed net yards, seventh in allowed points, fifth in allowed yards per game, first in run yards allowed per game, first in yards allowed for rush, eighth in yards allowed for pass played, sixth in sacks for attempted passing and fifth in the first downs allowed per move.
The Buccaneers have two internal reserve linebackers in the squad, veteran Kevin Minter and rookie Chapelle Russell. Minter started two games in place of White last year, when the then-new linebacker lost three games due to a knee injury. The depth of the team as an external linebacker includes second-year man Anthony Nelson and hired newcomer Cam Gill. Nelson recorded his first career layoff in last week’s victory in Detroit.