Baker Mayfield is absolutely loving the latest Emeka Egbuka injury update
The star rookie made a surprising return to practice on Saturday.
All of a sudden, people are breathing a whole lot easier when it comes to Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ passing attack heading into the upcoming matchup against the Detroit Lions.
For starters, Mike Evans returned to practice earlier in the week, and it’s looking like he’ll see his first action since injuring his hamstring against the New York Jets in Week 3. Now, it appears like star rookie Emeka Egbuka will play after he unexpectedly returned to practice on Saturday.
Bucs receive a nice surprise on Saturday
This certainly wasn’t expected, as Egbuka had an MRI on Tuesday and proceeded to miss practice on Thursday and Friday. Hamstring injuries are always fickle, as well, in the sense that they can be short- or long-term injury scenarios that can easily be re-aggravated down the line. That’s pretty much all soft tissue injuries, but especially hamstrings.
This is huge news for a Lions secondary dealing with its own injuries. Starting cornerback Terrion Arnold practiced on Friday after Dan Campbell said Monday he expects him to return after the Lions’ bye in Week 8. Campbell also said Saturday he doesn’t see Arnold playing Monday, so it sounds like he’ll miss this game.
Starting safety Avonte Maddox will miss the game, and All-Pro safety Kerby Joseph could miss, as well. On top of all that, do-it-all defensive back Brian Branch is serving a one-game suspension for going after JuJu Smith-Schuster during a postgame scuffle in Week 6.
This is the NFL, and every opponent is tough, but man, the Bucs will have a big advantage in the passing game if both Evans and Egbuka return.
“Obviously Mike draws a lot of attention,” Mayfield told reporters Thursday when asked how Evans affects defensive coverages and offensive play-calling. “So, you have to expect that. And then, for our coaching staff, which they’ve done a great job, is how to how to get him isolated, and in one-on-one situations, how to get him the rock, and we have to take advantage of those opportunities. While also understanding the other side of it is, when he does draw a lot of attention, guys have to step up and do their jobs at a high level.
“So there’s a lot more pros that come with it than cons. So, yeah, he gets double-teamed every once in a while, but that’s just an opportunity for somebody else to step up.”
We’ll update Egbuka’s progress when Todd Bowles speaks with reporters after Saturday’s practice.
Update: Bowles said Egbuka was considered a limited participant on Saturday and will be a game-time decision for Monday.
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