Tampa Bay Buccaneers release George Johnson

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have been quite active today, trading Aqib Talib to the New England Patriots and promoting defensive end Aaron Morgan to the regular season roster the Bucs have now released defensive end George Johnson.

Johnson has played 8 games for the Buccaneers over the past two seasons, having been signed as undrafted free agent in 2010. He flashed some ability at times, but hasn't been able to turn into a consistent player. This season, he was passed by Daniel Te'o-Nesheim on the depth chart and he was apparently surplus to requirements. With Da'Quan Bowers returning, that's no surprise - and the Bucs must have thought that practice squadder Aaron Morgan was a better defensive end than Johnson.

With Johnson off the roster, the Bucs now have an open roster spot. With the trade deadline passed, it's unlikely they'll find a quality player to add to the roster at this point. Scratch that, Talib wasn't on the active roster, so the Bucs did not open up a roster spot by trading him.