Tampa Bay Buccaneers Training Camp Battles: Wide Receivers

The last installment in this series came about a week ago, before training camp even started. At that time, I was doing a preview - but it's hard to call position evaluations "training camp previews" when training camp has already started. Nonetheless, we soldier on. Today: the wide receivers.

Currently on the roster: Vincent Jackson, Mike Williams, Preston Parker, Arrelious Benn, Sammie Stroughter, Tiquan Underwood, Ed Gant, Wallace Wright, Greg Ellingson, Landon Cox, Armahd Lewis

The Buccaneers have a ridiculous amount of wide receivers in camp, but not a lot of real competition. Vincent Jackson was the big free agency addition this offseason, and he will be one of the team's two starters. Vincent Jackson has been tearing up training camp and looks like the star the Bucs thought they signed. The other starter appears to be Mike Williams, who doesn't have any real competition for his job. Despite that, he has looked much improved from last year.

In the slot, Preston Parker has a strong hold on the job, with Sammie Stroughter being his main competitor. Stroughter hasn't done much as a receiver in camp, although he does look very good on special teams. Meanwhile, Tiquan Underwood has been the unexpected star of training camp: he looks like a real deep threat with his speed and has made a number of highlight-reel plays. Arrelious Benn is the last real competitor for a roster spot, but the talented receiver is now out for up to a month with an MCL sprain, which will hurt his chances of making the roster.

The rest of the receivers appear to be out of luck. None of them look particularly good in training camp, and unless they become the stars of preseason they're likely to be off the roster. Even Ed Gant, who was one of the big names of last year's training camp and preseason, hasn't done much this year.

Likely regular season roster: Vincent Jackson, Mike Williams, Preston Parker, Sammie Stroughter, Tiquan Underwood, Arrelious Benn

Previous installments:

Tight Ends
Quarterbacks
Fullbacks