The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have signed tight end Kyle Adams, according to Scott Smith. Adams is a three-year veteran who has played in 24 career games as almost exclusively a blocking tight end and special teams player for the Chicago Bears. He spent his college career at Purdue.
The Bucs placed Tom Crabtree on injured reserve with a torn biceps, which means they had only one tight end on the roster in Tim Wright, who is an abysmal blocker. Having used mostly fullbacks as in-line blockers in recent weeks, it seems the Bucs concluded that maybe signing an actual tight end would be a smart thing to do. Shocking, I know.
Having two tight ends on the roster is no luxury, as evidenced by the fact that the team spent almost the entire game against the Detroit Lions with either two tight ends or a tight end a fullback on the field. Since the team has moved to a "run, run, run" philosophy they've started to use their running personnel more, but with now three tight ends on injured reserve they don't actually have much in the way of that kind of personnel. Instead, they have three fullbacks -- and now one more tight end.