Louis Murphy suffers apparently serious knee injury

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers may have just seen their first season-ending injury to a starter. Wide receiver Louis Murphy went down with what appeared to be a right knee injury in the first quarter against Washington, today. He was quickly ruled out for the game, which generally means the injury is serious.

Not looking good for @murph918 Non-contact knee injury, Doc with sideline lachman test, immediately declared out = ACL tear. @PewterReport

— David J. Chao, MD (@ProFootballDoc) October 25, 2015

Without Murphy, the Bucs have some serious depth issues at wide reciever. Donteea Dye is the only active receiver behind Vincent Jackson and Mike Evans, while special teamer Russell Shephard has struggled with injuries this year. The Bucs could call up undrafted rookies Rannell Hall and Adam Humphries from the practice squad. Both of them starred in preseason and have spent most of the season with the Bucs either on the roster, or on the practice squad. They also have undrafted rookie Evan Spencer, who they added to the practice squad a couple of weeks ago.

The Bucs haven't run a lot of wide receiver-heavy plays this season, preferring to rely on the running game and extra blockers to help out an inexperienced offensive line. As such, Murphy's absence may not hurt Tampa Bay too much. The receiver had a not insignificant ten catches for 198 yards on the season before going down.