Buccaneers lucky with injuries, despite ailments for Mike Evans and Demar Dotson

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have been hit by injuries this offseason, but so far the effects have been fairly limited. Mike Evans will be out for the preseason and perhaps a little longer with a hamstring strain, while Demar Dotson is likely to miss between three to six games with a sprained MCL -- but the Bucs brought in veteran Gosder Cherilus to replace Dotson for that period of time.

Beyond those two, the Bucs have had no serious injuries to starters. Akeem Spence will miss probably the first half of the season with a back injury, but it's not clear he'd even make the roster given the depth at defensive tackle. Chris Conte, Kevin Pamphile, Jacquies Smith and T.J. Fatinikun returned to practice today. The only players to miss today's practice in addition to those listed above were center Evan Smith, who should play Sturday, center Josh Allen, linebacker Orie Lemon and cornerback Leonard Johnson -- all of that per the Tampa Bay Times

Of those, only Johnson's injury appears to be serious. He had to be carted off the field with what appeared to be an ankle injury, and he was walking on crutches with a boot today. But Johnson wasn't likely to retain his starting position, with Sterling Moore returning to

Contrast that with other teams, and you'll see a lot of very serious injuries. According to the Twitter account ACL Recover Club, 25 players have torn their ACLs this offseason, Orlando Scandrick and Kona Schwenke recently joining that list.

Here is the up-to-date list of every player that has suffered a torn ACL this season in the NFL. pic.twitter.com/PPbWrnWMk3

— ACL Recovery Club (@ACLrecoveryCLUB) August 24, 2015

That list doesn't include the players who were hit by other serious or season-ending injuries, so the picture across the NFL is bleak. The Bucs have been lucky, at least so far, and that bodes well for their prospects for this season: healthy teams are more likely to do well, for what I would think are pretty obvious reasons. It's also a prerequisite for the Bucs given their lack of depth at key positions, especially defensive end and offensive guard.

So far, so good. Now let's hope I didn't just jinx it.