Buccaneers injuries: Gerald McCoy will play, Cecil Shorts to start

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will get star defensive tackle Gerald McCoy back against the San Francisco 49ers after he missed one game with a calf injury. That’s what head coach Dirk Koetter told Alex Marvez of Sirius XM NFL, although he also noted that McCoy’s snaps would be monitored, implying that he hasn’t recovered fully and won’t be at full strength tomorrow.

With McCoy back, the Bucs’ pass rush should get a bit of a boost, but the team will still be missing a competent, consistent edge rush. That probably won’t arrive until Robert Ayers is back from injury, if then. And it’s unclear how long that will take.

Koetter also said that tight end Luke Stocker would be back, as expected, and that Cecil Shorts would start in Vincent Jackson’s place. The latter was placed on injured reserve this week with an ACL injury of unknown seriousness.

Shorts will start his 39th career game tomorrow, and has been a serviceable but unspectacular second or third receiver throughout his career. Last season, he posted 42 catches for 484 yards and two touchdowns with the Houston Texans, only a little worse than Vincent Jackson’s performance last season.