Buccaneers’ Kevin Pamphile cleared to play against Seahawks

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will get left guard Kevin Pamphile back in the starting lineup, according to head coach Dirk Koetter. He told Scott Smith of Buccaneers.com that Pamphile passed his concussion test and has been cleared to play. Pamphile missed the past two games with that concussion.

With Pamphile back, the Bucs will have all of their starting offensive linemen against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday. They were missing Pamphile as well as center Joe Hawley last week, and were at one point down to their fifth-string left guard, counting J.R. Sweezy (who hasn’t been healthy all year), and backup center/guard Evan Smith (who is still out with a knee injury).

In other words: nothing but good news here. The Bucs get back a quality starter, and Caleb Benenoch proved to be adequate depth at that position last week. The question is who will be the backup center with Evan Smith out and Ben Gottschalk on injured reserve. Right guard Ali Marpet and newly promoted Josh Allen are likely candidates there.