The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and San Diego Chargers will be largely healthy today as they play each other.
Both teams will be missing one defensive starter: safety Chris Conte for the Bucs, and cornerback Brandon Flowers for the Chargers. Both of those absences had been announced on Friday. There was a little bit of doubt about Bucs defensive tackle Gerald McCoy, but he’ll suit up. The fact that the Bucs left two defensive tackles inactives suggests he won’t be limited much if at all.
The Bucs will start Keith Tandy in Conte’s place, but expect Ryan Smith and newly re-signed veteran Major Wright to get some playing time as well. While Conte isn’t the best free safety around, his absence will still present some challenges against a very good passing offense.
As for the Chargers, they’ve been playing without Flowers for a few weeks now (and it showed). We’ll see whether they can do any better without him this time around.
Buccaneers inactives: QB Ryan Griffin, S Chris Conte, G Josh Allen, C Evan Smith, T Leonard Wester, DT John Hughes, DL DaVonte Lambert
Chargers inactives: CB Brandon Flowers, RB Ronnie Hillman, TE Asante Cleveland, ILB Jatavis Brown, C Max Tuerk, OT Tyreek Burwell, WR Geremy Davis