Buccaneers place Ali Marpet and Demar Dotson on injured reserve

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have placed starting right tackle Demar Dotson and starting center Ali Marpet on injured reserve, the team announced.

Dotson has been a stalwart at right tackle for years and was in the middle of a very strong season—perhaps the only strong season among all the Bucs’ offensive linemen. Losing him is a pretty big blow.

Marpet moved to center this year, after spending his first two seasons at right guard. The third-year player struggled to snap the ball consistently early in the season, and hasn’t had a strong year overall, but he still has a lot of potential.

The Bucs have a few options to replace these two linemen. One would be to move left guard Evan Smith to center, keep Kevin Pamphile at left guard, and slide Leonard Wester in at right tackle. Another would be to start Joe Hawley at center, keep Smith at left guard, and move Pamphile to right tackle.

The Bucs signed cornerback Deji Olatoye and fullback/tight end Alan Cross to take their roster spots. Both spent time on the Bucs’ roster earlier this year, though they didn’t play much nor make a big impact. The team will likely add a few linemen at some point this week.