Buccaneers sign Will Clarke, waive Channing Ward

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers continue to make moves after they put together their initial 53-man roster. Here’s the latest: the team signed defensive end Will Clarke, and released defensive end Channing Ward.

Clarke was originally a third-round pick for the CIncinnati Bengals in 2014, and played for them for three season, racking up 22 tackles and 3.5 sacks in 35 games and no starts—he was a part-time player throughout.

Ward was an undrafted free agent last year who got some rotational playing time, but never really stood out.

At 6’6” 275 lbs, Clarke is tall and pretty lanky for a defensive lineman, built a little bit like William Gholston. He fits the Bucs’ trend of signing bigger defensive linemen, at least, and could probably function in both a 4-3 defensive end role, and in more 3-4 lineups—though we’ve seen surprisingly few of those in the preseason.

Where Clarke fits in the defensive line rotation right now remains to be seen. He probably won’t get a lot of playing time initially regardless.