Buccaneers’ Terry Beckner Jr. suspended

Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive lineman Terry Beckner Jr. has been suspended for four games for violating the NFL’s policy on performance-enhancing substances.

Drafted in the 7th Round of the 2019 NFL Draft out of Missouri, Beckner has been on the Buccaneers’ practice squad.

Once a Top-10 recruit heading into college, Beckner started his career as a Freshman All-American with the Tigers, but suffered a right knee injury in 2015 and a left knee injury the following season.

In 2017, Beckner tied for the team lead in sacks (7) and started 13 games for Missouri. He started another full season’s worth of games in 2018, but was never able to reach his ceiling due in large part to the injuries suffered early in his career.

This isn’t his first run-in with substance related violations as he was suspended between his freshman and sophomore seasons for marijuana possession stemming from a January 2016 traffic stop by campus police.

While there haven’t been many people - if any - who expected Beckner to make an impact on the 2019 Bucs roster, the rookie won’t be available to return to the team until November 18th and could theoretically be active for the team’s first match-up against the Falcons, in Atlanta.

It’s the second suspension of a Buccaneers player - or Bucs related player - in the past few days as linebacker Devante Bond received his four game suspension shortly after being waived by the franchise.

At the time of his being waived, it was assumed it was to make room for the pending return of outside linebacker Jason Pierre-Paul. With this news today however, if the move was motivated at all by the positive test for Bond, then Beckner may face a similar fate.