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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have a big day ahead of them as they begin joint practices with the Miami Dolphins. But the team has already been hard at work, adding a veteran presence to their banged up safety group.
Bucs have signed veteran safety Darian Stewart. He's 31, spent last four years as a starter for the Broncos.
— Greg Auman (@gregauman) August 13, 2019
Stewart is entering his tenth season in the NFL, and as the tweet from Greg Auman states, last played for the Denver Broncos.
In 2016, Stewart had arguably his best season making the Pro Bowl playing free-safety for those same Broncos turning in 68 tackles and three interceptions that year.
Adding a safety is no big surprise for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who have been without Justin Evans for a while now and recently lost Mike Edwards who was looking like a favorite to grab a starting job in the defensive backfield.
Kentrell Brice, another free-agent acquisition from earlier in the off-season will be another option to look at, and received praise recently from head coach Bruce Arians for his toughness following an injury suffered during last Friday night’s match-up with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
With the Dolphins in town for practice and their game against the Buccaneers this coming Friday night Stewart will have a steep learning curve but a valuable opportunity to make up for lost time.
Whether or not it’ll lead to his appearing in the game at the end of the week is still to be determined. Last week, Tampa Bay added safety John Battle to the roster prior to the Steelers game, but Battle did not register a defensive snap.
Subsequently, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers released defensive lineman Dare Odeyingbo to make room for the signing.