Buccaneers add running back C.J. Prosise to practice squad

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers announced on Tuesday they added running back C.J. Prosise to their practice squad.

Prosise played collegiately for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish before entering the NFL as a third-round pick in the 2016 NFL Draft.

At Notre Dame, Prosise was mainly known as a running back but began as a wide receiver. In his three-year career, he gained 2,051-yards from scrimmage including 896 in the passing game.

Prosise didn’t get large usage numbers until his final year, and 1,337-yards of his career production came in his final season. He also scored fifteen total touchdowns for the Fighting Irish, including twelve in 2015.

Drafted by the Seattle Seahawks, Prosise never played in more than nine games with Pete Carroll’s team and has 35 game appearances out of a possible 80 regular-season games in his career.

In terms of production, his best season was his rookie season in which Prosise carried the ball thirty times for 172-yards and one touchdown while also adding seventeen receptions for 208-yards.

Despite his high pass game contributions in college, it wasn’t until just this season Prosise notched his first receiving touchdown, as a member of the Houston Texans in Week 12 against the Detroit Lions.

As noted by Buccaneers.com Editor and Senior Writer, Scott Smith,

“The Buccaneers have not had a running back on the practice squad since promoting Kenjon Barner to the active roster on December 7, and Barner has since been placed on injured reserve. In order to make room for Prosise on that 16-man unit, the Buccaneers released cornerback Mazzi Wilkins.”

As you likely assumed, Prosise has a long list of injuries in his NFL career including a broken arm, a Grade-3 tear in his abdomen, multiple ankle sprains, a shoulder fracture, and a fracture in his hand which resulted in four missed games alone, during his rookie season.

Before he was drafted, Pewter Report’s Jon Ledyard (at the time writing for DraftWire) wrote of Prosise,

“Prosise’s smooth, gliding running style and natural open-field instincts certainly aided the transition to running back, as the big back looked like he’d been playing there his whole life. My favorite trait of Prosise’s is his balance and ability to absorb contact while staying upright. He has a good idea of what he wants to do when he gets the ball in his hands, and while the Notre Dame product doesn’t run angry, he does possess the ideal lower body strength to slip tacklers and pick up extra yards after contact.”

We’ve seen players this season go from the practice squad to the playing field a bit more than usual due to the special roster rules provided in relation to COVID-19 concerns, so don’t rule Prosise’s potential involvement out if the Buccaneers feel confident enough in his ability to impact the game.

We know Tom Brady loves a receiving back, after all.