Buccaneers Turn Attention to Health as Trade Deadline Passes

The NFL isn’t known for having the most exciting trade deadline in the world, but with teams like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers having clear needs to help propel them in their championship aspirations, this year’s was poised to be one of the more active in some time.

And there were some moves made.

The Pittsburgh Steelers and Kansas City Chiefs got things going as we came out of the weekend with a deal struck, sending outside linebacker Melvin Ingram III to the defending AFC Champions.

Kansas City wasn’t done after that, trading for tight-end help as well, bringing Dan Brown in from the Jets, sending offensive lineman Laurent Duvernay-Tardif in exchange.

But the Saints didn’t land a wide receiver. The Panthers didn’t get Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson, and the Buccaneers didn’t move Ronald Jones II.

Jones seems to be happy about staying, and who wouldn’t? Sure, he’d probably love some more touches and the opportunity to contribute more. But all things being even, would you rather play a role on a Super Bowl contender, or start for a pretender?

Fortunately, Jones won’t have to answer that question, and he’ll finish this season with the Bucs while the future remains something we can all address when the time comes.

It may not have been a done deal though, leading up to the deadline. Again, assuming Jones’ tweet actually pertains to trade conversations (maybe he just got the perfect chalupa and was happy about it...), it likely would have included the Bucs bringing in a new member of the secondary.

Who? Kyle Fuller of the Denver Broncos comes to mind. There were rumors circulating the Broncos may look to ship out running back Melvin Gordon in an unrelated trade, and doing so may have opened up the door to their trying to pair rookie Javonte Williams with Jones in another move.

What does the lack of trade mean? For one, it means Tampa Bay didn’t receive an offer, from the Broncos or otherwise, which moved them enough to give up one of the best backup running backs in the league.

“It would have to be something really, really special,” said Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians on Monday when asked about potentially trading the running back. “Because I love the way he’s running. It’s just one nick on Leonard [Fournette] and then ‘RoJo’ is the guy again. To me, that’s still a great one-two punch. It would have to be something extraordinary.”

It also means the Bucs will now look to training and recovery to get their secondary back on track for the second half of the season. Because they’ve pretty much cleared out the game-worthy defensive backs walking the streets.

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