Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Carolina Panthers: Initial injury report

Antonio Brown is back. Mike Edwards is back. However, Leonard Fournette, Lavonte David, Antoine Winfield Jr., and Mike Evans are not. Leonard Fournette will be heading to injured reserve soon and has been replaced by the signing on Le’Veon Bell as the Bucs are also without Gio Bernard.

The long list of injuries certainly aren’t helping Bucs fans get over the 9-0 loss to the New Orleans Saints where the Bucs could have clinched the division and their playoff spot this past Saturday. However, they still have the opportunity to do both with a win over the Panthers this week, battered and bruised as they may be.

Though Wednesday’s practice was more of a walkthrough than anything, the four players listed above were the only ones categorized as “Did Not Participate.” Limited participants include Antonio Brown (ankle) and Richard Sherman (achilles) while full participants were Jamel Dean (illness), Mike Edwards (knee), Jason Pierre-Paul (shoulder), and Bradley Pinion (hip).

For the Panthers, their injury list is significantly shorter. tackle Cameron Erving (calf) and cornerback Stephon Gilmore (knee) were limited while wide receiver D.J. Moore (hamstring) did not participate.

The Buccaneers will not only be searching for their first division crown since 2007 but they’ll also be searching for answers in what can only be hypothesized as a new look offense. With Fournette and Evans likely out for at least this week and Chris Godwin out for the year, the Buccaneers will have to find a new way to generate a lot of points and they have a short time to do it in. Two games against the Panthers and one against the Jets before the playoffs begin - and the odds for the top seed and first round bye all but evaporated - Brown, Tyler Johnson, Breshad Perriman, Ronald Jones, and Le’Veon Bell will have to find a groove in a big hurry.

You can see the entire injury report for Wednesday below;