Bucs' Winfield, Shepard, Otton out vs. Panthers

TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles ruled out All-Pro safety Antoine Winfield Jr., tight end Cade Otton and wide receiver Sterling Shepard for Sunday’s game hosting the Carolina Panthers.

It will be Winfield’s third consecutive missed game since suffering a right knee sprain against the Las Vegas Raiders on Dec. 8. He has not practiced since.

Otton suffered a knee injury at the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 15 and has not practiced since either, missing the Bucs’ 26-24 loss at the Dallas Cowboys last week that snapped a four-game winning streak.

Shepard, who has helped fill the void left by Chris Godwin‘s ankle injury in Week 7, suffered both hamstring and foot injuries at Dallas.

The Bucs have already been without their other starting safety Jordan Whitehead, although he did begin his 21-day return-to-practice window this week after suffering a partially torn pectoral muscle in Week 12 and landing on injured reserve. He has not been activated to the 53-man roster yet, however, but was a full participant in practice this week and has been practicing with a harness.

The team does have one starting-caliber safety left, although he wasn’t initially a starter or even on the Bucs’ roster at the beginning of the season — Mike Edwards — who was claimed off of waivers just prior to Week 12. Edwards, however, missed Weeks 14 and 15 due to a hamstring injury and then was dealing with an illness Tuesday of this week, but he was a full participant the remainder of the week. The team has until Saturday to activate him — and they could certainly do that with Izien going to IR — but they’ll also need to clear a roster spot for punter Jack Browning, who has maximized his practice squad elevations for the year.

On top of that, safety Kaevon Merriweather, who played 51.8% of defensive snaps against the Cowboys, has been limited by a knee injury all week, and backup nickelback/safety Christian Izien, who played 92.9% of defensive snaps against the Cowboys was placed on injured reserve this week with a pectoral injury.

At tight end, Payne Durham will continue to replace Otton at the “Y” receiver position going forward. And in Shepard’s absence, Ryan Miller, who scored a 13-yard touchdown with 2:40 to go to give the Bucs a chance against the Cowboys, is expected to get a heavier workload.

Bowles said that starting inside linebacker K.J. Britt, who has been dealing with an ankle injury, will be a game-time decision.

The Bucs will need to likely win out to pull ahead of the Atlanta Falcons, who hold the head-to-head tie-breaker over the Bucs, in order to advance to the playoffs.