Team news: Tampa Bay Buccaneers | Page 78

Buccaneers WR Mike Evans remains sidelined at practice. Looking more and more doubtful for him for Sunday with each passing day.

If he can’t return to practice on Friday, we’d be very hesitant about starting him in a game-time decision situation. Complicating matters, the Bucs play in the late round of games on Sunday. If Evans is out Vincent Jackson gets a bump and Louis Murphy likely steps into starter’s snaps. Austin Seferian-Jenkins may see a few extra targets as well.

We'll be doing our usual Essential Practice Notes later in the day, but there are a number of players with evolving injury situations, so we thought we'd discuss them here:

- Zach Ertz (groin) was cleared for Wednesday practice. It's a good sign for his Monday availability. We would try to avoid starting him this week, but some owners may not have that option.

- Alshon Jeffery (calf) returned to practice. It now appears that he’s on track to play Week 1. After the Kevin White situation, the Bears are not to be trusted when it comes to injury information, but owners can pencil him into lineups.

- Mike Evans (hamstring) did not practice Wednesday. Nearly two weeks ago, Evans said that he could have played had there been a game, so we’re expecting him back at practice at some point this week. Stay tuned.

- Randall Cobb (shoulder) returned to practice. Cobb’s return means that he’s very likely ready for a heavy workload against the Bears.

- LeSean McCoy (hamstring) is "ready to roll" per HC Rex Ryan. Expect a near-normal workload in Week 1.

- Duke Johnson (concussion) was cleared to practice. He should serve a change-of-pace/3rd-down role for the Browns in Week 1.

- Victor Cruz (calf) is still not practicing. He seems unlikely to play against the Cowboys in Week 1. Beat writer Dan Graziano says there’s a “good chance” that Cruz doesn’t play before Week 4. Rueben Randle becomes a Sneaky Start if Cruz is out. Last year, Randle played 79 percent or more of the snaps in 13 games. In those games he averaged 5.0 catches for 65 yards and 0.23 TD. This equates to #25 WR-type numbers when we look at 2014 totals.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are keeping their fingers crossed when it comes to wide receiver Mike Evans' Week 1 availability. While it seemed as though Evans was just being cautious with his hamstring injury, Greg Auman of the Tampa Bay Times reported that he sat out of practice Tuesday.

There's no reason to get overly worried just yet, fantasy owners, but just as Auman explained, if we don't see Evans out on the practice field tomorrow, then there's possibly a cause for concern.

Buccaneers WR Mike Evans says his sore left hamstring isn’t so sore that he wouldn’t be able to play this week if it were absolutely necessary. Still, he believes the Bucs are doing the prudent thing by shutting him down for the remainder of the preseason.

“I think it’s smart,’’ said Evans, who tweaked his hamstring early in the Bucs victory over the Bengals on Monday night. “There’s no reason to risk it. I’ve already proven myself. And this way I can just try to get back for Week 1 of the regular season.’’

It sounds like the injury isn't much to worry about and that Evans will be ready to go Week 1.

The Buccaneers have a short turnaround from Monday night’s game against the Bengals to Saturday’s matchup with the Browns and they aren’t going to risk further injury to wide receiver Mike Evans’s hamstring by playing him in that contest.

After that comes the fourth preseason game, which is usually conducted by players vying for spots on the lower rungs of the depth chart and/or the practice squad. Evans is in neither of those groups and, as a result, coach Lovie Smith announced Tuesday, via Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times, that Evans will not play again until the regular season.

As for whether Evans will be ready to play when the regular season gets started, Smith said that the team will “take every precaution” during Evans’s recovery and not rush him back into the lineup before he’s healed, the story said. It's a situation to watch as hopefully the team is just being cautious with Evans and it won't affect the start of the real season. As the story pointed out, it's valuable live action he's missing with QB Jameis Winston, at least for the third preseason game.

Buccaneers coach Lovie Smith said the hamstring injury wide receiver Mike Evans suffered in Monday night’s 25-11 victory against the Cincinnati Bengals does not appear to be serious.

“I talked to him and he didn’t feel like it was that serious,’’ Smith said. “We wanted to get our (starters) into the second quarter and then get them out.’’

Evans left the game in the second quarter and did not return. Obviously good news but the hope is this doesn't linger into the season.