It’s Not Just Tristan Wirfs, Ryan Jensen And Josh Wells
January 18th, 2022
Status.
If all goes wrong, the Bucs could be down 2/3 of their Pro Bowl offensive linemen and a key backup.
Super Bowl-winning coach Bucco Bruce Arians was very cautious in discussing the injuries to center Ryan Jensen, right tackle Tristan Wirfs and Wirfs’ backup, Josh Wells. All three are wait-and-see situations and Arians didn’t venture to guess their status for Sunday’s divisional-round playoff game against the Rams.
Arians said the team should know by Friday how those three are recuperating and if they may play.
But it is not just those three. Sunday morning Arians told Sara Walsh of NFL Network that Playoff Lenny had tweaked his hamstring and that is why he wouldn’t play against the Eagles. His status for Sunday is also unknown, Arians said Monday, and Arians seemed less confident about Ronald Jones.
“We’re going to wait and see if ‘Lenny’ can open up full speed,” Arians said. “‘RoJo’ still isn’t cutting, so we’ll know more by Thursday on both of those guys.”
It’s a good thing Ke’Shawn Vaughn is looking like a capable back. And the Bucs have Le’Veon Bell and Gio Bernard to fall back on.
Not that long ago it was the defense that was beat up by injuries. Now, it’s the offense.
January 18th, 2022 at 8:08 am
I didn’t realize the severity of Josh Wells’ injury. He looked pretty awful on Sunday.
As someone else posted, Jensen is too mean and nasty to miss a game. I admire Wirfs for playing on one leg but he wasn’t effective when he re-entered the game.
January 18th, 2022 at 8:13 am
Say it isn’t true, we will need our best linemen to keep the Rams off of Brady.
January 18th, 2022 at 8:36 am
If these guys can walk, they will play. Both Jensen and Wirfs are tough as nuts. They both were cleared to return after seeing trainer. Its going to be pain tolerance, and both Jensen and Wirfs can tolerate a major dishing of pain.
I see a lot of people calling a huge mismatch in the Rams favour. Although true, the best way to negate a pass rush is quick passes, something Brady excels at. We have a great personel for it too with Gio, Gronk and even Scooter.
We also can’t forget that Tampa is playing Matthew Stafford, who is tied for picks this year with T-Law. If Bowles can sustain enough pressure on Stafford he will cough up the ball. Arizona did not do that enough last night. This is far from the best matchup we could have had, but every team has a weakness that can be exploited. Stop the Rams run game, force Stafford to throw under duress 40 times and give TB12 the ball in good field position facing a pretty banged up Rams secondary.
January 18th, 2022 at 8:37 am
If ROJO can’t cut he’s useless. He doesn’t block and he doesn’t catch.
Bernard is a sneaky good runner. Again I watched him a lot as a Bengal and while his hands and YAC were his calling card I was mildly surprised at how well he ran between the tackles.
Bell is approaching the end but he may have a couple of good games left and he’s better than ROJO.
Vaughn is almost as good…not enough carries to know yet.
Bottom line…yeah we’ll miss Playoff Lennie but we have a trio left that can get the job done.
The RB injuries aren’t the problem. It’s the OL. If they can protect Brady we’re fine!
January 18th, 2022 at 8:39 am
I really hope Arians is playing a little possum. I don’t see 30 points this week fans so this on falls on the D. But I don’t see Bucs DB’s keeping Kupp, Higgbee and OBJ under wraps. It appears Bucs only chance is to fluster Stafford. Rams D likes to intiminate if Bucs punch them in the mouth first that may help. This is a big task but I assume Bucs will be underdogs at home and I do like that. FYI, don’t get all worked up how Cardnials played, ever since Hopkins went down they’ve been average at best. Murray is WAY overrated.
January 18th, 2022 at 8:56 am
Not too worried. Everyone that can physically play that is hurt will knowing how big this game is and how it could be the last. Last year no one thought we could beat the Saints, Packers or Chiefs yet we did. Plus we have home field advantage. The fans are going to have to be extremely loud to help out and cause some false starts. We can win this if the defense plays like it did in the playoffs last year and this past Sunday.
January 18th, 2022 at 8:56 am
Would be a hard game of all we’re healthy….
January 18th, 2022 at 8:58 am
Wells was really playing hurt, he was limping most of the game. Not overly worried about RB, but really concerned about OL and game plan on both sides of the ball.
D should play a combination of man and zone and need to run Safety blitz’s that help eliminate Stanford’s rolling out. On O we need to play the whole game in hurry-up and run a lot of mis direction plays. Maybe 3 tight end sets to stop the Ram’s Front four. Our D line really has to bring it.
January 18th, 2022 at 8:59 am
Wells is trash even when he’s healthy and the sixth man on the line. If Wirfs can’t go, I would not mind watching Hainsey first start in the second round of the playoffs. How much worse than Wells could he be?
January 18th, 2022 at 9:04 am
*Unless they believe in Hainsey enough to play center if Jensen can’t go, but there was a matter earlier in the year when Jensen was a question and Bruce said Ali would be rotated to center and have Stinnie come in at OG.
January 18th, 2022 at 9:08 am
How do you beat Brady…. Run the ball and keep him off the field. Hit him all day long. With our starting Oline showing cracks it could be a very long day for Brady. I still think the Bucs can get it done, but losing this much talent is t going to be easy to replace if they’re out for Sunday.
January 18th, 2022 at 9:28 am
cortisone shots in 3 2 1….
January 18th, 2022 at 9:38 am
I think gio on 3rd down will be better against the rams . He’s a better catcher and has more quickness. We really need Lenny when we play the Packers or 49ers next round.
January 18th, 2022 at 10:15 am
If the Bucs can play more physical than the Rams we can win this game. This Sunday the Bucs will need to win the game on defense and have a complimentary offense. Unless they get some turnovers 31 points is a tough number to hit.
But if they can keep the Rams below 20 points, I think Bucs win 9 out of 10 times at home (unless its the Saints).
January 18th, 2022 at 2:47 pm
We are soooo getting blown out.
January 18th, 2022 at 6:36 pm
The injury levels are reaching critical mass…
January 18th, 2022 at 11:46 pm
I know injuries are part of the game but maybe some rethinking on training and game management for next year.
January 19th, 2022 at 11:03 am
Cassandra Joe takes the fun out of fandom by constantly clutching the pearls. It’s annoying.