The initial injury report for the Bucs is not a pretty one with some key players missing practice

If there was any time for the Tampa Bay Bucs to turn the page quickly and focus on the next week, it was after that disastrous home loss to the Atlanta Falcons. Unfortunately, that means turning the page to the Buffalo Bills – and playing in their house.

After a 3-1 start, the Bucs are staring at the potential of falling to 3-4 and having a lot more questions than answers coming out of the bye week. And to put the cherry on top, the Bucs have a lot of new names – important names – on the first injury report.

Now, before full panic sets in, this was a walkthrough but the report reflects what statuses would have been had the Bucs had an actual practice. Baker Mayfield (knee), Chris Godwin (neck), Matt Feiler (knee), and Vita Vea (groin) were all listed as “Did Not Participate” as did Kaevon Merriweather, who left Sunday’s game against the Falcons with an ankle injury.

Now, on a short week, it’s not the worst thing for these guys to get some rest. However, that also means on a short week that some of these guys may not have enough time to get the rest needed to be able to play on Thursday. We saw Feiler struggle at the end with an apparent knee injury but he stayed in the game. The same can be said for Mayfield who was shown on the sidelines trying to get his knee to feel better.

The most concerning is Vea. This is the third different injury Vea has had show up on an injury report this season. Early on it was a pec, last week it was the foot, now he’s dealing with a groin injury.

For the Bills, they will certainly be without tight end Dawson Knox who is undergoing surgery to repair his wrist. They also had plenty of players that were listed as “Limited Participant” and “Did Not Participate” Monday following their loss to the New England Patriots. Limited were Vonn Miller (knee), Ed Oliver (toe), and Jordan Phillips (back) while Knox, Quintin Morris (ankle), and Baylon Spector (hamstring) were DNP.

You can view the entire injury report below;

The Bucs and Bills face off on Thursday Night at 8:15 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime with Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit on the call.

For more on this and all things Tampa Bay Bucs check out James Yarcho and David Harrison on the Locked On Bucs Podcast!