Bucs cut Bazelak, but the backup QB job stays open
Tampa Bay waived Connor Bazelak on cutdown day, leaving undrafted rookie Jalon Daniels as Baker Mayfield's only healthy alternative — but after a rough finale, Todd Bowles still won't call the job his.
Bucs cut Bazelak, and Daniels inherits the job by elimination
Tampa Bay opened its cutdown to 53 on Saturday, and the most consequential name on the list wasn't a lineman or a linebacker — it was Connor Bazelak, last year's No. 3 quarterback, waived after four total snaps across the final two exhibitions, per Greg Auman of Fox Sports. That leaves undrafted rookie Jalon Daniels as the only healthy quarterback left behind Baker Mayfield on the roster, the same Daniels who started Friday's preseason finale in Jacksonville with a chance to lock down the job outright, as ProFootballTalk had flagged going in.
Jalon Daniels will start tonight for Bucs with chance to secure No. 2 QB job. t.co/TStlLHeKcG
He didn't lock it down. Daniels finished 8-for-15 for 57 yards with no touchdowns and lost a fumble on a botched shotgun snap in the 19-0 loss, and Todd Bowles was pointedly unwilling to hand him the title afterward. "It wasn't very good offensively tonight," Bowles said, adding that the staff still needs to "go back and evaluate the film," per JoeBucsFan.com. Bowles did note the operation around Daniels — a backup line and receiving corps fighting for their own roster spots — made the tape harder to read cleanly.
So the job may end up Daniels' by default as much as by winning it: with Bazelak gone, there's simply no one else standing behind Mayfield. Bowles said the team wants to see Daniels "against the twos as opposed to the threes and fours" before it's comfortable calling anything settled, which reads less like doubt in the kid and more like a coach who hasn't gotten the look he wanted yet.
Last time out: shut out in the finale
Tampa Bay closed the preseason at 2-1 with a 19-0 loss in Jacksonville on August 28 — the one game of the three where the offense never found the end zone. Daniels' shaky final line matched the scoreboard, and the ground game fared no better: Sean Tucker, running with the third-string backfield, carried five times for 15 yards and turned his only target into a loss of a yard.
Jaguars0-19
Chiefs16-15
Jets24-16The receiving numbers told the same story. Tez Johnson caught just one of three targets for nine yards, typical of a finale played mostly by players fighting for the bottom of the 53. The two wins that bookend it — 24-16 at the Jets on August 14 and a 16-15 escape at home over the Chiefs on August 22 — were the more instructive tape; Friday was about which names survive Saturday's roster cuts, not how the real offense will look in September.
Hayes headed to IR, but the receiver news trends up
Cornerback Josh Hayes had a knee procedure Saturday that will sideline him for the start of the regular season, Auman reports — a real loss for a special-teams regular who was also chasing a backup corner job. The silver lining is down the depth chart: Hayes being out, Auman notes, "makes it all the more likely that rookie corner Ayden Garnes sticks on the Bucs' initial 53," and helps veteran Pepe Williams' chances too. Linebacker Mohamed Kamara and corner Keionte Scott both picked up injuries in Friday's finale as well, per Jenna Laine of ESPN.com.
Bucs corner Josh Hayes, a regular on special teams and competing for a backup spot, had a minor procedure on his knee that will sideline him for the start of the season. Logical candidate to go on injured reserve, which would mean missing at least the first four games.
The better news sits at receiver. Bowles said Saturday he expects Jalen McMillan (knee) to be ready for the September 13 opener at Cincinnati, and that Emeka Egbuka (toe) will "hopefully" be good to go too, both per Auman. Getting both young receivers back for Week 1 matters far more than anything that happened in a scoreless exhibition finale — that's the group Mayfield, and whoever ends up holding the clipboard behind him, will actually need throwing to once games count.
Up next: Burrow, Chase and a retooled Bengals defense in Cincinnati
Tampa Bay opens the regular season Sunday afternoon in Cincinnati against a Bengals team that finished 6-11 a year ago only because Joe Burrow missed nine games with a toe injury — when he played, he posted a 100.7 passer rating, and the offense around him, Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, is fully back. Cincinnati went a perfect 3-0 in its own preseason and spent the offseason rebuilding a defense that finished last in the league against the run, adding edge rusher Boye Mafe, safety Bryan Cook and a trade for defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence, even as it lost Trey Hendrickson to Baltimore.
The line opened with Cincinnati favored by 3.5 points and the total set at 51.5, a number that reads high-scoring in a building where Burrow's offense led the NFL in passing yards and completions as recently as 2024. Tampa Bay will travel in as an underdog, but this is the same roster that just spent a week deciding who its own backup quarterback is — the answers to both questions start to matter for real on September 13 at Paycor Stadium.