The Buccaneers veterans reported to camp on Thursday and one of them brought an injury along.
Left tackle Donald Penn told the Bucs a few days ago that he hurt his calf while preparing for camp. Coach Greg Schiano made the announcement Thursday and said that the team expects to be without Penn for a while while he recovers.
“Donald Penn has a strained calf. He informed me a while back and we got him back a little early to undergo treatment,” Schiano said, via OneBucSite.com. “How long he’ll be out? Maybe a couple of weeks.”
If Penn is only out two weeks, the Bucs should be fine starting Penn in Week One. If things linger longer than that, though, they may have to look for more reliable backup options than they have in Jamon Meredith and Demar Dotson.
Penn is trying to rebound from a subpar 2011 season that included a losing battle with his weight. Penn has several weight checks over the course of the season and word out of Tampa is that his attempts to make his limit of 330 pounds left him weak when it came time to play in games.