The Buccaneers will be without both of their starting defensive ends this weekend.
They placed Adrian Clayborn on injured reserve on Monday morning and they ruled Michael Johnson out on Friday afternoon. Johnson injured his ankle in the season-opening loss to the Panthers and things haven’t healed up enough for him to take the field this weekend.
That will leave the Bucs to go with some combination of William Gholston, Da’Quan Bowers, Larry English, Jacquies Smith and Scott Solomon. Gholston and Bowers are both listed as questionable with injuries of their own and didn’t play last week while English and Smith both joined the team this week, although English did spend training camp in Tampa.
It’s not an ideal situation, although it would feel far more daunting if they weren’t facing a Rams team that will be quarterbacked by either a gimpy Shaun Hill or Austin Davis making the first start of his career.