The Buccaneers won’t get a chance to prove that they can thrive without coach Bruce Arians.
Arians is back with the team after a brief absence, due to a positive COVID-19 result. The team announced on Saturday that he’ll serve as head coach on Sunday at the Jets. Harold Goodwin would have handled the duties if Arians hadn’t been cleared to return.
Also back is receivers coach Kevin Garver. Both will travel with the team to New Jersey for the Week 17 game.
The team also activated cornerbacks Jamel Dean and Sean Murphy-Bunting from the COVID-19 reserve list. They will not fly with the team Saturday but they possibly will travel separately to New Jersey for the game. This implies that Dean and Murphy-Bunting have not yet received medical clearance to return to full activities.
Arians told Ira Kaufman of JoeBucsFan.com on Thursday that Arians was experiencing mild COVID symptoms, just a runny nose and a cough.