The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had some tough roster decisions to make heading into Tuesday’s cut deadline, none more challenging than which wide receivers to keep behind their entrenched top four.
They kept three more on their initial 53-man list, but Tyler Johnson wasn’t one of them.
The 2020 fifth-round pick out of Minnesota was among the team’s final cuts, losing out to Jaelon Darden, Scotty Miller and Breshad Perriman.
After Wednesday’s practice, Bucs head coach Todd Bowles was asked about the decision-making process that led to the team’s most surprising cut.
“That was tough,” Bowles said. “Again, we have a lot of receivers and when you get down to a fifth and sixth receiver – Jaelon [Darden] returns punts and kicks, [and] Tyler [Johnson] was the sixth receiver to dress on Sundays. You’ve got to be able to play special teams and contribute. [He is] a great pass receiver, very good catcher – he can catch the ball – [he’s] a very good player, but no special teams value.”
“Once you get down past the top four and five, you’ve got to have more value then just catching the football because you won’t dress on Sundays,” Bowles continued. “You know, that was a big reason behind it. We felt ‘BP’ (Breshad Perriman) can do a lot of things on special teams, we feel Scotty [Miller] can do some things as well. So that’s what it came down to.”
Johnson had flashed some potential over his two seasons in Tampa Bay, but also struggled with drops and overall consistency. Meanwhile, Darden became the team’s primary return man, while Miller and Perriman were making clutch plays in key moments during big games.
Now, Johnson will get a chance to prove himself as a member of the Houston Texans, the team that claimed him off waivers from the Bucs on Wednesday.
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