Broad receiver Jalen McMillan hasn’t performed for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers since he suffered a grotesque neck damage within the preseason.
As Ashlie Abrahams of Buccaneers Wire/USA In the present day famous on Wednesday, McMillan was seen sporting a neck brace shortly earlier than the membership’s Week 9 bye. Throughout the newest episode of the “Ira Kaufman Podcast,” Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles revealed that McMillan really broke bones in his neck again in August.
Buccaneers nonetheless do not know the way shut Jalen McMillan is to returning
“It’s only a matter of the bones therapeutic the appropriate approach,” Bowles mentioned about McMillan’s restoration. “And people are such tough bones to guage contained in the neck. And I’m not within the medical career, however he’s coming alongside. I believe he’s in good spirits. And I believe he’s getting quite a bit higher, I simply don’t know the way shut.”
Bowles’ replace suggests there’s solely a small likelihood that McMillan will play for Tampa Bay earlier than September 2026 on the earliest. That is powerful information for a workforce that can be with out No. 1 receiver and locker-room chief Mike Evans for the foreseeable future attributable to a damaged clavicle.
Fellow Buccaneers receiver Chris Godwin has performed in solely two video games coming off the dislocated left ankle, excessive ankle sprain, fractured fibula and torn deltoid he suffered in October 2024. Earlier this week, Bowles refused to say whether or not Godwin can be out there for Tampa Bay’s house recreation in opposition to the New England Patriots on Nov. 9.
6-2 New England hosts the Atlanta Falcons (3-4) on Sunday.
Jalen McMillan is coping with “a life factor”
The Buccaneers received six of their first eight video games with out having McMillan within the lineup. Understandably, Bowles’ major concern concerning the 23-year-old’s restoration is not associated to on-the-field issues.
“He’s nonetheless in a brace, however he’s getting higher,” Bowles added about McMillan. “He’s getting higher. However necks usually are not like ankles or arms, the place you see progress — the place you may carry on them and work them out whilst you’re nonetheless in a brace. And you’ll say, ‘Oh, he seems to be good at this time. He’s getting stronger. He’s getting quicker.’ It’s a neck damage. And people, such as you mentioned, it’s a life factor if it doesn’t heal the appropriate approach. So [team doctors] are saying it’s therapeutic the appropriate approach. They’re saying he’s coming alongside. He’s feeling higher. He’s all similes. I don’t know what which means, truthfully. As a result of once more, till he places on a helmet and begins figuring out and every part else, you simply don’t know.”
Simply Thursday morning, ESPN’s Invoice Barnwell advised the Buccaneers need not make a giant transfer for a large receiver earlier than the Nov. 4 commerce deadline. Nonetheless, it appears Bowles believes he will not have McMillan within the lineup anytime quickly.
