Connor Bazelak is in line to start Friday night if Jake Browning cannot play, leaving the Bucs with a quarterback question that was not supposed to be there this late in the week. Browning tweaked his back in a non-contact drill yesterday, and he was not seen today at the Jets' facility.
That is why the injury is drawing so much attention now. The Bucs are headed into their first preseason game, and Todd Bowles said after practice Thursday that it is possible Browning will still play against the Jets. At the same time, Bowles made clear that Baker Mayfield will not play, which puts the quarterback reps in a narrow lane if Browning is held out.
Tony Castricone described Browning as having simply “tweaked” his back and said, “It does not seem like there is great concern that what happened to Jake is going to be a long-term thing.” That lines up with the broader read on Browning’s camp, where he had been having a solid run after a shaky stretch in OTAs this spring.
The uncertainty, though, is not about the season. It is about Friday night. If Browning cannot go, Bazelak starts. If he does play, the workload can shift again, and Jalon Daniels is expected to get a lot of snaps if Mayfield does not play and Browning cannot go. That would turn the game into a larger look at the depth chart than the Bucs likely wanted in their opener.
There is one more wrinkle. The Bucs had hoped to keep Daniels quiet and try to sneak him through waivers next month, but that plan looks much harder if he gets on the field in front of the media. So the real question is not whether Browning’s back issue sounds serious. It is whether the Bucs know enough by Friday night to keep the quarterback plan from changing again.
