Christian Rozeboom was active for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ season opener against the Bengals on Sunday morning, a sign that his foot injury had not kept him out of the first game. The Buccaneers had to trim their roster to the game-day limit before kickoff, and Rozeboom made the cut.
That is why searches for where to watch Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs Bengals are coming with roster news attached. The teams submitted their inactive lists at 11:30 a.m. ET on Sunday, about 90 minutes before kickoff at Paycor Stadium, and the Buccaneers had 55 available players before naming seven inactives.
Rozeboom had been limited in recent weeks by the foot injury, but being limited is not the same as being ruled out. In practice, it means a player can still be available if he is judged able to handle game-day work, and that is what happened here. His status mattered because the Buccaneers were forced to make hard choices after practice-squad elevations brought the roster down to the 48-player limit.
The final inactive list showed how tight those choices were. Jalen McMillan, Justin Skule and Sean Tucker were inactive for Tampa Bay, even though Rozeboom was available, and the friction was similar on the other side. The Bengals elevated Joe Giles-Harris and Tanner Hudson from their practice squad, named Shemar Stewart inactive and cleared D.J. Turner to play against the Buccaneers.
That combination tells the story of Week One better than any pregame label could. Both teams had to work through roster math before the season opener, and the Buccaneers’ decision to keep Rozeboom active gives them one more available player in a game where every spot counts. What is still unanswered is how much the linebacker will actually be asked to do after missing time in recent weeks, but for Sunday’s opener, the answer that mattered was already clear: he was in.
