The Buccaneers elevated Easton Stick from the practice squad for Thursday night’s game against the Cowboys, making him eligible to suit up and serve as the backup quarterback. It is the second time the team has brought him up this season.
The move comes with Baker Mayfield out after dislocating his right thumb against the Vikings in Week 3, leaving Jalon Daniels set to make his second NFL start in his place. That is the reason Stick matters now: the Buccaneers needed a quarterback on the game-day roster who could step in behind Daniels if the night turns in that direction.
Stick gives them more than a placeholder. He signed with the Buccaneers’ practice squad on Aug. 31 and has prior NFL experience, including six games and four starts. In those appearances, he completed 111 of 174 passes for 1,129 yards, with three touchdowns, one interception and an 85.7 passer rating. He was also a fifth-round pick by the Chargers in 2019, which explains why the team can trust him to handle the backup role on short notice.
There is also a reason this elevation is not being treated like a cold-start emergency. Stick and Zac Robinson were together last season in Atlanta, so he is not walking into a system he has never seen before. That familiarity can matter when the job is limited, the clock is tight and the margin for mistakes is thin.
Still, the setup is narrower than it looks. Stick is back on a game-day roster, but only as insurance behind Daniels while Mayfield remains unavailable, and the source of that need is still the same injury from Week 3. The open question is whether this becomes a one-night solution or another sign that the Buccaneers may keep leaning on Stick whenever they need a ready quarterback who already knows the system.
J.J. Roberts was also elevated from the practice squad for Thursday night, his first elevation, after joining the Buccaneers as an undrafted free agent out of Marshall in 2025. For now, though, the spotlight stays on Stick, because the roster move tells the story plainly: he is back, he is eligible, and he is next in line if Thursday night gets complicated.
