The Tampa Bay Buccaneers returned to the 53-man roster limit on Tuesday when they elevated defensive end/tight end Erik Lorig to the team’s active roster. The Bucs had a roster opening for six days after safety Tanard Jackson was suspended for the season due to violating the NFL’s policy on substance abuse.

Tampa Bay selected Lorig with one of the final picks in the seventh round of the 2010 NFL Draft. Last week the Bucs moved Lorig from defensive end to tight end in practice. Lorig played both positions in college at Stanford. The 6-foot-4, 275-pound Lorig is also a special teams contributor.  Throughout training camp and the preseason Lorig was exclusively a defensive end.

At Stanford as a red-shirt freshman Lorig caught three passes for 21 yards at tight end. Lorig was injured for most of his senior season and finished his Stanford career with six sacks. After he learns the offenses’ playbook, Lorig will now know both the offense and defense.

“I’ll be working on this for awhile,” Lorig said last week about playing tight end. “There wasn’t any indication, just go in do your work and see where we go.

“I’ve had enough time now to really learn the defense, and with the offense we ran something similar to it. I have a general understanding of the lingo and I think I’ll pick it up in a couple of weeks.”

Tampa Bay could make further roster moves during the bye week. Buccaneers head coach Raheem Morris said the team could work out veteran free agent safeties and punters.