The Bucs made it out of their first preseason game mostly unscathed by injury. The one player who did go down due to injury was rookie guard Sadarius Hutcherson. After the game, coach Bruce Arians said it looked like a possible MCL sprain but wouldn’t know until the next day. According to Greg Auman of The Athletic it appears the undrafted free agent will be placed on injured reserve after tearing his ACL.
Tough break for Bucs rookie guard Sadarius Hutcherson, who tore his ACL in Saturday’s game and will go on injured reserve. Undrafted rookie from South Carolina was competing for a backup job.
— Greg Auman (@gregauman) August 16, 2021
When asked on Monday about his status, Arians said that Hutcherson was having a really good camp and that they’ll look at the severity of it but it doesn’t look good. He also added they would be bringing in another offensive lineman with injuries starting to pile up.
“He was having a good camp, it’s a shame he injured his knee,” Arians said. “We’ll see how bad it is. It looks like it could be severe, but he was having a good camp.”
Hutcherson signed with the Bucs at the conclusion of the draft out of South Carolina, receiving one of the largest guarantees as an undrafted free agent. The rookie guard was competing for a backup role with the team and saw time with the second unit throughout camp. Hutcherson looked good in the 13 snaps he played in against the Bengals before injuring his knee. He’ll go on the season long injured reserve list with the hopes of coming back next year to try and earn a spot on the roster.