It didn’t take long before the Bucs were looking thin in the secondary during Thursday night’s 31-29 win. Safety Jordan Whitehead was inactive, and Sean Murphy-Bunting exited in the first quarter with a dislocated elbow.

Will the Bucs be missing two of their starting defensive backs next week against Atlanta? On Friday, Bruce Arians provided an update on Whitehead.

Bucs S Jordan Whitehead – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“He’s looking really, really good,” Arians said. “It’s about 90 percent right now. Hopefully we can get him back with these three more days and have him practicing next week.”

Whitehead missed most of training camp with a hamstring injury, after finally returning from offseason shoulder surgery and a bout with COVID. Originally, there was hope that he could be ready for the opener, but Whitehead looks to be on track to return for Week 2 at home against the Falcons.

The outlook for Murphy-Bunting looked grim after his injury, but the Bucs may have lucked out that he won’t be done for the season.

“We’re hopefully waiting for some good news, but we don’t have it yet,” Arians said. “The X-rays came back negative at the stadium, but he did dislocate it. We’ve just got to wait and see now. Really have nothing to report time-wise yet. We’ve got our fingers crossed.”

Ross Cockrell filled in for Murphy-Bunting on Thursday, but was beaten by Amari Cooper for a touchdown. If Whitehead were to return next week, the Bucs could implement a lineup where Whitehead and Antoine Winfield Jr. are back at safety, and fellow safety Mike Edwards shifts over to play the nickel position. Look for more on that possible personnel deployment next week at PewterReport.com.