The Bucs secondary has been hit harder than any other teams in the league. While corner was an issue early in the season, safety is its latest victim. The team will get some help in the back end though as Tampa announced Friday they have activated corner Richard Sherman off of the injured reserve.

After playing extensive snaps in Week 4 and 5, Sherman suffered a hamstring injury early in their victory over the Eagles Week 6. Sherman then missed the next two games as he worked his way back to health. Unfortunately he then suffered a setback in warm ups before the Bucs game against Washington. Head coach Bruce Arians revealed it was a calf injury this time and he was subsequently placed on injured reserve on November 17.

Sherman had his practice window open on Wednesday and has recently been cross training at safety. The team is thin at the position with Jordan Whitehead sidelined with injury and Mike Edwards currently serving a suspension. Given the teams current issues at the position any contributions will be welcome from the 11-year vet.

While Sherman is available to play it’s not something Arians would like to see happen, especially at safety, but has faith the veteran can answer the call if he has too.

“Yeah, right now he’s scheduled to play,” Arians said. “Hopefully he doesn’t. Yeah, I would hope so. He’s smart, he’s a DB, so it’s not that hard. It’s just making the calls and checks and motions. Hopefully he doesn’t have to play safety in this game.”

The Bucs take on the Buffalo Bills at 4:25pm est on Sunday at Raymond James Stadium.