After a hip injury in the middle of the Bucs win over the Falcons caused Jaydon Mickens to miss the rest of the game, the Bucs’ return game could be in flux on Sunday.

Mickens did not practice on Wednesday and head coach Bruce Arians said that he’s day-to-day moving forward. Replacing him on punt return was Antonio Brown in Week 2. But with Brown’s addition to the COVID list on Wednesday, his Week 3 availability is in doubt.

The Bucs had Tyler Johnson and Scotty Miller back deep on kick returns after Mickens’ exited on Sunday. Miller had one return opportunity for 19 yards. Arians named Miller as one of three options that the Bucs could go with on Sunday if Mickens can’t play. The other two choices are players that we haven’t seen return a kick during a regular season game in a Bucs uniform.

Bucs WR-PR Jaelon Darden – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“We’ll look. We got three guys,” Arians said. “Jaelon (Darden), Antoine Winfield Jr., Scotty (Miller). Scotty looked good when he caught the kickoff and took it around the edge. We’ve got capable guys and we’ll wait and see how it goes.”

Darden has been inactive for the first two games of his rookie season. He got a lot of chances during the preseason on punt and kick return, coming away with below average results. With that said, he is one of the fastest players on the team, has a nose for the end zone and is the odds-on favorite to be the eventual successor to Mickens as the Bucs main returner down the road.

Winfield comes as a bit of a surprise, because we haven’t seen him return a punt or kickoff since joining the Bucs. Arians mentioned in the past that he could be a backup return man in cases such as this, but with Johnson already back there and Darden now on the team, it’s surprising.

Dating back to his college days at Minnesota, Winfield has three career punt returns, which all came during his sophomore year. They ended with pretty good results however, as he averaged 36.7 yards per return.

The Bucs return game has been a pleasant surprise early in the season. Mickens has recorded 116 yards on kickoffs, averaging 29 yards per kick return on four attempts with a long of 41. He’s also averaged 10.5 yards per attempt in his two punt returns, going for 21 yards overall.

Arians will have a solid number of returner options for Week 3. But can they follow in Mickens’ mistake-free ways?