The Bucs players who have been ruled out for their Week 15 game against the Los Angeles Chargers do not come as much of a surprise. Following a Friday practice, head coach Todd Bowles spoke with the media and said that safeties Antoine Winfield Jr. and Mike Edwards along with inside linebacker K.J. Britt are all out for Sunday. Fellow safety Christian Izien and fan favorite Bucky Irving will test it out before the game to see if they can go and are listed as questionable.

It was known that Winfield was going to be out for several weeks, so mentally the team has already adjusted to playing without him. Bowles also said earlier in the week that Britt “wouldn’t be” ready to play. Really the only player in question was Edwards, but he wasn’t seen at practice each day either. This is the second game in a row that Britt and Edwards are missing after being out for Tampa Bay’s Week 14 win.

Bucs Are Very Thin At Safety

Bucs DB Tykee Smith – Photo by: USA Today

With Winfield and Edwards out, Jordan Whitehead still on injured reserve and Izien questionable, the Bucs don’t have many answers at safety. Luckily Tykee Smith is available, and he’s coming off of a game where he had an interception. Without question, Smith has been their best safety this year, and an argument can be made that he’s been the best defensive back.

Smith has been credited many times by Bowles for having the football IQ of a veteran despite being a rookie. He’s played the nickel corner spot all season and long and that doesn’t seem like it’s going to differ even with the lack of personnel.

“It’s probably too much to put on his plate right now,” Bowles said when answering if Smith could play a dual-role of nickel and regular safety. “We’ll try to give him what he can handle. He’s a good football player.”

Bucs S Christian Izien, CB Zyon McCollum – Photo by: USA Today

If Izien is available, that answers a lot of the problems that the Bucs will have because he and Kaevon Merriweather can play free and strong safety. They also have Tavierre Thomas, who can play a little of everywhere on defense. This more than likely means that the Bucs are either going to elevate safeties Marcus Banks, Rashad Wisdom or Ryan Neal and could potentially take two of them.

Banks and Wisdom are rookies while Neal, who was recently signed by Tampa Bay to the practice squad, was on the Bucs last season and struggled heavily, much to the chagrin of Bucs fans.

The silver lining for the Bucs is that that their opponent in the Chargers are much more of a ground and pound physical team that would much rather run the ball than air it out. They may not be able to exploit this weakness of the Bucs like other teams could. Either way it’ll be a big time test for Tampa Bay as they continue their playoff push with the remaining four games.