When Bucs head coach Todd Bowles said that the "door wasn't closed" on a return for defensive tackle Desmond Watson, he wasn't kidding. The Bucs are signing the former Florida Gator to the practice squad, per Greg Auman of Fox Sports. It was a big storyline all of training camp with Watson not practicing, but he may finally get that opportunity coming back to Tampa.

Desmond Watson Is Back On The Bucs

The team had worked out Watson last week and later on came to the decision to sign him.  Watson had signed with the team as an undrafted free agent following the draft and participated in rookie mini-camp. But once training camp came around, Watson did not reach certain weight limits and the team put him on the NFI (non-football illness) list.

Bucs DT Desmond Watson – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

He would workout individually he never practiced with the team for the entirety of training camp. It was an ongoing storyline about whether he would ever put on the helmet and shoulder pads and practice, let alone play in a preseason game.

During Monday's press conference, Bowles commented on Watson's workout and the chances they would sign him. With Tampa Bay playing the Eagles on Sunday, many thought it would be a good idea to have Watson in to help stop the vaunted "tush push" that the Eagles have made polarizing. But Bowles insisted they wouldn't bring in a player just to stop one play.

"He had a good workout," Bowles said. "We'll see where he is for signing him from that standpoint, but we'll never bring him in just to stop a tush push. If we've got to bring in a guy to stop one play and the tush push never comes up, you're wasting your time. If we bring him in, we think he can play, not just for a Philadelphia thing. It's very unlikely he'd be ready to play, once we bring him in, for Philadelphia right now anyway. It's just a matter of us making room and seeing if we have a place for him, and then what we see for him in the future."

Bucs DT Room

Tampa Bay lost defensive tackle Calijah Kancey for the season with a torn pectoral muscle. Not long after they signed Elijah Simmons off the Cardinals practice squad to the active roster and he played a couple of snaps last game. While Vita Vea picked up most of the slack with Kancey out, it was rookie Elijah Roberts that really stepped up and played a lot more snaps than he had before in Sunday's win.

Bucs DT Vita Vea and HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: USA Today

Greg Gaines took a lot of snaps as well, but Logan Hall injured his groin in the game and his status is uncertain for Sunday against the Eagles. The Bucs also have several options with players on the practice squad, including C.J. Brewer, Nash Hutmacher, Jayson Jones and Adam Gotsis. Only Gotsis has been called up for a game this season, and that was in Week 1, so he still has two more games available for elevation. The rest of the defensive tackles have all three games of eligibility ready to go.

Watson gets added into the mix, but it was still be surprising if  he ended up being a practice squad elevation after literally not playing or practicing in months. It evidently shows that the organization believes in Watson if he can get into playing shape to help out the team.