Based on injuries and team personnel, the Bucs have been forced to play a handful of young players in elevated roles this season. The results have been varied. There have been great outcomes with rookies Bucky Irving at running back, Tykee Smith at nickel and Graham Barton at centers. But, there’s also been performances that have held the Bucs back. Figuring out cornerback between second-year player Josh Hayes and undrafted rookie Tyrek Funderburk has been an issue. Wide receiver has been a problem as well because first and second-year players Jalen McMillan, Trey Palmer and Rakim Jarrett have not emerged just yet.

There’s no easy solution for when players go down or there are no other options at a position. Sometimes you just have to go with what you got and coach them up. The Bucs are running into that issue at the moment. Take for example cornerback. Tampa Bay had good depth going with Jamel Dean, Zyon McCollum and Bryce Hall as their top three.

However, Hall broke his leg in the first game of the season and is out for the year. Dean has been on injured reserve and won’t be back until at least after the bye. That leaves McCollum on one side with fourth and fifth stringers Hayes and Funderburk on the other. Not exactly how the Bucs drew it up.

Bucs Young CBs Can’t Come Up With Play In Big Moment

“You don’t anticipate those things, but they make the team for a reason,” Bucs head coach Todd Bowles answered on the difficulty of putting them in. “Everybody is in the same game plan meetings. You have to mentally prepare if you can’t physically prepare so when you go out there and you get an opportunity, you have to make the best of it. That’s in football, that’s in life.”

During the latest game for Tampa Bay against San Francisco, McCollum exited the game late in the fourth quarter with a hamstring injury. This put Hayes and Funderburk in at corner for the final drive as the 49ers drove far enough down the field with only 40 seconds to go to kick the game-winning field goal.

Bucs CB Josh Hayes – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

There were complaints of Tampa Bay playing too much off the ball, allowing San Francisco to run short out routes to keep going forward and also get out of bounds to stop the clock. Even after the 49ers used their last timeout, the Bucs still played off and allowed them to get closer into field goal range. This made a huge difference as kicker Jake Moody had already been struggling missing three field goals. He connected, but the ball was still sailing to the right, so had he been a couple of yards back, it might have missed again.

This isn’t the first time Todd Bowles has come under scrutiny for playing such soft coverage at the line of scrimmage. But with who was on the field,  Bowles may have felt like he had no other choice.

“It depends on who’s the weakness and who’s the weak spot we’re trying to protect – different guys we try to protect,” Bowles said. “Sometimes it’s outside, sometimes it’s inside, you try to protect them as you go. You’re playing with [Tyrek] Funderburk, you’re playing with Josh [Hayes], you’re playing with a couple of guys that [are] getting their first taste of full-time action so you have to be careful with a lot of things, but we should still be dropping where we need to drop at and that’s not getting across for four quarters.”

He expanded further upon why in zone defense receivers have gotten tons of separation.

“Part of it is because the quarterback has a little bit more time to throw than he normally has,” Bowles said. “And part of it is that we’re not in the right area on the play action.”

Bucs’ WRs Haven’t Showed Up Either

We knew it was going to be tough sledding for the Bucs at wide receiver after Mike Evans and Chris Godwin went out, but I don’t think many have expected it to be this bad. It’s been wide receiver by committee to get the job done between veteran wide receiver Sterling Shepard, second-year wideouts Trey Palmer, Rakim Jarrett and Ryan Miller and rookie Jalen McMillan.

Bucs WR Ryan Miller – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

There’s been brief sparks of moments by the group, such as contributions from Shepard, Palmer and Miller on the game-tying drive on Monday night football against the Chiefs where Miller’s touchdown put them in a position to tie it up.

But take the 49ers game for what it was.

Miller had one catch for 11 yards. Shepard had one catch for seven yards and Jarrett had two catches for 10 yards in the game. Palmer did not record a catch or any receiving yards. Pedestrian is an understatement to their results, and there’s a reason why tight end Cade Otton and the running backs are the focal points in the passing game.

Jalen McMillan was dressed for this game but essentially missed his second game in a row with a hamstring injury and his fourth of the season. His absence is another story itself but the bottom line is that he’s not helping the time either. The Bucs need Mike Evans badly to come back soon.

“It’s a little bit of everything,” Bowles said of the lack of production at receiver. “Any time you lose two All-Pros and you have a guy that’s playing for the first time, really – ‘Shep’ (Sterling Shepard) has played in this league but it’s his first time in the system – ‘J-Mac’ (Jalen McMillan) is a rookie, Trey [Palmer] is [in his] second year, you have Ryan [Miller] coming off the practice squad, so there [are] going to be some chemistry things.

“There is going to be a change in the offense and it’s going to look a bit different. We’ve been throwing the ball pretty [well] lately and had some success – yesterday wasn’t the case. They did a good job slanting down.”