Bucs general manager Jason Licht made a big announcement Saturday night, joining the WFLA broadcast of the team’s preseason finale to tell Chris Myers and Ronde Barber that center Ryan Jensen is headed to injured reserve and will miss the 2023 season.

“Well first of all, Ryan is one of the best lineman in franchise history,” Licht said. “He’s one of the best signings we’ve had. It’s going to be hard to replicate or clone him and we can only hope to come close, but we’re going to put him on IR. He’s going to be done for the year.

“But he’s going to be with us all year. He wants to help the o-line. He’s very excited about this team, the o-line. He’s taken a particular interest in Cody Mauch, another red head. Turns out I have a type. I’ve always liked gingers. The selflessness, the toughness, the leadership that he has is second to none. We talked a couple of weeks ago about this, so we just waited a little bit here. It was an emotional moment for me, for Todd, for him and everybody involved. But it’s for the best for him.”

Jensen suffered a major knee injury on the second day of training camp last August and went on to miss the entire regular season. His status was something of a mystery, as Bucs head coach Todd Bowles didn’t say much about his center and wouldn’t go into detail about the injury he suffered.

The 2021 Pro Bowler ultimately made it back way ahead of schedule, returning to action in Tampa Bay’s Wild Card loss to Dallas in January. It was Tom Brady’s final career game and unfortunately, it may have also been Ryan Jensen’s.

Ryan Jensen Never Fully Made It Back After 2022 Knee Injury

Bucs C Ryan Jensen – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Ryan Jensen finally revealed the extent of his injury after the loss to the Cowboys, saying he tore his ACL, MCL and PCL in addition to flipping his meniscus and suffering a fracture “and another little bone chip.” He also clarified that he didn’t have surgery on his knee and instead let it heal on its own.

Jensen elaborated on the decision to forgo surgery during training camp last month, saying that he was feeling good and ready to go as Bucs were beginning to prepare for their exhibition opener against the Steelers.

“Like I had mentioned before, I had five separate opinions and I ended up going with Dr. Shelbourne, who thought that it was gonna be better for me not to have an operation done,” Jensen said. “And [I] went that route, so [I’m] feeling good, ligaments are healthy and healed and I’m just ready to keep rolling.”

Ultimately, though, things never appeared to be right with Jensen. He said he and the team’s trainers had a plan on how to handle his workload throughout this year’s training camp. That plan seemed to involve practicing every other day, though even in those early days of camp, he was only participating in individual drills. He only had one practice in which he lightly participated in 1-on-1 drills, and he never returned to full team drills.

He predictably missed Tampa Bay’s preseason opener against Pittsburgh, then he didn’t practice at all before the team left for its joint practices with the New York Jets the following week. He didn’t make the trip up north, and he didn’t return to practice ahead of the Bucs’ preseason finale on Saturday against the Ravens. Despite all of this, Todd Bowles remained tight-lipped about the situation, referring to everything as “status quo” whenever asked about his starting center.

But with the season so close and Robert Hainsey taking all of the first-team reps at center, it was becoming increasingly clear that the team didn’t plan to have Ryan Jensen to open the year. Now, with Jason Licht making it official Saturday night, we know that the Bucs will not have him on the field at all in 2023 – and it’s entirely possible they’ve seen the last of him playing center in red and pewter.