The Buccaneers breathed a sigh of relief this week when the MRI on the injured knee defensive tackle Vita Vea, the team’s first-round draft pick, came back negative. Vea injured his knee on the first play of the fourth quarter in last week’s 37-34 loss at Cincinnati, but did not come out of the game.

Bucs head Dirk Koetter said he was pleasantly surprised by the outcome of Vea’s MRI.

“It happened on the first play of the fourth quarter,” Koetter said. “There was some concern about it and Vita had an MRI this morning and it came back [negative]. The first MRI in history to come back with positive news. He did not have the injury that they feared he might have had. We’ll see how he is on Wednesday, but he was moving around pretty good when I saw him today and it was positive news.”

Vea discussed his knee injury on Wednesday, saying he’s actually not injured at all.

“I don’t know what happened there, but I’m fine,” Vea said. “Nothing is wrong with me. I’m fine. I’m totally 100 percent.

“I knew I was fine. I knew nothing was wrong. I think the doctors were just being cautious about it. I’m 100 percent.”

Vea said he expects to play on Sunday at Carolina, and if defensive tackle Gerald McCoy can’t go, Vea will continue to start at the three-technique defensive tackle spot.

In other injury-related news, Bucs defensive end Vinny Curry was seen in the locker room walking around without a hard cast or a walking boot, which is a good sign as he recovers from his high ankle sprain.

And the departure of newly signed linebacker Kevin Minter on Tuesday likely means that second-year linebacker Kendell Beckwith will be practicing with the team this week since suffering a broken ankle in the offseason. Beckwith has been on the non-football injury list all season and missed all of the OTAs and training camp.