Wrong move?
Evan Closky of WTSP-TV Channel 10 isn’t the first person Joe has heard asking aloud why the Bucs had quarterback Teddy Bridgewater running the first team offense Saturday night in Pittsburgh in the Bucs’ second worthless preseason game.
The thought process is Bridgewater was too rusty and didn’t have a rapport with his new receivers and as a result, in theory, he threw a bad pass targeting McMillan that set the second-year receiver up to get hurt.
For Joe, that’s a whole lot of dot connecting.
You can see how Closky lays it out in the video below, how the Bucs could be “culpable” in McMillan’s injury. Joe cannot go there.
The reason Bridgewater played in the first place is because either AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht, head coach Todd Bowles or offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard — or all three — lost faith in Kyle Trask, previously Mayfield’s backup.
One reason Trask has fallen out of favor is that he’s had a bad training camp (Joe has heard this through the grapevine). Certainly, Trask is inconsistent. He may have two good practices and then in his third practice he will fall apart.
In five training camps — (Joe has maybe missed three practices total in those five summers) — Joe can’t recall Trask having three straight good practices.
Trask has been consistently inconsistent.
The way Trask has practiced this summer, he just as easily could have thrown a pass that could have gotten McMillan hurt, just as Bridgewater did.
Joe cannot blame this on Bridgewater. It’s not like he has awful accuracy. Did his touchdown pass to Emeka Egbuka look terrible to you?
Besides, Bridgewater has been around the block. Started in playoff games. He’s not Trask, who has a grand total of 11 pass attempts in his career. Bridgewater has 2,067 attempts to his name.
If people want to try to blame anyone or any thing on McMillan’s injury (should Steelers camp meat corner Daryl Porter be forgiven for undercutting McMillan?) other than it being a freak football injury, how about blaming the NFL itself for even having these worthless games!
The only things these friggin’ preseason games are good for are getting good players hurt. McMillan is just the latest example.
Nothing like having a team’s Super Bowl hopes dented in August, and for what?
This didn’t send before Rays clubhouse opened, so sending it again now!
Here are some thoughts on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Jalen McMillan injury.#WeAreTheKrewe pic.twitter.com/IjryMkPOJX
— Evan Closky (@ECloskyWTSP) August 19, 2025
