Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs Los Angeles Rams: Initial Divisional Round injury report

Questions surrounding Tristan Wirfs headlines the Bucs’ injury news this week

The injury suffered by right tackle Tristan Wirfs is more than enough to give Buccaneers fans reason to worry ahead of their Divisional Round matchup with the Los Angeles Rams. On top of that, Ryan Jensen is also dealing with an injury suffered in the Wild Card round, meaning two of Tampa Bay’s three Pro Bowl offensive linemen are in question against the Rams’ vaunted pass rush.

Though Jensen was at walkthroughs on Wednesday, he was listed as “Did Not Participate” while Wirfs was not spotted on the practice field during media availability.

Those weren’t the only two that were listed as “Did Not Participate” however. Cyril Grayson (hamstring), Ronald Jones (ankle), Sean Murphy-Bunting (hamstring), Jason Pierre-Paul (rest), and Breshad Perriman (hip) were all also part of that group.

Limited participants included Gio Bernard (hip/knee), Lavonte David (foot), and Josh Wells (quad).

One name not listed is that of Leonard Fournette. Fournette is still considered to be on the injured reserve list with a designation to return but has not officially been elevated to the 53-man roster. However, Fournette seems to believe he will be ready to go on Sunday and tweeted as much as part of a thank you tweet for birthday wishes on Tuesday;

No question that with the offense as beaten and injured as it is, Playoff Lenny and the duel threat he provides would be a big boost for this Buccaneers offense against the Rams on Sunday if he does return. There was optimism he was going to return last week but wasn’t elevated ahead of the deadline. This time around, it seems that at least he is ready to go – but he’ll have to be cleared first.

The Rams didn’t have nearly the list of injuries the Bucs did with only three players listed as “Did Not Participate” but a name to keep an eye on is Andrew Whitworth who was one of those listed as a DNP with a knee injury. His availability is crucial to the Rams’ success.

You can check out the full injury report below;

The plan, according to Bruce Arians, is that if Tristan Wirfs is unable to go then he will be replaced by Josh Wells. However, with Wells fighting through an injury, there is a chance that guard Alex Cappa will slide to guard while Aaron Stinnie fills in at right guard. Stinnie was the guy that stepped up for the Bucs last season when Cappa was forced out of the playoffs with a broken ankle. Whatever the combination is, they’ll have their hands full against Aaron Donald and Von Miller this Sunday.