Buccaneers
Buccaneers WR Jalen McMillan fractured three vertebrae in his neck after landing on his head during a preseason game. He was able to make a brief return at the end of last season, but more will be expected of the former third-round pick now that WR Mike Evans has left town.
“I am happy,” McMillan said last week, via Matt Matera of Pewter Report. “Just to be out there and to catch balls from Baker [Mayfield] and just to run on my feet, I feel good. . . . I am definitely taking appreciation for the small things and celebrating small wins and call my mom and dad every day. I am not taking any relationship for granted, so life has been good. I had to sit in my bed and wonder, ‘Is my neck going to heal correctly?’ So, as soon as I was given the opportunity to play again, I knew that I could not look back and there was no time to be nervous and no time to be thinking about anything.”
“Jalen’s tough. His mental toughness is unbelievable,” HC Todd Bowles noted. “His competitiveness, the way he attacks the ball, the way he fights for every route and tries to get open and wants to be ‘that guy,’ you know, that gives you a lot of confidence that he’ll be doing that in the games.”
Buccaneers
The Buccaneers landed WR Ted Hurst in the third round of the 2026 NFL Draft. Tampa Bay OC Zac Robinson said they were looking for someone who simimarities to WR Mike Evans after the veteran departed for the 49ers.
“You’re looking for some of those skill sets that have similarities [to Evans],” Robinson said, via Jenna Laine of ESPN. “He can run, he’s got great hands, he’s an instinctual player, but … he’s going to have a long way to go. But there’s so many things I like about Ted and just being with him throughout rookie minicamp — really smart, really intentional. He did a great job handling all the information over a short amount of time.”
Buccaneers WRs coach Bryan McLendon said Hurst provides a rare combination of size, speed, and quickness.
“Ted has that rare size, speed, quickness — that combination that you have right there, kind of wrapped up into one body that everyone kind of looks for,” McLendon said. “And when you started evaluating all of those receivers, he was one of those guys where it was like, we kind of had a range where we could have drafted a receiver, and it was like, ‘OK let’s just kind of evaluate him, not really anticipating him being there in that range.”
McLendon said he was excited to see Hurst still available at No. 84 overall during the draft.
“I [was] getting more and more excited, it looked like he was gonna be there — it was at the top end of that range that we were going to potentially be able to do something with him, and it all just worked out to where we were able to get him,” McLendon said.
Panthers
Panthers LB Devin Lloyd was one of the most sought-after free agents this past offseason after a big season in Jacksonville, and spoke to the team reporters about what it’s been like making the jump to Carolina this offseason.
“It’s a day-to-day process,” Lloyd said Tuesday, via the team website. “I think everybody just has to get a feel for each other, and trust is built over time — my trust in them, their trusting me. It’s just a process, and it takes time. I think ultimately it’s just being your authentic self and not being anybody that you’re not. And over time, we just get a feel for each other. But it’s been great, like everybody in the locker room, even coaches, just everybody that I’ve come in contact with has been just super genuine, very welcoming. They took me in like their own, and that was a quick process.”
“Just the conversations with them, it’s just a lot of optimism and excitement,” Lloyd continued. “I mean, we have so much talent on this defense and really the team, but specifically, for the defense, we’ve got so much talent. So yeah, it’s all been positive talk, but at the end of the day, talk is cheap; it’s about what we do at practice and how we continue to get better every day, and then ultimately what we do on game day. So today was a great start. I think we had a great practice, and it was a step in the right direction. We’ve got to just continue to build off today.”
“Anything you could ask a linebacker to do, I take pride in being able to do it at a high level,” Lloyd said. “In this game, they ask the linebackers — obviously we have a really, really stout D line — to make plays in the run game and then obviously in the pass game, that’s a big emphasis, for this defense. At the end of the day, football’s football. I wouldn’t even say scheme to scheme is anything different, but for me, it’s showing coach that, hey, I can do anything. I can blitz. I can cover whatever position you ask me to do. Put me in it, and I’ll make the play. It’s just winning whenever my number’s called and the more you do that, the more he’ll call your number.”
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