TAMPA — The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are planning extended road trips for two of their three preseason games this summer, with Head Coach Todd Bowles confirming the team has agreed to joint practices with the New York Jets and is working to finalize a similar arrangement with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Bucs will play road games against the Jets in Week One and the Jaguars in Week Three of the preseason, with a home contest against the Kansas City Chiefs in between. Bowles, speaking after the team’s first OTA session, said the Jets sessions are set while the Jacksonville arrangement is still being finalized.
“We lined it up with the Jets and we’re in the process of trying to line it up with the Jaguars, as well,” Bowles said. “We’ll probably just play Kansas City.”
There are not currently plans to hold any joint sessions at the Bucs’ headquarters this summer. The Bucs held joint practices with the Jets in August 2023 and with the Jaguars in 2024, extending their stays in both cities for several days ahead of Week Two preseason games. In 2023, the Jets — then coached by Robert Saleh — called off the second shared session, forcing the Bucs to move their practice to the New York Giants’ complex.
The team also signed second-round draft pick Josiah Trotter, giving Tampa Bay a full roster of 91 players under contract as training camp approaches. NFL teams are allowed to carry 90 players during the offseason and through preseason before the cutdown to 53 for the regular season. The 91st player is German tackle Paul Rubelt, who carries a roster exemption as a product of the International Player Pathway program. The current roster breaks down to 42 offensive players, 44 defensive players and five specialists — nearly identical to last year’s 41-44-5 split.
The biggest roster gap is at running back, where the Bucs currently carry only four — fewer than the five or more they have taken into camp in each of the past four years. The team is heavier at offensive line with 16 players and outside linebacker with nine.
Meanwhile, new special teams coordinator Danny Smith — hired in January after 13 seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers and entering his 30th season running an NFL special teams unit — signaled a philosophical shift on kickoffs. After the NFL’s 2025 rule change moved touchbacks to the 35-yard line, the league-wide return rate more than doubled from 34.7% in 2024 to 75.9%. The Bucs, however, went the opposite direction late last season, kicking 17 of 18 kickoffs into the end zone over their final four games.
“The 35-yard line was the best starting point in the National Football League a year ago,” Smith said. “So if you’re kicking it out of the end zone and just giving it to them on the 35, you’re giving them the best field position in the league.”
Smith’s numbers back up his preference for coverage over touchbacks. The New York Jets led the NFL last season with an average kickoff drive start at their own 34.6-yard line. Smith’s Steelers were fifth-best defensively at 29.0; the Bucs ranked 30th at 32.8. Smith acknowledged limited exceptions — a dangerous returner, a late-game lead — but made his default position clear.
“I like to kick and cover and I think we’ll be capable of doing that,” Smith said.
The Bucs’ preseason schedule opens with the road game against the Jets, with the full NFL schedule having dropped May 15.