The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are just 1 win away from clinching an NFC playoff berth and it all comes down to their Week 18 regular season finale against the New Orleans Saints — the most important game of the year.
Even with those high stakes, the game itself was put on the back burner on Saturday morning when starting safety Jordan Whitehead sustained serious enough injuries in a car accident on the way to the team’s facilities that resulted in him being put on the non-football injury list.
From the Buccaneers’ official X account on January 4: “Jordan Whitehead was involved in an auto accident this morning on his way to our practice facility. Due to injuries sustained in the accident, he will not play in Sunday’s game against the New Orleans Saints and has been placed on the Reserve/Non-Football Injury (NFI) list. We have signed Ryan Neal from our practice squad to the 53-man roster.”
It’s unclear whether Whitehead would be able to return for a possible playoff run.
Whitehead has already returned from what was once thought to be a season-ending injury to his pectoral muscle suffered in a win over the New York Giants on November 24. He missed 4 games but returned to play in the Buccaneers’ in Week 17, when he had 3 tackles in a 48-14 win over the Carolina Panthers.
Whitehead signed a 2-year, $9 million contract with the Buccaneers in March 2024 and is in his second stint with the team, having previously played for Tampa Bay from 2018 to 2021. Whitehead is second on the team with 79 tackles in 12 games.
Bucs Welcomed Whitehead Back From Jets
Whitehead starred in college for the University of Pittsburgh, where he was the ACC Rookie of the Year in 2015 and was a 2-time All-ACC pick before the Buccaneers selected him in the fourth round (No. 117 overall) of the 2018 NFL draft.
Whitehead made 11 starts and played in 15 games as a rookie, then started every game he played in for the next 3 seasons, including all 16 games in the Buccaneers’ Super Bowl-winning season in 2020, when he had 74 tackles, 2 interceptions, 9 TFL, 1 forced fumble and 1 fumble recovery.
In the 2020 playoffs, Whitehead was also great, making 4 starts and finishing with 9 tackles and 2 forced fumbles, including a forced fumble recovered by teammate Devin White in the NFC Championship Game against the Green Bay Packers.
The Buccaneers let Whitehead go in free agency in 2022, when he signed a 2-year, $14.5 million contract with the New York Jets, where he started 34 consecutive games over 2022 and 2023 and had 6 interceptions, including a career-high 4 interceptions in 2022.
Neal Started 13 Games for Buccaneers in 2023
Neal is a 7-year veteran who broke into the NFL with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2018 after going undrafted out of Southern Illinois and had the best year of his career with the Buccaneers in 2023, when he started 13 games and had 76 tackles.
Neal has also played for the Atlanta Falcons and the Seattle Seahawks, where he spent 4 seasons from 2019 to 2022.
The Buccaneers brought Neal back and signed him to the practice squad on December 4. He’s only played in 1 game this season, with 3 tackles in a 40-17 win over the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 15.
Comments
Buccaneers Address Scary Incident Involving $9 Million Safety