TAMPA, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Buccaneers did more than workout their newest rookies in the past weekend’s minicamp. They also found four new members to join the squad as we move into OTA season and closer to training camp.
On Monday, the Bucs announced they had signed tryout players Jerell Adams (tight end), Antonio Hamilton (cornerback), Troymaine Pope (running back) and Curtis Riley (safety).
Adams joins a Buccaneers tight end group featuring future Hall of Famer Rob Gronkowski, O.J. Howard returning in 2021 from injury, Cameron Brate and Tanner Hudson. Those four figure to be the favorites for landing on the active roster this season, but Adams and Codey McElroy will certainly do their best to make it a competition.
Helping him do so will be five years of NFL experience where he played in 30 total games for the New York Giants, Houston Texans, New Orleans Saints, Baltimore Ravens, and Detroit Lions.
Hamilton joins the group as perhaps the most established player, having been on the Kansas City Chiefs roster in 2020, facing the Buccaneers twice. He also played for the Raiders, then in Oakland, and for the Giants before joining the Chiefs last year. He’s a standout candidate for gunner duties on special teams and will make a push there to make the roster.
Pope may have the stiffest climb to make if he’s going to surpass 2020 third-round NFL draft pick Ke’Shawn Vaughn to join Ronald Jones II, Leonard Fournette, and Giovanni Bernard on the active roster. He himself has 24 games he’s appeared in between the Seattle Seahawks, New York Jets, Los Angeles Chargers, Indianapolis Colts and Houston Texans. He didn’t appear in games for all of those teams as some of his time spent in the NFL was exclusively on practice squads.
Perhaps the tryout player joining the thinnest depth group is safety, Curtis Riley. He was an undrafted free agent when he joined the Tennessee Titans in 2015 and stayed there through the 2017 season before moving on to the Giants and then to the Raiders. He split 2020 between the Arizona Cardinals and Minnesota Vikings as well. He has five career interceptions and has scored a defensive touchdown in his career.
With these four additions, the Tampa Bay roster currently stands at 88 players. With the pending signing of Antonio Brown, the roster realistically stands at 89.
Will any of these players land on the opening day roster? It’s not likely. But it wasn’t likely a sixth-round backup quarterback from Michigan was ever going to start in the NFL either.
For more on this story and for more on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, check out the Locked On Bucs Podcast.
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