Bucs defensive tackle Calijah Kancey will miss his second straight game following a calf injury that surfaced on Friday, September 6 prior to the season opener against the Washington Commanders. Kancey didn’t practice all week, and he could miss additional games, too.
Pewter Report has learned that the Bucs do not want to rush Kancey back from his injured calf and have a situation where he re-injures it and has a setback because he came back too soon.
Initially it was suggested that Kancey injured the same calf he hurt last year during training camp, which was his right one. But ESPN’s Jenna Laine spoke with Kancey on Thursday, who said that he strained his other calf – his left – in practice a week ago.
Bucs May Be Without Calijah Kancey For A Few More Weeks
Calijah Kancey’s right calf injury last year was significant, as he missed most of training camp and all of the preseason before returning to action in the season opener at Minnesota. But Kancey only played 11 snaps before re-aggravating it. That setback caused him to miss the next three games before returning against Detroit in Week 6 following the team’s bye in Week 5.
The good news this year is that this particular injury isn’t believed to be as severe as last year’s was.
“Only time will tell,” Bucs head coach Todd Bowles said. “I don’t think so, but I’m not a doctor.”
The team wants to be cautious and not rush last year’s first-round pick back too soon to avoid a setback from happening again. When asked after Friday’s practice if Kancey’s injury would be considered day-to-day or week-to-week, Bowles was not exactly committed to a time frame and offered somewhat of a vague answer.
“It’s been a week [or two] now,” Bowles said. “It’ll turn into day-to-day.”
If it’s truly day-to-day, that means that Kancey would return to the practice field at any time next week. That seems unlikely based on what Pewter Report has heard and could just be optimistic thinking or perhaps gamesmanship for Tampa Bay’s next opponent.
The guess here is that Kancey misses next week’s Broncos game and either returns for the Eagles game in Week 4 or the Falcons game on Thursday Night Football in Atlanta in Week 5. Once Kancey returned to action in Week 6 last year he didn’t miss another game and played in 14 straight games, including both playoff contests.
In the meantime, it’s expected that Bucs third-year defensive tackle Logan Hall returns to action on Sunday in Detroit and replaces Kancey in the starting lineup. Hall missed the season opener last Sunday with a foot injury but returned to practice this week.
“We’ll see how Logan [Hall] feels tomorrow,” Bowles said.
