MEEN2018

As a die-hard Bucs fan and UNT alum, I can tell you first hand that Darden has had a pretty terrible season. He hasn’t been used much on offense due to depth and bc it is fairly clear he doesn’t have a good understanding of the playbook yet. Even on one of his best offensive plays of the year, it was an endaround handoff that TB12 and all the skill players had to yell at Darden and gesture for him to go in motion and he looked like he had no idea what was going on. He has also run pretty lazy routes when he does get to play WR. Almost everytime he touches the ball he falls down before getting tackled and has not had much success as a returner. The Bucs have a complex offense with lots of option routes, and he has clearly struggled to transition to it. He also has definitely struggled with his size as he can’t just win with his speed like he did at UNT and has had a lot of trouble separating and lack of strength on the outside. Luckily he will still be around until next season due to his draft status, so he still has some time to improve. However, the start of his NFL career has been about as bad as it could be. Part of it is just a bad fit in the Bucs offense as their slot receivers are used as run blockers and are usually bigger (think Larry Fitzgerald) so he is strictly an outside WR. Still holding out Hope and obviously rooting for him to succeed more than anyone, but it has not been promising.

Darden is out with a concussion currently. Antonio Brown also hasn’t played since 10/14 and Scotty Miller was on IR for a lot of that time as well and Darden didn’t get much playing time. He is still WR5/6 at the moment as the Bucs have signed back Breshard Perriman who has had success under Arians in Tampa.

Yes, this is what happened. They had a reserve OL get healthy off of IR so they had to release someone to activate him. There are only a few guys that they could release and with how deep they are at WR, they couldn’t keep 6 WRs at the moment. I bet that Mickens is back on the practice squad though so they theoretically could elevate him up to be the KR/PR for the next 2 games before having to bring him back onto the active roster. Or they could be giving Darden a full-time shot.

Darden inactive for tonight’s game.

AB got added to the COVID list and may miss the game this weekend. He is vaccinated so there is still a possibility he could play. Also Jaydon Mickens, the Bucs KR, suffered a hip injury last week and may miss the game. So looks like Darden may be making his debut.

A few hours before the game.

Honestly it is just bc Darden struggled in the return game during the preseason. He had a great camp at the start but kinda fizzled out toward the end and had struggles in all of the preseason games. He is WR6 on the depth chart so his only path to be active at the moment was to take the return job. As a UNT alum, I’m obviously rooting for him, but he was given every opportunity to win the return job but didn’t capitalize on it and Mickens has a history of being a pretty decent returner in the NFL. Also toward the end of camp and the preseason, Darden struggled a bit on offense with drops and routes. The Bucs run a lot of option routes and he read the defense incorrectly a couple times which led to at least 1 interception in the preseason. The Bucs have a very complicated offense (according to Tom Brady it took him until like week 13 to fully understand and be confident in it), so it will take some time. He still has a lot of potential and the Bucs still really like him, but unfortunately with them being squarely in their Super Bowl window, they can’t always wait on potential to develop and have to rely on what they know.