Buccaneers Open Preseason With a 24-16 Win at the Jets Behind Undrafted Rookies

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers opened their 2026 preseason with a 24-16 win over the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium on Friday, a game the Bucs played almost entirely without their established starters and won on the strength of contributions from players fighting for roster spots.

Cornerback Ayden Garnes, an undrafted rookie, returned a first-half interception 47 yards for a touchdown. Quarterback Jalon Daniels, also an undrafted rookie, completed 10 of 15 passes for 111 yards and added a one-yard scoring run. First-year running back Josh Williams scored on a 12-yard rush in the third quarter.

Quarterback Connor Bazelak played the first half, completing 12 of 20 attempts for 72 yards. The starters sat, which is standard practice for preseason week one across the league and which makes the final score a poor indicator of anything about Tampa Bay's regular-season prospects.

What preseason week one is actually for

The value in a game like this is entirely in personnel evaluation at the margins. NFL teams carry 90 players into camp and must reduce to the regular-season limit, which means roughly a third of the roster is competing for a job rather than preparing for a season. Preseason games are where those decisions get resolved.

Garnes and Daniels are exactly the profile that makes these games worth playing. Undrafted free agents enter camp with no guaranteed money and no organizational investment protecting them, and a pick-six or an efficient passing performance is the kind of tape that converts a camp body into a practice squad or 53-man roster player.

Josh Williams, in his first year, occupies a similar position. Running back is a position where NFL teams routinely find production from late-round and undrafted players, and a 12-yard touchdown run in a game where the defense is also playing backups is a modest but real data point.

Bazelak's first half was less about statistics than about operation. Twelve completions on 20 attempts for 72 yards is a low yards-per-attempt figure, but preseason play-calling is deliberately vanilla, and coaching staffs evaluate quarterbacks on decision-making and command of the huddle more than on production.

The joint practice value

The Buccaneers held joint practices with the Jets ahead of the game, and those sessions produce more usable evaluation material than the games do. Joint practices let coaching staffs script specific situations, control snap counts and get their starters meaningful work against unfamiliar opponents without exposing them to full-speed tackling.

Reports from those sessions described a fiery competitive environment, which is common when two teams practice together in August heat. The intensity is generally treated by coaching staffs as a positive as long as it stays short of the fights that occasionally break out and cost practice time.

The trend across the NFL has been to lean more heavily on joint practices and less on preseason game reps for established players. Tampa Bay's approach in the opener, with starters held out entirely, reflects that shift.

Where Tampa Bay stands entering 2026

The Buccaneers have been one of the NFC South's more consistent organizations in recent seasons, and their offseason work has been oriented around sustaining that rather than rebuilding. The preseason schedule of the Jets, Kansas City Chiefs and Jacksonville Jaguars gives the staff a range of looks before the regular season.

Raymond James Stadium hosts the Chiefs on Saturday, August 22 at 7:30 p.m. Eastern for preseason week two, the game where starters typically see their most extended work of August. That is the session that will offer the first substantive read on Tampa Bay's first-team units.

The Jaguars game on Friday, August 28 closes the preseason and is a joint-practice week as well, with the teams scheduled to practice together beginning Tuesday, August 25. Preseason finales are usually the lightest for established players and the heaviest for those on the roster bubble.

The Florida NFL weekend

Tampa Bay's win came on a night when the Miami Dolphins lost 20-7 to the Washington Commanders in their preseason opener, splitting the results for Florida's NFL teams. Miami got a 14-play, 93-yard touchdown drive from quarterback Malik Willis but little else on offense in the first game of the Jeff Hafley era.

The Jacksonville Jaguars complete the state's slate, opening their preseason Saturday at the New Orleans Saints after holding joint practices in New Orleans on Thursday. Jacksonville then hosts the Carolina Panthers on August 21 and the Buccaneers on August 28 at EverBank Stadium.

For Florida fans, August offers the last stretch of low-stakes football before the calendar fills. College football arrives at the end of the month, with Florida State opening against New Mexico State on August 29 at Doak Campbell Stadium and Florida opening against Florida Atlantic on September 5 at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

What to watch through the rest of camp

Roster construction is the throughline. Tampa Bay, like every NFL team, will make its most consequential August decisions in the final week, and the players who performed Friday at MetLife Stadium have two more games to make their case.

Health is the other variable. Preseason injuries have derailed seasons for teams across the league, which is why staffs weigh the evaluation benefit of playing a player against the risk of losing him. Tampa Bay's decision to sit its starters entirely in week one reflects where that calculation currently sits for the organization.

Depth chart clarity typically arrives in the days after the second preseason game. The Buccaneers released their first depth chart of 2026 ahead of the opener, and those documents get revised through August as competitions resolve.

How NFL roster construction works in August

Every NFL team carries 90 players through the early part of training camp and must reduce to 53 by the league's deadline, with a practice squad of additional players available afterward. That means roughly 40 percent of the players in camp will not be on the active roster when the season opens.

The cuts are not evenly distributed. Established starters and high draft picks are effectively guaranteed spots, and the actual competition occurs among perhaps 20 to 25 players fighting for the last handful of roster positions and for practice squad slots.

Special teams ability is the tiebreaker that decides most of those competitions. A backup linebacker or safety who can cover kicks has substantially more value than one who cannot, because the players at the bottom of the roster are dressed on game day primarily for their special teams contribution.

That is why preseason special teams snaps get evaluated as carefully as offensive and defensive reps. A player whose only path to a roster spot runs through the kicking game has to demonstrate it in August, and there is no other venue where that evaluation can happen at full speed.

The undrafted free agent path

Players who go undrafted sign as free agents immediately after the draft, typically with modest signing bonuses and no guaranteed money. They arrive in camp behind drafted rookies on the depth chart and with less organizational investment protecting them.

The path from that position to a roster spot is narrow but real. Every NFL season features contributors who entered the league undrafted, and organizations that develop those players well gain a meaningful competitive advantage because the cost is negligible relative to draft capital.

Garnes and Daniels both produced the kind of performance that gets a player through the next round of cuts. A defensive back returning an interception for a touchdown and a quarterback completing 10 of 15 passes for 111 yards with a rushing score are outcomes that show up clearly on film.

Whether either makes the roster depends on factors outside their control, including how many players the team keeps at their position and whether injuries elsewhere create openings. Practice squad placement is the more common outcome for players in their position.

Tampa Bay's competitive window

The Buccaneers have sustained a competitive position in the NFC South across several seasons, and the organizational challenge is extending that rather than rebuilding from it. Roster continuity, salary cap management and the development of younger players at premium positions all factor into how long a window stays open.

The NFC South has been among the league's more volatile divisions, with the standings reshuffling substantially year to year. That volatility cuts both ways for Tampa Bay, offering a path to contention in seasons where the roster is imperfect and removing any margin for a slow start.

Raymond James Stadium has been a genuine home field advantage during the team's competitive stretches, and the region's football interest has grown with the franchise's success. Attendance and local engagement in Tampa Bay track performance more closely than in some legacy markets.

The organization's August approach, resting starters entirely in the preseason opener, is consistent with a team that believes it knows what its front-line roster is and is using exhibition games purely for depth evaluation.

How Florida's NFL market has grown

Florida hosts three NFL franchises, a concentration matched by only two other states, and the league's Florida footprint reflects the state's population growth over the past half century rather than any historical football tradition.

The three markets differ substantially in scale and character. South Florida is the largest and the most transient, with a fan base that includes substantial numbers of transplants retaining allegiances to teams elsewhere. Tampa Bay has built a more locally rooted following. Jacksonville is the smallest and most performance-sensitive.

All three compete for attention against college football, which in Florida commands loyalty that rivals or exceeds the professional game in many households. Saturdays and Sundays function as parallel rather than sequential in the state's football culture.

What's next

The Buccaneers face the Kansas City Chiefs on Saturday, August 22 at 7:30 p.m. Eastern in preseason week two. Starters are expected to play more extensively in that game than they did against the Jets, which will provide the first real look at Tampa Bay's projected regular-season units.

Joint practices with the Jaguars begin Tuesday, August 25, ahead of the August 28 preseason finale. That week doubles as an in-state matchup and as the final evaluation window before roster cuts.

The regular season follows in early September. Until then, the numbers that matter from games like Friday's are not the score but the individual performances that determine which 53 players Tampa Bay carries into it.