Buccaneers

• Buccaneers HC Todd Bowles said WR Emeka Egbuka is “day-to-day, week-to-week” with a toe injury and said he’s unsure if it will affect his Week 1 availability. (Greg Auman)
• Egbuka underwent additional testing with a specialist, and it was confirmed he has a sprain, but will likely be ready for Week 1. (Stroud)
• Buccaneers S JJ Roberts is returning to practice for the first time on Monday since suffering a torn ACL, per PewterReport.
• Tampa Bay CB Benjamin Morrison is in full pads and also expected to be a full participant this week as he works back from a hamstring injury. (PewterReport)

Falcons

Falcons QB Tua Tagovailoa was unhappy with his performance in the team’s first preseason game, which ended in defeat against the Broncos. Tua is planning to get better after several fruitless drives, and HC Kevin Stefanski told reporters he didn’t see the team move the ball well.

“Frustrated and disappointed at the way things happened [Friday] as we went out there,” Tagovailoa said, via ESPN’s Marc Raimondi. “I’m competing. I’m wanting to go out there for points on the board, not go out there and we’ll go three-and-out, three-and-out — not be able to perform to the level that I know I’m able to do. So always looking at everything as a competition, but just got to be better.”

“Just thinking about it, what we put out there is not a reflection of the hard work that we’ve put in the first two weeks into training camp, and it does no justice for the work that our coaches, as well, have implemented,” Tagovailoa added. “So it starts with me. I got to be better with that. I thought off of that [second] play, [things] kind of got out of the rhythm.”

“I evaluate the entire offense in that regard,” Stefanski said. “So didn’t move the ball well enough as an offense. Certainly, there’s some things that we can clean up. We did drop a snap out there. So those are little plays that we will continue to work on. But hard to give a grade on that fewest amount of … sample size.”

• Stefanski was asked to evaluate the starting offense with Tua through the first few plays of the preseason opener: “He wants to be better. Our offense wants to be better. Our coaches want to be better.” (Tori McElhaney)

Panthers

New Panthers TE Darren Waller didn’t have a lot of interest this offseason despite scoring six touchdowns last year for the Dolphins — his first season back after a year of retirement. Waller comes with some baggage because of his injury history and age; he played only nine games last year, but he said he still feels confident he can help a team, and Carolina’s interest backs that up.  

“I hope that they can still see like, I mean, I feel as good as I’ve felt in years right now,” Waller said via Kassidy Hill of the team website. “I feel like the training that I put in this offseason has allowed me to be — from an explosive speed, movement standpoint, where I was when people remember me at the peak of my career. And I think my scoring potential was unlocked last year in ways that hadn’t been before. So combine those two, you still get a pretty decent product out of me.”