The Story No One Is Talking About In Bucs Camp

And through the first three weeks of camp, Jensen has yet to participate in 11-on-11 periods, which is a bit worrisome to some of the Bucs’ brass.

Last Tuesday, Jensen participated in 1-on-1 pass rush-pass protection drills for the first time, but only took two reps against Deadrin Senat and one against Pat O’Connor.

So when will Jensen, who obviously didn’t play in the Bucs’ preseason opener on Friday against Pittsburgh, be cleared for team periods?

With Tampa Bay traveling to New Jersey next week for joint practices with the Jets, it doesn’t seem like that will happen any time soon. The Bucs will almost assuredly hold Jensen out of the joint practices as a precautionary measure.

Todd Bowles Doesn’t Know When Ryan Jensen Will Participate In Team Periods

Last week, Bucs head coach Todd Bowles was asked when Jensen was going to be ready to take part in 11-on-11 team drills. His answer was a bit alarming.

“That’s a good question,” Bowles said. “I don’t know, honestly. I just go by what the doctors and trainers tell me and go by how he is feeling and [his] progress. Some days are good, some days are not as good. I will just wait for the answer and kind of go from there.”

Bowles was not exactly a wealth of information about the specifics of Jensen’s devastating knee injury during the 2022 season. Everyone had to wait until after Jensen revealed the extent of his injury following the Bucs’ Wild Card playoff loss. That was the only game he started and played in after recovering for five months while avoiding surgery.

“It was a pretty severe injury,” Jensen said. “Which a lot of people I know were confused why I didn’t have surgery. I ended up tearing my MCL, my ACL, my PCL, I flipped my meniscus, I had a fracture and I had another little bone chip thing. It was a major injury.

“I was as fortunate as I could be with the way injury happened where I didn’t have to have surgery and it was able to heal on its own. Yeah, five months and trying to come back off of that, it was – some call it dumb, but I’m a football player and football players play football.”

Jensen addressed the media for the first time in camp two weeks ago and said that his knee is feeling much better despite not having surgery. Yet, he didn’t provide any timetable for his return to full participation.

“I had five separate opinions and I ended up going with Dr. Shelbourne, who thought that it was going to be better for me not to have an operation done,” Jensen said. “And [I] went that route, so feeling good, ligaments are healthy and healed and I’m just ready to keep rolling.”

Ryan Jensen Played vs. Cowboys, But Was Shaky In His Bucs’ Return

Even though he was nowhere near 100%, Ryan Jensen was medically cleared to play against the Cowboys in the playoffs. As it turns out, Nick Leverett, a guard and backup center, was injured in Week 18 and out for that game. Robert Hainsey was also dealing with an injury, so having Jensen available for the playoff game turned out to be quite fortunate.

But Jensen was a shell of his former self, earning a woeful 28.9 Pro Football Focus grade with a 13.3 pass protection grade. Jensen allowed a sack and six pressures against Dallas.

“It was so hard for him to play in that playoff game,” Bucs left tackle Tristan Wirfs said. “Everyone could see it. But he wanted to go out with Tom. I want him to be ready whenever he gets the okay and is back to his old self. That’s when I want him to come back.”

But the real question surrounding Jensen is not only when he’ll return, but when he’ll return to form – if at all. The 32-year old Jensen is the league’s third-highest-paid center, averaging $13 million per year. That version of Jensen is the one the Bucs need in 2023.

“I’m not worried about Ryan Jensen at all,” Wirfs said. “I have all the trust in the world in Hainsey and Nick, and I’m not worried about Ryan. I don’t want him to rush into something and then have a setback. I want him to come in feeling as good as he can and play how he wants to play.”

Who knows when that will be?