![\"NFL](\"https:\/\/news2.watchtowatch.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-2231734278-e1762897363938.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Getty<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Josh Williams.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t the kind of news the\u00a0Tampa Bay Buccaneers\u00a0were expecting to deal with headed into the most important 2-game stretch of the season.<\/p>\n
The NFL announced it was suspending Buccaneers rookie running\u00a0Josh Williams\u00a0for using PEDS on Tuesday, November 11, which wouldn\u2019t make him eligible to return until a Week 17 road game against the\u00a0Miami Dolphins.<\/p>\n
\u201cBucs RB\u00a0Josh Williams\u00a0has been suspended six games without pay for violating the NFL\u2019s Performance-Enhancing Substances Policy, the league announced,\u201d\u00a0Tampa Bay Times reporter Rick Stroud\u00a0wrote on his official X account.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBucs rookie running back\u00a0Josh WIlliams\u00a0has been suspended for six games without pay for violating the NFL\u2019s Performance-Enhancing Substances Policy,\u201d\u00a0Fox Sports NFL reporter Greg Auman\u00a0wrote on his official X account. \u201cHe has played in three games this season, with four carries for 11 yards.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Buccaneers are coming off a 28-23 home loss to the\u00a0New England Patriots\u00a0in Week 10 and face consecutive road games against a pair of Super Bowl contenders when they travel to face the\u00a0Buffalo Bills\u00a0in Week 11 and the\u00a0Los Angeles Rams\u00a0in Week 12.<\/p>\n
\u201cBuccaneers\u2019 RB\u00a0Josh Williams\u00a0is suspended six games without pay for violating the NFL\u2019s Performance-Enhancing Substances Policy,\u201d\u00a0ESPN\u2019s Adam Schefter\u00a0wrote on his official X account. \u201cWilliams will be eligible for reinstatement on Tuesday, December 22, following the Buccaneers\u2019 Week 16 game against the\u00a0Carolina Panthers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams, 5-foot-9 and 210 pounds, wasn\u2019t selected in the\u00a02025 NFL draft\u00a0out of LSU and made the Buccaneers as an undrafted free agent.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t much different than college, when Williams went from a walk-on at LSU to having 2,094 career yards of total offense and 18 touchdowns for the\u00a0Tigers.<\/p>\n
\u201cOriginally a walk-on at LSU, Williams spent five years with the program,\u201d\u00a0LSU Wire\u2019s Alexis Yoder\u00a0wrote after Williams made Tampa Bay\u2019s 53-man roster in August. \u201cHis most productive season came in 2022 when he took 97 carries for 532 yards and six touchdowns. Last year, he took 117 carries for 482 yards and six touchdowns.\u201d<\/p>\n
After 3 consecutive years of having the NFL\u2019s worst rushing attack, the Buccaneers bounced back with a vengeance in 2024 behind rookie\u00a0Bucky Irving, a fourth round pick (No. 125 overall) out of the University of Oregon.<\/p>\n
Irving not only supplanted longtime starter\u00a0Rachaad White\u00a0as the Buccaneers\u2019 main running back, he showed the potential to be one of the NFL\u2019s very best at his position with 1,514 yards from scrimmage and 8 total touchdowns \u2014 that included 1,122 rushing yards.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately for the Buccaneers, Irving has missed the last 5 games with a shoulder injury and there hasn\u2019t been any news on when he might possibly return.<\/p>\n
Without irving\u2019s dynamic running and pass catching ability, Tampa Bay has sorely missed a key dimension to the offense.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith\u00a0Bucky Irving\u00a0injured,\u00a0Josh WIlliams\u00a0has been the Bucs\u2019 No. 3 running back, active on game days but playing primarily on special teams only,\u201d\u00a0Auman wrote on X on November 11. \u201cThat role will likely now go to one of the backs on Tampa Bay\u2019s practice squad, Owen Wright or Michael Wiley.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Photo by Mike Mulholland\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
DETROIT, MICHIGAN – SEPTEMBER 28: Shedeur Sanders #12 of the Cleveland Browns looks on against the Detroit Lions during the fourth quarter at Ford Field on September 28, 2025 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Mike Mulholland\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
For the\u00a0Browns, it is a mostly hopeless situation at this point, no matter what decision the team makes next at quarterback. They want to keep\u00a0Dillon Gabriel\u00a0going as the starter, despite the fact that his struggles seem to be getting worse with each start, not better. He has completed only 58.6% of his passes and is averaging just 170.0 yards passing per game, for a rating of 80.4.<\/p>\n
At Pro Football Focus, Gabriel has notched a grade of 49.9, which ranks 37th out of 37 graded quarterbacks this season.<\/p>\n
The choice, then, is to stick with Gabriel and continue to watch his conservative yet inefficient style, or to pull the plug on him and essentially admit that the five games with him at the helm were a wasteful experiment. Making matters more untenable for the Browns is that QB2\u00a0Shedeur Sanders\u00a0is in the background, and there has been a rising call for him to get a shot at the job.<\/p>\n
That public pressure has been there for much of the season, but has gotten more intense and more widespread\u2013you\u2019d be hard-pressed to find a talking head on the national sports scene who has not taken a swipe at the Browns for their mismanagement of the quarterbacking situation and their unwarranted devotion to Gabriel.<\/p>\n
Publicly, the Browns remain committed to starting Gabriel. Coach Kevin Stefanski was asked, as he always is, about the possibility of playing Sanders this week, and he demurred as he always does. He\u2019s sticking with Gabriel.<\/p>\n
If Browns fans are hoping that, behind the scenes, there is a shift going on that could result in Gabriel finally being benched and Sanders being elevated to starter, well they got some bad news from ESPN league insider Jeremy Fowler.<\/p>\n
He wrote on Wednesday: \u201cComing out of the Week 9 bye, the Browns\u2019 plan was to give Dillon Gabriel\u00a0a fairly long runway of games to evaluate what they have in him. But as we see with young quarterbacks and teams in transition all the time, those plans can change.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe public pressure in Cleveland is mounting. But I simply haven\u2019t sensed that the Browns have been eager to turn to Shedeur Sanders.\u201d<\/p>\n
And so we can expect to see more Gabriel in the future. Certainly, he will be on the field in Week 11 against the\u00a0Ravens, a team that has won three straight and is finally getting its defense together\u2013Baltimore has held four straight foes below 20 points.<\/p>\n
It will take a better overall effort offensively, not just from Gabriel, to hang with the Ravens,\u00a0Stefanski said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s our job as coaches and certainly the players to go be productive on offense,\u201d Stefanski said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s very, I understand that a lot of the focus goes to the quarterback position, but I look at it also globally and try to look at ways that we can improve across the board, whether it\u2019s how we\u2019re designing some of those plays, who were putting in those spots in some of those plays. I think that\u2019s as big a part of it as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Getty Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Josh Williams. This isn\u2019t the kind of news the\u00a0Tampa Bay Buccaneers\u00a0were expecting to deal with headed into the most important 2-game stretch of the season. The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hot-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t