NFL Hands Lengthy Drug Suspension to Buccaneers RB
Getty
Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Josh Williams.
This isn’t the kind of news the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were expecting to deal with headed into the most important 2-game stretch of the season.
The NFL announced it was suspending Buccaneers rookie running Josh Williams for using PEDS on Tuesday, November 11, which wouldn’t make him eligible to return until a Week 17 road game against the Miami Dolphins.
“Bucs RB Josh Williams has been suspended six games without pay for violating the NFL’s Performance-Enhancing Substances Policy, the league announced,” Tampa Bay Times reporter Rick Stroud wrote on his official X account.
“Bucs rookie running back Josh WIlliams has been suspended for six games without pay for violating the NFL’s Performance-Enhancing Substances Policy,” Fox Sports NFL reporter Greg Auman wrote on his official X account. “He has played in three games this season, with four carries for 11 yards.”
The Buccaneers are coming off a 28-23 home loss to the New England Patriots in Week 10 and face consecutive road games against a pair of Super Bowl contenders when they travel to face the Buffalo Bills in Week 11 and the Los Angeles Rams in Week 12.
“Buccaneers’ RB Josh Williams is suspended six games without pay for violating the NFL’s Performance-Enhancing Substances Policy,” ESPN’s Adam Schefter wrote on his official X account. “Williams will be eligible for reinstatement on Tuesday, December 22, following the Buccaneers’ Week 16 game against the Carolina Panthers.”
Williams Went Undrafted Out of SEC Powerhouse
Williams, 5-foot-9 and 210 pounds, wasn’t selected in the 2025 NFL draft out of LSU and made the Buccaneers as an undrafted free agent.
It wasn’t 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 Tigers.
“Originally a walk-on at LSU, Williams spent five years with the program,” LSU Wire’s Alexis Yoder wrote after Williams made Tampa Bay’s 53-man roster in August. “His 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.”
Buccaneers Have Big Issue in Backfield
After 3 consecutive years of having the NFL’s worst rushing attack, the Buccaneers bounced back with a vengeance in 2024 behind rookie Bucky Irving, a fourth round pick (No. 125 overall) out of the University of Oregon.
Irving not only supplanted longtime starter Rachaad White as the Buccaneers’ main running back, he showed the potential to be one of the NFL’s very best at his position with 1,514 yards from scrimmage and 8 total touchdowns — that included 1,122 rushing yards.
Unfortunately for the Buccaneers, Irving has missed the last 5 games with a shoulder injury and there hasn’t been any news on when he might possibly return.
Without irving’s dynamic running and pass catching ability, Tampa Bay has sorely missed a key dimension to the offense.
“With Bucky Irving injured, Josh WIlliams has been the Bucs’ No. 3 running back, active on game days but playing primarily on special teams only,” Auman wrote on X on November 11. “That role will likely now go to one of the backs on Tampa Bay’s practice squad, Owen Wright or Michael Wiley.”
Insider Reveals Browns’ Response to Shedeur Sanders ‘Public Pressure’
(Photo by Mike Mulholland/Getty Images)
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)
For the Browns, it is a mostly hopeless situation at this point, no matter what decision the team makes next at quarterback. They want to keep Dillon Gabriel going 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.
At Pro Football Focus, Gabriel has notched a grade of 49.9, which ranks 37th out of 37 graded quarterbacks this season.
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 Shedeur Sanders is in the background, and there has been a rising call for him to get a shot at the job.
Shedeur Sanders Pressure Mounts on Browns
That public pressure has been there for much of the season, but has gotten more intense and more widespread–you’d 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.
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’s sticking with Gabriel.
Browns Not ‘Eager’ to Play Shedeur Sanders
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.
He wrote on Wednesday: “Coming out of the Week 9 bye, the Browns’ plan was to give Dillon Gabriel a 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.
“The public pressure in Cleveland is mounting. But I simply haven’t sensed that the Browns have been eager to turn to Shedeur Sanders.”
Offense Must Improve ‘Globally’
And so we can expect to see more Gabriel in the future. Certainly, he will be on the field in Week 11 against the Ravens, a team that has won three straight and is finally getting its defense together–Baltimore has held four straight foes below 20 points.
It will take a better overall effort offensively, not just from Gabriel, to hang with the Ravens, Stefanski said.
“It’s our job as coaches and certainly the players to go be productive on offense,” Stefanski said. “And it’s 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’s how we’re designing some of those plays, who were putting in those spots in some of those plays. I think that’s as big a part of it as well.”
