Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Jacquies Smith Gone For The Season With ACL Tear

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

foxsports

In a heartbreaking loss for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, defensive end Jacquies Smith tore his ACL in Sunday’s win over the Falcons.

There were high hopes for the defensive end rotation this season of Robert Ayers, rookie Noah Spence, and Jacquies Smith. Unfortunately, one of those players will miss the remaining fifteen games of the 2016 season. Jacquies Smith was carted off the field Sunday in the Georgia Dome with a knee injury. It was revealed today that he did, in fact, tear his ACL and will be out for a year with surgery and rehab.

Smith was one of the focal points of the defensive line as he looked to improve on last year’s seven sack performance. Smith has had a history with injury problems, but he looked great in training camp and preseason, so there were many believing Smith was in shape to play a full sixteen games this year.

Head coach Dirk Koetter realizes the magnitude of this loss, but wants his team to realize there is no time to hang your head – it’s on everyone else to step up;

“It’s big. Heck, he’s a guy that [is] a starter in our nickel package and a key contributor. It’s going to be tough, we’ve got to pick up the slack in other areas like I mentioned before. Some guys had to play more snaps than they might’ve played before. We’re going to be tested on our depth, we’ve been saying that we thought we had depth at the defensive line and this is going to test us right off the bat.”

The Bucs are going to need Noah Spence to step up in a big way. He’s suspect on run defense and needs to vastly improve in that area. With the loss of Smith, Spence is going to be one of the key players moving forward needing to pick up the slack.

Smith was placed on season ending injured reserve. No corresponding roster move announced yet.