Jason Pierre-Paul returns to the Buccaneers after sitting out nearly 2 years

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — The Tampa Bay Buccaneers turned to a familiar face to bolster their pass rush.

Three-time Pro Bowl edge rusher Jason Pierre-Paul was signed to the team’s practice squad on Tuesday, nearly two years since he last played in an NFL game.

Pierre-Paul, who had 9 1/2 sacks for the 2020 Super Bowl champion Buccaneers, joins a group that includes veteran Haason Reddick and third-year player YaYa Diaby.

“Obviously, I’ve been wanting to play football since the beginning of the year,” Pierre-Paul said. “(When the) opportunity comes, you’re there, so that’s basically what happened. There was an opportunity given and I made the best of it.”

The 36-year-old Pierre-Paul was selected by the Giants with the 15th pick in the 2010 NFL draft. He spent eight seasons in New York, four in Tampa Bay, one in Baltimore and played a few games for New Orleans and Miami in 2023. He has 94 1/2 sacks in 14 seasons.

The four-time defending NFC South champion Buccaneers (7-6) are tied for first place with Carolina. They host Atlanta on Thursday night.

“As far as the training, and I’ve been doing a lot of training with my personal trainer, he doesn’t stop, he trains every day,” Pierre-Paul said. “I think he got me in the best shape — I won’t say in my whole entire career, but damn near. I’ve seen the results, running around the lake and running sprints and running drills, I was able to kill the bad drills out there. I think I killed it and I just think staying in shape was one of the main keys and just not giving up.”

Larry Foote, the Bucs' run game coordinator and outside linebackers coach, views Pierre-Paul as a voice players can relate to. Pierre-Paul hasn't played since Dec. 11, 2023, so it's not quite like Philip Rivers coming back to the Indianapolis Colts after sitting out the last four seasons.

”(He’s) a guy that can bring some of the intangibles that we cannot bring as coaches that I think he can help,” Foote said. “That’s the way I’m looking at it. His energy and his juice. ... We’ll see what he can do the next couple of weeks. This is a short week, see if he (has) something in the tank. We worked him out and he looked good; I worked him out personally and he can still move and bend and he (has) that God-given freaky ability, and we’ll see what he can do next week.”

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