Martin's shoulder never regained enough strength to play

Running back Doug Martin never gained enough strength in his injured left shoulder to return to the playing field, coach Greg Schiano said.

Martin, who suffered a torn left labrum in a loss to Atlanta Oct. 20, was placed on injured reserve Friday, ending his season.

"We wanted to give it a couple weeks just to see how much he strengthened it,'' Schiano said. "Every guy is different. He did get better but not well enough that we felt comfortable putting him in a football game. You never know until you try it and really he was going to need to strengthen it and get it ready for surgery, even if he was going to have it now.

"He's in the best physical state to have the surgery now and will have it shortly. First he's going to decide a surgeon and then we'll get an exact time frame.''

There were a couple things the Bucs had to consider before placing Martin on IR. Start with the 0-8 record. Also, Martin has never had surgery and is admittedly anxious about. Finally, consider the amount of complications several Bucs players have experienced following surgery recently. Furthermore, rookie Mike James is coming off a 158-yard rushing performance.

All that added up to the prudent decision to shut Martin down for the rest of 2013.