TAMPA — Bucs leading rusher Ronald Jones, nursing a quad injury that kept him out of Saturday’s playoff opener at Washington, could make his first practice appearance of the week Thursday.Coach Bruce Arians said Wednesday that Jones is “getting better” but didn’t participate in that day’s practice. Fellow tailback LeSean “Shady” McCoy, absent last week with an unspecified illness, returned to work.“Shady practiced, he was good,” Arians said. “I anticipate hopefully (Jones) could go (Thursday).”With the Bucs limited to two healthy backs against Washington, offseason acquisition Leonard Fournette handled the bulk of ball-carrying duties and enjoyed his best game as a Buccaneer (132 total yards, one rushing touchdown) in the 31-23 triumph. Fournette, who turns 26 on Monday, said he’s still fresh entering the season’s 18th game due to his minimal workload compared to previous seasons.In Fournette’s first three years in the league (all in Jacksonville), he averaged 222 carries including 133 in 2018, when he played in only eight games. This season, he has totaled 116.“It’s a good thing,” Fournette said. “At first I was looking at the bad by me not getting the ball, but in the end it’s helping my career longevity.”
![Joey Knight - Bucs Reporter](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 50 50"/%3E "Joey Knight - Bucs Reporter")