The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are running out of patience with Da'Quan Bowers.
After losing his starting job last offseason because of poor conditioning, the defensive end is in peril of losing his roster spot for the very same reason, according to Roy Cummings of The Tampa Tribune.
Bowers has failed to impress Lovie Smith's coaching staff after he "wasn't in very good shape" upon arriving for team workouts last month, Cummings reported.
"He's not there yet,"Buccaneers defensive line coach Joe Cullen said of the 2011 second-round pick. "He's got to get into great shape to be able to do those things (he's capable of)."
Cullen, like the previous coaching staff, sees vast potential in the 6-foot-4, 288-pound pass rusher. So did we, hoisting Bowers up as a "Making the Leap" candidate last summer, only to watch the defender squeeze out one lonely sack during an unrewarding two-start campaign in 2013.
Slowed during his short career by Achilles and microfracture surgeries, Bowers boldly announced last season that "anything less than double-digit sacks is a failure."
"I see a lot of signs that he can be what everybody thought he was going to when he was coming out of college," Cullen said. "But again, a lot of that will depend on how he gets into shape and what happens in the preseason."
It's not easy to write off a player with so much promise, but if Bowers doesn't blow the doors off in training camp, his time in Tampa could be up.
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