Week 2 Buccaneers waiver wire: who to add

Tampa Bay is 0-2 after a 23-19 home loss to the Cleveland Browns on September 20, a game a two hour lightning delay interrupted and the Bucs never fully recovered from. Baker Mayfield threw for 182 yards with a touchdown and an interception, Bucky Irving ran for 89 yards on 17 carries, and the offense stalled often enough in the red zone that head coach Todd Bowles pointed to execution and penalties afterward. For fantasy purposes, the more useful story is who saw the ball: with Emeka Egbuka managing a toe injury and Jalen McMillan working back from a knee issue on a reportedly managed snap count, the target distribution behind Chris Godwin looked different than it did in Week 1, and one name in particular is worth a look before your league's waiver run.

Key facts

• The Buccaneers lost to the Cleveland Browns 23-19 at Raymond James Stadium on September 20, 2026, falling to 0-2.
• Rookie wide receiver Ted Hurst III led Tampa Bay in targets against Cleveland with seven, catching two of them for 27 yards.
• Tight end Cade Otton caught 5 of 6 targets for 38 yards in Week 2 after playing 98 percent of Tampa Bay's offensive snaps in the Week 1 opener.
• Wide receiver Jalen McMillan (knee) returned for a managed workload in Week 2 rather than a full-time role, per reporting before kickoff.
• The Buccaneers host the 2-0 Minnesota Vikings in Week 3, with quarterback Kyler Murray set to start after clearing the concussion protocol.

Ted Hurst III, WR, add in deeper and dynasty-style leagues. The third round rookie out of Georgia State led every Buccaneer in targets against Cleveland with seven, more than Godwin (3) or Egbuka (5), even though he converted only two of them for 27 yards. FantasyPros flagged him afterward as "on the upside WR4 radar," and RotoBaller's Week 2 pickups column put him alongside other speculative adds worth a bench spot. Tampa Bay drafted Hurst to play the outside X role the offense lost when Mike Evans departed, and he is seeing early down volume because Egbuka and McMillan are not yet full go. The catch: once McMillan is fully healthy, some of that target share almost certainly reverts to him, so Hurst is a buy on current opportunity, not a proven weekly starter. In shallow leagues he can wait, but in anything 12 teams or deeper with flex spots to fill, his target total is more real signal than his box score line suggests.

Cade Otton, TE, stream option only in deep or tight-end-premium leagues. Otton played 98 percent of the offensive snaps in the Week 1 opener and followed that with 5 catches on 6 targets for 38 yards against Cleveland. That is not a spike week, it is a quiet, steady target share at a position where volume is scarce league-wide, and CBS Sports lists him as an available option on most waiver wires. He is not a must-add in a standard 10 or 12 team league with a rosterable starter already, but if your tight end is on a bye or hurt, Otton's snap count makes him a safer streaming claim than most free agent tight ends will offer.

Nobody else on the Tampa Bay offense produced a workload change worth a waiver claim this week. Tez Johnson's one catch went for 49 yards and he handled punt and kickoff return duty, which is a name to file away if his target count climbs, but four targets and one reception is not yet a role to spend a roster spot on.

Minnesota visits Raymond James Stadium in Week 3 at 2-0, and that record makes the Buccaneers defense a matchup to avoid rather than stream. The Vikings opened with a 39-22 win over Green Bay and ground out a road win in Chicago with backup Carson Wentz, who threw three touchdowns in relief, including a 39-yard strike to Justin Jefferson. Kyler Murray has since cleared the concussion protocol and is set to start in Tampa, and Minnesota's other offensive weapons, including receiver Jauan Jennings and running back Aaron Jones, are expected available. A defense that has scored efficiently with its backup quarterback and is getting a healthier starter back is not a favorable Week 3 stream for the Bucs D/ST. Kicker Chase McLaughlin remains a fine option if you already rostered him out of Week 1, but he is the incumbent Tampa Bay kicker, not a fresh waiver claim, and nothing about this matchup changes that either way.