Well, Donteea Dye has once again found himself back with the team. Dye is a speedy receiver signed in 2015 by the Tampa as an unstaffed free agent from Heidelberg University in Tiffin, Ohio. He has become a familiar face in Tampa, despite only playing in 10 regular season games, and only having started 6 of them,late last season.
However, during his time on the active roster, he was targeted 30 times, making 11 receptions and totaling 132 yards. He had scored a touchdown in week 6 matchup against the Washington Redskins. But his production in that game was all for naught.
Dye’s longest play of his career, thus far, and easily his most embarrassing came in week 15 of last year against the Rams. That was the situation in which Jameis Winston lasered a 44-yard pass to a wide-open Dye and untouched he went down got up and tossed the ball believing he was down. Thankfully, Luke Stocker was there to stop the ball from being turned over.
Fast forward to the 2016 preseason, Dye suffered a hamstring injury and was ultimately waived from the Team with an injury settlement. He was re-signed to the practice squad and waived multiple times, the last time for not being what the coach considered NFL ready. Dye and Tampa’s relationship has become one of the oddest courtships with an NFL organization that I have ever witnessed.
Dye, recently re-signed, is a move that will surely help to add depth to the receiving corps, after the season-ending injury to Bucs WR Captain, Vincent Jackson. If the rust has been shaken off Dye this time around, then we could possibly see a big contribution from him right away. Especially, a much-needed contribution that will be necessary for the upcoming stretch of 3 games in 15 days.