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TAMPA, Fla. -- The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are re-signing defensive tackle Rakeem Nunez-Roches on one-year deal, a source confirmed Friday.
Nunez-Roches, 32, had spent the last three seasons with the New York Giants but only saw action in nine games last season due to ankle and toe injuries than landed him on injured reserve. Still, he made five starts with a career-high 3.0 sacks, 23 combined tackles and a pass deflection.
Prior to that, he was a member of the Bucs from 2018-2022, helping secure a victory in Super Bowl LV in 2020. In that span, he played in 68 regular season games for the Bucs, with 22 starts.
A sixth-round draft pick out of Southern Miss, Nunez-Roches spent the first three seasons of his career with the Kansas City Chiefs. In total, he's played in 142 regular season games with 62 regular-season starts and eight playoff game appearances.
Bucs coach Todd Bowles said at NFL owners meetings earlier this week that a team goal was to get back to being bigger and more physical along the defensive line and mentioned Nunez-Roches by name, while also pointing to the additions made with the free agent signings of defensive lineman A'Shawn Robinson and outside linebacker Al-Quadin Muhammad.
"They had edge. I don't know if we were sturdy enough upfront defensively from a size standpoint. We've had, like you said, we've had [William] Gholston and we've had [Nunez-Roches] and we've had [Ndamukong] Suh..." Bowles said. "So we haven't had the sturdiness, so to speak. And with A'Shawn coming in, I think he brings some of that and Al brings that type of attitude too. So we're trying to get back to having a stout defensive front that can help everybody else."
The Tampa Bay Times first reported the signing.
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