The NFL sent out three separate transaction “wires” on Monday, the day after every team in the league pared their rosters down to 53 players for the regular season. The first of those wires, released around 1:00 p.m. ET, included a list of players who had been waived on Sunday night and then claimed by another team. There were a total of 24 waiver claims made early Monday by a total of 14 teams.

The Buccaneers were not among those 14 teams. As always, they did their due diligence and reviewed the list of around 1,000 players on Sunday night’s waiver wire but did not find a player they coveted more than the 53 they already had on the active roster.

“I mean, you always look at guys,” said Head Coach Todd Bowles. “You know, everybody is kind of letting go the same guys. It’s either sign the guys back that [have] been in your system, unless you see somebody that you really want to go out and get, maybe one or two guys, but not a total overhaul as far as what we saw.”

That changed a day later. The Chiefs initially kept second-year cornerback Kevin Knowles, a productive special teams player for them in 2025, as one of their 53 through Sunday’s cuts. However, Kansas City successfully claimed two players on Monday, which meant they had two cut two others, and one of those was Knowles. (Coincidentally, one of the two players the Chiefs claimed was rookie outside linebacker Jack Pyburn, who had been waived by Tampa Bay on Sunday.)

Knowles, it turns out, was a player the Buccaneers thought could improve their roster, so they put in a claim on Sunday night. On Monday, they found out they were successful, as they were higher in the claiming order than the Bears, who also put in a claim. While the former Florida State standout adds depth to a Bucs secondary that had somewhat surprisingly been trimmed to just eight players on Sunday, the coaching staff also has a very specific role for Knowles in mind.

“[He’s a] heck of a special teams player,” said Bowles on Tuesday. “With [Josh] Hayes down, we’re probably short a gunner. He’s a very good gunner, a very good kickoff guy.”

Hayes, who was placed on injured reserve on Sunday and must miss a minimum of four games before returning to the active roster, was a prominent member of the Bucs’ gunner rotation, and has been throughout his three seasons in Tampa. On punts, teams generally line up one gunner on each side of the formation, separated wide from the line, and those are the only two members of the coverage team who can start downfield immediately at the snap. The other nine must wait until the ball is kicked. As such, gunners tend to land near the top of a team’s leaderboard for special teams tackles each season. Hayes led the Bucs in 2025 with 15 kick-coverage stops and he also recorded the team’s only forced fumble on special teams.

Knowles was similarly productive in coverage for the Chiefs last year. He split his rookie season between the practice squad and the active roster but was also elevated on game day from the practice squad three times, leading to a total of 13 games played. In those 13 games, he tied for the team lead with eight solo kick-coverage tackles and also recovered a fumble.

The Buccaneers made several offseasons in an attempt to shore up their kick-and-coverage game overall, most notably hiring the highly-regarded Danny Smith as their new coordinator. The claiming of Knowles indicates that those efforts are ongoing, and they are considered very important. When Bowles was asked how many wins a good special teams crew can be responsible for in a season, he answered, “Three to four.” One more win in 2025 would have put the Bucs in the playoffs.

CLICK HERE for more of Coach Bowles’ thoughts after practice on Wednesday.