Todd Bowles spills the beans on plan for starters in Bucs' preseason opener vs. Bengals

For those hoping to see their favorite Tampa Bay Buccaneer stars in action for the first time on Saturday night this season, it looks like that will have to wait for at least for one more week.

Todd Bowles responded to a question on Thursday that "most" of the Bucs' starters will not play against the Bengals on Saturday night in Cincinnati.

"Most of the starters will not play," Bowles said.  "Based on who's nicked up or not, you may see two or three of them in there for a series or two, but most of them won't play."

As far as whether there's any philosophy or plan involved for the rest of the preseason, Bowles said the plan was just limited to this week.

"Just this week.  It'll be week by week."

As such, the Bucs will roll with Kyle Trask and John Wolford this week under center.  Despite no Mike Evans or Chris Godwin, who those two QBs will be throwing to should still be of interest to Bucs fans, as the battle between Trey Palmer and Jalen McMillan for the WR3 spot should be one of the more compelling ones of the preseason.

How the Bucs handle the interior of the offense line should also be of interest.  Of course, the center position remains - in theory - up for grabs between Graham Barton and Robert Hainsey.  The latter doesn't need the reps as much as the former, so you'd think Barton should see some work on Friday night.

Ben Bredeson is penciled in as the starter at left guard on the Bucs' most recent depth chart after Sua Opeta suffered a torn ACL .  It'll be curious to see if he gets any work given how thin that particular position is, or if the Bucs don't want to tempt fate there after Opeta's injury.  Behind him is UDFA rookie Xavier Delgado, who should presumably get a good bit of work there.

Defensively, seeing if Chris Barmore can have a Yaya Diaby type of first impression for a rookie should be worth watching.  Also, Tykee Smith and Christian Izien should battle for the starting nickel CB role .  Again, you'd think at least the rookie Smith would need to get more reps there over the veteran.

We'll see how Bowles and his staff handle things when toe meets leather on Saturday night around 7:00 pm ET at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati.

Related: Tampa Bay Buccaneers OLB Yaya Diaby reveals his prospects to play in Week One against the Washington Commanders