Richardson suffered a " freak accident " ahead of Week 6 in which an elastic band snapped a piece of metal hit him in the eye, fracturing his orbital bone. He was placed on injured reserve. He was medically cleared to resume practicing on Monday, but he is not a candidate to start.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are coming off back-to-back losses and are somehow still in control of their own destiny thanks to some help from the New Orleans Saints. They lost in devastating fashion to the Atlanta Falcons in Week 15,

A close win is expected for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (7-7) when they face the Carolina Panthers (7-7) on Sunday, Dec. 21 at Bank of America Stadium (starting at 1 p.m. ET).

Tampa Bay won the toss and deferred, and they were able to hold the Panthers to a field on the first drive of the game.