The Tampa Bay Buccaneers added cornerback Brandon Johnson to the practice squad on Tuesday, filling the opening created when Sean Murphy-Bunting left for Pittsburgh’s active roster earlier in the week, via the NFL transaction wire.
The move is a depth transaction more than a headline roster change, but it gives Tampa Bay another young corner to develop while the secondary continues to absorb injuries around the regular-season rotation.
Johnson, 23, is listed at 5-foot-10 and 185 pounds and will wear No. 28. He entered the league as an undrafted free agent with the Philadelphia Eagles after the 2025 draft, coming out of Oregon.
Most of his rookie year was spent on Philadelphia’s practice squad.
The Eagles elevated him the maximum number of times allowed, and he appeared in three games with one start, finishing with three tackles and a pass defensed.
He re-signed on a futures contract after the season, then was released in June.
From there the path got more unsettled. Johnson signed with the Seattle Seahawks ahead of training camp, only to be waived with an injury designation a few weeks later.
He was waived from injured reserve in mid-August and later drew a tryout with the New York Giants in early September before landing in Tampa Bay. Practice-squad life is familiar territory.
What the Buccaneers are buying is a player who has already been through an NFL camp cycle, a limited game-day sample, and the churn of being released more than once before his second season is fully underway.
The college résumé is thicker than the pro one. Johnson played at Duke from 2021 through 2023, then transferred to Oregon for 2024.
Across those stops, he appeared in 50 games and finished with 173 tackles, 20.5 tackles for loss, 16 passes defensed, eight sacks and three interceptions.
In his lone season with the Ducks, he played all 14 games, posted 45 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, six passes defensed and an interception, and earned honorable-mention All-Big Ten recognition.
The Newton, North Carolina, native profiles as a physical slot-or-boundary option more than a finished starter, which is the usual profile for a practice-squad corner.
For Tampa Bay, the timing is practical. Murphy-Bunting’s departure left a vacancy on the 17-man practice squad, and the Buccaneers are heading into a short week for Thursday night in Dallas still searching for their first win of 2026.
Johnson is not being asked to fix that record. He is being asked to stay ready, work in practice, and give the staff another body if elevations or further injuries force the secondary to shuffle again. In a league where cornerback depth rarely lasts a full season, that is often enough reason for a signing like this one.
