Speaker 1: Welcome to Bucks Insider Live, Casey Phillips. You're a senior
Speaker 1: writer and editor Scott Smith, and what we know starting
Speaker 1: this morning, there are a lot of reports out there
Speaker 1: about a particular hiring of the Buccaneers. Love reports. Reports
Speaker 1: are great, We make a living on reports, but we
Speaker 1: also are a part of the team and there has
Speaker 1: been no official word yet from the team on everything. So, um,
Speaker 1: just some thoughts so far on the offensive coordinator search
Speaker 1: of of to this point, what we've um seen in
Speaker 1: terms of all the different candidates and some of that news,
Speaker 1: and just your thoughts on what this could mean moving
Speaker 1: forward and what some of these reports are that are
Speaker 1: out there. Well, it's been an extensive search, yes, say
Speaker 1: that the Buccaneers have interviewed ken candidates and whether or not,
Speaker 1: you know, we have an announcement coming soon. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: they've done They've done their due diligence and looked, uh
Speaker 1: you know, searched all around the league and interviewed a
Speaker 1: lot of up and coming bright young coaches. Um. But
Speaker 1: you see that actually around the league, like the when
Speaker 1: the Ravens hired Todd Munkin, which is also another one
Speaker 1: of the people that the Buccaneers interviewed. They made a
Speaker 1: point of saying, we interviewed fifteen people. We looked all around,
Speaker 1: So I mean, it just makes sense to interview a
Speaker 1: lot of people to you know, pick some brains to
Speaker 1: get an idea of you know, you know what some
Speaker 1: of these young offensive minds are thinking, and and just
Speaker 1: you know, get cast a wide net and and listen
Speaker 1: to ideas and see who you really like and who
Speaker 1: you think is going to be the one who you know,
Speaker 1: you you think could really fashion a new a new
Speaker 1: offense for you. Because the thing about that most of
Speaker 1: these candidates have something really good on the resume. They
Speaker 1: just helped some quarterback do something great, or they did
Speaker 1: this or that, but none of them are play callers.
Speaker 1: So you're basing your decision on you know how you
Speaker 1: when you met with them, you felt about them, what
Speaker 1: you think they could do, But when it comes down
Speaker 1: to it, you still don't know what how they're going
Speaker 1: to be as play collars. And that's the big deal
Speaker 1: about becoming the offensive coordinator for a team that doesn't
Speaker 1: have an offensive minded coach, so they're definitely gonna be
Speaker 1: called place. So it's a very interesting topic, but it's
Speaker 1: not officially decided yet, no official word from the Buccaneers,
Speaker 1: so make sure you stay tuned to all of our
Speaker 1: coverage here on Buccaneers dot Com is always for any
Speaker 1: updates and news moving forward on that and everything else,
Speaker 1: and so exciting for us. We have not had a
Speaker 1: show since a certain Hall of Fame decision was made.
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, I know that I'll probably be
Speaker 1: mentioned in bucks Feet when I shoot that later on,
Speaker 1: and part of what I was going to say, and
Speaker 1: that is just the idea that I'm sure Buck says.
Speaker 1: We've probably heard about this by now, but I don't
Speaker 1: think any of them are going to be tired of
Speaker 1: talking about it, at least I know we are not. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know you've already gotten to write about it, but
Speaker 1: I knew on this show we wanted to get a
Speaker 1: chance to talk about it. And just your initial thoughts
Speaker 1: on him finally making it in and what you think
Speaker 1: was different about this year, and just what this means
Speaker 1: to to him in the organization relief relief. You know,
Speaker 1: with John Lynch, it took like seven years. I was
Speaker 1: concerned that was going to be that sort of process,
Speaker 1: but really, when it came down to his third years
Speaker 1: of finalists, which isn't that bad dog years. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: just came down to the fact that when they kept
Speaker 1: making him a finalist, and then when you looked at
Speaker 1: the resume, there were no holes in that resume. That's
Speaker 1: a Hall of Fame resume. It has it all. And
Speaker 1: I've said it many times, so I probably don't need
Speaker 1: to lay out the whole argument again since he did it,
Speaker 1: since it since he's in. But it was gratifying to
Speaker 1: see the voters, you know, look at that resume, go, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a Hall of Famer. There's no question he has everything.
Speaker 1: He has the stats, he has a longevity, he has
Speaker 1: the signature plays, he has the things that nobody else
Speaker 1: has done. Um. It's which I loved because I do
Speaker 1: feel like it's always interesting to see sometimes what the
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame voters value, and sometimes it feels like
Speaker 1: it's some just name recognition, like the hype that's around it,
Speaker 1: and sometimes it is purely stats, and there can be
Speaker 1: some intangibles that don't always seem to get valued as much.
Speaker 1: And the fact that he really did just completely create
Speaker 1: almost a new position. I was worried that there were
Speaker 1: things that Ronde did that weren't traditional by the book
Speaker 1: ways of getting into the Hall of Fame, but he
Speaker 1: did still have all those stats. He did have a
Speaker 1: lot of those things. Um, and you know, we talked
Speaker 1: about you know, we came on Salty Dogs with you guys,
Speaker 1: and we were worried that it was almost like he
Speaker 1: was getting penalized by having so much other talent around
Speaker 1: him of how many of these guys can you put
Speaker 1: in the Hall of Fame? And that was a problem. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's but it's like, man, I'm so glad that
Speaker 1: that didn't have that effect because he should just get
Speaker 1: judged on what he did and regardless of who else
Speaker 1: was out there with him, he did incredible things. That
Speaker 1: was that was a big hurdle with the voters from
Speaker 1: what I understand though, being four players off one defense,
Speaker 1: and honestly, it's the first time that's happened since the
Speaker 1: Steelers in the nineteen seventies, so it is unusual. But
Speaker 1: then you're penalizing a guy for like the order that
Speaker 1: they retired, right, and if Rerande was before John Lynch,
Speaker 1: would John Lynch be here? And well, we can't put
Speaker 1: four guys in the right it's not really fair day
Speaker 1: and I think you're penalizing them for having you know,
Speaker 1: good scouting and GM where everything. But really that's that
Speaker 1: defense was legendarily good from about the end of ninety
Speaker 1: six through about two thousand and five, solid decade. During
Speaker 1: that decade, they were clearly the best defensive link and
Speaker 1: they were good every single year. And when they peaked
Speaker 1: in two thousand two and then Super Bowl year, they
Speaker 1: really peaked. Allowed twelve point three points per game that year. Uh.
Speaker 1: And and that is that has Monti Kiffin was a
Speaker 1: great defensive coordinator. Um. They all played well together. But
Speaker 1: now you look back and go, well, yeah, they had
Speaker 1: four Hall of Famers on the defensive. Of course they
Speaker 1: were really good, unbelievable. All right, Well, now let's turn
Speaker 1: to this season a little bit more that this is
Speaker 1: the time of year where we always kind of like
Speaker 1: to look at the schedule, what's ahead, what's coming up? Um,
Speaker 1: And then of course free agency big part of that.
Speaker 1: So what are some of the things to be keeping
Speaker 1: our eye on now moving forward? This has become sort
Speaker 1: of an annual thing the last few years. But the Buccaneers,
Speaker 1: and that's partially because they've signed a lot of one
Speaker 1: year contracts in recent years. But the Buccaneers have twenty
Speaker 1: three players from their two thousand and twenty two roster,
Speaker 1: and here they are, who are going, who are pending
Speaker 1: unrestricted free agents? You see there's one restricted free agent
Speaker 1: and two exclusive rights one those are kind of different
Speaker 1: categories that are easier to retain. But the first twenty
Speaker 1: three guys there on the top all are free to go.
Speaker 1: And unless the Buccaneers use a franchise tag, kind of
Speaker 1: doubt maybe Jamal Dean, but I kind of doubt it.
Speaker 1: There's such a lot. That's a long list. Now, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of guys on there that you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: our backups are role players and you can get him
Speaker 1: back or not. But there's some big names on there.
Speaker 1: I wanted to point out. And there's this picture right
Speaker 1: there is Lavante. David Lavante's signed and finished three contracts
Speaker 1: with the Buccaneers already, and that's unusual in and of itself.
Speaker 1: If he were to return next year for a twelve season,
Speaker 1: he would become just the fourth player including Ryanny Barber.
Speaker 1: We were just talking about Derrick Brooks and Paul Gruber
Speaker 1: who have played a dozen or more years for the Buccaneers.
Speaker 1: And not played for anybody else. So you're talking about
Speaker 1: one of the core guys in franchise history right there.
Speaker 1: So does Lavante david At I think he'd be going
Speaker 1: into his age thirty four season next year. But he
Speaker 1: just came off a really nice season, uh in age
Speaker 1: thirty three, just really played very well, So there's no
Speaker 1: reason to worry that he's not the same player. But
Speaker 1: how long does Rande does Levon they want to play?
Speaker 1: Is he does he value staying with the same team
Speaker 1: the whole time? Does he get some offers elsewhere? And
Speaker 1: then there's just a bunch of other names on there,
Speaker 1: you know on the defense, Yeah, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: defensive players up there. Carl Nassib, you know, did a
Speaker 1: nice job. Anthony Nelson just finished his rookie contract. Does
Speaker 1: he get a bigger deal somewhere else? There's a lot
Speaker 1: to work with, And as you mentioned earlier, the cap
Speaker 1: situation isn't great, so I think maybe we were talking
Speaker 1: about that off air, but um, the cap situation is
Speaker 1: difficult to deal with. So you throw that in the mix.
Speaker 1: You think, how are the buck is going to get
Speaker 1: a lot of these guys there? And maybe a lot
Speaker 1: of them won't be back. But you know that happens
Speaker 1: in the NFL. You have a lot of turn over,
Speaker 1: isn't it like an average of something like turn over
Speaker 1: every year? Which is crazy. And again, when the Box
Speaker 1: have signed back to so many people last couple of years,
Speaker 1: it's easy to forget that. I can't go on forever. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you can't do that for forever, which is going to
Speaker 1: be interesting. And so what are some of the big
Speaker 1: dates moving forward that the Bucks can keep an eye
Speaker 1: on and fans should should pay Yeah, well, with the
Speaker 1: new season. The new league year starts on March fifteenth,
Speaker 1: as you see there. Um, that's really the biggest date
Speaker 1: on there. That's when free agency begins. That's when you
Speaker 1: have to be under the salary cap. I. But there's
Speaker 1: a few other things before then. Uh, starting on February
Speaker 1: twenty one and going through a little bit about a
Speaker 1: week before the new league year, you can use franchise
Speaker 1: tags some players. Um do you have the NFL scouting
Speaker 1: combine coming up at the very end of the very
Speaker 1: end of this month. Um, you have that period when
Speaker 1: you can start bringing in the thirty draft eligible guy.
Speaker 1: You get thirty visits from guys that you can that
Speaker 1: you might be interested in drafting, and then, um, the
Speaker 1: free agency begins. As I mentioned, and right before free agency,
Speaker 1: there's about a not quite three day period, about fifty
Speaker 1: two hours when you're like, they call it legal tampering
Speaker 1: is the way they refer to it is when it's
Speaker 1: always such a funny term to me in general, Well,
Speaker 1: the league doesn't use that. Um, they call it the
Speaker 1: negotiation period. So that's the amount of time when you
Speaker 1: can start talking to the agents, not the players themselves,
Speaker 1: but the agents of potential free agents on other teams,
Speaker 1: and you can even start negotiating contracts. And that's why,
Speaker 1: as everybody knows, on the March fifteenth, when free agency begins,
Speaker 1: all of sudden you have just a landslide of deals.
Speaker 1: You're like, how'd they get that done in thirty minutes?
Speaker 1: You know, they had the frameworking place. So that's that's
Speaker 1: coming up pretty soon, and we're gonna be turning on
Speaker 1: page pretty much. The Super bowls over. What do you
Speaker 1: think about the Super Bowl? But so fun? I mean,
Speaker 1: what fun. I'm always a big fan of the offense
Speaker 1: in general. I'm not someone that wants the like six
Speaker 1: to three, Like, yeah, I'm not only not that person. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not that person. So I loved it. I thought
Speaker 1: it was great. Quarterbacks were incredible, they really were. That
Speaker 1: was just it was a fun game to watch, you know,
Speaker 1: when to not really have any um, you know, dog
Speaker 1: in the fight. As they say, It was just the
Speaker 1: perfect kind of game. I felt like to just sit
Speaker 1: back and enjoy, you know, some some really beautiful football
Speaker 1: and plays that make you say, oh my gosh, that's
Speaker 1: that's what you want in that game. And of course
Speaker 1: Hurt was amazing. Is either af phily want he would
Speaker 1: have been the nv P for sure. Absolutely, I did
Speaker 1: have a dog in the fight. I have Kansas City
Speaker 1: Chiefs roots. So that's true. You were happy about that
Speaker 1: whole thing, all right. Well that is going to do
Speaker 1: it for us on this edition of Bucks Insider Live.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being with us, and we'll
Speaker 1: see you next time for four