Speaker 1: Welcome in two Bucks insider Casey Phillips here with senior
Speaker 1: writer and editor Scott Smith. It has been a fun
Speaker 1: week because it is official. Antoine Winfield Junior is a
Speaker 1: Buck for a long time and making a big buck,
Speaker 1: so it was quite a deal for him. He had
Speaker 1: his official signing and press conference this week, and it
Speaker 1: was even cooler because the press conference was one year
Speaker 1: to the day from him calling his shot. So let's
Speaker 1: take a listen.
Speaker 2: The worst Saturday morning, you know where everybody hung over.
Speaker 2: We get that good work here, big season to hear.
Speaker 2: I think I'm the only one I see it. That's
Speaker 2: just how I gotta be right now, That's how I
Speaker 2: got to be.
Speaker 3: What are you going for?
Speaker 2: I want team, I want All Pro, Pro Bowl, super Bowl.
Speaker 1: I want it all in the final goal.
Speaker 2: There we go, ice paid this year.
Speaker 1: Mark my words.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna come next to this video and be like
Speaker 2: I did it well. Probably shouldn't see you because on
Speaker 2: his work that we put here right now, we're gonna
Speaker 2: make it happen. So it's twenty third, so you got
Speaker 2: to speaking it into existence. All Pro, highest pay, all pro,
Speaker 2: highest paid, all Pro, highest pay, and eventually it's going
Speaker 2: to become reality.
Speaker 1: So state some incredible and again to the day, one
Speaker 1: year from when he recorded that video was his press
Speaker 1: conference and when I interviewed him afterward, I was like,
Speaker 1: I have a list of things I'd like for you
Speaker 1: to manifest if you wouldn't mind, you know, winning the lottery,
Speaker 1: things like that. But I did talk to him a
Speaker 1: little bit about his next things he wants to manifest,
Speaker 1: So we have a slice coming out with him soon.
Speaker 1: That's gonna be fun to hear that about. So tell
Speaker 1: me your thoughts on this deal. Listening to him at
Speaker 1: the press conference, just what this means to him, to
Speaker 1: the organization and to that defense.
Speaker 3: Well, it was funny because he said, as we know,
Speaker 3: he's now the highest paid defensive back in the league,
Speaker 3: and he says that they're in the video and the
Speaker 3: goal when you say that, obviously you have to do
Speaker 3: something extraordinary to then be rewarded as the highest paid
Speaker 3: player at your position. Right, So it's a good goal
Speaker 3: to have beyond just you know, wanting to be wealthy.
Speaker 3: But he said, to be clear, I was going for
Speaker 3: highest paid safety, not necessarily defensive back. So that was
Speaker 3: kind of even above and beyond. But again it's as
Speaker 3: was mentioned in the press conference, it's another example of you,
Speaker 3: if you're drafted by this team and you put in
Speaker 3: the work and you become a good player, they want
Speaker 3: to keep you around. And we're showing it again and again.
Speaker 3: That's the way that Jason Light wants to build this
Speaker 3: team and Antoine himself. He didn't put any numerical goals
Speaker 3: like in that video. I think he said ten as
Speaker 3: in ten takeaways if you add up his interceptions in
Speaker 3: force fumbls and funnel recoveries. He did get there, but
Speaker 3: he didn't really have another statistical goal for this season.
Speaker 3: The goal was the super Bowl, which is what Jason Light,
Speaker 3: who was sitting next to him, wanted to hear. So
Speaker 3: he wants to get super Bowl number two and then
Speaker 3: go from there, as he said, and he plans to
Speaker 3: continue working just as hard. He says every year he
Speaker 3: wants to be better than the year he was before,
Speaker 3: and at this stage in his career that's still quite doable.
Speaker 1: Yeah, which is incredible. I'm so excited to have him
Speaker 1: around longer term. Now. That was, of course the highest
Speaker 1: profile signing of the week. It wasn't the only signing
Speaker 1: of the week. We're always kind of in this point
Speaker 1: this time of year of trying to get all those
Speaker 1: rookies sign on their deals, and so tell us about
Speaker 1: who was able to get scared.
Speaker 3: Yeah, draft pick, third round pick Tyke Smith, the safety
Speaker 3: or defensive back out of Georgia. He got his first
Speaker 3: deal done. Like every player picked after the first round,
Speaker 3: it's a four year deal. That leaves just three of
Speaker 3: the draft picks still to go. Graham Barton the first
Speaker 3: round center, Chris Braswell the second round outside linebacker, and
Speaker 3: Jalen mcmill in the third round receiver, and those will
Speaker 3: probably get done in the next few weeks. They tend
Speaker 3: to under the current system because they're just not very
Speaker 3: difficult to do. And then we also had another little
Speaker 3: tweak to the roster. Signed a defender named Ernest Brown,
Speaker 3: formerly of the Rams, and then to make a spot
Speaker 3: for him, release Patrick Lair, who's been on the practice
Speaker 3: squad for quite some time. The running back Ernest Brown,
Speaker 3: he came in the league as a draft pick with
Speaker 3: the Rams. He was considered an outside linebacker at the time,
Speaker 3: but he's kind of bulked up to about three hundred
Speaker 3: pounds now from two to seventy so the Bucks tend
Speaker 3: to use them, intend to use them like a three
Speaker 3: four defensive end, like a Will Golston type. So, and
Speaker 3: you know, as I always mentioned where these guys played
Speaker 3: their college ball, he played at Northwestern because I always
Speaker 3: I always mentioned.
Speaker 1: That you always school no matter what, and not at
Speaker 1: all more emphasis when it's from Northwestern. I love that,
Speaker 1: all right. So you know, we don't typically have an
Speaker 1: injury report at this point in the year, but I
Speaker 1: saw your face like, what is happening? Coach Bowls on
Speaker 1: the on the injury report at this point. He had
Speaker 1: a knee surgery coming into OTAs, but that did not
Speaker 1: keep him from being out there. He was in a
Speaker 1: golf cart and I loved watching him right on by
Speaker 1: and as he drove by, I gave a little Princess
Speaker 1: way and he gave the Princess way back as he's
Speaker 1: in his chariot being driven around OTAs. So he's still there,
Speaker 1: still made it to the first OTAs, just had to
Speaker 1: get that new replacement, which I mean, hey, he's gonna
Speaker 1: be an even even better coach this year once he
Speaker 1: get it all figured out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we have precedents of coaches going to practice in
Speaker 3: golf carts and it working out okay, something we had
Speaker 3: seen before. I was I was kind of impressed. To
Speaker 3: me answer you, I had heard some rumblings last week
Speaker 3: that he may not be at practices this week because
Speaker 3: the surgery was last Wednesday. Yeah, that's pretty quick, and
Speaker 3: this the first practice was Tuesday, so that's six days.
Speaker 1: He said.
Speaker 3: The first three days after the surgery were pretty rough,
Speaker 3: but he was getting around pretty well. And he says
Speaker 3: by the time the season, I would imagine also training
Speaker 3: cap comes around, he'll be move around just fine. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's you know, that's a knee replacement. That's a big deal. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I personally was impressed he was out there. I imagine
Speaker 3: when you think about it, and we could talk a
Speaker 3: little bit about more what OTAs are, but you only
Speaker 3: get ten of them, and so.
Speaker 1: I want to miss it. So tell us a little
Speaker 1: bit back again about that phase we're in OTAs, what
Speaker 1: the actual moment is of the off season.
Speaker 3: We just started phase three, which is going to begin
Speaker 3: with three weeks of OTA, so you'll have three one week,
Speaker 3: three one week, and then four one week. The league
Speaker 3: only allows you to have ten. Sometimes teams maybe skip
Speaker 3: one of them and only do nine, but for now
Speaker 3: we have ten scheduled and in this third and then
Speaker 3: after that there will be a three day mini camp,
Speaker 3: which is the only mandatory part of the off season program.
Speaker 3: In this third phase, you can now finally do full
Speaker 3: team drills like eleven on a having a nine on
Speaker 3: seven and so on, at which you couldn't do until
Speaker 3: this week started. Offense had to go against like other
Speaker 3: offensive players pretending to be defense, that kind of thing.
Speaker 3: But now they can go offense versus defense. There's still
Speaker 3: no contact, you're not supposed to hit each other, and
Speaker 3: these are not mandatory, but most of our guys have
Speaker 3: shown up. Baker Mayfield and very notably was out there.
Speaker 3: You really, that's probably the most important person to attend
Speaker 3: you're starting quarterback because you're trying to get the offense.
Speaker 3: It's especially yeah and especially once again a new offense,
Speaker 3: So it would be unfortunate if Baker wasn't there, but
Speaker 3: he's there.
Speaker 1: And then another person that one of those high profile
Speaker 1: people that is attending is Chris Godwin, and we got
Speaker 1: a chance to hear from him as he spoke about
Speaker 1: again new offense what his role might look like. So
Speaker 1: what did you feel like you learned. And you know,
Speaker 1: I feel like all off season we have been hearing
Speaker 1: rumblings of what we think that Chris Godwin Liam Cohen
Speaker 1: partnership is going to.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, Well Liam had mentioned that he intended to
Speaker 3: put Chris back into that role he used to play,
Speaker 3: where he's primarily working out of the slot, and but
Speaker 3: we hadn't talked to Chris about it, We hadn't really
Speaker 3: heard how he felt about it, and it was good
Speaker 3: to hear that he's very much in favor of this.
Speaker 3: You know, he was if we've shown graphics before about
Speaker 3: how he was playing like seventy to seventy five percent
Speaker 3: of snaps in the slot in the previous three years.
Speaker 3: Last year it was only like forty percent. Now he's
Speaker 3: going to be your primary slot guy again. And a
Speaker 3: couple of things he mentioned one, as you see here,
Speaker 3: it allows him to be more creative in his routes,
Speaker 3: he says. But also, and I thought this was a
Speaker 3: really good point. If you recall a few years ago,
Speaker 3: we were raving about how good his run blocking was
Speaker 3: and how important he was to the rushing attack, which
Speaker 3: is not real common for a wide receiver tied end sure,
Speaker 3: but receivers. They don't usually they're not usually that important
Speaker 3: to your rushing attack. They're getting new blocks on the
Speaker 3: outside in case of run is out and you maybe
Speaker 3: get some more yards. Chris notes that when he's playing
Speaker 3: in the slot, he can go back to being much
Speaker 3: more involved in the and much more important to the
Speaker 3: run blocking schemes without it being obvious if you're playing
Speaker 3: the outside. If he's playing on the outside and he
Speaker 3: motions in and stops right near the end of the line,
Speaker 3: pretty good indication is probably a running play and he's
Speaker 3: gonna be blocking. But if he's already there, you're not
Speaker 3: giving anything away.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 3: I thought that was a good point.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Those One of my favorite things I learned last
Speaker 1: year was talking to Chris on one of our shows
Speaker 1: and that he started out as an offensive line minister
Speaker 1: did because of the weight situation, And I was like,
Speaker 1: it all makes so much sense now, all right, And
Speaker 1: so finally I know tight end room is going to
Speaker 1: be an interesting one to watch this year that we
Speaker 1: know we still have, you know, several guys coming back.
Speaker 1: You have a little bit of additions, and again in
Speaker 1: this offense, what do you see is the role of
Speaker 1: the tight end, how Liam Cohan wants to use them
Speaker 1: and there for what that could look like for the
Speaker 1: guys that are on this roster.
Speaker 3: Well, one thing we've talked about a little bit. I
Speaker 3: think we're going to run more eleven personnel rather than twelve,
Speaker 3: and twelve is where you get two tight ends on
Speaker 3: the field, So the snaps might be at a bit
Speaker 3: more of a premium. But Cade told us that he
Speaker 3: and the other tight ends, it's a really young group.
Speaker 3: We're talking before practice the other day and they were saying,
Speaker 3: we want to be the best position unit on this team,
Speaker 3: which is a lofty goal. I mean, better than the receiver.
Speaker 3: I was like, oh boy, better than the safety. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean, if you're going.
Speaker 1: To the goal, I love the goal. If they I mean, heck,
Speaker 1: if you come even close, you're doing pretty well.
Speaker 3: So Kate is the quote unquote elder statesman of that room,
Speaker 3: even though he's just going into his third year. We've
Speaker 3: really totally rebuilt that room. You know, not that long
Speaker 3: ago it was Rob Gronkowski and Cam Bray and it's
Speaker 3: really changed quite a bit. As you see here. In
Speaker 3: the last three years, we've spent four day three picks
Speaker 3: on the position and that might be your position group.
Speaker 3: That might be it right there. I mean, there's a
Speaker 3: couple of other guys in the mix, but it could
Speaker 3: into being those four. And you know, the oldest one
Speaker 3: is going into his third year. But you know, there's
Speaker 3: a lot of different types of guys in that group there,
Speaker 3: and there's a lot of room for growth. And you
Speaker 3: know what. The funny thing about kid I noticed when
Speaker 3: he was talking to the press. I love the guy
Speaker 3: and he gets asked questions that are directly about him,
Speaker 3: like what are your goals for this season? How many catches?
Speaker 3: And he never talks about himself. Yeah, he always talks
Speaker 3: about the position, or the team or all the weapons
Speaker 3: on offense, no matter how the question was faceds in
Speaker 3: like trying to get him to say something good about himself,
Speaker 3: he was always just talking about the team. That's kind
Speaker 3: of a cool guy.
Speaker 1: He's he's truly incredible. And I actually I talked to
Speaker 1: Devin Cult a little bit about him as well, knowing
Speaker 1: that they played together, and he was like, Kate is
Speaker 1: just the best human, Like he's just such a good
Speaker 1: person and guy, and I mean, you gotta love that.
Speaker 1: And it's got a middle school sweetheart and about to
Speaker 1: have their first baby, and so yeah, I mean, Kaid's
Speaker 1: an easy one to root for. All right, Well, that's
Speaker 1: gonna do it for us on this edition of Bucks
Speaker 1: Insider Again. Stay tuned to all the coverage of OTAs
Speaker 1: on buccaneers dot com.