Speaker 1: Welcome into Buccaneers Insider Live presented by Miller like Casey
Speaker 1: Phillips and Scott Smith here, and this is where we
Speaker 1: take all of your questions, thoughts, comments, anything you want
Speaker 1: us to discuss about your Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This is
Speaker 1: the chance. So if you're watching on Facebook, make sure
Speaker 1: you headed that comment section underneath the live video. That's
Speaker 1: where I will get your questions from. So as we
Speaker 1: give people a chance to start submitting some of those questions.
Speaker 1: I know we talked about the schedule and a special
Speaker 1: Insider Live that happened right as it was released last week,
Speaker 1: but we haven't in this form gotten a chance to
Speaker 1: talk about it yet. So now that you've had even
Speaker 1: more time, because that was like immediately after it was released,
Speaker 1: Now that you've had a little bit more time to
Speaker 1: digest it, look at all the ins and out and
Speaker 1: nuances of it. Are there any things that have stood
Speaker 1: out to you that are a little bit different or
Speaker 1: unique since then? First of all, it's good to see
Speaker 1: again Casey. Uh. It's nice to have some outside contact
Speaker 1: at least once a week, right exactly, That's really all
Speaker 1: we're doing the show At this point, he was saying yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, um, I did a pros and cons article
Speaker 1: this week on the schedule, and obviously you're nitpicking a
Speaker 1: little bit when you try to bring up cons because
Speaker 1: having five prime time, nationally televised games is just incredible.
Speaker 1: It's just an indication of how interesting this team has
Speaker 1: become through this offseason with additions like Tom Brady and
Speaker 1: Rob Gronkowski and and you know, you've heard our players
Speaker 1: talk about how the the all that attention obviously maybe
Speaker 1: spurred by the addition of Tom Brady, but it's gonna
Speaker 1: bring some much deserved recognition for some of our players
Speaker 1: who probably have been undervalued for a long time. Vante
Speaker 1: David's name has brought up a lot. I think Da
Speaker 1: Vita by I probably had a much better last year
Speaker 1: than a lot of fans realized guys like that. So
Speaker 1: that's good. But you know, if we're nitpicking, Uh, something
Speaker 1: that I wrote about and that you about before came
Speaker 1: on here the bucks because mostly because of those primetime games,
Speaker 1: there is a little bit bit of imbalance in terms
Speaker 1: of what you'd call um net days off I think
Speaker 1: is probably the way to put it. So to make
Speaker 1: one example, to make the obvious example if you play,
Speaker 1: I guess a team who just came off a bye week. Obviously,
Speaker 1: that team had seven more days to to prepare and
Speaker 1: or rest up for that game. And that's a fact
Speaker 1: of life in the NFL. It generally happens to you
Speaker 1: from time to time. But the Buccaneers are really high
Speaker 1: this year. Uh In in games like that, in net
Speaker 1: days off, we play at least two teams coming up buys.
Speaker 1: Even when we have the Thursday night game in Chicago,
Speaker 1: which is what we usually call mini by because you
Speaker 1: get that weekend off before the next game as a
Speaker 1: reward for that short week leading up to the Thursday game,
Speaker 1: even that is an advantage, is not an advantage because
Speaker 1: the next game is against Green Bay and they'll be
Speaker 1: coming off a real buy, So even that mini buy
Speaker 1: isn't an advantage that week. So yeah, we're nitpicking there,
Speaker 1: but you know, there there are there's there's downsides. I
Speaker 1: guess you would say to having all this attention and
Speaker 1: all these uh national games and that's it. But it's
Speaker 1: a good problem to have, obviously, Yeah, I would agree
Speaker 1: with that, um And then I know this time of
Speaker 1: years also when we would be finding out about a
Speaker 1: lot of potential rule changes, things that are going to
Speaker 1: be voted on. Um, I know because of COVID in
Speaker 1: the situation that we might not have all the clarity
Speaker 1: on that that we normally would because some of these
Speaker 1: owners meetings being pushed back and you know, the times
Speaker 1: that we would we find out. But what do we
Speaker 1: know as of now about that and what are we
Speaker 1: still kind of waiting to find out? Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: the very first thing that you and I had canceled
Speaker 1: that we were supposed to go to was the owners
Speaker 1: meetings in late March, and uh, I think they call
Speaker 1: it the NFL Annual Meeting, but everybody calls it the
Speaker 1: owners meetings, and that's often where the first round of
Speaker 1: rule change discussions are made, and sometimes they do past
Speaker 1: rules there. You remember a year ago we were at
Speaker 1: those meetings and uh, they went a little extra long
Speaker 1: to get that passe interferres replay rule installed, And like
Speaker 1: most rules, it was a one year trial, and most
Speaker 1: one year trials, say, for instance, the recent changes to
Speaker 1: the kickoff are then the following year renewed as a
Speaker 1: permanent rule. And uh, I'm sure that's probably what they
Speaker 1: expected when they when they instituted that new rule for
Speaker 1: pastor and French replay last year, and yet this is
Speaker 1: the rare instance where it's already been stated by the
Speaker 1: Competition Committee that that rule is not going to be renewed,
Speaker 1: and we can talk about it here a little casey.
Speaker 1: But I think I I'm pleased by that, and I
Speaker 1: think it it follows what we've been saying all of
Speaker 1: last year and in the off season. Don't you think, yeah,
Speaker 1: I would agree with that. I think that, Um, there
Speaker 1: were so many times it was so frustrating, even when
Speaker 1: it wasn't your team, like even outside of Buckingeer's games,
Speaker 1: you know, of course that's when we would be the
Speaker 1: most frustrated was when it affected the books. But it
Speaker 1: really did seem lead wide like this just caused more
Speaker 1: issue choose and more drama and more questioning than it
Speaker 1: did solve things. And um, so I really do have
Speaker 1: to commend them for being like, all right, well we
Speaker 1: tried and it didn't seem like that worked out. Well yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's not just you saying that. Now. You've told
Speaker 1: me that before, and I think I've told you before
Speaker 1: maybe we've e been talked about it on one of
Speaker 1: these shows. To me, what it came down to, was
Speaker 1: that rule made me sort of change my mind a
Speaker 1: little bit on whether I thought replay overall was necessary
Speaker 1: in the game. And when it comes down to for me,
Speaker 1: is it's frustrating when you're watching a game and your
Speaker 1: team is hurt by what you think is a bad
Speaker 1: call or non call on a past inference play. It sucks.
Speaker 1: You know, you hate it. It's frustrating. But I found
Speaker 1: it at least doubly frustrating, if not many magnitudes more
Speaker 1: last year. When you thought your team got messed with
Speaker 1: by a bad call or non call, and then it
Speaker 1: was challenged, and then you saw the replays and you thought, well,
Speaker 1: I'm right, this proves it right, and then they still
Speaker 1: didn't overturn it, it was way more frustrating. So I,
Speaker 1: for one, I'm glad that this rule is gone. They're
Speaker 1: talking about trying to come up with ways to combat
Speaker 1: the problem, and basically the problem is that one play
Speaker 1: in the Rams Saints game in the playoffs two years ago.
Speaker 1: They're talking about ways to try to avoid that happening again.
Speaker 1: I don't know how they're gonna be able to do that, though,
Speaker 1: because it's a subjective thing, and I think you just
Speaker 1: have to live with it. Yeah, I mean I think
Speaker 1: that sounds like the true answer is that you and
Speaker 1: I should be in charge of the replay and then
Speaker 1: everything is fixed, and then everything will be five judge
Speaker 1: if you know, I'll be that sky judge. Yeah, where
Speaker 1: the fans don't know who you are in case they're
Speaker 1: mad at you. Yeah. I probably shouldn't do Bucks games though.
Speaker 1: That's that's project quite unbiased. That's a good point, Okay. Um,
Speaker 1: we had a question from Mike who asked, do you
Speaker 1: think that there's a likely extension for Godwin or because
Speaker 1: we're up against the cap that might not work. No.
Speaker 1: I would absolutely think that that's a priority. Um. When
Speaker 1: they talked about this earlier in the offseason, Bruce arians
Speaker 1: Jason made it clear that that's a priority, but also
Speaker 1: made it clear or that it's not something that had
Speaker 1: to get done right away, like tagging Shack Barry had
Speaker 1: to get done right away, and resigning and Dominican SU
Speaker 1: and JPP had to get done right away. Resigning Chris
Speaker 1: Godwin didn't have to be done. It could be done
Speaker 1: in August, it could be done in September. I think
Speaker 1: if I recall wasn't your coin might have been September
Speaker 1: October of the year leading up to his free agency
Speaker 1: um and Lavante David might have been in August. I think,
Speaker 1: and you know, you priority you you identify guys that
Speaker 1: are priorities to keep, and you make an effort to
Speaker 1: keep him. And I think both sides here want that
Speaker 1: to happen. So I think it'll get done. And I
Speaker 1: know I sound like a broken record when it comes
Speaker 1: to this up against the cap thing. If the Bucks
Speaker 1: need to create some cap space, they will find a
Speaker 1: way to make it happen. Yeah, if you look at
Speaker 1: the raw numbers, they're in the lower level now because
Speaker 1: of all the moves that we've made. But they'll find
Speaker 1: a way to make the money there. And you also
Speaker 1: have to consider that lots of times the cap hit
Speaker 1: isn't necessarily as terrible for that very year you're talking
Speaker 1: about right then. In fact, sometimes an extension can relieve
Speaker 1: your cap hit from that year, depending on how it's structured.
Speaker 1: And we don't I don't have the numbers in front
Speaker 1: of me, but last year, I remember everybody talking about
Speaker 1: how bad our cap situation was and how are we
Speaker 1: going to be able to do stuff the following off season,
Speaker 1: this offseason, and I said, just go look at the
Speaker 1: cap numbers. For there's a lot of contracts potentially coming
Speaker 1: off the books, so your cap space for one, I
Speaker 1: don't know what. Off the top of my head, I
Speaker 1: wish I was prepared with that, but I'm not. But
Speaker 1: it doesn't it's not necessarily as tight as it as
Speaker 1: it is right now. Yeah, that's a that's a great point. Um.
Speaker 1: And Everett asked, are we still eyeing any other potential
Speaker 1: free agents or do we think that we're done with that?
Speaker 1: You know, I kind of don't think so. And I
Speaker 1: guess this will sound a little contradictory to my last answer,
Speaker 1: but there isn't a lot of cap space at the moment.
Speaker 1: You do have to sign all of your draft picks.
Speaker 1: You might be worried about Chris Godwin extension, and there's
Speaker 1: been so much done already, and there's not really huge
Speaker 1: glaring holes on the roster, and there's not a lot
Speaker 1: of great free agents left out there. So for all
Speaker 1: those reasons, I just don't think so. I know we've
Speaker 1: got in dominckin Sue at about this time last year,
Speaker 1: but I think that was kind of a special situation
Speaker 1: because it was right after we had released Jeral McCoy. So,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't think there's a big sign There's
Speaker 1: always some signings, but there's not a lot of big
Speaker 1: signings between now and training camp, and I think this
Speaker 1: is a year where there won't be one. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: this is sort of related to that. But Jamir had asked,
Speaker 1: are we set at running back or do you see
Speaker 1: a signing of that? No. I think we're set um,
Speaker 1: you know, because they do like Ronald Jones and obviously
Speaker 1: they drafted keyshaw On Vaughan with the UH with the
Speaker 1: idea of making him pretty prominent in the in the offense.
Speaker 1: I think you don't spend a third round pick on
Speaker 1: running back if you don't think he's gonna play that year.
Speaker 1: Some other positions you might wait a little bit, but
Speaker 1: running backs generally step right in if they're you know,
Speaker 1: top day one or Day two picks. And they really
Speaker 1: liked what Ronald Jones did last year. I think that's
Speaker 1: a good complimentary group. And you know, when you hear
Speaker 1: Bruce arians talk about it, he always brings up Dario
Speaker 1: Goombaali and Taj Logan too. So I don't see a
Speaker 1: veteran addition there. And again, I think I've said it
Speaker 1: before when you've got basically a position that you don't
Speaker 1: necessarily a lot of teams don't want to put a
Speaker 1: whole lot of their cap space into because it's a
Speaker 1: fungible asset and there's a lot of turnover there, a
Speaker 1: lot of shorter careers. You've got two guys that are
Speaker 1: on rookie contracts. I don't think there's a there's necessarily
Speaker 1: a good idea there to add a big contract for
Speaker 1: a veteran. Okay, And this is an interesting question from Jack.
Speaker 1: He said, how different will the Saints games be from
Speaker 1: Week one to Week nine? Mm? Hm, Well, I mean
Speaker 1: the thing we can't know there is which players might
Speaker 1: be injured. Um between those two games just a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago, there's a big difference when we played
Speaker 1: New Orleans a Week one and later in the season
Speaker 1: because Jameis Winston was on the suspension. So you had
Speaker 1: Ryan Fitzpatrick in that first game, that forty forty shootout,
Speaker 1: and then Jameis Winston in the second one. Uh So
Speaker 1: you can't know for sure if you don't know for
Speaker 1: one reason or another, if a player is not available.
Speaker 1: But I think in this particular case, the chances are
Speaker 1: higher that the Buccaneers will be look different between weeks
Speaker 1: one and nine than the Saints. The Saints come back
Speaker 1: mostly intact. I think they're gonna have one change on
Speaker 1: their offensive line. They added Emmanuel Standards, but that should
Speaker 1: phase in their pretty easily. Whereas the Buccaneers are introducing
Speaker 1: a new quarterback. So you know, you, you know, we
Speaker 1: all think Tom Brady will step right in and be awesome,
Speaker 1: but it makes sense that he'll be more comfortable in
Speaker 1: the offense in week nine than week one. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: very true. Um, And we talked a little bit about
Speaker 1: running back already, but Jericho had asked how likely or
Speaker 1: possible is it that Vaughan could end up getting the
Speaker 1: starting nod over Rojoe. I. I really don't think that's
Speaker 1: gonna happen, at least at the beginning of the season. Um.
Speaker 1: Like I said, they liked what Rojo did. Um, there
Speaker 1: were a number of plays last year, as long as
Speaker 1: plays that were called back, that would have made the
Speaker 1: stats look even better. Um. I'm sure a lot of
Speaker 1: players can say that, but still that's the way they
Speaker 1: feel about him. Uh. I think there there really is
Speaker 1: no reason why you would take the rookie third rounder
Speaker 1: and making the starter right away over your your incoming
Speaker 1: third year back unless you didn't like that guy. And
Speaker 1: I think they do like that guy, So you know,
Speaker 1: I again, this is the second time I'm gonna say it.
Speaker 1: I sound like a broken record here, but I think
Speaker 1: it's all that critical which guy's name the starter. Ronald
Speaker 1: Jones wasn't the starter for the first seven games last year,
Speaker 1: but you're certainly playing at least as much as right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's true. This is an interesting question, Mike said, with
Speaker 1: teams not really paying running backs, are most teams just
Speaker 1: planning a draft one every year in the second or
Speaker 1: third round and not planned to pay a second contract?
Speaker 1: And do you see other positions that teams might use
Speaker 1: this philosophy. Well, that is a really good question. And
Speaker 1: I don't know about every year, but maybe every couple
Speaker 1: of years. That's certainly what the Buccaneers have just done. Um.
Speaker 1: And you sometimes find guys that help you out even
Speaker 1: in undrafted free agency, like Peyton barber Um. And really
Speaker 1: the history of the last maybe five six years of
Speaker 1: running backs getting second big contracts like for instance, Carolina
Speaker 1: just gave Christian McCaffrey a huge contract. I think that's
Speaker 1: pretty understandable given how important he is to their offense,
Speaker 1: and he's sort of like the new face to the
Speaker 1: franchise now that um Cam Newton and Luke Keikley are gone.
Speaker 1: It's kind of understandable there. But Todd Gurley, Derek McKinnon,
Speaker 1: Davante Freeman, Uh, these guys getting these second contracts, it
Speaker 1: just seems to more often than not not really pay
Speaker 1: off in the long run. So I don't think that
Speaker 1: the Buccaneers draft a key shan Von thinking he's gonna
Speaker 1: be gone in five years. Certainly not. They hope he's
Speaker 1: awesome and they have a reason to pay him again
Speaker 1: in five years. Uh. But I think there probably is
Speaker 1: a realization that that is more commonly a position that
Speaker 1: doesn't get a big second contract. So that concept makes
Speaker 1: a lot of sense to me. Doesn't apply to any
Speaker 1: other positions, not off the top of my head now,
Speaker 1: I don't think so. It's just that running back in particular,
Speaker 1: their their careers are generally so short and they're replaced
Speaker 1: a lot. And you know, I don't want to say
Speaker 1: that in in you know, to make any anyone feel
Speaker 1: bad about Ronald Jones Rakisha on vain again, we hope
Speaker 1: those guys around for a long time. Just history suggest
Speaker 1: that if you're talking about the league as a whole,
Speaker 1: there is so much turnover there. Yeah. Yeah, it's such
Speaker 1: a unique position in that way. Um, yes it was.
Speaker 1: I thought that was very unique. Um Todd asked, are
Speaker 1: they talking to Barrett still about a long term contract
Speaker 1: or do we think they're just going to do the
Speaker 1: one year deal in the franchise TAG? Yeah, and that's
Speaker 1: the kind of thing that both sides are obviously keeping quiet.
Speaker 1: I would guess that they're talking about to them about
Speaker 1: a long term contract. Um, doesn't mean it's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: I did a story like several months it's hard to
Speaker 1: keep track of time these days, but weeks and weeks
Speaker 1: ago about what has happened to all the people that
Speaker 1: have been franchised TAG, and it's about fifty fifty whether
Speaker 1: they end up remaining with the team or a past
Speaker 1: that first year. So there's certainly reason to question whether
Speaker 1: or not it will be more than a one term,
Speaker 1: one year deal. But I think given the guy, I
Speaker 1: love the guy, they think they got him at the
Speaker 1: perfect time that you know, they put him in. They
Speaker 1: took him from a spot whereas a rotational player, I
Speaker 1: thought he could do more as a as a starter
Speaker 1: and a you know a guy that gets like seventies
Speaker 1: sevent That's exactly what happened. That's exactly what you're trying
Speaker 1: to do in free agency. And uh and unfortunately it
Speaker 1: was only a one year contract, so now you have
Speaker 1: to pay up. But I think they liked the guy
Speaker 1: and they believe that this was not, in any case
Speaker 1: a flash in the pan. So I think it would
Speaker 1: like to get a long term deal done. It doesn't
Speaker 1: mean it will happen, but that would be my guess.
Speaker 1: John asked how many Titans do you think we'll keep? Well,
Speaker 1: I think we'll probably have four on the roster. Um
Speaker 1: a fifth one could force his way on there. It
Speaker 1: just depends, obviously on positional needs and other spots. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, they we always we always talk about Rob
Speaker 1: Gronkowski and O. J. Howard and Cam Brave for obvious reasons.
Speaker 1: Those are the guys that between them are gonna put
Speaker 1: up the pass catching numbers. But Anton Claire is a
Speaker 1: great blocker. They love his blocking in and most teams
Speaker 1: have at least one tight end that they consider a
Speaker 1: guy that's there for his great blocking, so I don't
Speaker 1: see him going anywhere. So that looks like at least
Speaker 1: forward to me. And we haven't even talked about Tayner Hudson,
Speaker 1: who's a young guy with a lot of potential, So
Speaker 1: it's gonna be tight. If I had to guess, I
Speaker 1: would say four, and sort of relate to that, I
Speaker 1: think it's Rebin maybe. I asked, do you believe that
Speaker 1: Evans and Godwin could hit a thousand plus yards again
Speaker 1: each this year? Since we also have three great tight ends?
Speaker 1: And he's watching from Denmark? So that's fun Denmark, all right? Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm actually funny. I'm answering a mail back question about
Speaker 1: that right now. I had to stop to do this
Speaker 1: awesome show instead. But um, you wonder people wonder about
Speaker 1: there's only one football to go around, and we talked
Speaker 1: about how this offense is so loaded with pass catchers
Speaker 1: can all of them be satisfied? And UM, I won't
Speaker 1: spoil my answer completely in the mail bag you have
Speaker 1: to go read it, but I think there's room for
Speaker 1: both Evans and Godwin to pass a hundred yards and
Speaker 1: still have um, I mean a thousand yards and still
Speaker 1: have good numbers for Rob Gronkowski and at least or O. J.
Speaker 1: Howard and at least one other guy, whether it be
Speaker 1: the other tight end or a third receiver or running back,
Speaker 1: which is something obviously that's featured prominently in Tom Brady
Speaker 1: offenses recently. So, uh, do you think both those guys
Speaker 1: made it easily past the thousand yards last year? And
Speaker 1: that's with Mike Evans missing the last three games and
Speaker 1: most of the fourth game and Chris Godwin missing the
Speaker 1: last two games and a portion of a third game,
Speaker 1: So they may not both end up they were both
Speaker 1: on pace to get close to fifteen hundred yards. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't expect that to happen, but I do think they
Speaker 1: can both top a thousand and still have two or
Speaker 1: maybe three other guys with a significant pasket. Okay, well
Speaker 1: for us on this edition of Buccaneers Insider Life presented
Speaker 1: by Miller Life, Thanks for all of those awesome questions,
Speaker 1: and we will be right back here next week, so
Speaker 1: we'll see it then, he prefer m. M.