Speaker 1: Good morning, Bucks fans. Happy Wednesday. It's time for Buccaneers
Speaker 1: Inside or Live, presented by a Miller light Casey Phillips.
Speaker 1: Here was senior writer and editor Scott Smith, and this
Speaker 1: is where we answer all of your questions. So if
Speaker 1: you are not already watching this on the Buccaneers Facebook page,
Speaker 1: you can head on over there. Leave all your thoughts, comments,
Speaker 1: questions in the comment section. And this is such a
Speaker 1: great time of year to do this because there's not
Speaker 1: really anything going on in terms of on the field,
Speaker 1: so this is the great time to just talk about
Speaker 1: whatever those burning questions you guys have are about the team,
Speaker 1: about the roster, training camp, stuff coming up, So any
Speaker 1: of that stuff, leave it in the comments section underneath
Speaker 1: our Facebook live video while we give people a chance
Speaker 1: to do that. We did talk a little bit last
Speaker 1: week about the potential new helmet rule, and it had
Speaker 1: not officially been decided at that point, and now we
Speaker 1: know that it has, so tell everybody a little bit
Speaker 1: about that and what that's going to mean for the
Speaker 1: Bucks moving forward. Yeah, last week we were asked about it,
Speaker 1: and I think the answer was, well, we know they're
Speaker 1: talking about it, so that's a good thing. But we
Speaker 1: hadn't seen an answer yet. We have an answer now,
Speaker 1: or at least part of an answer. And for anybody
Speaker 1: that doesn't quite know what we're talking about, the Buccaneers,
Speaker 1: uh did throwback games to the orange jersey starting in
Speaker 1: two thousand nine and did it for four years, one
Speaker 1: time a year, and it was very popular. Uh you know,
Speaker 1: it's not only just the the uniforms, but at the
Speaker 1: stadium they decked it out and all the orange and
Speaker 1: really made a whole throwback day out of it. That
Speaker 1: was very popular. But the Buccaneers had stopped doing it
Speaker 1: in two thousand thirteen because the NFL started with this
Speaker 1: rule that every team could only have one set of
Speaker 1: helmets for an entire season. A player would get fitted
Speaker 1: with the specific helmet and he had to wear that
Speaker 1: helmet the entire year. And it was for safety reasons,
Speaker 1: of course. And I meant the Bucks really couldn't do
Speaker 1: their throwbacks anymore because our our helmets are pewter and
Speaker 1: you couldn't have another helmet. You needed a white helmet
Speaker 1: to do the throwbacks, and you couldn't have that. And
Speaker 1: so the Buccaneers, uh, you know, there's franchise and it
Speaker 1: hasn't been happy about this for years now because it
Speaker 1: wants to go back and start doing throwback games again,
Speaker 1: and and the owners have repeatedly said straightforward, we would
Speaker 1: definitely want to do throwback games if we're working with
Speaker 1: the NFL to try to change this rule. And finally,
Speaker 1: the NFL has said teams can now fit their players
Speaker 1: during trading camp with two helmets, so now we can
Speaker 1: have a white helmet and we can do throwback jerseys.
Speaker 1: I would say the answer isn't completely set yet though,
Speaker 1: because we know we couldn't do it until next year,
Speaker 1: and then there's some reports that you would have had
Speaker 1: to already decide by now if doing any alternate jerseys
Speaker 1: for the two season. That deadline has already passed technically,
Speaker 1: I wonder though, given the change in the policy, if
Speaker 1: they might make an exception there. Uh, We're still waiting
Speaker 1: to hear the news. So I would be certain that
Speaker 1: throwback games are coming. I hope they're coming in two
Speaker 1: I don't know for sure that they are until Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be interesting to see. And even if there
Speaker 1: were exceptions, if the team would even be able to
Speaker 1: get everything together, I mean, it would be such undertaking,
Speaker 1: not only to get the team part ready of their
Speaker 1: you know, helmets and jerseys and equipment, and then like
Speaker 1: you mentioned, trying you know what you do in stadium
Speaker 1: and um, you know, having to announce to all the
Speaker 1: other teams ahead of time what color you're gonna wear.
Speaker 1: And I think that also people don't understand sometimes how
Speaker 1: much goes into planning game themes. You know that there's
Speaker 1: there's just so much to this that is normally planned
Speaker 1: out very far in advance. So it may not have
Speaker 1: anything to do I'm sure it won't have anything to
Speaker 1: do with whether or not the team wants to do it, um,
Speaker 1: But I'm sure they also are gonna want to do
Speaker 1: it right and there may not be time to to
Speaker 1: do all of the the brewjaja that they will want
Speaker 1: to go with it, um, Yeah, and how quickly I
Speaker 1: can can put together jerseys you know, right, maybe they'll
Speaker 1: be like maybe it'll be like the last game in December.
Speaker 1: Give us all the time that we can, Okay, are
Speaker 1: We had a question from Raphael asking are there any
Speaker 1: injuries that we should be worried about from the start
Speaker 1: of the season. Actually, no, that the Bucks are in
Speaker 1: pretty good shape in that regard, there were only six
Speaker 1: guys that weren't practicing UH during when the rookie and
Speaker 1: the mandatory minicamp started. Another player, safety named Curtis Riley,
Speaker 1: did suffer an achilles injury, and at the time coach
Speaker 1: Arean said he wasn't sure if I was gonna require surgery.
Speaker 1: I I don't like to speculate about injuries, but I
Speaker 1: have not often heard of minor achilles injuries, So I
Speaker 1: mean I would think that Curtis Riley could be a
Speaker 1: question mark. That's the safety that we added who has
Speaker 1: some NFL experience. We added him in in May. Otherwise,
Speaker 1: there were six guys. I don't know if I'll be
Speaker 1: able to come up with all of them off the
Speaker 1: top of my head. O. J Howard um Uh, Jordan Whitehead.
Speaker 1: They were all not practicing when during the O T
Speaker 1: A s but coach said at the end that all
Speaker 1: of them were looking good. Jordan white it was probably
Speaker 1: the farthest way, but that only been a few weeks.
Speaker 1: He had shoulder surgery after the season, and coach said
Speaker 1: that he didn't think any of them were going to
Speaker 1: be an issue for the starter training camp, So you
Speaker 1: don't have that very often, to be quite honest with
Speaker 1: do you you, um, usually have one or two guys that
Speaker 1: you think might not be ready to go, might have
Speaker 1: to put somebody on pup, and of course things can change.
Speaker 1: And never take any answer about a player's injury with absolutes,
Speaker 1: because you know you never know what's gonna happen with
Speaker 1: the human body. But um, it looks really good. The
Speaker 1: picture looks really good in terms of the team's health
Speaker 1: heading into training camp. Okay, and David asked, do you
Speaker 1: think that we will have a running back hit a
Speaker 1: thousand yards this year? Well, on one hand, I would
Speaker 1: say it seems less likely because it just seems more
Speaker 1: likely that Leonard Fournett will get a bigger share of
Speaker 1: the carries than he did last year, making it a
Speaker 1: bit more even between him and Ronald Jones. Last year
Speaker 1: during the regular season, even with Ronald Jones missing a
Speaker 1: lot of time in December, the the carries. By the
Speaker 1: end of the year, we're almost two to one in
Speaker 1: favor of Ronald Jones. Now, Ronald Jones I think ended
Speaker 1: up with nine hundred six yards something like that, and
Speaker 1: with about three games to go, you look like a
Speaker 1: dead lock to make it to a thousand, and then
Speaker 1: he had the uh, let's see, he had he had
Speaker 1: a hand injury, I believe, and then he he was
Speaker 1: on the COVID list and they had a quad injury,
Speaker 1: and so he didn't get a chance. He only really
Speaker 1: needed to play like one more game and he would
Speaker 1: have got to a thousand. So you can you can
Speaker 1: look at this and go, well, Ronald Jones basically had
Speaker 1: it last year, so it seems obvious he could get
Speaker 1: it this year. But I wonder if the carriers are
Speaker 1: going to be a little more even making it hard
Speaker 1: for either of those guys is to get to a thousand,
Speaker 1: and then you still got a factory on what they
Speaker 1: want to do with Keyshawn Vaughan, how much Geo Bernard plays. Um,
Speaker 1: it just doesn't look like a situation where the Bucks
Speaker 1: have a lead back that goes for over a thousand.
Speaker 1: That being said, I do think that coach arians will
Speaker 1: go with the hot hand idea. So if either Leonard
Speaker 1: Fournette round Jones is just killing early on, they might
Speaker 1: take over the lead role. And in that case, my
Speaker 1: answer changed, but at the moment I would bet no. Okay,
Speaker 1: Lawrence asked, what do you think the dynamics are gonna
Speaker 1: look like in terms of long passing game, shorter passing game,
Speaker 1: and just what what the offense might look like in
Speaker 1: terms of that area is compared to last year. We
Speaker 1: do have so many of the same guys back, but
Speaker 1: you know, you you do add a Jalen Darden and um,
Speaker 1: you know, are are there any differences in terms of
Speaker 1: now and having O. J. Howard in the mix more often?
Speaker 1: You know, how how does that change maybe some of
Speaker 1: the long verse short passes and what the offense could
Speaker 1: look like. Well, I don't think that Bruce Arian's philosophy,
Speaker 1: an approach to offense and and buy with which by extension,
Speaker 1: is going to change a lot. So this is still
Speaker 1: a team that's going to try to push the ball downfield.
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, think about the fact that you
Speaker 1: have Antonio Brown now for seventeen games instead of just
Speaker 1: half the season. And it took a little while last
Speaker 1: year before Brown really started getting downfield targets. We used
Speaker 1: them a lot early on with short passes, but later
Speaker 1: in the year and in the place he got some
Speaker 1: downfield targets. I think he could be more of a
Speaker 1: weapon downfield than he was last year. And uh, you know,
Speaker 1: the offensive line is intact, so tom Brady and did
Speaker 1: pretty well last year and could be even better this year.
Speaker 1: So tom Brady should have time to throw downfield. I
Speaker 1: understand you have the addition of Jalen Darden, so you
Speaker 1: think maybe more underneath throws, But I don't know how
Speaker 1: much the rookie is going to get right off the
Speaker 1: bat um. You know, the offense. If you remember how
Speaker 1: the Downfiel passing went last year, it was it was
Speaker 1: pretty good early on, and then for a good stretch
Speaker 1: in the middle of the field, they sort of lost
Speaker 1: it and the downfield shots were not working at all
Speaker 1: for a good I don't know, three or four or
Speaker 1: five weeks. But then at the end they got it
Speaker 1: back and the offense was really clicking and just about
Speaker 1: every way. So you know, you can hope that with
Speaker 1: that year under the belt and Tom Brady now fully
Speaker 1: in charge of this offense. It took him a while,
Speaker 1: as we're now finding to really have full command of
Speaker 1: the offense last year. Wasn't still well into the second half,
Speaker 1: should be from the start now, and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: everybody back all the same pieces, the same philosophy on offense.
Speaker 1: I think they're still going to try to push the
Speaker 1: ball downfield more than the average NFL team does. And
Speaker 1: um Jarvis asked, do you think that Mike Evans hits
Speaker 1: his thousand yards this year? Yeah? I would bet on it.
Speaker 1: Every time we're gonna talk about a statistical milestone, we're
Speaker 1: gonna have people are gonna get tired of here and
Speaker 1: to say this. But they're seventeen games now, so uh
Speaker 1: that makes it a lot more. Uh. I mean, think
Speaker 1: about Mike Evans last year, for various reasons. He went
Speaker 1: into the last game needing about I think fifty yards
Speaker 1: forty six yards something like that, and he got it
Speaker 1: on the you know, on those first three catches and
Speaker 1: he was there, and then he got to throw to
Speaker 1: him in the end zone and took a weird step
Speaker 1: on the slide and looked like he suffered really bad.
Speaker 1: We were all very worried that he started a really
Speaker 1: bad knee injury. And that was game sixteen. As it
Speaker 1: turned out, he was able to play the next week
Speaker 1: in Washington. Had there been a seventeenth regular season game,
Speaker 1: presumably he would have been ready to play for that.
Speaker 1: And if he had not made it two a thousand,
Speaker 1: he would have one more shot. So given that Mike
Speaker 1: Evans numbers tend to come in large, you know, like
Speaker 1: there were at least three or four or five games
Speaker 1: last year we had two yards or ten yards. But
Speaker 1: then they're always every year he has four or five
Speaker 1: games where he has like hund a hundred fifty yards,
Speaker 1: so he tends to get a lot of them in bunches.
Speaker 1: So give him one more chance, you know, that makes
Speaker 1: it much more likely. I know we have Antonio Brown
Speaker 1: for the whole year, but Mike Evans numbers actually were
Speaker 1: quite a bit better in the eight games that Antonio
Speaker 1: Brown played, so I don't think that takes anything away
Speaker 1: from him. You know, we have so many targets, and
Speaker 1: I would call Mike and Chris when he's healthy at
Speaker 1: problem staying healthy last year one A and one B.
Speaker 1: But still Mike Evins is probably one A. And if
Speaker 1: you're on an offense with Tom Brady getting passing yards,
Speaker 1: I think it's a very good chance that your one
Speaker 1: A is going to get a house. Yeah. I'm so
Speaker 1: glad that Mike broke the record last year, so that
Speaker 1: he has the record without that asterisk, and now no
Speaker 1: one will be able to break that record in the
Speaker 1: same amount of games that he did, and I love
Speaker 1: like he will forever have the record in terms of
Speaker 1: when they were sixteen game seasons. So I think that's
Speaker 1: kind of cool, um, you know, and it's a hard
Speaker 1: record to break anyway, just because most of the guys
Speaker 1: that you would think at a shot at, like Randy Moss,
Speaker 1: aj Green, Um, Julio Jones, guys like that, either they
Speaker 1: didn't have a huge rookie season or they just had
Speaker 1: one season where they missed too many games due to injury.
Speaker 1: So one of the things about Mike is he hit
Speaker 1: the ground running, was awesome as a rookie. And even
Speaker 1: though he's battled through some injuries, if you look at
Speaker 1: his career numbers, he usually plays fifteen or sixteen games.
Speaker 1: He just had battle some through some injuries. He's never
Speaker 1: had that season where he misses like nine games. So
Speaker 1: availability is one of the big abilities in the NFL.
Speaker 1: It's very true, Um, Richard asked, and I love this. Uh,
Speaker 1: if you had a choice, which team would you like
Speaker 1: the Bucks to wear the creamsicles against? Well, so you're
Speaker 1: looking for a good uh combination here, I guess right,
Speaker 1: So you wouldn't want to wear it against a team
Speaker 1: that had some orange and already, like the Browns or
Speaker 1: the Broncos. But we don't those teams. But we're talking
Speaker 1: about next year or beyond, right, Yeah uh uh, I mean,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you this in the asked. The very first
Speaker 1: game we did against was Green Bay and that was
Speaker 1: pretty cool. That was a pretty cool combination of uniforms,
Speaker 1: um and teams that were a long time previous rivals.
Speaker 1: And then each of the next three games was against
Speaker 1: division opponents. So let's cut out the three division opponents
Speaker 1: because we've already done that. Um, something green Bay would
Speaker 1: be cool? Um, what about the Patriots tom Brady still
Speaker 1: our quarterback? That Yeah, that would be I mean, that
Speaker 1: game is already so epic if you add that on there,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's just crazy. Um yeah, but it
Speaker 1: would be that it would be at least the second
Speaker 1: time that Tom Brady's played him, because he's going to
Speaker 1: get the first one this year. Yeah, that's true. That's true. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a part of me that just that wants to
Speaker 1: say the Saints just because it's the Saints, that like,
Speaker 1: I want to do something that's going to get people
Speaker 1: even extra fired up. Whenever you play against them, like
Speaker 1: just that kind of a rivalry idea, Um, that would
Speaker 1: be pretty incredible. Yeah, I kind of wonder how how
Speaker 1: good is Are we sure New Orleans is gonna be
Speaker 1: good in Oh, yeah, we're not sure at all, but
Speaker 1: just based on like who they have been and how
Speaker 1: and I'm sure that even if they aren't, we're still
Speaker 1: going to enjoy winning that that's that's not going to
Speaker 1: take away from how much you want to beat a
Speaker 1: division team and one that you have had some history
Speaker 1: with and all of that. So, yeah, it is gonna
Speaker 1: be very different, But I feel like that's one I
Speaker 1: would pick. One that I think just aesthetically that would
Speaker 1: look cool is against the Rams because now that they
Speaker 1: have their colors that very much resemble their throwback stuff,
Speaker 1: that it would just overall kind of look like a fun,
Speaker 1: giant throwback game for everybody. True good idea. Vikings might
Speaker 1: be good. Orange and purple together could be pretty cool.
Speaker 1: That Yeah, that would be a lot there there would
Speaker 1: that be would be a lot happening. Um, all right.
Speaker 1: So Richard also asked, are there any other records that
Speaker 1: can be broken by a Bucks player this upcoming season
Speaker 1: or any other records that we should be on the
Speaker 1: lookout for. Yeah, and to me, the big one is
Speaker 1: And I know Mike Evans already has virtually all the
Speaker 1: receiving records, so you wouldn't think there's much more that
Speaker 1: he can break. But there is a big one on
Speaker 1: the horizon. Mike all Stot is the Bucks all time
Speaker 1: touchdowner with seventy one, I believe, and that record for
Speaker 1: a long time looked unassailable. I didn't think anybody's gonna
Speaker 1: get anywhere close to that UM But Mike Evans is
Speaker 1: up to I believe sixty two something like that UM
Speaker 1: so or sixty somewhere he's he's within striking distance. I
Speaker 1: think he's about nine back. And we know Mike can
Speaker 1: get nine in a I think he needs tend to
Speaker 1: break it. We know Mike can get nine or ten
Speaker 1: in a season. He just got thirteen. I believe he's
Speaker 1: had ten or more three or four times, and he's
Speaker 1: also had eight on a couple of other occasions. Touchdowns
Speaker 1: are a little bit of a fickle stat for just
Speaker 1: about any position. But I didn't come up with this
Speaker 1: on my own, but I was just watching something yesterday
Speaker 1: and they were showing Mike Evans, and it was like
Speaker 1: something about last season and he had said he was
Speaker 1: the most targeted player in the end zone over the
Speaker 1: last few years. So he even in those games like
Speaker 1: the New Orleans game, uh, last year, even he only
Speaker 1: caught one pass, but it was a one year touchdown pass,
Speaker 1: and I remember which game was recently he caught two passes.
Speaker 1: They were both one year of touchdown passes. So even
Speaker 1: when the defense makes a point of taking Mike Evans
Speaker 1: out of the game by just doubling him the whole time,
Speaker 1: and it opens up opportunities for somebody else when you
Speaker 1: get down there near the goal line, there are still
Speaker 1: ways to get him involve no matter what the defenses
Speaker 1: trying to do. So, um, that's the big one to me,
Speaker 1: that the touchdown record. There's a bunch of them that
Speaker 1: could fall, Like like Ryan Suckop broke our our season
Speaker 1: scoring record last year, and there's no reason why this
Speaker 1: offense won't be scoring a lot of points again. And
Speaker 1: he's a very accurate kicker, and we had one more games,
Speaker 1: so he could break it against year as an example. Okay,
Speaker 1: and we'll close it this. Michael wanted to know how
Speaker 1: is Kyle Trask looking well. I think we add certain
Speaker 1: the same question last week, and you know, we were
Speaker 1: talking about a very small sample size so far. I
Speaker 1: think we're gonna learn a lot more in training camp
Speaker 1: when he should get a ton of reps, especially if
Speaker 1: coach continues to break the full full team sessions into
Speaker 1: two groups, so you've got two quarterbacks each getting eleven
Speaker 1: on eleven action on. You know, in each group, you
Speaker 1: know you'd have Blaine Gabbert and Tom Brady on one
Speaker 1: side and Ryan Griffin and Kyle Trask on the other.
Speaker 1: So you're getting a lot of reps and I think
Speaker 1: we'll see a lot more than All I can say
Speaker 1: is the coaches are pleased with what he's done so far.
Speaker 1: They saved him, and the coaches are taking a very
Speaker 1: methodical approach because there's no expectation that Kyle Trast is
Speaker 1: gonna need to play during the regular season anytime soon,
Speaker 1: so they're taking a slow, methodical approach. And he's he's
Speaker 1: a good learner in that regard. Otherwise, I just think
Speaker 1: that that he is what they thought he was. He's
Speaker 1: a big, strong guy, um, you know, who can make
Speaker 1: the throws that this offense requires. All Right, well that's
Speaker 1: gonna do it for us on this edition of Buccaneers
Speaker 1: Inside a Live presented by Miller Lte. Thanks as always
Speaker 1: for being with us and for those great questions. We
Speaker 1: are off next week. This is the week that everything
Speaker 1: just kind of goes dark in the in the buccaneer
Speaker 1: world before the chaos of the season begins. So we're
Speaker 1: off then, but we will be back in a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks to get you guys ready for all things
Speaker 1: training camp, So we'll see you then. M