Speaker 1: Hello there, everybody, welcome into Buccaneers Inside or Live presented
Speaker 1: by Miller like Casey Phillips here with Scott Smith, and
Speaker 1: we are here as always to take your questions. So
Speaker 1: if you're not already over on Facebook watching this, make
Speaker 1: sure you head over there find that comments section, and
Speaker 1: that's where you can leave any of your thoughts, comments, questions,
Speaker 1: all of that stuff, so as we give people a
Speaker 1: chance to start submitting some of those. Uh, Scott, I
Speaker 1: just I know that you know, there's not a whole
Speaker 1: lot of um news this time of year because of
Speaker 1: the fact that we're not getting to have the O
Speaker 1: T S and minicamp. You know, what, what are some
Speaker 1: of the things that would normally be happening right about now?
Speaker 1: And then what are something anything I know that we
Speaker 1: at least had at least the Rooney Rule update. That's
Speaker 1: that's about the only newsworthy thing that has has been
Speaker 1: able to happen reacently in terms of the league meetings.
Speaker 1: So tell us a little bit about the Rooney Rule
Speaker 1: and then just overall what this time of year would
Speaker 1: would normally be Like, yeah, I'll start with the second part.
Speaker 1: There we would be in the midst of o t
Speaker 1: a s right now organized team activity days. We'll be
Speaker 1: in phase three of the off season. The first phase
Speaker 1: is basically just some basically just workouts a little bit
Speaker 1: on the field, but only with strength coaches. And second
Speaker 1: phase you can you can do stuff with individual units,
Speaker 1: but you can't do receivers against defensive backs that kind
Speaker 1: of thing. And in the third phase is very much
Speaker 1: like real practices, just with no pads or contact and uh.
Speaker 1: And there's just a certain amount of time that the
Speaker 1: players can be in the building during the day, you know,
Speaker 1: a certain number of hours, and you usually get fourteen
Speaker 1: of those O t a s to spread out as
Speaker 1: you prefer. Usually you do three a week, three week,
Speaker 1: maybe one or two weeks with four a week, and
Speaker 1: it all culminates in a three day mandatory mini camp,
Speaker 1: which the Buccaneers usually do in mid June, just to
Speaker 1: cap the whole thing. And the other thing that would
Speaker 1: have already happened is we would have had a rookie
Speaker 1: mini camp too, and that's always an exciting time to
Speaker 1: see all those draft picks for the first time. And
Speaker 1: as I think we mentioned the other day, one thing
Speaker 1: that's missing out this year specifically that I don't know
Speaker 1: how it's going to be replaced. Is that rookie mini
Speaker 1: camp where you have thirty undrafted guys that are that
Speaker 1: don't have contracts but are there on trial contracts. Every
Speaker 1: single year without fail, that produces two or three or
Speaker 1: four or five guys that get signed, like Adam Humphreys
Speaker 1: as the example. We often use Clifton Smith from a
Speaker 1: little further back, guys that for some reason or another
Speaker 1: didn't even get signed right after the draft, but you're
Speaker 1: trying to fill out your mini camps. You bring him
Speaker 1: in and hez, hey, this guy is actually pretty good.
Speaker 1: He's we like him a little more than this guy
Speaker 1: we signed right after the draft. And so you make
Speaker 1: some moves. So obviously none of that is going to happen.
Speaker 1: It seems like and and we're all just crossing your
Speaker 1: fingers that will be in training camp. Um. As for
Speaker 1: the Rooney Rule, I think so far, the main thing
Speaker 1: that they've done is to remove the restriction that allow
Speaker 1: a team to block a candidate from uh interviewing for
Speaker 1: a coordinator job. So if you have a guy who's
Speaker 1: your special teams coach or your running backs coach and
Speaker 1: some other team wants him, to UH interview for a
Speaker 1: coordinator job. You can say no, or at least you
Speaker 1: could have, and now you can't. So that's just another opportunity.
Speaker 1: That's another avenue to try to give guys opportunities that
Speaker 1: they might not have been able to get yet. Some
Speaker 1: other aspects that they've been talking about, including some UH
Speaker 1: draft pick conversation rules that's been tabled for now. UM,
Speaker 1: I don't know how it's all gonna shake out. You know,
Speaker 1: I've even seen Tony Dunge obviously this is a topic
Speaker 1: that's important to him. I've seen him talking about it,
Speaker 1: and he doesn't love every aspect of what he's seen proposed.
Speaker 1: But I think he says and I would agree the
Speaker 1: the idea here, the concept of what they're trying to
Speaker 1: accomplish is good. They are they do not believe that
Speaker 1: what WOULD the League has done so far has done
Speaker 1: enough to give minority candidates opportunities. And that's all we're
Speaker 1: talking about here, is trying to give every body who's
Speaker 1: deserving an opportunity, And to me, that's a good goal
Speaker 1: to have. Yeah percent, All right, we can dive into
Speaker 1: some of these questions now, Uh, you know, I know
Speaker 1: that basically The Bucks offense is what's gotten so much
Speaker 1: attention this offseason, for very good reasons and understandable reasons.
Speaker 1: But Daniel ask, can we talk about how good the
Speaker 1: defense will be this year? Well, we certainly hope. So
Speaker 1: they were very good down the stretch in the second half. Obviously,
Speaker 1: the run defense was good the entire year, ended up
Speaker 1: being the best in the league and statistically the best
Speaker 1: run defense the Buccaneers have ever had, and you have
Speaker 1: virtually everybody back that was important to that. The only
Speaker 1: free agent that got away from the front was Karl Massi,
Speaker 1: and um, you know, I'm glad he's getting an opportunity
Speaker 1: in in Las Vegas. But otherwise that front is intact
Speaker 1: with domin Kan Sue, a guy that I think is
Speaker 1: going to get a lot of attention now with more
Speaker 1: people looking at the Bucks. Vidavea. Will Goldston is a
Speaker 1: very good run stopper. Um, I don't see any reason.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's a little aggressive to bet that
Speaker 1: the Bucks would once again have the best run de offensively,
Speaker 1: but it should be good. The past defense was not
Speaker 1: good at all early on, and it's not in retrospect
Speaker 1: all that surprise, and given how many young guys that
Speaker 1: were being mixed in there, and uh, they jelled. We
Speaker 1: got to talk to Sean Murphy Bunting last week. He
Speaker 1: was a guy that really came on at the end
Speaker 1: of the year, as well as Jamal Deane and Carlton Davis,
Speaker 1: and uh, they really jelled down the stretch. And then
Speaker 1: you add Antoine Winfield Junior to that mix, and he's
Speaker 1: the kind of all over the field piece that I
Speaker 1: think Todd Bowles will enjoy employing in a lot of
Speaker 1: different ways. A playmaker, a guy who finds the football. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, it certainly looks on paper like all the
Speaker 1: pieces are there for that defense to take that momentum
Speaker 1: they had at the last at the end of last
Speaker 1: year and and really move forward. And and honestly, that
Speaker 1: and the and resigning all those guys is I mean,
Speaker 1: that shows you that this team believes that that defense
Speaker 1: is good. That's why they went out and made the
Speaker 1: aggressive move with Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski because they
Speaker 1: feel like they have all the pieces in place to
Speaker 1: be a playoff contending team here and the defense is
Speaker 1: a big part of that. Yeah, that's the great point.
Speaker 1: It was Actually the next question was gonna be from
Speaker 1: Darrell and he asked what role will Winfield Junior play? Um? So,
Speaker 1: and then I saw that we'd also had a question
Speaker 1: about Justin Evans and if we know his situation, so
Speaker 1: why don't we just kind of talk about maybe the
Speaker 1: safety's overall? Um, I know you talked a little bit
Speaker 1: about Winfield junior there, but that safety position and um,
Speaker 1: if you know, looking at who might be potential starters
Speaker 1: back up, just what that position could look like? Is
Speaker 1: it a position of strength? Now? You know, how how
Speaker 1: confident do you think that this team is going to
Speaker 1: be and who they have back there? Well, starting with
Speaker 1: Justin Evans. This that's another thing that this unusual offseason
Speaker 1: is making a more difficult topic to really answer very well.
Speaker 1: It's around this time when we'd be starting to get
Speaker 1: some answers on Justin and and how ready he is
Speaker 1: if he's already on the field at this point or
Speaker 1: if we're talking about training camp at this point, and
Speaker 1: then you feel a little less confident. Obviously, for the
Speaker 1: last two seasons, the foot injuries have been an issue.
Speaker 1: We saw before that though that they're they're glimmers, they're
Speaker 1: a playmaker. He's a very talented and athletic guy. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't want to write him off yet. Even though the
Speaker 1: Buccaneers in the two seasons that Bruce arians has been
Speaker 1: here in the two drafts, have drafted a safety in
Speaker 1: the second and third rounds, obviously they felt that there
Speaker 1: was a need for more there and and I just
Speaker 1: think you can't know if Justin Evans is going to
Speaker 1: be a part of this picture or not. If he's
Speaker 1: completely healthy, I would expect him to come in and
Speaker 1: compete very hard to get his spot back, because he looked,
Speaker 1: at least in the first season and a half like
Speaker 1: he would become a long term fixture at safety for
Speaker 1: the Bucks and a playmaking type of guy. But we
Speaker 1: have to see on that one. But having added uh Winfield,
Speaker 1: and you know we did also resign Andrew Adams earlier
Speaker 1: in the offseason, and he started eleven games last year.
Speaker 1: So you have Jordan Whitehead who started four teen games.
Speaker 1: I think you have basically the two incumbents back. But
Speaker 1: I don't think you draft Antoine Winfield in the middle
Speaker 1: of the second round if you don't think there's a
Speaker 1: very good chance that he's probably you want him to start.
Speaker 1: If not at least he's playing a significant role. We
Speaker 1: tend to think of okay, to safety spots, there's only
Speaker 1: two guys that will get on the field. But that's
Speaker 1: not necessarily the case in today's NFL. A lot of
Speaker 1: teams employ three safeties in different ways, especially if they
Speaker 1: have a versatile guy, you know, like a Tyranne Matthew
Speaker 1: or somebody like that. If they have a versatile guy
Speaker 1: that they feel comfortable, maybe in the nickel or as
Speaker 1: a as a nickel linebacker, even just a lot of
Speaker 1: different roles that a versatile guy can fill, you can
Speaker 1: end up at times with three safeties on the field
Speaker 1: in various sub packages. So you know, I would be
Speaker 1: lying if I told you I knew how that was
Speaker 1: all gonna shake out. I just do think that they have,
Speaker 1: especially if Justin Evans is healthy, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: possibilities there, I don't you know. I mean, there's there's
Speaker 1: enough pieces there to make for a pretty exciting safety position. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's very true. I think that's gonna be really
Speaker 1: an interesting battle to kind of see play out. And
Speaker 1: um Michael asked, how much do you think Devin white
Speaker 1: Um improves as a leader this year, and then I'd
Speaker 1: just like to add on overall, how much you think
Speaker 1: that he can improve in general or e know, just
Speaker 1: what his role will be now that he's not the rookie. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you improve as a leader in
Speaker 1: his case. I think basically the point is this is
Speaker 1: a very outgoing, outspoken guy, very emotional, you know, very up,
Speaker 1: very energetic on the field, and he came in with
Speaker 1: the reputation and the history of being a really good leader.
Speaker 1: I think he was a team captain as a sophomore
Speaker 1: at l s U uh and so. But the point is,
Speaker 1: as a rookie, you don't just step right in and say, hey,
Speaker 1: Lavante moved aside in Dominicans through Hey I got this.
Speaker 1: You don't just be the leader right away. But if
Speaker 1: you have those qualities and you're always on the field
Speaker 1: and you're a middle linebacker so you're calling plays, uh,
Speaker 1: You're you're gonna be a leader. It's just going to develop.
Speaker 1: And I would suspect that that emerges this year. I mean,
Speaker 1: at this point, nobody's gonna be looking at Devon going hey, hey, Rickie,
Speaker 1: you know zip it. You know, at this point he
Speaker 1: probably feels like a leader already, and so he'll just
Speaker 1: naturally fit into that role. If there was a second
Speaker 1: part to that question, I don't I don't remember it. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I just wanted to hear how you feel like his
Speaker 1: what his role could be, even just outside of a
Speaker 1: leadership role, of just his his role on the field.
Speaker 1: What we can expect from him just play wise this year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, barring injury, which you would say about any player,
Speaker 1: he's going to be on the field. Virtually snaps him
Speaker 1: and Lavante David. There's just no reason to take either
Speaker 1: one of them off the field. The thing that I
Speaker 1: think you could see developing his game a little bit
Speaker 1: more is maybe some more going after the quarterback. That's
Speaker 1: a We saw that he has the cover abilities that
Speaker 1: he can. You know, he's a tackler, can make plays
Speaker 1: all over the field. The rangy guy finds the football
Speaker 1: as you saw it with his fumble recoveries. But maybe
Speaker 1: a little more usage of him in uh in blitzing capacities. Okay, Um,
Speaker 1: several people asked this, which I thought was interesting. Um,
Speaker 1: Ronnie asked, and he's in Scotland watching, which is great
Speaker 1: your you know, your native land. Of course, Scotland. YEA,
Speaker 1: thank you. I'll be here all week. Uh, he said,
Speaker 1: what is the likelihood of getting Clay Matthews signed for
Speaker 1: a year following the recent rumors? So just it's funny.
Speaker 1: We had three or four people I saw that asked
Speaker 1: about Clay Matthews. That's interesting And actually I I like
Speaker 1: the question because I was looking at him just the
Speaker 1: other day because this is the point where you start looking.
Speaker 1: And I also get mailed back questions about are there
Speaker 1: any other free agents out there that the Buccaneers mic
Speaker 1: go after now in this last period before training camp.
Speaker 1: And I understand connecting those dots completely, because, um, if
Speaker 1: you look at a position that could use some help
Speaker 1: in terms of experienced guys, outside linebacker is one of them. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, you got your You're absolutely thrilled with your
Speaker 1: duo JPP and Shack, But after that, you don't really
Speaker 1: have anybody with Karl Masson no longer here that has
Speaker 1: much experience at all. There's some there's some interesting guys there,
Speaker 1: Coasin Daniels and guys like that, and Anthony Nelson, who
Speaker 1: I'm betting they anticipate having a bigger role in his
Speaker 1: second season. Um, you know, he's kind of held back
Speaker 1: by injuries last year, but there's nobody really proven there,
Speaker 1: so it's an easy it's an easy, you know, connecting
Speaker 1: the dots kind of thing. And Claim Matthews. He was
Speaker 1: released by the rams um and so you know they
Speaker 1: let him go. But he actually was pretty productive last
Speaker 1: year in from the number of snaps that he had.
Speaker 1: I can't remember exactly, but I think he had about
Speaker 1: eight sacks. I can understand that. I think it all
Speaker 1: comes down to if you're gonna ad a guy, whether
Speaker 1: it be Claim Matthews or anybody else that's still out there,
Speaker 1: I think it comes down to, you know, how much
Speaker 1: does it cost. There's not a lot of cap space.
Speaker 1: As I've said before, I trust our guys to be
Speaker 1: able to create cap space if they need to, but
Speaker 1: you also have to sign all your draft picks. Um.
Speaker 1: I just don't think there's another big contract, really big
Speaker 1: contract out there that that the Bucks are gonna add.
Speaker 1: But if you can get a guy at a good
Speaker 1: rate who can really help you in a in a
Speaker 1: sub role, yeah, it makes a lot of sense to me. Okay,
Speaker 1: this is I think it's Alexander or Alexandre. I'm not
Speaker 1: entirely sure. Uh, they're watching from Brazil and wanted to
Speaker 1: know when you guys are gonna have a new Salty
Speaker 1: Dogs episode. Oh. I actually know who this is. I
Speaker 1: think I don't know if his last name on there,
Speaker 1: but I think it's not something into something like that.
Speaker 1: Um this I know who this fan is because he
Speaker 1: sent us Salty Dog questions in the past and he's
Speaker 1: from Brazil. UM, so appreciate that. I want to obviously
Speaker 1: a really big Bucks fan. Um. Yeah, we've talked about it.
Speaker 1: I think we're gonna do it soon. We have a
Speaker 1: guest that's agreed to do it. We just haven't hit
Speaker 1: upon a time yet. But yeah, we want to do that.
Speaker 1: I mean might as well. You know what else are
Speaker 1: we gonna do? You only so many times a day
Speaker 1: I can want my dog. Your dog's exhausted this point,
Speaker 1: like please leave me alone. Literally has lost like fifteen
Speaker 1: to twenty pounds. That's amazing. Um j R. Asked how
Speaker 1: much do you believe the improvements on offense will improve
Speaker 1: our defense? Well? Yeah, I mean anytime that your offense
Speaker 1: is is better at two things that the Bucks would
Speaker 1: like to get better at, not turning the ball over.
Speaker 1: You know your defense. Our defense got put a lot
Speaker 1: of really bad situations last year with the league high
Speaker 1: forty one giveaways. That obviously would make thinks much better
Speaker 1: for our defense if you cut that number saying half
Speaker 1: um and then if the if the if the offense
Speaker 1: is a methodical and stays on the field a lot um,
Speaker 1: that helps the defense. But that wasn't really a problem
Speaker 1: aside from the turnovers. We were able to move the
Speaker 1: ball last year. So I think basically just it's a
Speaker 1: matter of fewer giveaways. Okay, Dennis asked you we move
Speaker 1: Tristan to left tackle at some point, Well, that's something
Speaker 1: that that he has that adds to his value of
Speaker 1: that adds to the value of that draft pick that
Speaker 1: he has that capability depending on what happens down the road.
Speaker 1: I personally think the Buccaneers are locked in with Donovan Smith,
Speaker 1: or at least this year and next year. That's what
Speaker 1: his contract covers. Uh. I wouldn't be surprised if it
Speaker 1: goes on beyond that. I sound like a broken record
Speaker 1: when this topic comes up, but Bruce arians said it again.
Speaker 1: I think right after the draft, he likes our offensive
Speaker 1: lineman and he likes Donovan Smith. He thinks Donovan had
Speaker 1: his best year last year and that adding Tom Brady
Speaker 1: to the mix is just gonna light even more of
Speaker 1: a fire under everybody but him included too, you know,
Speaker 1: to take his game to even another level. You know,
Speaker 1: I think the Bucks really like the idea of Donovan
Speaker 1: Smith and Tristan Worse as their bookends and and nowadays,
Speaker 1: I mean, I know we're conditioned to believe that the
Speaker 1: left tackle position is way more important than the right
Speaker 1: tackle position, but you know it, if you look at
Speaker 1: the contracts that guys like Jack Conklin and Brian blag
Speaker 1: are getting, I think, in terms of what the league
Speaker 1: and league decision makers think, there's been a narrowing of
Speaker 1: gap in the importance of those two positions. So, um,
Speaker 1: we don't need to move Tristan Worse to the left
Speaker 1: side to make the thirteenth overall pick worthwhile picking him,
Speaker 1: But the fact that he could conceivably do that in
Speaker 1: the future, depending on what you do with Dinomon Smith
Speaker 1: or anybody else, definitely adds value for him. And yeah,
Speaker 1: I think he could handle it for sure. And close
Speaker 1: Bernard asked, who do you see as our second back,
Speaker 1: Vaughan or Dry oh, I would assume it's Vaughan. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, Darry. Darry was your third down back last year,
Speaker 1: and a lot of that is because you know, Darry
Speaker 1: is a guy that coaches love. He does think the
Speaker 1: little things right. He was good at past protection. You know,
Speaker 1: there were times when Ronald Jones struggled a little bit
Speaker 1: in that and that's why he wasn't all the time
Speaker 1: a three down back. But when we drafted Keishan, um,
Speaker 1: I think Jason led I think it was Jason might
Speaker 1: have been Bruce said, yeah, we we want to see
Speaker 1: if he can be a three down guy and and
Speaker 1: maybe compete with Darry for that third down role. I
Speaker 1: already think that Keshan would be the guy that you
Speaker 1: would spell Ronald Jones with. You know the way ron
Speaker 1: Jones and Peyton Barber split carries last year and now
Speaker 1: I think would be Ronald and Keishan before it be
Speaker 1: Ronald and Dry. Dry really only got to let and
Speaker 1: carries last year, and a lot of those were around
Speaker 1: the goal line when you were in like a hurry
Speaker 1: up package, you know what I'm saying. So, uh, he
Speaker 1: wasn't really feat heard in the running game in any
Speaker 1: other way other than that, he caught thirty five passes,
Speaker 1: but um, he wasn't really much featured in the running game.
Speaker 1: And I think they definitely expect Keshan to get a
Speaker 1: good check of a carry, So Keisha would be your
Speaker 1: second back, I'm sure, okay, And then I can just
Speaker 1: answer this. Nicholas asked, Casey, when can you get the
Speaker 1: O line and tight ends together for a group chat?
Speaker 1: I already did, so there's a love one. I can
Speaker 1: answer it that way. So up on the Bucks website
Speaker 1: already now and on the app if you want to
Speaker 1: go look at that. SEEO. We've done Specialists and tight
Speaker 1: Ends and O line and um Trember which ones have
Speaker 1: already aired. We've already got a couple more that we've
Speaker 1: shot that just haven't aired yet. So uh, stay tuned
Speaker 1: for some more of those group chats for sure. So
Speaker 1: thanks to all of you guys for being with us today,
Speaker 1: thanks for all of those amazing questions, and Scott, thank
Speaker 1: you as always, and we will see you next time
Speaker 1: here on Buccaneers Insider Live presented by Miller Life. Then