Speaker 1: Welcome into Buccaneers Insider Live, presented by Miller. Like Casey Phillips,
Speaker 1: here was senior writer and editor Scott Smith. And we
Speaker 1: are still in the middle of O t A s,
Speaker 1: which is an exciting time because it's our first chance
Speaker 1: to see some of the veteran players alongside the rookie players,
Speaker 1: and our first time to hear from a lot of
Speaker 1: people at the podium that we haven't got a chance
Speaker 1: to talk to since last season and get their opinions
Speaker 1: on some of the new editions and what's going on
Speaker 1: with the team. So, uh, first, well, just any kind
Speaker 1: of big takeaways from O t A so far, some
Speaker 1: of the moments of podium and I we have a
Speaker 1: few different things we're going to get into, but just
Speaker 1: kind of big picture. Well, it is interesting some of
Speaker 1: the veterans that have showed up recently, like this week,
Speaker 1: Shaq Barron and Devin White and Vida vet has been
Speaker 1: there the whole time. There's a good number of veterans
Speaker 1: there and the turnout has been pretty impressive because remember
Speaker 1: these are completely voluntary and really the entire NFL has
Speaker 1: sort of trended the last couple of years towards this
Speaker 1: being more about the young players. Those are the guys
Speaker 1: that the team wants to get the most snaps right now,
Speaker 1: so that, as as Todd Bowles put it on two Day,
Speaker 1: they get enough set, They get enough foundation set so
Speaker 1: that when they hit training camp they can hit the
Speaker 1: ground running and they can reasonably compete. They'll know enough
Speaker 1: to be close enough to the veterans in their knowledge
Speaker 1: to be able to compete, and they're not just trying
Speaker 1: from square one. So that's what most of it's about.
Speaker 1: But you still have some of these guys showing up
Speaker 1: like Devin White or Shack or that they have a
Speaker 1: reason they're in the area. Check says, I'm in the area,
Speaker 1: why would I not show up at work and try
Speaker 1: to get better? So, um, there's no there's that's not
Speaker 1: to contrast to anybody that's not here. There's perfectly good
Speaker 1: reasons not to be here. And again it's incredible and
Speaker 1: completely that's what I'm looking for voluntary. But some of
Speaker 1: these guys see the value in it, Like a Devin
Speaker 1: White's working on his diet and his training, and he
Speaker 1: also there's new wrinkles to the defense apparently that they're installing,
Speaker 1: and so he wants to get that and learn it
Speaker 1: in person. So, um, that's what a lot of it's
Speaker 1: about for those guys. But really the main purpose of
Speaker 1: this time is to help the young guys. And I
Speaker 1: know Russell Gauge is one of these new guys that
Speaker 1: we haven't talked a ton about yet because he's not
Speaker 1: a draft pick. We spent a lot of time on
Speaker 1: the draft, and uh, now he's the guy that I
Speaker 1: think can maybe that signing maybe even been a little overlooked.
Speaker 1: Now it's been a bit and a bit of a
Speaker 1: refresher and we got to hear Antoine Winfield Jr. Talk
Speaker 1: about him. So what do you feel like you learned
Speaker 1: in that? Well, first of all, about Russell Gauge, he
Speaker 1: is here, he's he's at the facility while these okayes
Speaker 1: are going on, but he's not working out right now.
Speaker 1: He coach wasn't really specific about his injuries. He just
Speaker 1: says he's getting treatment and he's kind of sore, but
Speaker 1: it won't be an issue for training camp. But really
Speaker 1: it's not that big of a deal. You could say
Speaker 1: he might be trying to work on chemistry with Todd
Speaker 1: tom Brady, you know, because Tom Brady is famously very
Speaker 1: specific about how he likes his guys to run their routes.
Speaker 1: But Tom Brady hasn't really been working yet, hasn't been
Speaker 1: there either, so he doesn't he doesn't really need to
Speaker 1: work on his chemistry with Cole Trask. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: think everybody's really excited about the addition of Russell gauge. Um.
Speaker 1: One thing to note is that we're not sure if
Speaker 1: Chris Godwin is going to be there for the very
Speaker 1: start of the season, hopefully but not necessarily. And so
Speaker 1: as Antoine Winfield was talking, he thinks Russell Gaves would
Speaker 1: be awesome in the slot. We already have an awesome
Speaker 1: slot receiver and Chris Godwin, but he may not be
Speaker 1: there at the beginning. And then when he is there,
Speaker 1: you really make him very interchangeable. And as you can
Speaker 1: see here on this graphic right here, Um, this this
Speaker 1: is showing what guys, how these guys were targeted on
Speaker 1: third downs last year, and obviously Russell was in Atlanta.
Speaker 1: You look at these numbers really tell a story of
Speaker 1: different types of receivers and targets. Look at Mike Evans,
Speaker 1: very very successful when we throwed him in third down,
Speaker 1: but his target rate is lower than the other guys.
Speaker 1: And if you look at Chris Godwin, who has has
Speaker 1: the same number catches but a lot fewer yards, but
Speaker 1: look at how much of that is after the catch,
Speaker 1: and you can you can see that in your mind.
Speaker 1: You can see Chris Godden catching that real quick slant
Speaker 1: and making ten more yards and getting the first down
Speaker 1: his target rate. Now if he's not there, to look
Speaker 1: at Russell Gates, he was very good on third down
Speaker 1: and very highly used by the Falcons last year. He
Speaker 1: had a little more YAK than Mike, so he might
Speaker 1: be able to do the same sort of things that
Speaker 1: Godwin did. But I think just just paints a picture
Speaker 1: on how these guys are used on third down. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be incredible. And another guy that we're gonna
Speaker 1: be interested to see how he's used is our new
Speaker 1: first pick. I keep wanting to say first round pick,
Speaker 1: but it's not quite right close enough. Logan Hall, and
Speaker 1: you talked about Vita Villas here, and this is definitely
Speaker 1: a guy whose opinion on Logan Hall, I was excited
Speaker 1: to hear. Yeah, Vita thinks he said he's very I
Speaker 1: can already tell he's very athletic, he thinks he's going
Speaker 1: to do big things, and obviously those two guys will
Speaker 1: probably and Golden Locals will be your three primary guys
Speaker 1: on that down line, in that interior line. Um, what
Speaker 1: Vita was saying about him is that he's just he's
Speaker 1: very active and very athletic, and obviously the Buccaneers are
Speaker 1: hoping that he adds a certain number of sacks and
Speaker 1: pressure from the interior. The interesting thing, though, is I
Speaker 1: think you maybe might have to temper your expectations just
Speaker 1: a teeny little bit. He could have a very nice
Speaker 1: rooky season, but he won't necessarily have like the six
Speaker 1: sacks that in Dominquensue at Lessure. Hopefully he will. But
Speaker 1: if you look at some of the most notable defensive
Speaker 1: tackled interior lineman rookies that the Buccaneers have had, I
Speaker 1: put Santana Dotson on there because he holds the Buck's record,
Speaker 1: uh for Sax's rookie ridiculous. He was like a fifth
Speaker 1: round pick. The rest of those guys were all notable
Speaker 1: first round picks by the Buccaneers, all defensive tackles. Marcus
Speaker 1: Jones eventually switched in, but he was a defensive tackle
Speaker 1: upon being drafted. I mean, look at the Moren SAPs
Speaker 1: Hall of Famer. We love Vita Via Gerald McCoy went
Speaker 1: to six Pro Bowls, but their sack toles as rookies
Speaker 1: weren't really that enormous, right, Sometimes it takes a little
Speaker 1: while to get into it. Hopefully Logan Hall falls somewhere
Speaker 1: in between Sap and the rest in Santana Dotson. But
Speaker 1: what we'll have to wait and see. Yeah, that's going
Speaker 1: to be interesting for sure. And then I know that
Speaker 1: since Coach Bowls has taken over, now we do still
Speaker 1: have Byron left which is the offensive coordinator, so consistency there.
Speaker 1: But when Bruce arians was so known for his no
Speaker 1: risk a no biscuit and everybody's wondered, how how could
Speaker 1: Todd Bowles taking over maybe change what this offense could
Speaker 1: look like in the team overall. So with a few
Speaker 1: people at the podium now this week, do you feel
Speaker 1: like you've gotten any kind of sense on what that
Speaker 1: could mean and what they're looking at. I think there's
Speaker 1: a certain bit of angst out there that with Todd
Speaker 1: Bowles taking over, even with Byron left wid still being
Speaker 1: your play caller, that he's going to force the team
Speaker 1: to be a run first offense, and and and he's
Speaker 1: just gonna try to pound it as much as possible.
Speaker 1: And I just don't think that that's something they have
Speaker 1: to worry about. As Todd Bowle said very straightforwardly on Tuesday,
Speaker 1: he's gonna do one offense what it takes to win.
Speaker 1: So if that means Tom Brady throwing the ball fifty
Speaker 1: five times in a game, if that's what's working and
Speaker 1: that's what the game plan says, we're gonna do that.
Speaker 1: If we run, if we're running well, and you run
Speaker 1: thirty times and you win, he's going to do that.
Speaker 1: But as cam Brad pointed out a little bit later,
Speaker 1: there are a couple opponents that the Buccaneers have had
Speaker 1: trouble with the last few years, the Rams and the Saints.
Speaker 1: It's no secrets. Of the ten losses the Bucks have
Speaker 1: had the last two years, seven of them. Again, then
Speaker 1: against those two teams, it's very unfortunate ones in our division,
Speaker 1: and one just seems to be a team we always
Speaker 1: have every single year, and and you know they're probably
Speaker 1: in each other's past in terms of trying to get
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl. Uh As Cam Brady was pointing out
Speaker 1: against some teams he thinks the Buckners really do need
Speaker 1: to try to establish the run and successfully do so.
Speaker 1: And that's the Saints and the Rams, because we simply
Speaker 1: haven't run the ball very well against those teams in
Speaker 1: and so in that case, the Bucks might need to
Speaker 1: do that. And the point is not just to get
Speaker 1: the running game going, but that the making them fear
Speaker 1: the running game opens up options for your pass right,
Speaker 1: And I just threw this up here. Now, this is
Speaker 1: Leonard Fournett's runs last year, all of them is. He
Speaker 1: had about carries overall, and it shows you what fronts,
Speaker 1: how often they had an extra man in the box
Speaker 1: that's stacked at the bottom, how often it was just
Speaker 1: seven people, and how often it was six or fewer. Now, look,
Speaker 1: Leonard Fournette clearly did better against the lighter fronts, and
Speaker 1: that's great for him, right, But the few, the fall
Speaker 1: small number of snaps against stack fronts tells you that
Speaker 1: teams were not fearing our running game. Obviously, it's harder
Speaker 1: to run against stack fronts, but if you can force
Speaker 1: them into those, you can do play action and so
Speaker 1: on and really do more things in the passing games.
Speaker 1: So obviously the Buckners would like Leonard to still have
Speaker 1: success against the lighter boxes this year, but they probably
Speaker 1: like to see more stack boxes overall. Okay, well we're
Speaker 1: going to take a couple of our Facebook questions now.
Speaker 1: If you have one of those, you can head on
Speaker 1: over to the Buccaneers Facebook page and underneath our live
Speaker 1: video you can leave your question there. And of course
Speaker 1: I bet you can guess, uh, yes, there it is.
Speaker 1: The TJ basically just sort of yelled Gronk's name at
Speaker 1: us multiple times, and you know, ask her, is there
Speaker 1: is there any news on his returns? At least there's
Speaker 1: some bit of I don't know if i'd call it
Speaker 1: news that activity activity that was in town and he
Speaker 1: and Rod got together and they were just right over there. Yeah, uh,
Speaker 1: Tom was taken some hacks And which am I the
Speaker 1: only person that noticed? Yes? Why it was? I didn't
Speaker 1: feel like people were talking about this, and I was like,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, what could he just really? Throwing right
Speaker 1: handed and swinging left handed is the absolute perfect combination
Speaker 1: for a baseball player, because you can play any don't
Speaker 1: say this, or he's just gonna randomly, all of a
Speaker 1: sudden go play baseball, golf, yeah, just everything else. Why
Speaker 1: not He's conquered in the whole rest of the world. Well,
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan won three more championships after he went played baseball.
Speaker 1: You know, Brady open don't uh yeah, I mean you
Speaker 1: you want to be right hand throw left and swinger
Speaker 1: and baseball. It's advantageable times. There you go. Of course,
Speaker 1: Tom Brady, of course, why would he not have advantage
Speaker 1: on Hopefully after that little session with with Gronkfield and
Speaker 1: the flyballs that that Tom's left handedly hitting, they got
Speaker 1: together and had a little discussion, isn't this fun to
Speaker 1: play games together? Let's exactly. So. I don't know how
Speaker 1: much you want to read into that kind of him
Speaker 1: reading why not. We're just kind of we're all kind
Speaker 1: of waiting and hoping. You know. It was funny because
Speaker 1: I think it was Byron Leftwitch that was at the podium,
Speaker 1: not this week, but last week and said so when
Speaker 1: they were asking about Gronk and if you know when
Speaker 1: he comes back, if he comes back, if he doesn't
Speaker 1: come back, and he answered if he comes back parton,
Speaker 1: he says, I really don't want to think about the
Speaker 1: possibly of gron Hosky not come back. Yeah, so same
Speaker 1: if you like in the building, there's a general hope
Speaker 1: that's going to happen. Yeah, I would agree with that.
Speaker 1: Al right. So Willie asked, how do our corner and
Speaker 1: safety positions look? Um, so in terms of I would
Speaker 1: have guess he means both in terms of depth and
Speaker 1: just health and starters and all of that stuff. Well,
Speaker 1: if if he means how they look at O T S,
Speaker 1: it's really not an easy question to answer because most
Speaker 1: of your starters aren't there. You know, you know you're
Speaker 1: not seeing Carlton Davis and Antoine Well, now, I guess
Speaker 1: Antoine Winfields been around, but they're not all there. Mike
Speaker 1: Edwards has been around. Uh, but I think the depth
Speaker 1: is pretty good at safety. You lost Jordan Whitehead, but
Speaker 1: you signed Logan Ryan and Kean O'Neil and you still
Speaker 1: have Mike Edwards and obviously Antoine Winfield. I personally think
Speaker 1: even though we went to the Pro Bowl last year,
Speaker 1: Antoine Winfield is on upward trajectory and is going to
Speaker 1: get even better this year. Uh. Mike Edwards, you know,
Speaker 1: might get more snaps and what a ball hockey is,
Speaker 1: and I think they have very specific roles in mind
Speaker 1: for Kean O'Neil and Logan Ryan that allow them to
Speaker 1: do a lot of different things at cornerback. You have
Speaker 1: your top three back from last year. Hopefully you have
Speaker 1: better luck in terms of injuries. You know, Carlton Davis,
Speaker 1: Sean Murphy Bunting both missed pre significant amount of time.
Speaker 1: Jamal Dean missed I think two games. So if you
Speaker 1: can get key those guys in the field more, you're
Speaker 1: probably feeling pretty good. And then the big question there
Speaker 1: is whether the fifth round Rickie's I am McCollum was
Speaker 1: incredibly athletic and fast and big, really fits a great
Speaker 1: profile for this defense, but it is making a big
Speaker 1: jump from sam Houston State to the NFL. If he
Speaker 1: can show enough to be your fourth corner, then you're
Speaker 1: probably feeling pretty good there. And you know that fourth
Speaker 1: corner is going to get some action at some point. Okay,
Speaker 1: and then we will close out with this. Jose said,
Speaker 1: do you see Logan Hall being a starter? Yeah? I
Speaker 1: think he probably will be um at this point. You know,
Speaker 1: we often get in a surprise weren't asked? Is in
Speaker 1: Dominican sue coming back? And all along I've been saying
Speaker 1: I think he's probably up to him. He's trying to
Speaker 1: decide if he wants to play and how much would
Speaker 1: make it worthwhile. But we're in what we're getting pretty
Speaker 1: close to June now, so unless something happens, I think
Speaker 1: we have to kind of picture this moving forward without
Speaker 1: in domic ensue. And in that case, I think Logan
Speaker 1: Hall is pretty much the obvious three technique starter, Vida
Speaker 1: b and the Nose and um Will Galston more on
Speaker 1: the four technique where he really fits perfectly. And I
Speaker 1: think all three of those guys are gonna get a
Speaker 1: lot of naps. Your main backup is where Keim Nacho.
Speaker 1: He's mostly a backup to Vita Vea. So I think
Speaker 1: there's room for either somebody to step up or for
Speaker 1: the Bucks possibly to sign another guy on the defensive
Speaker 1: line as a reserve to rotate with Logan and and
Speaker 1: we'll go smendod Yes, I do think Logan will probably
Speaker 1: be a starter. All right, Well, that's going to do
Speaker 1: it for us on this edition of Buccaneers Inside a
Speaker 1: Live presented by Miller Ltte. Thanks so much for being
Speaker 1: with us. We'll see you next time.