Speaker 1: Welcome to Buccaneers Insider Live presented by Miller. Like Casey
Speaker 1: Phillips and Scott Smith here and plenty to talk about
Speaker 1: this week. We know you have tons of thoughts, comments, questions,
Speaker 1: all of that. Make sure you head over to the
Speaker 1: Buccaneers Facebook page leave all of your questions underneath our
Speaker 1: live video. That's where we would be pulling them from
Speaker 1: in the time before people get a chance to submit
Speaker 1: some of those. I just wanted to hear your thoughts
Speaker 1: on we found out the big news yeshay, Mike Smith
Speaker 1: being released and you have now Mark Duffner being promoted.
Speaker 1: So what do you feel like this does for the
Speaker 1: team right now? And how does something like this you
Speaker 1: get employed? Even? I mean, what are the tangible effects
Speaker 1: of something like this? Well, first of all, before I
Speaker 1: directly answer that, I just want to say, and I
Speaker 1: know it, it's not really critical to this decision. It's,
Speaker 1: as coach would say, it's a production based business and
Speaker 1: it's not necessarily something that fans care that much about.
Speaker 1: But Mike Smith is a wonderful guy. We all really
Speaker 1: loved him. Um, just one of the nicest guys you
Speaker 1: ever gonna want, every gonna want to meet upbeat all
Speaker 1: the time, and I'm sure it was very, very difficult
Speaker 1: for Coach Cutter, who's known him for a long time,
Speaker 1: to make that decision, which he said was his decision.
Speaker 1: Coach Coach Cutter said, so uh so that being said again,
Speaker 1: it is a production based business, and when something is
Speaker 1: going as badly as our defensive results have been for
Speaker 1: the last two seasons, really, um, it's not a shocking
Speaker 1: move and certainly something that fans had been predicting for
Speaker 1: a little bit for a little while to make that move.
Speaker 1: The question is what what's the impact going to be? Right, Because,
Speaker 1: as as almost always the case, when you let go
Speaker 1: of a coordinator in the middle of the season, you
Speaker 1: promote somebody from within, and that's something in this case
Speaker 1: is Mark Duffner. And this is a man who's been
Speaker 1: working under Mike Smith for the last three seasons, and
Speaker 1: they've been working in tandem, you know, with all the
Speaker 1: other coaches trying to get this right, and so it's
Speaker 1: they're cut they're coming from the same system, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. So I imagine that there are ways
Speaker 1: that Mark duffer is going to make changes, but it's
Speaker 1: not immediately obvious. In so we see it in actually
Speaker 1: a few times what those are going to be. And
Speaker 1: there's only so much you can do because you're not
Speaker 1: gonna make any substantive changes in personnel in the middle
Speaker 1: of the season. So there can be some changes in approach. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, just from the most simplistic ways of putting it,
Speaker 1: maybe maybe he would press more or press less, or
Speaker 1: blitz more, blitz less. And you know, from standpoint of
Speaker 1: coach Duffner, what the players were saying yesterday, Lavante in particular,
Speaker 1: is that he's really very energetic, enthusiastic, uh, excited guy
Speaker 1: on the field, and Lavante thinks that could make a
Speaker 1: difference in terms of getting that to all three levels
Speaker 1: of the defense, not just the linebackers. So that's true,
Speaker 1: and I mean, I think that was what was interesting
Speaker 1: is before when coach had been asked about letting him
Speaker 1: go after the Chicago game, he said, okay, and now
Speaker 1: what So that really had been the big discussion, and
Speaker 1: how just changes in general in the middle of the
Speaker 1: season it can can be tough. So what what do
Speaker 1: you feel like the effect could be of, you know,
Speaker 1: when there are changes, what this team is going to
Speaker 1: need to do to make sure that that doesn't derail
Speaker 1: what they're wanting to do. Well. I mean, on one hand,
Speaker 1: I could see like you said, Coach Cutter said, and
Speaker 1: then what right? But at some point you decide, well,
Speaker 1: something needs to change and this isn't guaranteed to work,
Speaker 1: but maybe it will help. And sometimes when you're making
Speaker 1: a change, especially like you know, if you've had a
Speaker 1: team Bucks only done this once in team history. But
Speaker 1: if you change head coach before the season is over,
Speaker 1: that's generally a season that's already off the rails. Right.
Speaker 1: That's far from the case here with the Bucaneers. Yes,
Speaker 1: the Bucks have lost three in a row and now
Speaker 1: we're two and three, but really it's far from over.
Speaker 1: We're two games out of first there's eleven games left.
Speaker 1: We still got four games against our division points, three
Speaker 1: of which are at home, and we have a really,
Speaker 1: really good offense. So this team, even two of the
Speaker 1: three games we've lost, came right down to the wire.
Speaker 1: And that's the way it is in the NFL. And
Speaker 1: that happened to the Buccaneers repeatedly last year, and they
Speaker 1: didn't win many of those games and ended up what
Speaker 1: were we five and eleven? UM and and Coach Cutter
Speaker 1: said that many times, look at all the games we
Speaker 1: lost by three points or less and one score or less,
Speaker 1: you know, we flip a few of those around. So
Speaker 1: that's what we're talking about here. We're talking about a
Speaker 1: relatively thin margin that the Buccaneers are on here on
Speaker 1: winning or losing. And if you can make any bit
Speaker 1: of difference on the defense side of the ball. Now,
Speaker 1: nobody really expects the Buccaneers to turn into one of
Speaker 1: the best defenses in the league at this point, right,
Speaker 1: that would be very surprising, but they don't have to
Speaker 1: be to compliment this really good offer. Yeah, that's an
Speaker 1: interesting point. So looking at you said two and three,
Speaker 1: definitely not over yet, and that's a really huge thing
Speaker 1: to emphasize when there is a change like that. You're right,
Speaker 1: I think it gives people sort of this idea that,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, you know what's going on to the team.
Speaker 1: So how big now do you think this makes this
Speaker 1: weekend's game to essentially, you know, after coming you know,
Speaker 1: three game losing streak, just overall the mentality of the team,
Speaker 1: the feel about it. Do I mean, we never like
Speaker 1: to say that one game is must win or a
Speaker 1: huge deal, But I do feel like this game has
Speaker 1: a lot of significance. Yeah, before this last game, I
Speaker 1: think you're asked me a similar question. My opinion on
Speaker 1: the matter was that the Buccaneers had more to gain
Speaker 1: from winning than they had to lose from from losing, right,
Speaker 1: didn't I say that? Because if you had gone to
Speaker 1: three and two and you were one game out of first,
Speaker 1: and you had two division wins already in your pocket,
Speaker 1: both of them on the road, that's a really good
Speaker 1: position to be in. Falling to two and three where
Speaker 1: they have isn't isn't good, of course, but it's not disastrous.
Speaker 1: Now you have a chance to get back to three
Speaker 1: with Cleveland here. Cleveland is definitely an improved team, but
Speaker 1: now you're at home and they are one of the
Speaker 1: you know, after playing this pretty difficult start to the
Speaker 1: season on paper, this is a I don't want to
Speaker 1: use the word easier, but kind of easier matchup. And
Speaker 1: again you're at home, the offense is still clicking under
Speaker 1: Jamis Winston. So it is an opportunity to get back
Speaker 1: on track, and and I do think that's big. Falling
Speaker 1: to two and four would be worrisome, particularly because that's
Speaker 1: four losses in a row, and as Jeff Ryan likes
Speaker 1: to say on our SELFI dogs podcasts all the time,
Speaker 1: that's when things start. It's not losing one game, it's
Speaker 1: when one turns into two and then that turns into three.
Speaker 1: Same thing happens on the winning side. If we can
Speaker 1: get there. Yeah, both winning and losing is contagious, and
Speaker 1: you definitely don't want to get that four. With four
Speaker 1: straight losses, we wouldn't be able to sit here next
Speaker 1: week on the same show and say, yeah, everything's still
Speaker 1: We're still in good spot. Right. Let's at that point
Speaker 1: we'll be saying it's not over, but we got a
Speaker 1: hold of day out. Yeah, that's very true. And uh,
Speaker 1: speaking of the odds of being able to turn around
Speaker 1: the ship, Jarrett said, there's no way that Baker Mayfield
Speaker 1: comes to Tampa and drops five tds, right, So I
Speaker 1: think that it's this idea of we've played some prolific offenses.
Speaker 1: So yes, the defense knows they have not been playing
Speaker 1: how they need to. But you know, we've gone against
Speaker 1: the likes of Drew Brees and Ben Roethlisberger and Matt Ryan,
Speaker 1: and I mean it's it's a tough We've talked all
Speaker 1: offseason about that tough beginning stretch. So, um, do you
Speaker 1: feel like now, regardless of any changes even being made
Speaker 1: with Mike Smith and Mark Up, that already the defense
Speaker 1: has the potential to have a much better game simply
Speaker 1: because you're not going against a potential future Hall of Famer.
Speaker 1: I'm a pretty big Baker Mayfield fan, and I think
Speaker 1: he's got a lot of really good days ahead of him,
Speaker 1: and I personally think it's possible he could have a
Speaker 1: big game it happens, you know. I mean, you said
Speaker 1: all the great quarterbacks we faced, but it was Mitchell Trabiskie,
Speaker 1: who didn't exactly have a good track record, who's that
Speaker 1: very best day maybe against. So I don't I don't
Speaker 1: say that because I anticipate that happening, but it certainly can. Uh.
Speaker 1: But yeah, if the defense, like last week, we were
Speaker 1: coming off that horrible Chicago game and then through the
Speaker 1: by and we're hoping, as coach Cutter said when he
Speaker 1: was explaining why he didn't make the Mike Smith decision
Speaker 1: then but then he did this week, they were hoping
Speaker 1: that the changes they made in the game plan they
Speaker 1: came up with would produce better defensive results and you
Speaker 1: wouldn't have to do something drastic and then that didn't happen.
Speaker 1: So um, if you could just make a small improvement
Speaker 1: before the Cleveland game, the you know, like you're saying,
Speaker 1: it's an opportunity for the defense to make a small
Speaker 1: step forward and that's enough to probably get a win. Okay,
Speaker 1: And Kevin wants to know, do you see us making
Speaker 1: any trades to help the secondary? Yeah, I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: have to say the same thing I say whenever these
Speaker 1: trade questions come up. It's possible, but they it's just
Speaker 1: look back in history. How often has it happened. It's
Speaker 1: just doesn't happen that often. There's not a lot of
Speaker 1: guys that are going to be difference makers that are
Speaker 1: being traded now. I know there are rumors out there
Speaker 1: about certain players being available, which we can't really address
Speaker 1: directly because they're under contracts other teams. Right And as
Speaker 1: I'll go in and addressing you, we had Paul asked
Speaker 1: us about Patrick Peterson because we we see your comments
Speaker 1: and questions, but unfortunately that's just not something we can
Speaker 1: really get into. I just go back to history. It's
Speaker 1: just getting an impact player on either side of the
Speaker 1: ball at the trade deadline in the NFL is so
Speaker 1: rare that I just never count on it. If it happens, great,
Speaker 1: but it's rare, right. Um. We also had a question
Speaker 1: from de Kwan actually about the radio show last night
Speaker 1: where um, I got to talk with JPP for an hour,
Speaker 1: which was amazing. He's he's great. He is very candid,
Speaker 1: very insightful. Um, so passionate about football in this team. Uh,
Speaker 1: de Kwan wants to know our what the impression of
Speaker 1: his answer. Somebody called in and asked about seeing some
Speaker 1: of the defensive guys dancing on the sideline after they
Speaker 1: had stopped on a third down, and people were saying
Speaker 1: that they didn't like how it looked because it was
Speaker 1: just a stop on they're down there acting like they've
Speaker 1: done something more, and so JPP was asked his thoughts
Speaker 1: on it, and he was just kind of I think
Speaker 1: I'm trying to remember the essence of what he said,
Speaker 1: but basically the idea of that he felt like, yeah,
Speaker 1: like we need to be more accountable for our behavior
Speaker 1: and stuff. He seemed to believe that, yeah, we need
Speaker 1: to take things a little bit more seriously. I don't
Speaker 1: know I wasn't as offended by it because I'm a
Speaker 1: big I'm a big advocate of supporting when you do
Speaker 1: something well and celebrating it because then that can be
Speaker 1: especially on defense, you've got to have that attitude of
Speaker 1: getting excited and getting rolling, and you've got to be
Speaker 1: fired up, and especially when you don't have the home
Speaker 1: crowd behind you. I and maybe I'll just sound like
Speaker 1: a Homer here saying this, but I I was not well.
Speaker 1: But I did think Jpp's answer was interesting. That he's
Speaker 1: just big on individual accountability. I think was what he
Speaker 1: was saying, of taking care of who you need to
Speaker 1: be on the field, and he didn't sound like he
Speaker 1: really made a judgment on them one way or the other.
Speaker 1: But well, I would draw a distinction between some bits
Speaker 1: of celebration and others, and I think that thing tends
Speaker 1: to bother fans. I think, like I've seen people they
Speaker 1: hear about the players laughing on the plane flight back
Speaker 1: or something like that. And your tendency sometimes as a
Speaker 1: fan after things go badly, is to want everybody to
Speaker 1: suffer and willow and suffering for as long as possible,
Speaker 1: And at some point it's just human nature. You get
Speaker 1: excited about things that go well. I would say it's
Speaker 1: a case by case basis. If you're losing forty two
Speaker 1: nothing to the Titans and in Austin, Soferian Jenkins is
Speaker 1: high stepping it into the end zone after a touchdown,
Speaker 1: that's bad. But if in the NFL you said it
Speaker 1: a little bit, don't you want your defensive players to
Speaker 1: be fired up and having fun. They talked about that
Speaker 1: all the time. They're just hanging their heads after stuff.
Speaker 1: They're not going to start turning things around. If you
Speaker 1: make a big play, you're going to celebrate it. And
Speaker 1: that game was never completely out of hand now, so
Speaker 1: there was really if you get a big stop, you're
Speaker 1: gonna want to celebrate. And sometimes, as we've talked about
Speaker 1: it here before, even when your defensive results overall aren't
Speaker 1: very good, you win the game sometimes just because you
Speaker 1: get one or two key stops that could have been
Speaker 1: a very important play. I'm not familiar with the player
Speaker 1: you're talking about, but it could have been a key
Speaker 1: play in the game. So that one from your description
Speaker 1: doesn't buy on me at all. Karl wants to know
Speaker 1: when Kindle back with is coming back. Well, he'll be
Speaker 1: eligible to come back starting this week. However, when asked
Speaker 1: about that last week, coach Cutter definitely did not define
Speaker 1: that would be this week. He left the door open eligible,
Speaker 1: but yeah, you don't. You've got about a three week
Speaker 1: window to do something, and if you don't put him
Speaker 1: back on the active roster by the end of that window,
Speaker 1: then he's just basically on I R for the rest
Speaker 1: of the year. So definitely, from the tone of his answer,
Speaker 1: it didn't sound to me like he'd be back this
Speaker 1: week even though he could, so I guess you just
Speaker 1: crush your fingers and hope it's in the two weeks
Speaker 1: still exists. Andrew said, what can Dufner do different to
Speaker 1: improve the defense that Mike Smith wasn't doing? Well, That's
Speaker 1: an excellent question, and that's really the question, right And
Speaker 1: I don't know if there's a fantastic answer to it,
Speaker 1: because presumably you're not overhauling the playbook. You have your
Speaker 1: same package of the things that you do. You could.
Speaker 1: To me, the only answer is you emphasize certain things
Speaker 1: you and de emphasize other things because it's all coming
Speaker 1: from the same place. I guess he could make some
Speaker 1: personnel changes, but what would those be You know, we're
Speaker 1: kind of with Chris Conti and Vernon Hargrave's both out,
Speaker 1: you don't have a lot of leeway from making changes
Speaker 1: on defense right Um, with maybe with more the defensive
Speaker 1: line getting healthy, and that will depend up a little
Speaker 1: bit of how Jerald McCoy is feeling. You could get back,
Speaker 1: you could finally get to that deeper rotation that you
Speaker 1: wanted to have at the beginning of the year. You
Speaker 1: could blitz more, you could blitz less. We did blitz
Speaker 1: a little bit more in Atlanta, and it was with
Speaker 1: mixed results. You have to blitz more effectively. It's not
Speaker 1: just blitzing, as we talked about before the game. I
Speaker 1: think going into that game. I looked this up before
Speaker 1: the Planta game because I knew people were talking about, hey,
Speaker 1: we need a blitz more because we're not getting there. Well,
Speaker 1: we were giving up a one point eight passer rating
Speaker 1: on place when we blitzed, So there's no point in
Speaker 1: blitz and all the time if it's not working. Uh,
Speaker 1: And speaking of this, this kind of goes to that
Speaker 1: same point. Chad said, well, our defense be more aggressive,
Speaker 1: and I think there's a lot of ways you can
Speaker 1: take the idea of more aggressive, whether you mean the
Speaker 1: type of cover that your corners are playing, you know,
Speaker 1: at the line of scrimmage versus blitzain versus. Yeah, so well,
Speaker 1: how would you take that question of how what are
Speaker 1: the ways you potentially could see them being more or
Speaker 1: less aggressive? Yeah, that's about it, really right. You can
Speaker 1: play more aggressive coverages. I guess somebody could say that
Speaker 1: playing man is a more aggressive way playing defense and
Speaker 1: playing zone. Um, so I guess you could play more
Speaker 1: man to man courage, you play more press coverage, you
Speaker 1: could blitz more often, And that's really about it. And
Speaker 1: Nick had asked do you think that we'll see more
Speaker 1: press coverage? He said he's tired of seeing the drop
Speaker 1: off of the five to ten yard off coverage. I
Speaker 1: think a lot of people have been asking you for that,
Speaker 1: especially since Carlton Davis was drafted. But of course he
Speaker 1: wasn't a probably the best press corner, but he wasn't
Speaker 1: available exactly. So um, yeah, that could happen. Sure, Okay,
Speaker 1: that's true. Um And then Mark asked, are there any
Speaker 1: updates on Hargraves and Davis? I know one of those.
Speaker 1: We definitely have an update, well, not an update but
Speaker 1: we just know, Yeah, well, except for the fact that
Speaker 1: you can come back from my r R. That's it
Speaker 1: seemed to me that the sentiment when Hargraves went on
Speaker 1: injuries or was his injury was not likely to be
Speaker 1: one that he could come back from this season. And
Speaker 1: then Carlton Davis was, you know, he's been more of
Speaker 1: a day to day thing. I think he was right
Speaker 1: up to game time decision in a couple of games
Speaker 1: this week, and then the last one it was it
Speaker 1: was decided he couldn't go. He's got a couple of
Speaker 1: things going on because he's had the groin injury I think,
Speaker 1: and then or was his knee. He had the groin
Speaker 1: and then he had the tweaked Yeah, so that was
Speaker 1: the different That was the thing is that it was
Speaker 1: it looked like he was going to be fine, and
Speaker 1: it was a second. Yeah. The same thing happened to
Speaker 1: Jordan Whitehead the previous week. So we've had some bad
Speaker 1: luck on the practice field because it's usually if you're
Speaker 1: if you're getting guys hurt with little nagging injuries on
Speaker 1: the practice field, it's usually you're like thirty four year
Speaker 1: old veterans, not your rookies. You know why we've been
Speaker 1: having such poor luck in that regard. But I don't
Speaker 1: think he's got anything that's long term, so hopefully he'll
Speaker 1: be back this week. Okay, well, it's going to do
Speaker 1: it for us on this edition of Buccaneers Insider Live
Speaker 1: presented by Miller Lite. Thank you so much for being
Speaker 1: with us. We'll be back here every week on Tuesday,
Speaker 1: so make sure you're here to send all of your
Speaker 1: question thoughts and comments. We'll see you next time.