Speaker 1: Welcome to Buccaneers Inside our live presented by Miller like
Speaker 1: Casey Phillips and Scott Smith here and we are finally
Speaker 1: back to our normal, regularly scheduled programming and back at
Speaker 1: the regular weekly time here inside. We've done all those
Speaker 1: training camp reports live. They are super fun. I love
Speaker 1: me out there and having all the fans cheering, the
Speaker 1: music going and here. Yeah, we don't have quite the
Speaker 1: excitement happening behind us, but we'll we'll try to make
Speaker 1: up for it. We'll try to bring all the excitement here.
Speaker 1: And man, we do have a lot to talk about.
Speaker 1: And yes, all of you guys can also help us
Speaker 1: decide what we're gonna talk about, sending all those questions
Speaker 1: on Facebook. If you're not already watching the show there,
Speaker 1: head over the Bucks Facebook page and put all of
Speaker 1: your questions in the comments below the live video. As
Speaker 1: we let people get those questions in. We had the
Speaker 1: entire roster cut down over the weekend. It wasn't it
Speaker 1: just a one day thing. That were even moves after that,
Speaker 1: So let's start with Saturday for you. The big ninety
Speaker 1: down to fifty three cut down some of the high
Speaker 1: level things that you noticed of either guys that were
Speaker 1: cut you were kind of surprised by our guys that
Speaker 1: made it that you were interested by, and some of
Speaker 1: those ear Um, I think the two surprise cuts were
Speaker 1: the ones that were surprised to everybody. So I'm not
Speaker 1: reinventing the wheel here or anything, but veteran defensive backs
Speaker 1: keep Tandy and Josh Robinson, both of them technically safeties,
Speaker 1: although Josh was basically that special team's days. I didn't
Speaker 1: see that one coming, and for that reason, I was
Speaker 1: a bit surprised that Isaiah Johnson made the team, not
Speaker 1: because I didn't think he was a good player. You know,
Speaker 1: he made he made the active roster at the end
Speaker 1: of last year and another time earlier in the year.
Speaker 1: He's clearly been a guy that's been improving throughout his
Speaker 1: two years here. I just thought it was gonna be
Speaker 1: a numbers crunched in safety because I thought I'd already
Speaker 1: had five account in four and I didn't think we
Speaker 1: could keep six safeties when it seemed clear we're gonna
Speaker 1: keep at least five corners. Ended up keeping six, So um,
Speaker 1: that was a bit of a surprise. But when you
Speaker 1: see it shake out, you see they were able to
Speaker 1: keep six corners, and I think the reason for that
Speaker 1: was m J. Stewart. He still wasn't practicing on Monday.
Speaker 1: It looks like there's a chance he's not ready to
Speaker 1: go for Week one. So you have another quarterback there,
Speaker 1: and it's actually a former New Orleans Saint Devanta Harris
Speaker 1: who was just cut. I knew it was a few
Speaker 1: weeks ago on this waen claim him off waivers, right,
Speaker 1: and so what did you think? We talked a lot
Speaker 1: about the idea of the roster moves being things where
Speaker 1: sometimes it's not that you're cutting a guy or keeping
Speaker 1: a guy just because of that, but because of all
Speaker 1: the other needs what different guys can do it. And
Speaker 1: special teams is one of the areas where we knew
Speaker 1: that there might be some cuts to make room for
Speaker 1: other positions that we knew just really earned their spot.
Speaker 1: And we talked about wide receiver being one of the
Speaker 1: ones we thought could affect that. It's it will be
Speaker 1: interesting to see who picks up the slack and the
Speaker 1: snaps and the tackles from two of your better special
Speaker 1: teams players in Keith Tandy and Josh Robinson. And you
Speaker 1: know that is a general thing that generally turns over
Speaker 1: a lot because it's usually a lot of young guys.
Speaker 1: So it's not anything new that this is happening, but
Speaker 1: you do have to replace that. In addition, DeVante Bond
Speaker 1: is on injury reserve right now and he was our
Speaker 1: leading special teams tackler last year. So some guys are
Speaker 1: gonna have to step up. And you mentioned wide receivers.
Speaker 1: I think Freddie Martino and Justin Watson are two candidates
Speaker 1: for that. We already know that Freddie Martino is a
Speaker 1: great special teams player. Justin Watson seems to have the
Speaker 1: capability to be a very good special teams player and
Speaker 1: he has said that he wants to do that. Um.
Speaker 1: The only thing about that is if both those guys
Speaker 1: are up and active, that keeps six receivers active on
Speaker 1: game day, which isn't very common for us, and it
Speaker 1: would cost you something. You might only be able to
Speaker 1: keep up three tight ends and stuff four or something
Speaker 1: like that. So it may be the case where only
Speaker 1: one of those two guys is active on any given
Speaker 1: uh Suddenly, you know, injuries obviously change matters, but so
Speaker 1: it'll be interesting to see which one gets to call
Speaker 1: because that guy is not going to get a ton
Speaker 1: of reps on offense with all the other four guys healthy,
Speaker 1: So we'll see how that pans out. Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1: Any position groups in general that had some things that
Speaker 1: you think are were sort of surprising, or in general
Speaker 1: just guys that made it that you think, man, this
Speaker 1: is going to be interesting to see. I think going
Speaker 1: ten deep on both the defensive in the offensive line
Speaker 1: is deeper than you usually see. Especially on the offensive line.
Speaker 1: I think nine is a more common number. And then
Speaker 1: you keep uh seven of them active on game day.
Speaker 1: But again, both of those positions and the decisions made
Speaker 1: at them were impacted quite a bit by injuries, you know, um,
Speaker 1: especially the offensive line. You still don't know what the
Speaker 1: status of Donovan Smith is going to be this week.
Speaker 1: He didn't practice on Monday. I wouldn't read a ton
Speaker 1: into that because that's a bonus practice and maybe you
Speaker 1: wouldn't really expose that guy to that. Anyway, we'll learn
Speaker 1: a little bit more about Donovan as the rest of
Speaker 1: the week goes on, or we may not learn a
Speaker 1: whole lot because I have a feeling this is one
Speaker 1: of those topics where coach Cutter is gonna want to
Speaker 1: volunteer a lot of information, so um, you know, it
Speaker 1: was not really by the time we got to the cuts,
Speaker 1: it wasn't a particular surprise that Mike lib Key made
Speaker 1: the team because he was one of the great stories
Speaker 1: of training camp and he had made such a rise
Speaker 1: and it played so well. Pressed into duty at tackle,
Speaker 1: which is the position he came into league as by
Speaker 1: the way, before the Bucks were working on the inside,
Speaker 1: so he has experienced there. But it was good to
Speaker 1: see him hold up. And now on our very first
Speaker 1: depth chart we put out, lidd Key is listed as
Speaker 1: the backup to um Donovan Smith. Now on game day,
Speaker 1: the reality of it is, you really probably only keep
Speaker 1: one tackle up and he's your back up with the
Speaker 1: bull spots, and that could be Leonard Wester instead of Licky.
Speaker 1: But then you also kept Adam Gettis, and you you've
Speaker 1: had Evan Smith has missed a little bit of time,
Speaker 1: Caleb Ben and I has missed a little bit of time.
Speaker 1: I think those are hedges against injury situations. And then
Speaker 1: of course we started on Sunday with ten defensive alignment,
Speaker 1: but at the moment we only have nine because they
Speaker 1: put Mitch on right on injury reserve and just a
Speaker 1: quick side on that. That was the plan all along,
Speaker 1: but you had to keep him on the fifty three
Speaker 1: men restler at least into Sunday in order to be
Speaker 1: able to put him in an injury reserve but have
Speaker 1: them be eligible for one of those designated for return positions.
Speaker 1: That doesn't necessarily, Saider really mean it will be him
Speaker 1: in the end, but he's eligible for it now, So
Speaker 1: if he can come back after eight weeks, then he can.
Speaker 1: But now we're down to nine, which is a little
Speaker 1: more common number for defensive alignment. Okay, and bringing up
Speaker 1: the injured reserve idea, How did injuries end up affecting uh,
Speaker 1: this roster, some of the guys that were put on
Speaker 1: some of the different injury um areas because you know,
Speaker 1: we hadn't known a lot all preseason because they're not
Speaker 1: required to put out stuff in terms of an injury report.
Speaker 1: So I feel like this was actually the biggest indicator
Speaker 1: of the overall health of the team all all preseason. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll look at the linebacker position. In the weeks leading
Speaker 1: up to it, we talked many times about how that
Speaker 1: was a great competition and um in Coach Cutter even
Speaker 1: when prompted, ask where's the competition remain here in the
Speaker 1: last few days? What positions, and he'd usually say linebacker
Speaker 1: and wide receiver. Um. As it turned out that competition
Speaker 1: almost was decided by default because both Devonte Bond and
Speaker 1: Riley Bullah suffered foot injuries and both of them ended
Speaker 1: up going on injured reserve. Now there's still if you
Speaker 1: put a got an injury reserve before UH preseasons over,
Speaker 1: you can still work out an injury settlement with them
Speaker 1: and release them, and then they would they'd be abiable
Speaker 1: to sign anywhere else. But they also at some point
Speaker 1: in the future could return to you that you have
Speaker 1: to if you work out an injury settlement. That is
Speaker 1: supposed to the way an injury summit works is you
Speaker 1: pay them for the number of games you think they
Speaker 1: would have missed have they been injured but still on
Speaker 1: the roster. So for after you do that with a guy,
Speaker 1: he can return to you after that many weeks plus three.
Speaker 1: So I'll say, if we made a five week injury
Speaker 1: settlement with Devonte Bond, we could resign him eight weeks
Speaker 1: later if he was still there and there was interested
Speaker 1: in that. Okay, UH, and you know, we talked about
Speaker 1: there was the big cut down Saturday, but then there
Speaker 1: were some other moves the next couple of days, and
Speaker 1: we actually Ryan asked about how Karl Nassib is going
Speaker 1: to help. I'm sure that everyone is uh pretty familiar
Speaker 1: with him hard knocks. We've got our own accountant here
Speaker 1: now on the team. And uh, he asked, is he
Speaker 1: really that much better than Will Clark, which was the
Speaker 1: corresponding roster. Yeah, And and and in that situation, I figured
Speaker 1: something's gonna ask that, and it's really kind of the
Speaker 1: easiest answer, easiest question answer because clearly, if you switch
Speaker 1: out one guy for another guy at the exact same position,
Speaker 1: you think he's something of an upgrade to you. And
Speaker 1: not to say anything bad about Will Clark, but they're
Speaker 1: always looking to do that, especially at the um you know,
Speaker 1: second or third levels of the depth chart. You're happy
Speaker 1: with the guys you kept, they like Will Clark, but
Speaker 1: if you see a guy out there, if you if
Speaker 1: you like player A, but Play or B becomes available
Speaker 1: and you're great on him, is a little bit higher.
Speaker 1: It only makes sense as long as it makes financial sense.
Speaker 1: And there's no financial issue with this one. So I
Speaker 1: just assume they think he's maybe a bit more of
Speaker 1: you know, maybe a more powerful guy off the edge.
Speaker 1: He is definitely bigger than a lot of the guys
Speaker 1: that we've had in generally. Yeah, I mean we have
Speaker 1: some big d lineman, but uh, for a defensive end,
Speaker 1: he's he's a pretty big dude. I think it's an
Speaker 1: intriguing signing or claim. After I was a little bit
Speaker 1: surprised that Cleveland cut him. They they cut him, They
Speaker 1: kept him to Sunday, and then they claimed five players
Speaker 1: off waiver. Remember Cleveland has that enviable position that the
Speaker 1: Bucks did in two thousand and fifteen, I think, where
Speaker 1: you have the first waiver claim, and it's not like
Speaker 1: guys used to playing fantasy sports. No, they if they
Speaker 1: have the first claim and they claim a guy they
Speaker 1: dropped back to twelve or whatever the last in the
Speaker 1: NFL until a game has been played, or maybe I
Speaker 1: think it's three games have been played, you have the
Speaker 1: first waiver claim on every single person. So they used
Speaker 1: it and picked up five guys and and they decided
Speaker 1: one of those guys was better for them than Carl Nassa.
Speaker 1: And then the Bucks decided that Carl Nasson was better
Speaker 1: than them for them then Will Clark, yeah, which is
Speaker 1: always interestingly thinks of it as the roster cut Saturday,
Speaker 1: but it's so much more than that. You want to
Speaker 1: see who else everybody else is cutting and then go
Speaker 1: And you know we talked about Mitch on Ryan and
Speaker 1: you you wanted to keep a spot for him to
Speaker 1: get him through the Sunday and then put him in
Speaker 1: Drew reserves. So what the Bucks did, and they've actually
Speaker 1: done it two years in a row, is they cut
Speaker 1: both of their long stampers and then they just signed
Speaker 1: Garrison s and more and back the next day. Right,
Speaker 1: So we got cut and then signed back the next day.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure they told him, oh, yes, that that
Speaker 1: This is what I mean. You take a little bit
Speaker 1: of a risk if somebody comes along and wants to
Speaker 1: sign him. But considering the fact that we just signed
Speaker 1: him a week ago, they probably figured it was a
Speaker 1: reasonable risk. That's true. Um, I know some people are
Speaker 1: tuning a little bit later, that weren't he at the
Speaker 1: very beginning. So Kevin actually asked who was the most
Speaker 1: surprising cut from Saturday? And uh, I know you kind
Speaker 1: of answered this at the beginning, But Keith Andy for sure,
Speaker 1: and and safety overall was the position. I think we
Speaker 1: probably got more questions about than anything all preseason, So
Speaker 1: taking into considerately, he was someone that we didn't talk
Speaker 1: a ton about, and especially not in the idea of
Speaker 1: thinking that he was in danger of getting cut. So
Speaker 1: what instead of just the idea of him getting cut,
Speaker 1: what does him getting cut tell you about the guys
Speaker 1: that are still on the roster and how that position
Speaker 1: will look. Well. One of the things that tells you,
Speaker 1: um is that they really like Isaiah Johnson. They've him
Speaker 1: here for two years. He came on as an undrafted
Speaker 1: guy out of South Carolina in two thousand sixteen, made
Speaker 1: the practice squad and kind of unusually, he was on
Speaker 1: the practice squad for every single week of the two
Speaker 1: thousand and sixteen season. That's a bit unusual because that
Speaker 1: turns over so much. Sometimes those guys get promoted the
Speaker 1: active roster, or sometimes you've seen enough of them and
Speaker 1: you have you have more of a need at linebacker
Speaker 1: than safety or whatever, so you make a switch there
Speaker 1: for one. For a guy to stay on the whole
Speaker 1: seventeen weeks doesn't happen very often, but it's an indication
Speaker 1: they liked him a lot. I wanted to make sure
Speaker 1: they kept him around and took him to camping in
Speaker 1: next year. Uh. And then in two thousand and seventeen
Speaker 1: it was another step up for him because twice he
Speaker 1: got promoted when the MUCKs Bucks needed help at safety,
Speaker 1: once in October and once in December. So again you're
Speaker 1: seeing they like him even more now. When Coach Cutter
Speaker 1: was discussing him on Monday, the first day we got
Speaker 1: to talk to him after the cuts, he really was
Speaker 1: saying how much that that player has improved over those
Speaker 1: two years. It's just the classic example of what you
Speaker 1: use the practice squad for. So I gotta I gotta
Speaker 1: believe they like him a lot. You know. It's kind
Speaker 1: of the thing where he takes the place of a
Speaker 1: guy who's getting a little bit, a little bit farther
Speaker 1: along his career, probably in terms of how much he's
Speaker 1: making is more. And that happens let in the NFL.
Speaker 1: It's it's natural turnover. It's it stands out a lot
Speaker 1: to us because, like you said, we never talked about
Speaker 1: Keith as being in any danger and everybody loves Keith
Speaker 1: Tandy for good reason. And so when a guy that
Speaker 1: you value in so many ways, not just what he
Speaker 1: does for you on the field, but just what kind
Speaker 1: of a guy is you hate to see it happen.
Speaker 1: I knowing him, I'm sure he took it um well
Speaker 1: and considered and just started considering his next move. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's true. I love this. Chris said, he took Peyton
Speaker 1: Barber and his fantasy draft in his fantasy draft, so
Speaker 1: let him know to do well and make me look
Speaker 1: like a very smart person. Uh So, over, we hadn't
Speaker 1: talked a ton about the running back position so far
Speaker 1: in terms of who all made the roster. I know
Speaker 1: that that was an area that you've been sort of
Speaker 1: interested in, those last one or two spots there, and
Speaker 1: you're your guys, Shawn Wilson, you've been singing his praises. Well,
Speaker 1: let's just be and you gotta back me up here
Speaker 1: that I was the first one on the Seawan Wilson
Speaker 1: absolutely from the very beginning camp, right, he was my
Speaker 1: predicted guy to keep, and then a lot of people
Speaker 1: got on by the end of camp, and by the
Speaker 1: time we got through there to the end, I don't
Speaker 1: think there was a lot of doubt that he was
Speaker 1: going to make the team, especially after Charles Simms went
Speaker 1: on into reserve, because at that point Coach Cutter almost
Speaker 1: always keeps four tailbacks on the depth chart at least
Speaker 1: and and actually he usually keeps all four of them
Speaker 1: up on game day and one of them at least
Speaker 1: will do something for you on special teams. Um So,
Speaker 1: Sean Wilson was basically battling darry On Gooomba Wally, who
Speaker 1: was doing great and by the way, made the practice squad,
Speaker 1: but I felt like Sean was a little bit ahead
Speaker 1: of him. And uh so, I didn't think Dorry didn't
Speaker 1: have to pass him, so I didn't think it was
Speaker 1: a big surprise. But I like that. And um you know,
Speaker 1: the guy who drafted Peyton Barber will be happy to
Speaker 1: know that he's our starter right now. And there was
Speaker 1: a lot of talk about Round Jones uninspiring numbers in
Speaker 1: the preseason, right, and that's fair, But Coach Cutter really
Speaker 1: made a point and you can see it in these
Speaker 1: games that lots of times a broken down run is
Speaker 1: somebody else's fault. And you know, you saw the very
Speaker 1: first carry in the last game. He got the handoff
Speaker 1: and was hit immediately by a defensive lineman. Because there
Speaker 1: had been a bust upfront and the guy came immediately in,
Speaker 1: so that can happen. I would just say he didn't
Speaker 1: have a great preseason, but I wouldn't read too much
Speaker 1: into it. That being said, Peyton Barber looked great to me,
Speaker 1: and he deserves what he got. He was the one
Speaker 1: running back who and he got to play with the
Speaker 1: first team line most of the time, so that says
Speaker 1: something too. But he was the one guy who was
Speaker 1: creating yards for himself, which is something he did very
Speaker 1: well last year. He's good at picking up extra yards
Speaker 1: after first contact, and uh, you know, I just thought
Speaker 1: he looked a little bit more dynamic this year. He's
Speaker 1: He's always been a nice, powerful runner, a good goal
Speaker 1: line back, but I think he looks more dynamic. Okay,
Speaker 1: we got about a minute left. We'll try to get
Speaker 1: through two last questions here. One Marshall wants to notice
Speaker 1: vive I have any realistic chance of playing on Sunday. Well,
Speaker 1: I we will know more about that in the next
Speaker 1: two days. He did not practice on Monday. If I'm
Speaker 1: a betting man, I would say it's probably not gonna happen. Um,
Speaker 1: he would only get two or three practices. If he
Speaker 1: does play, I would imagine it would being a very
Speaker 1: limited role. Um, I'm and we are still just guessing here.
Speaker 1: This is not information that the Bucks have put out. Um,
Speaker 1: and Coach Cutter again was not real. I didn't have
Speaker 1: a lot of details to share on this, but he says,
Speaker 1: come along fine, but just from my guess, I would
Speaker 1: guess now, okay. And then the last one here, Kevin
Speaker 1: wants to know, do you consider Justin Watson the fourth
Speaker 1: or fifth wide receiver? Fifth? Yeah, because the other four
Speaker 1: in front of have clear and obvious roles and the
Speaker 1: very productive players. Um, so it could be a little
Speaker 1: while to like god when last year, it could be
Speaker 1: little while till he has some significant role on offense
Speaker 1: or injuries could open the door. Hopefully not, hopefully not.
Speaker 1: He has to be hopefully just either earns a spot
Speaker 1: or everyone's playing so great that we have the best
Speaker 1: top five wide receiver group in the league. All right,
Speaker 1: that's gonna do it for us here on Buccaneers Inside
Speaker 1: a Live presented by Miller Lite. Thanks so much for
Speaker 1: joining us, and we'll see again next week.