Speaker 1: Good morning everybody. It is time for Buccaneers Insider Live,
Speaker 1: presented by Miller. Like Casey Phillips, here was senior writer
Speaker 1: and editor Scott Smith. And we have a lot to
Speaker 1: talk about, which also probably means you have a lot
Speaker 1: to ask us about. We've had a preseason game, we've
Speaker 1: had roster cuts, so much going on here, and it
Speaker 1: is our final week before a game that actually counts
Speaker 1: on the schedule, which is crazy to realize. In a week,
Speaker 1: in a day we will be playing our real game.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot going on here. And if you
Speaker 1: have a question for us, you can leave it underneath
Speaker 1: our live video on Facebook. That's where we will get
Speaker 1: our questions from. For now, let's go ahead and start
Speaker 1: with the preseason game and some of the takeaways from that. Sure, well,
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously the most important part was how the
Speaker 1: first team offense and defense fired. You know, we've only
Speaker 1: seen those crews for about six plays in the first
Speaker 1: two games, and the first two preseason games were, to
Speaker 1: be honest, pretty tough to watch. You know, they were
Speaker 1: basically for evaluation purposes for the coaches. But this was
Speaker 1: the one real tuneup for Tom Brady and company and
Speaker 1: that hardly could have gone any better. I mean, the
Speaker 1: first drive with it wasn't good with the penalty right
Speaker 1: away and backed up in a three and out. But
Speaker 1: after that two straight drives of more than ninety yards.
Speaker 1: The first one was just Tom Brady using his top
Speaker 1: three receivers with surgical precision. It's just gonna be hard
Speaker 1: to stop Brady, Evans, Godwin, him Brown when they're all
Speaker 1: in sync, and it just sliced down the field. They
Speaker 1: ran a no huddle because they want to do a
Speaker 1: little bit more of that this year now that Brady
Speaker 1: has a better control of the whole offense, maybe can
Speaker 1: even call some of his own plays at the line.
Speaker 1: And then the second drive was notable because it mixed
Speaker 1: in some nice running from Ronald Jones. He ran like
Speaker 1: three times for twenty seven yards, So that was more
Speaker 1: of the balanced type of attack that they want to
Speaker 1: see at other times. So both of those were very encouraging.
Speaker 1: And then you know, the defense it bent a little bit,
Speaker 1: but it didn't break and didn't give up any points. Um,
Speaker 1: So it was it was a good showing overall, and
Speaker 1: I think it made everybody feel a little bit better
Speaker 1: about the season. Like you said, being right around the corner. Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: And then, of course what we were paying attention to
Speaker 1: all preseason where those potential roster cuts that when we
Speaker 1: did bring back so many starters, it was not going
Speaker 1: to be about our typical starting battle discussions. It was
Speaker 1: all about those bottom of the roster moves back up positions.
Speaker 1: Who was going to win those and not. And so
Speaker 1: now we we have some answers for those. We don't
Speaker 1: necessarily have all the answers yet, but for now, let's
Speaker 1: talk about some of those notable cuts, some guys who
Speaker 1: didn't make the team, names people might realize, and just
Speaker 1: what you learned from what maybe their their goals are
Speaker 1: with this roster based on some of those cuts. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think notable is a good word. I don't think
Speaker 1: you would call any of these cuts surprising. I think
Speaker 1: you could have predicted pretty much all of them. Probably
Speaker 1: the one that was toughest to predict was who was
Speaker 1: going to come out of that cornerback battle because there
Speaker 1: was about four guys fighting for the fifth spot and
Speaker 1: it ended up being Antonio Hamilton's being cut, which was
Speaker 1: a guy that when we signed him in the spring,
Speaker 1: I thought he had a really good shot at making it.
Speaker 1: As we'll talk about in a minute, Um, he just
Speaker 1: was beaten out by some other guys, or one other
Speaker 1: guy in particular, um, Ryan Griffin, who has been with
Speaker 1: the Bucks since two thousand and fifteen, which is hard
Speaker 1: to believe. I mean, his tenure as a quarterback on
Speaker 1: this team is as long as anybody's has ever been.
Speaker 1: I think he matched his Trent Doper. So if he
Speaker 1: had made it one more year, he would have been
Speaker 1: the longest tenured quarterback in team history. But he's only
Speaker 1: thrown about four passes, and with Kyle Trast being drafted,
Speaker 1: it seemed pretty obvious that was gonna be Brady playing,
Speaker 1: Gabbert and Kyle Trask as the three you keep. Bryan
Speaker 1: Griffin could come back on the practice squad off both
Speaker 1: he and the team want that. We'll find out in
Speaker 1: the next day or so. But um, you know, otherwise,
Speaker 1: the only the only UH draft pick that was cut
Speaker 1: was seventh round quarterback Chris Willcox, who you know has
Speaker 1: battled some injuries. It really hasn't had a chance to
Speaker 1: show himself very much. But I don't think you'd find
Speaker 1: too much of its surprising. Bull Tanner, Hudston and Cody
Speaker 1: McElroy were cut, which which makes it seem like the
Speaker 1: Bucks didn't think either of them offered enough as a
Speaker 1: blocker or a special teams player to justify keeping a
Speaker 1: fourth tight end. So they're gonna run with three right now.
Speaker 1: Probably put either one or both those guys on the
Speaker 1: practice squad if they're up for it, and go a
Speaker 1: little deeper at some other spot like the offensive line. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and and related to that, Rawl had asked what your
Speaker 1: thoughts were on them deciding to only keep three tight
Speaker 1: ends on the active roster, So what what you think
Speaker 1: about what this means for for the offense and even
Speaker 1: you know, the practice squad, all those things of why
Speaker 1: they made that decision, of that being a position to
Speaker 1: carry less. Yeah, and when we started training camp, I
Speaker 1: would have expected that they would keep four. That's what
Speaker 1: they did all of last year. That's how Tanner Hudson
Speaker 1: actually became our fourth tight end. Anton Claire got hurt
Speaker 1: for a little while and came back, but Oj Howard
Speaker 1: got hurt, so Tanner came up and was the fourth
Speaker 1: tight end the rest of the way. I think target numbers.
Speaker 1: Probably starting camp they were thinking four tight ends, but
Speaker 1: you don't keep a four tight end just to keep
Speaker 1: a fourth tight end, and that guy, if he's gonna
Speaker 1: have any value for you, probably needs to play someone
Speaker 1: special teams. And he also has to be a guy
Speaker 1: that you know, we have three other guys that can
Speaker 1: just the ball very well, Rob Gronkowski, Um Cam Braid,
Speaker 1: o J. Howard. So you really probably need your fourth
Speaker 1: guy to be able to block somewhat, and they just
Speaker 1: didn't show enough I guess as a blocker. So you
Speaker 1: can keep those guys on the practice squad and if
Speaker 1: you have injury issues, you can bring one up. You
Speaker 1: can practice squad elevatim on game day, or you can
Speaker 1: sign them to the practice squad. I just think it
Speaker 1: felt like maybe the ninth offensive lineman was more valuable
Speaker 1: to them than the fourth tied end. Is basically when
Speaker 1: it comes down to, if you look at it, before
Speaker 1: o J got hurt last year, Cam Braid really wasn't
Speaker 1: playing very much at all. Your third tight end was
Speaker 1: barely getting on the field. So what's your fourth tight
Speaker 1: en't gotta do? Yeah, yeah, that's a great point. And
Speaker 1: so I know that we we've talked about some of
Speaker 1: these notable cuts, but uh, it can be a little
Speaker 1: misleading when we say that you know, you've got to
Speaker 1: get down to that fifty three, and it sounds like
Speaker 1: that's just it, like this is your fifty three and
Speaker 1: it's a final thing. But it's it's never really as
Speaker 1: final as that makes it sound, and especially in a
Speaker 1: year like this, So explain a little bit about why
Speaker 1: there may still be some moves to be made in
Speaker 1: the next week. Yeah, it's always been a misnomer to
Speaker 1: call these final cut scene. That's what we always call them,
Speaker 1: because the roster is always in motion, and in normal years,
Speaker 1: the issue is you're gonna pour through the waiver wire
Speaker 1: of hundreds and hundreds of guys are being cut around
Speaker 1: the league, and you're always looking upgrade. And so if
Speaker 1: you think you see a sixth receiver or a fifth
Speaker 1: outside linebacker that you feel is better than what you
Speaker 1: have right now, then you oftentimes you'll see what I think,
Speaker 1: um Mark Dominican Company, excuse me, I used to call
Speaker 1: it the bee round of the draft. So it's it's
Speaker 1: a chance you maybe you've liked together, maybe you wanted
Speaker 1: to draft this guy and he gets cut and you've
Speaker 1: always liked them, So there you'll you'll claim some guys
Speaker 1: and you'll move some other guys off the roster. But
Speaker 1: this year there's a very there's a totally different elemented
Speaker 1: play here, and that's that the Buccaneers went through these
Speaker 1: cuts with four guys that are currently on the COVID
Speaker 1: reserve COVID nineteen list, and since it's a reserve list,
Speaker 1: those guys don't count against the active roster as long
Speaker 1: as they're on the list. So the Bucks only really
Speaker 1: had to cut from seventy six down to fifty three
Speaker 1: yesterday instead of e d down to fifty three. But
Speaker 1: you're probably bringing back at least three of those guys
Speaker 1: and Dominquan, Sue Ryan stuck Up, and Nick Leverett, and
Speaker 1: there's also Earl Watford who I think probably less likely
Speaker 1: he's on the fifty three man roster, but you never know.
Speaker 1: So when you bring those guys back, you're gonna let
Speaker 1: somebody else go. So what it did, and it probably
Speaker 1: what the Bucks probably weren't the only team in this situation,
Speaker 1: but it gave you a little extra roster flexibility. Like
Speaker 1: as an example, last year, the Buccaneers had signed a
Speaker 1: Q Shipley during training camp and they wanted to keep
Speaker 1: them as their backup center. But they also wanted to
Speaker 1: keep a guy and I can't think of who it
Speaker 1: is right now, maybe John Moulshawn that they wanted to
Speaker 1: keep him long enough to get him on the fifty
Speaker 1: three man roster and then put him on I R.
Speaker 1: Because you have to get him through the fifty three
Speaker 1: if you want to put them on I R where
Speaker 1: they can come back from it. If you do it beforehand,
Speaker 1: they're out for the season. So we had some extra
Speaker 1: spots where we could do that yesterday and carry a
Speaker 1: few guys through and then maybe put some guys in
Speaker 1: I R and that creates spots for the other ones
Speaker 1: to come back from COVID. Yeah, a lot of talking there,
Speaker 1: but the point is extra for flexibility at the perfect time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I think you were right about it being Mulchion,
Speaker 1: which is initially so in speaking of guys like him,
Speaker 1: What are some of the notable keeps we talked about
Speaker 1: some of the notable cuts. What were some of the
Speaker 1: guys that ended up making the roster that stood out
Speaker 1: to you or were interesting to you. Yeah, that's the
Speaker 1: flip side of the story here. And coaches always talk
Speaker 1: about how this is the hardest time in the year
Speaker 1: because they hate telling guys that they you know, their
Speaker 1: dreams are, if not over, at least deferred a little bit.
Speaker 1: But the other side is the exciting guys that maybe
Speaker 1: you didn't see coming that made the roster at the end.
Speaker 1: I think the first thing to point out, and this,
Speaker 1: I don't think I've ever seen this before, there are
Speaker 1: only three new veteran players on this rosters. Three. I mean,
Speaker 1: I know that's a product of how incredible Jason light
Speaker 1: was able to keep the whole Super Bowl game together,
Speaker 1: but three guys from that weren't on the team before
Speaker 1: other than the draft picks. That's incredible. And it's Geogny
Speaker 1: Bernard who we thought would make it, and Chris Cooper
Speaker 1: and deed Delaney. And Cooper and de Laney are the
Speaker 1: two kind of success stories from the preseason. They both
Speaker 1: played great on special teams. You saw Chris Cooper make
Speaker 1: that play in Houston where he jumped into the end
Speaker 1: zone and got us the ball like the one you know,
Speaker 1: allowed us to down the ball to the one yard line.
Speaker 1: De Delaney had two picks in that game and played
Speaker 1: well on special teams throughout the preseason. So those are
Speaker 1: probably the two most surprising guys that made it. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, we'll see if Nick Leverett also has kept
Speaker 1: on the fifty three after he comes off COVID. He
Speaker 1: had a great camp. So if that's true, those are
Speaker 1: probably the three that were would have been the most
Speaker 1: surprising when camp started. But it's a great story for
Speaker 1: all of them. Okay, And then I thought this is
Speaker 1: interesting to talk about Al had asked. He said he
Speaker 1: was surprised by the Leadbetter cut. So let's talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about the the D line depth and what
Speaker 1: we learned about that positions and the guys that were
Speaker 1: kept and cut. You know, I we have been talked
Speaker 1: about this throughout camp. We must have talked about it
Speaker 1: four or five times. How that defensive land position was
Speaker 1: just so incredibly deep, just loaded with guys that we
Speaker 1: know the Bucks like because they've like with Leadbetter. They've
Speaker 1: had him on the practice squad for several years, they've
Speaker 1: promoted him several times. You know, he's done well when
Speaker 1: he's got a shot. It's just such a deep group.
Speaker 1: I know that obviously you got your starting three and
Speaker 1: Sue and Vey and and Will Galston, um uh Rakie Nunez,
Speaker 1: Roches and Nacho played so great in relief of Vita
Speaker 1: Vea last year. Um, and you've got Patrick O'Connor, who's
Speaker 1: an awesome special teams player, and they love Steve McClendon,
Speaker 1: who they traded for midway through last season, and just
Speaker 1: a great locker room presence and a big body, the
Speaker 1: type of player that Todd Bowls likes at nose tackle.
Speaker 1: And then you still have Khalil Davis, who was a
Speaker 1: six round draft pick who offers you some different kind
Speaker 1: of abilities with his pass rush from the interior. And
Speaker 1: that's seven guys. I've already counted seven guys. That's probably
Speaker 1: one more than the target was for that spot, but
Speaker 1: it was just so deep. And I just think Jeremiah Leadbetter,
Speaker 1: who's a good player, just got ast out by the numbers.
Speaker 1: I would be shocked if he's not on a practice
Speaker 1: squad unless he's claimed by another team. Okay, and then,
Speaker 1: speaking of practice squad, I thought it was good for
Speaker 1: us to kind of go over this again. Richard had
Speaker 1: asked how many players can be signed to the practice
Speaker 1: squad this year, So let's go over that, because again
Speaker 1: that's another part where we say the final roster cuts.
Speaker 1: But you know, hopefully a lot of these guys are
Speaker 1: back on the practice squad, so that's another thing to
Speaker 1: keep watching here as a continual story in terms of
Speaker 1: who's a part of this organization. And we have seen
Speaker 1: guys come off the practice squad and have to contribute.
Speaker 1: So these are still guys you want to pay attention to,
Speaker 1: and especially in a year where COVID is still a
Speaker 1: thing where you don't know who all could end up
Speaker 1: missing game time, who they have to call up. So
Speaker 1: tell us a little bit about some of those practice
Speaker 1: squad rules this year. Okay, Well, actually what they did
Speaker 1: was they kept the same rules from last year, which
Speaker 1: some of them were designed I'll give you more roster
Speaker 1: flexibility to deal with the pandemic. The biggest one being
Speaker 1: that they expanded them from it was ten and two.
Speaker 1: I remember back in the nineties when the practice call
Speaker 1: was like five players, so ten seemed like a bonanza
Speaker 1: in recent years, and now it's sixteen, which is a lot.
Speaker 1: But um, it allows you to keep depth at just
Speaker 1: about every position on the depth chart, even kicker, which
Speaker 1: we did it all last year and we might do
Speaker 1: again this year. But um, and also you have ter
Speaker 1: you have I think six veteran exceptions, so you can.
Speaker 1: I mean, we had Earl Watford on the practice squad
Speaker 1: for a while last year. You can keep virtually anybody
Speaker 1: you want on the practice squad as long as they
Speaker 1: don't get another opportunity they want somewhere else. Um. And
Speaker 1: you also still have those two game day elevation options,
Speaker 1: so you can elevate guys to help you out of
Speaker 1: positions that are they're thin because of injuries, which happened
Speaker 1: all the time last year. Nine of the sixteen guys
Speaker 1: that were on the first week one practice squad at
Speaker 1: some point got into a game for US last year,
Speaker 1: So that tells you that those guys aren't just afterthoughts.
Speaker 1: And Bruce arians has said several times the last couple
Speaker 1: of weeks how important those practice squads spots are, and
Speaker 1: that's even more so because they also kept the rule
Speaker 1: that you can basically have unlimited elevations if you are
Speaker 1: replacing guys that are on the COVID list, And as
Speaker 1: we're seeing with this delta virant variant, you can get
Speaker 1: it even though you're vaccinated, and even though you're probably
Speaker 1: not gonna have any bad symptoms, you're still gonna out
Speaker 1: for ten days, so your team is missing you, so
Speaker 1: that practice squad becomes even more important than ever. I
Speaker 1: mean if in Dominican Sue and Nick Leverett and the
Speaker 1: other guys Ryan suck Up had gotten their COVID one
Speaker 1: or two weeks later, they'd be missing games. Yeah, how
Speaker 1: important the practice squad is now, and it's sixteen players,
Speaker 1: so that's huge, okay. And Richard had also asked, what
Speaker 1: were your thoughts on Javon Hagen being cut and does
Speaker 1: that make Ross Cockerell the fourth safety? I was well, no,
Speaker 1: Chris Cooper was kept at least for now. Let's it
Speaker 1: makes some more changes. Like we said, some more changes
Speaker 1: are coming. But the Buccaneers have four safeties in Whitehead, Edwards,
Speaker 1: Winfield and Chris Cooper. Now, I think Chris Cooper is
Speaker 1: probably on a roster mostly because of his special teams abilities,
Speaker 1: but he is your fourth safety. But in practice, actually
Speaker 1: I don't remember you said the name of the questioner,
Speaker 1: but he's probably right. The fourth safety that would go
Speaker 1: into the game would try to be Ross Cockerell for sure.
Speaker 1: I think that's a good point. Basically Ross cross training
Speaker 1: and doing well at safety during training camp. As the
Speaker 1: bucket has allowed the Buccaneers to keep nine players in
Speaker 1: the secondary, and it's essentially four point five corners and
Speaker 1: four point five safety, so it's really well balanced. Yes,
Speaker 1: the way he has a bout Javon Hagan, I'll admit,
Speaker 1: I'll admit that was probably the cut that surprised me
Speaker 1: the most. I thought he was gonna make it, and
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure unless he has claimed that he'll be
Speaker 1: on the practice squad, and I bet you we see
Speaker 1: something from him before the season is over. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think that's a that's a good bet. And then we'll
Speaker 1: close with this. Rawl had said he was surprised that
Speaker 1: both Britt and Steward made the cut. So in that
Speaker 1: inside linebacker position, what did you think about how many
Speaker 1: they chose to keep in who they chose to keep? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's I think that's a good point. And I think
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago, I think it's been pretty
Speaker 1: clear for a while that KG Brett was going to
Speaker 1: make the team. He certainly seemed like our fourth inside linebacker.
Speaker 1: He seems like he has a future on defense and
Speaker 1: not just special teams. I think Grant Stewart won his
Speaker 1: spot probably by special teams and it was down to
Speaker 1: him and Joe Jones, you know, and I think they
Speaker 1: were maybe a similar value in terms of maybe you
Speaker 1: didn't expect them to do much on defense anytime soon,
Speaker 1: but they can help you right away on special teams.
Speaker 1: And if you're choosing between those two guys of basically
Speaker 1: equal value, you know, why not keep the young guy
Speaker 1: that you just drafted over, you know, over the guy
Speaker 1: that's a few years older. So um, I think the
Speaker 1: next question with Grant Stewart is will he have a
Speaker 1: helmet on game days? Will you do enough on special
Speaker 1: teams to have the Bucks keep up five inside linebackers
Speaker 1: amongst their forty eight active But I do think that
Speaker 1: it was the reason the Buccaneers drafted both of those
Speaker 1: guys is that they wanted to get a little deeper
Speaker 1: at that spot after running really thin last year basically
Speaker 1: behind Lavante David and Devin White, you basically only had
Speaker 1: Kevin Mentor and the fourth guy was not a guy
Speaker 1: who really counted on on defense. So I think it
Speaker 1: was a concerted effort by the Bucks to get deeper
Speaker 1: there and they did, so, Okay, well that's gonna do
Speaker 1: it for us. On this edition of Buccaneers Insider Live
Speaker 1: presented by Miller Lighte. Thanks as always for being with
Speaker 1: us and for those amazing questions, and we'll be back
Speaker 1: here next week for our final one before the regulars
Speaker 1: Sason kicks off, so we'll see you guys then. Um
Speaker 1: fourth overa