Speaker 1: Welcome to Buccaneers Inside a live presented by Miller like
Speaker 1: Casey Phillips here with senior writer and editor Scott Smith,
Speaker 1: and this is where we answer all of your questions,
Speaker 1: which the off season is actually some of the most
Speaker 1: fun times I feel like to do the show because
Speaker 1: we get to just talk about anything and everything in
Speaker 1: terms of all the different players and options and draft
Speaker 1: and all the things that are changing going on. The
Speaker 1: draft is nine of it for sure, So as we
Speaker 1: get people chance to start submitting their questions in the
Speaker 1: comments section, I want to start with the All Rookie
Speaker 1: team that got announced. Got some Buccaneers in there, Yeah,
Speaker 1: two of them. In fact, it was our first two picks.
Speaker 1: So obviously the Buccaneers went into that draft last April
Speaker 1: with the intention of restocking the defense. Right, almost every
Speaker 1: pick was defense except for Matt Gay the kicker and
Speaker 1: Scotty Miller the late receiver that they took. And the
Speaker 1: first two picks were Devin White and and Sean Murphy
Speaker 1: bunting and the fact that they both made the Al
Speaker 1: Rookie Team is definitely a good sign that these guys
Speaker 1: are going to be the cornerstones that you're hoping to
Speaker 1: get for a long time, and I honestly think Jamal
Speaker 1: Dean would have a really good shot at it too
Speaker 1: if he got to be in the line up a
Speaker 1: little bit sooner. I mean, his his run stretch run
Speaker 1: down the end was he was probably playing at least
Speaker 1: as well as Sean was. It's just his body of
Speaker 1: work was a lot smaller. Yeah. Yeah, that's a great point. Um.
Speaker 1: And we also hadn't really talked about some of the
Speaker 1: news that could affect our division a lot. Is the
Speaker 1: Carolina Panthers now have several new changes season of change
Speaker 1: for them. Yes that I we we just didn't get
Speaker 1: to it last week about the new coaching higher but
Speaker 1: then of course now new news about Luke Keiklely retiring.
Speaker 1: So overall just wanted to hear your thoughts about all
Speaker 1: the things that could look different with the Panthers and
Speaker 1: how that might affect the box. Well. I mean, obviously
Speaker 1: a new head coach is gonna put a whole new
Speaker 1: stamp on it. Uh Ron Rivera came in with the
Speaker 1: defensive background. He had a lot of success being a
Speaker 1: defensive coach before he got his head coaching gig and
Speaker 1: Carolina's defense has been pretty good for most of his
Speaker 1: tenure there. I mean they were pretty you know, they
Speaker 1: went a little up and down and went several different
Speaker 1: directions on offense through the years, but the defense was
Speaker 1: always pretty good. But that was Ron Rivere there, and
Speaker 1: that was with Luke Keikley in the middle. Um, just
Speaker 1: one of the best players in the league since two
Speaker 1: thousand and twelve of and uh, yeah, that was kind
Speaker 1: of a surprise. I mean, you and I can't really
Speaker 1: speculate as the reason why he didn't say so. If
Speaker 1: he chooses at some point to to be more specific,
Speaker 1: that's up to him. But obviously you have to look
Speaker 1: back in his injury is his history of concussions, and
Speaker 1: wonder if that had something to do And if so,
Speaker 1: that's a shame. Um. You know, we're not gonna sit
Speaker 1: here and be happy about a player having to retire,
Speaker 1: although I guess we can be happy that he made
Speaker 1: the decision that he wants for himself. But yes, for
Speaker 1: the Buccaneers, that means a very different looking Panthers team
Speaker 1: I'm gonna face twice a year. All right. Well, I
Speaker 1: wanted to talk about the idea of now that we're
Speaker 1: at the end of the season, Um, how much progress
Speaker 1: essentially was made in some different areas. So for we
Speaker 1: kind of go through some of the different positions and
Speaker 1: see looking at from the beginning of the year to
Speaker 1: the end of the year where the you know, a
Speaker 1: lot of progress had been made. And since we just
Speaker 1: talked about that all rookie team, I guess we can start,
Speaker 1: especially on the defensive side of things. So, um, how
Speaker 1: don't we start with either, you know, the how about
Speaker 1: the DBS, because we talked a little bit about Sean
Speaker 1: making that team and overall, how the DBS as a
Speaker 1: whole safety and core or seemed to progress over the course.
Speaker 1: That was the progression that was made. Because pretty if
Speaker 1: you look at it, the front seven was pretty much
Speaker 1: good the entire season, particularly the defensive line. You know,
Speaker 1: you had the injury with Devin White early on that
Speaker 1: cost him about a month. Actually Kevin Miner did did
Speaker 1: a pretty good job of filling in, but still you
Speaker 1: wanted Devon in there. He's such a playmaker. But that
Speaker 1: front seven, the way they handled the run, the pressure
Speaker 1: on the quarterback was pretty good early on, and it
Speaker 1: was pretty good throughout the year. Forty seven sacks when
Speaker 1: it was all said and done, which is the second
Speaker 1: most we've ever had. So that's a success. However, the
Speaker 1: secondary in the early going, you know, you looked at
Speaker 1: that and said, man, this feels just like the last
Speaker 1: couple of years, I just can't really stop anybody. And
Speaker 1: we've put all these resources draft resources, primarily into the
Speaker 1: cornerback and safety positions in the last few years and
Speaker 1: we're not getting the results. But and we've we've harked
Speaker 1: back to this several times. The thing that Bruce Arian
Speaker 1: said probably about August twenty somewhere, kind of late August
Speaker 1: when he said it was about when camp was wrapping
Speaker 1: up when he said that he thought the secondary was fixed,
Speaker 1: and we came to understand that what he probably specifically
Speaker 1: meant was the talent issue was fixed there. He thought
Speaker 1: they had gotten that position to a level where they
Speaker 1: had enough talent to be able to succeed. And so
Speaker 1: when you saw it actually start to come together, you're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: now I get it. I mean it wasn't. I think
Speaker 1: they thought it was gonna come together a little bit
Speaker 1: quicker with Todd Bowles running a new defense, and and
Speaker 1: that ended up being really really good as it turned out. Uh,
Speaker 1: but it didn't come together as quickly as you thought,
Speaker 1: but it did come together, and so by maybe week
Speaker 1: nine on, you saw a secondary that I was doing
Speaker 1: things that we haven't seen here a lot. You know,
Speaker 1: there's been these years recently where it could be frustrating
Speaker 1: watching our secondary because it seemed like it was very passive,
Speaker 1: that guys really gave a lot of cushion. Would be
Speaker 1: third and seven and they're playing ten yards off and
Speaker 1: like this defense and or Todd Bowls is not at
Speaker 1: all passive. They do a lot of different things in
Speaker 1: terms of blitzing. They do a lot more man coverage
Speaker 1: than we saw before, although not exclusively man coverage, and
Speaker 1: we just our guys just got their hands on the
Speaker 1: football a ton more than we've seen in a long
Speaker 1: time in the second half of the season. So it's
Speaker 1: probably not it's probably not right to say that it's
Speaker 1: completely over the hump. They still have some learning to do.
Speaker 1: This is still young guys. You know, when Carlton it
Speaker 1: almost feels like Carlton Davis is a veteran, but there's
Speaker 1: only a second year player last year, so there's there's
Speaker 1: still a lot of growing for those guys to do.
Speaker 1: But they do a period of jailed, and you know,
Speaker 1: they got a whole another off season. Now, I think
Speaker 1: they're gonna hit the ground running in two thousand and twenty.
Speaker 1: It's a great point. All right, we're gonna combine, We'll
Speaker 1: switch over the offensive side, and I want to hear
Speaker 1: your thoughts on the offensive line as a whole. But
Speaker 1: here with we got this question here with from John
Speaker 1: who said, is there a left tackle in the first
Speaker 1: round that you think could be good enough to take
Speaker 1: at our spot in the draft, and do you think
Speaker 1: the Bucks would be willing to move Donovan Smith to
Speaker 1: right tackle. I'm not so sure about that. I think
Speaker 1: the more obvious approach would be to take a guy
Speaker 1: that you think is a plug and play guy are
Speaker 1: right away at right tackle. And you know, DeMar Dotson
Speaker 1: has been a very good tackle for us for pretty
Speaker 1: much a decade whenever he's been healthy. But he is
Speaker 1: a free agent, and he is like the most senior
Speaker 1: guy on the team, So it's reasonable to expect you
Speaker 1: could possibly have a new starter there next year. Right.
Speaker 1: As much as we love Tomorrow, you know, Bruce called
Speaker 1: him a warrior. Bruce said lots of really nice things
Speaker 1: about him, but you have to face some facts. It's
Speaker 1: possible you'll be getting new starter at right tackle. It
Speaker 1: seems to me to make more sense to get a
Speaker 1: guy that you think could potentially be a left tackle
Speaker 1: in the future, but definitely could start at right tackle
Speaker 1: right now, because you do have Donovan Smith under contract
Speaker 1: for this year and next year. I know the team,
Speaker 1: uh likes Donovan Smith. They've said that all along, so
Speaker 1: I think they feel pretty good about Donovan at left tackle.
Speaker 1: But there's nothing wrong with bringing a guy that could
Speaker 1: be the future there, right so you you bring him
Speaker 1: in at right tackle, you know, maybe like a I
Speaker 1: was Tristan Wars or something like that. And I do
Speaker 1: think that this draft, with us picking fourteen and the
Speaker 1: depth of offensive tackle in this particular draft, that it
Speaker 1: really works out well that there's a good chance somebody
Speaker 1: like him will be available. And I think that's a
Speaker 1: really good idea Austin had brought up. Carson Palmer was
Speaker 1: interviewed about, you know, his first year under Bruce arians
Speaker 1: and he talked about how it was tougher than most
Speaker 1: you know that the first year there, that he had
Speaker 1: a career high number of interceptions. So Austin said if
Speaker 1: Winston cuts down to fifteen to eighteen interceptions, do you
Speaker 1: agree that we could be attend to eleven win team
Speaker 1: with playoffs? Absolutely for sure. I mean we're talking if
Speaker 1: it's fifteen, that's cutting him in half, and that's a
Speaker 1: huge game. Uh. Yes, I think I've said the same thing.
Speaker 1: If you take what he did and then cut the
Speaker 1: interceptions in a half, yeah, I think that's that's probably
Speaker 1: enough for a couple of wins right there. For sure.
Speaker 1: You know it's a big if. I do think I
Speaker 1: think people are right to listen to Carson Palmer and
Speaker 1: have some optimism about that because he has been in
Speaker 1: the exact same situation. But we also have to remember
Speaker 1: that just because it happened at one time doesn't necessarily
Speaker 1: guarantee that's going to happen again. So it's it's encouraging,
Speaker 1: but it's just one definite predict Yeah. Right. Um, Mike
Speaker 1: had asked you for see any change in the coaching staff. Well,
Speaker 1: the only reason I would say it's possible is that
Speaker 1: what do we have, like thirty coaches something like just
Speaker 1: gigantic coaching staff, So you never know if somebody could
Speaker 1: get another job somewhere. But I don't think that Bruce
Speaker 1: Arians went in the offseason intending to make changes on
Speaker 1: the coaching staff. Okay uh. Deantre asked what is our
Speaker 1: biggest need going into draft evaluations like position? Well, some
Speaker 1: of that's gonna depend on what happens in free agency,
Speaker 1: because again we have nineteen pending unrestricted free agents, and
Speaker 1: surely not all those guys are going to be back.
Speaker 1: You know, Bruce Arians made it clear that it's his
Speaker 1: priority to get to keep that defensive front seven intact.
Speaker 1: And and that's also while not really discussing what are
Speaker 1: you gonna do at quarterback, right because that's probably the
Speaker 1: number one priority, call it one A and one B.
Speaker 1: So uh. Depending on what happens with all those free agents,
Speaker 1: you could see outside linebacker, interior defensive line becoming more
Speaker 1: important in the draft if you don't get as many
Speaker 1: of them back as you want to. Otherwise I'll go
Speaker 1: back to what we're talking about before. I think offensive tackle.
Speaker 1: The Bucks haven't drafted an offensive tackle or an offensive
Speaker 1: lineman in the first round since two thousand six, and
Speaker 1: that was a guard um Davin Joseph, and they haven't
Speaker 1: drafted offensive tackled him for fiance in two thousand one.
Speaker 1: It feels it just kind of feels like it's time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know, Yeah, that's a great point. Um. We I
Speaker 1: had Johnny asked something about the idea of the multiple
Speaker 1: tight ends and if they're still the guys that fit
Speaker 1: this system and just overall what we think the tight
Speaker 1: ends could be moving forward. You do wonder you really
Speaker 1: do now? On one hand, O J. Howard played his
Speaker 1: highest percentage of offensive snaps in his career, So it
Speaker 1: wasn't that Bruce arians didn't want him on the field,
Speaker 1: and we used plenty of two tight and stuff. You
Speaker 1: saw Cam get a good cam break, get a good
Speaker 1: amount of action, and before he got hurt, Antonio Claire
Speaker 1: was playing a pretty good amount because they really think,
Speaker 1: just like the previous administration, they really think he's a
Speaker 1: very good blocker. You know, hasn't proven to be much
Speaker 1: of a threat in the passing game as if yet. Um,
Speaker 1: But the numbers just really weren't there, and the offense
Speaker 1: put up gigantic numbers. And you know I've said this before,
Speaker 1: the whole rising tide lifts all boats. You think, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're getting off so much out of receivers, but the
Speaker 1: offense is so prolific that there this should create more
Speaker 1: opportunities for the tight ends, and it just it really
Speaker 1: just kind of didn't happen, right. And then looking back
Speaker 1: at Bruce arians Is team's numbers during his time as
Speaker 1: the Cardinals head coach, there really isn't a lot jumping
Speaker 1: off the page from the tight ends. And as he
Speaker 1: came here, the the line of thinking was, well, he
Speaker 1: never really had a pair of tight ends like O. J.
Speaker 1: Harden Cambray, And I think that's true. But now after
Speaker 1: a season you have to look and go maybe some
Speaker 1: of it it does have to do with scheme. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's an interesting point. Um. We had Travis asked, who
Speaker 1: do you think our first free agent signing will be? Well,
Speaker 1: if I have to pick, I'd guess Shack Barrett. Um.
Speaker 1: It does feel like the Jamis Winston thing is so
Speaker 1: complicated that I feel like that one's going to take
Speaker 1: some time, and it could even take a tag, you know,
Speaker 1: which can draw things out. Even if you're trying to
Speaker 1: sign a guy to a to a longer term contracts.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you use the tag just to give you more
Speaker 1: time and you know, keep your leverage or keep your
Speaker 1: exclusive negotiating rights. Shack It just I go back to
Speaker 1: how many times over the last month either he or
Speaker 1: Bruce arians was asked about shack Bar and every time
Speaker 1: both those guys made it very clear they absolutely wanted
Speaker 1: him to still be here beyond and and Shaq doesn't
Speaker 1: want to move. He wants to be here. He shouldn't
Speaker 1: And I'm sure he does want to get paid and
Speaker 1: we'll get paid. But I think that's the one that
Speaker 1: it just felt like more, more progress is being made,
Speaker 1: So that would be my guess. Rob said, if one
Speaker 1: of the top quarterbacks are left when our draft pick
Speaker 1: comes up, will we take them? Well again and asked
Speaker 1: me again after by find out what we did with Jamis. No,
Speaker 1: if we franchised or signed Jamis, then no, I don't
Speaker 1: think so. Um, but if not, then possibly. Yeah. We
Speaker 1: talked a little bit about the Titans. David had asked,
Speaker 1: do you see o J or Cam being traded? Which
Speaker 1: one is basically more likely to be traded. I doubt
Speaker 1: that cam Brad would be traded just because he does
Speaker 1: have a fairly sizeable contract and so that makes it
Speaker 1: harder for him to be traded. Um, oh j, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's possible. That those rumors have been around for so
Speaker 1: long that sometimes you think where there's smoke, maybe there's
Speaker 1: a little fire. Uh. If I'm a betting man, though,
Speaker 1: I would guess no on both of them. And just
Speaker 1: for one thing, trades are not all that common. And
Speaker 1: I say this all the time, So if you're gonna
Speaker 1: if you're gonna bet, you're usually safer to bet on. No, no,
Speaker 1: no trade happening. We had back to back questions about
Speaker 1: Scotty Miller. Mike asked, with the expected progression of Scotty Miller,
Speaker 1: is Pairman expendable? And and then Scotty not Scotty Miller.
Speaker 1: Scotty is a different Scotty asked, do you think that
Speaker 1: Pairman will be signed to a big deal? So we
Speaker 1: had sort of the Scotty Miller bshot Pairman who's yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll start with the second one. That's gonna be tough.
Speaker 1: It really is, because Okay, you do have somewhere in
Speaker 1: the dollar cap space available as you start, as you
Speaker 1: head into the offseason now, but then you have to
Speaker 1: sign potentially Jamis Shack and Dominan, Sue Jpp. You got
Speaker 1: you also want to get Chris Godwin to an extension.
Speaker 1: This is when we can start working on an extension
Speaker 1: for Chris Godwin. Uh And and it has been Bruce
Speaker 1: has said that, yes, that is a priority. So you
Speaker 1: already have a big contract on Mike Evans, You're probably
Speaker 1: gonna have a big contract on Chris Godwin, who by
Speaker 1: some measures was the best receiver in football this year.
Speaker 1: And so to say you're gonna do in a third
Speaker 1: big contract on a receiver, he deserves it. He and
Speaker 1: I'd love to have him back. But it would surprise
Speaker 1: me if Brishod Perryman got a huge contract here, um,
Speaker 1: just because that'd be three receivers that and Scotty Miller
Speaker 1: was coming along quite nicely. I don't know if they're
Speaker 1: the exact type of player though, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: Like when jamis I'm sorry when Mike Evans and Chris
Speaker 1: Godwin both got hurt. Brashad Perryman, nobody knew if he
Speaker 1: could flourish as a number one receiver, but now we
Speaker 1: do know. And he's a big guy like Mike. He's
Speaker 1: he can make all those contested catches on the sidelines
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. And I don't think Scotty Miller
Speaker 1: is that same type of as here. Yeah, so I
Speaker 1: don't think they're apple. I think they're apples and oranges. Okay,
Speaker 1: we'll close with this one. John asked, who do you
Speaker 1: think could be a cap casualty. I don't really like
Speaker 1: this question, you know. Um I threw out a name earlier,
Speaker 1: Cam Braid, because he does have a high contract number. Um,
Speaker 1: but we love cam Brad. I don't want to see
Speaker 1: any of our guys we cap casualties. I don't think
Speaker 1: there's a lot of that right now. I don't think
Speaker 1: we're in a position where we're gonna have to do
Speaker 1: a lot of that. Okay, al right, well that's gonna
Speaker 1: do it for us on this edition of Buccaneers Inside
Speaker 1: Our Live presented by Miller Lyte. Thanks as always for
Speaker 1: watching and for contributing your questions. And next week we'll
Speaker 1: be doing the show out at the Pro Bowl, so
Speaker 1: make sure you tune in then