Speaker 1: Good morning, Bucks fans. How's everyone doing Wednesday morning, which
Speaker 1: means it is time for Buccaneers Insider Live, presented by
Speaker 1: Miller like Casey Phillips, her senior writer and editor Scott Smith.
Speaker 1: As always, this is where we take your questions. So
Speaker 1: if you are not already watching on the Buccaneers Facebook page,
Speaker 1: head on over there find our live video and you
Speaker 1: can leave your questions down in the comments section. So
Speaker 1: as we have people a chance to start doing that,
Speaker 1: I figured we would start with some of the roster
Speaker 1: moves that we have, which is it's always fun whenever
Speaker 1: we have some news right before this show, So tell
Speaker 1: us what we know about some of these roster moves
Speaker 1: that have happened this week. Hey, things are starting to
Speaker 1: look pretty good. Uh. The team is returning to health.
Speaker 1: As probably most fans watching this heard yesterday, Scotty Miller
Speaker 1: was activated from injured reserve. There was a spot open
Speaker 1: because we released long snapper Carson Tinker and that's because
Speaker 1: Zach Trinner returned from injured reserve for the last game,
Speaker 1: as did Sean Murphy bunting. And now we get another
Speaker 1: piece of good news this morning that cornerback Carlton Davis
Speaker 1: has been designated to return to practice starting today, so
Speaker 1: that begins a three week window at when which you
Speaker 1: can practice with the team without counting against the fifty
Speaker 1: three man roster, and if at any point the Bucketeers
Speaker 1: feel like he's ready to go, he can be activated
Speaker 1: to the active roster. So the Books are pretty close
Speaker 1: to getting back to their starting lineup of cornerbacks from
Speaker 1: Week one, which didn't even last that full game because
Speaker 1: that's when Sean Murphy Bunting had his dissocated elbow against
Speaker 1: the Cowboys, So we haven't played a full game with
Speaker 1: the three corners that we intended to be our top
Speaker 1: three guys were getting close to that, and then one
Speaker 1: of the little piece of news the Jaguars signed Jaden
Speaker 1: Mickens off of our practice squad to their active roster.
Speaker 1: And uh so we have resigned wide receiver John Hurst. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so many, so many moves happening, uh and it's it's great.
Speaker 1: It is some of the first times we're feeling like
Speaker 1: there is multiple bits of good news on the injury front,
Speaker 1: which is really nice timing wise. Um, and we saw
Speaker 1: some of the effects of that already in this last game.
Speaker 1: It felt like and I just wanted to hear your
Speaker 1: your major takeaways from this last week. Well, to stay
Speaker 1: with that theme, Rob Gronkowski was back, and boy, it's
Speaker 1: good to have Rob Gronkowski back. Uh, for just for
Speaker 1: that offense. I mean, he immediately had six catchers for
Speaker 1: something like seventy one yards. He had our longest play
Speaker 1: the game, which is a thirty five yard or on
Speaker 1: third and two. Uh, and then even the other Titans.
Speaker 1: And honestly, during the time that Gronkowski was out, the
Speaker 1: Buccaneers still had two very good tight ends and O. J.
Speaker 1: Howard and Cam Bread, but they just didn't get that
Speaker 1: involved in the passing game. Well, Gronkowski come backs, comes back,
Speaker 1: catches six passes, but Cam Braid and O. J. Howard
Speaker 1: made some big plays in that game as well. So
Speaker 1: just the whole Titan group kind of gets tied together
Speaker 1: when Gronkowski is back. But you know, my other big
Speaker 1: takeaway from that game is, as it's been the story
Speaker 1: a lot this year, the Buccaneers, Tom Brady and the
Speaker 1: Bucks offense are taking what the defense is gonna give.
Speaker 1: And they knew the Giants were gonna come in and
Speaker 1: play lot of too high safeties to try to take
Speaker 1: away the big play. A because that's what the Giants
Speaker 1: have been doing all year, and B because that's what
Speaker 1: a lot of teams have been doing to the Buccaneers specifically.
Speaker 1: So Tom ready take what they took what they give them,
Speaker 1: and did it really well. I know everybody was a
Speaker 1: little frustrated with the dink and dunk game in Washington,
Speaker 1: but this was totally different. This was a really well
Speaker 1: scripted game. And if you talk about successful plays, and
Speaker 1: I'll be done with this long run here in the
Speaker 1: second casey, but if you talk about successful plays as
Speaker 1: they're defined by next Gen stats, play as a success
Speaker 1: if it gets four more yards on first down, if
Speaker 1: it gets half or more of the yards needed for
Speaker 1: a first down on second down, and if it gets
Speaker 1: the first down or a touchdown on third and fourth down.
Speaker 1: By that definition, the Buccaneers started that game with seventeen
Speaker 1: straight successful plays, including every single play in the first quarter.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's just good scripting and good execution. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's incredible. That is I love that staff. That's really great.
Speaker 1: And of course we had a bunch of questions asking
Speaker 1: with all that injury update, we just gave uh Antonio Brown,
Speaker 1: what do we know about when he might be healthy
Speaker 1: or when we we might know when he might be healthy? Well,
Speaker 1: I mean we you know. When Bruce Arian spoke on Tuesday,
Speaker 1: because we had the Monday night game, he had some
Speaker 1: promising things to say about a number of guys, including
Speaker 1: the fact that Vita Via amazingly should be ready to
Speaker 1: go this week and should probably be practicing today. Um.
Speaker 1: And and then he said Carlton could return, and now
Speaker 1: he has, but he was a little less Um, I
Speaker 1: don't know specific Antonio Brown, he says he's getting better,
Speaker 1: but I didn't hear the words that made me think
Speaker 1: he's coming back now, you know, But I think he's
Speaker 1: getting close, okay. And then the same thing with Ali Marpett.
Speaker 1: What we know about his injury, So it's an oblique injury,
Speaker 1: and apparently it's a little hard to tell how long
Speaker 1: those things are gonna take. I think that's a pain
Speaker 1: thing for one thing, and maybe you know it's hard
Speaker 1: to move. Uh. And he coach Arean said, we probably
Speaker 1: wouldn't know until closer to the end of the week
Speaker 1: if it's gonna be bad enough to keep Ali out
Speaker 1: for a game. Um, hopefully not. But we really can't.
Speaker 1: You know, we really can't complain too much because so
Speaker 1: far all of our five offensive line starters have started
Speaker 1: every game and you won't find that on many teams
Speaker 1: around the league. Okay, and Jonathan asked us to say
Speaker 1: hello to him from Newfoundland, Canada. All right, he's probably
Speaker 1: impressed that you pronounced it right and not Newfoundland. Once
Speaker 1: you said that, I suddenly got nervous. I was like,
Speaker 1: oh God, how could I I mean, I think you
Speaker 1: got it right. So it's Jonathan. Yes, I Jonathan in Newfoundland.
Speaker 1: That's funny. When you first said about my pronunciation, I
Speaker 1: thought you meant Jonathan, and I was like, I don't
Speaker 1: feel like I should have got a lot of credit
Speaker 1: for that job. That's so buddy. Um alright. Our next
Speaker 1: one was asking about how long we think Richard Sherman
Speaker 1: might be out as well, or when we might know
Speaker 1: some more. Yeah. When Richard Sherman went down the second
Speaker 1: time with the caffe injury, UM, I could tell from
Speaker 1: bruce Arians wording and tone to the answer to that
Speaker 1: question that we're not gonna see him for a while. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, he said he's not gonna be back anytime soon,
Speaker 1: and to be asked with you. The urgency isn't quite
Speaker 1: as strong there now, with Carlton Davis hopefully returning to
Speaker 1: action soon and Sean Murphy bunting back in the lab,
Speaker 1: so you'd like to have him available, but it's a
Speaker 1: little less urgent than it was a few weeks ago. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we can just continue to get coach Richard Sherman and
Speaker 1: get the YEA. Our next one was that William wanted
Speaker 1: us to talk about Joe Tryon's game and what you
Speaker 1: saw from him. Yeah, he got to play a decent amount,
Speaker 1: which is good. You know, his his playing time has
Speaker 1: kind of gone up and down a little bit a
Speaker 1: lot of the times that that's just had to do
Speaker 1: with the type of offense we were facing and and
Speaker 1: their game plan. Uh. And they moved him around a lot,
Speaker 1: so you know, he had a couple of plays I think.
Speaker 1: I don't think he had a stack that was um Anthon,
Speaker 1: Nelson and cam Gill, but he had some pressures in there.
Speaker 1: And again when he's had a chance to get in
Speaker 1: there immers of the pastory, he's looked pretty good. So
Speaker 1: I think everybody feels really good about his future. Okay, Uh, Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I had asked do you think he'll get more
Speaker 1: playing time? Again, I think it has to do with
Speaker 1: the with the game plan each week. So this one
Speaker 1: we're playing the Colts obviously, with they they have the
Speaker 1: best running back in football now pretty much undisputed with
Speaker 1: Derrick Henry injured. Jonathan Taylor. I mean, he just ran
Speaker 1: for four touchdowns and caught another one. So we're gonna
Speaker 1: get a big dose of Jonathan Taylor. And that may,
Speaker 1: you know, that may put us in more base sets,
Speaker 1: that may make us want to have JPP out there more. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, because he's pretty good at set in the edge.
Speaker 1: So I don't know, we'll see, but it's kind of
Speaker 1: a game plan dependent thing, okay. Uh. And then Richard
Speaker 1: had asked, what are your thoughts on Devin White starting
Speaker 1: to play like the player we have expected these last
Speaker 1: couple of weeks, And I know that actually is also
Speaker 1: a great segue into some news we have in terms
Speaker 1: of the Pro Bowl. Yeah, right before we came on
Speaker 1: the air, we got the email from the league for
Speaker 1: the first time on an update of the fan voting
Speaker 1: for the Pro Bowl. So the fan voting started last week,
Speaker 1: I believe, So get out there and vote. I'm sure,
Speaker 1: there's all kinds of links all over Buccaneers dot com, um,
Speaker 1: but it's on NFL dot com. And uh, there were
Speaker 1: two Buccaneers that are currently leading the fan voting at
Speaker 1: their positions in the NFC, and that's Tom Brady at
Speaker 1: quarterback and Devin White at inside linebacker. So obviously the
Speaker 1: splash plays that he's made the last couple of weeks
Speaker 1: are you know, people are starting to take notice. And
Speaker 1: of course, when you play on Monday night and everybody
Speaker 1: gets to see you. He had his big two sack
Speaker 1: game and eighteen tackles in Washington. Didn't have any sex
Speaker 1: on Monday night. But he's still really doing a good
Speaker 1: job of pressure in the quarterback. And one of the
Speaker 1: reasons why those plays are showing up more now is,
Speaker 1: as Bruce Arians was explaining yesterday, when the Buccaneers said,
Speaker 1: some injury issues going on on defense for you know,
Speaker 1: a good part of the first half of the season,
Speaker 1: they asked Devin to play a lot more, you know,
Speaker 1: stay in the middle of the defense and and you know,
Speaker 1: take the middle of the field. But now that they're
Speaker 1: a little healthy and they can play a little more
Speaker 1: man to man and don't have to go zone all
Speaker 1: the time. Uh, they can blitz him more often, or
Speaker 1: he can go on that delayed blitz when he sees
Speaker 1: that the running back is staying in to protect and
Speaker 1: so he's just getting more opportunities. And we've seen over
Speaker 1: the last few seasons that when he decides to go
Speaker 1: in the backfield, he gets in there really really fast.
Speaker 1: So you're starting to see that. And he didn't have
Speaker 1: any sex in this game, but he did pressure the
Speaker 1: quarterback on the interception by Steve McClendon. And he also
Speaker 1: tipped the ball that was intercepted by Mike Edwards. So
Speaker 1: he's out there to make it place. Yeah, absolutely, and
Speaker 1: it was great. I had Mike called Well, the inside
Speaker 1: linebacker coach, on my radio show yesterday, and uh, he
Speaker 1: said that Devin had even made a comment about how
Speaker 1: he really had wanted to get himself the interceptions and
Speaker 1: not just be tipping things or helping or causing stuff.
Speaker 1: So when he ended up doing that and tipping it
Speaker 1: to Mike Edwards, coach Caldwell said they were all planning
Speaker 1: on giving him a lot of grief of like, hey man,
Speaker 1: I thought you said you were going to get it yourself.
Speaker 1: Hey man, Steve mccleinson's out there getting interceptions, So I
Speaker 1: think that's what I told. I was like, I bet
Speaker 1: that's some extra motivation to like, he got one more
Speaker 1: than you did that game. Um. We also had a
Speaker 1: question asking how concerned we should be about facing Jonathan
Speaker 1: Taylor this next week. Well, yeah, any team should be.
Speaker 1: But you know the thing about it is, I mean
Speaker 1: he's gonna be a huge challenge for any defense because
Speaker 1: he's the whole package. He's uh fast, He's really fast,
Speaker 1: Like he got up to twenty two miles per hour
Speaker 1: on a seventy eight yard run earlier this season, and
Speaker 1: that's the fastest that any running back has run on
Speaker 1: any play this year. But he's also big and strong
Speaker 1: and powerful, can run between the tackles, can break tackles.
Speaker 1: I mean it's a challenge for anybody. But you also
Speaker 1: go into these games going well, if any team is
Speaker 1: equipped to deal with a Jonathan Taylor or any great
Speaker 1: running back, it's the Buccaneers, who's run defense for the
Speaker 1: third year in a row is number one in the league.
Speaker 1: We had dropped the number two, but we're back to
Speaker 1: number one now and we probably have Vida Veia back
Speaker 1: in the middle, so that really helps. So, I mean,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't go anywhere and make any sort of bull
Speaker 1: predictions on the Bucks defense being able to stop Jonathan Taylor,
Speaker 1: but at least they are well prepared to do so, okay,
Speaker 1: all right, Well that is going to do it for
Speaker 1: us on this stition of Buccaneers Insider Live presented by
Speaker 1: Miller Laite. Thanks as always for joining us and for
Speaker 1: those great questions, and we'll see you next week