Speaker 1: Welcome into Books Insider, presented by Verizon. Casey Phillips here
Speaker 1: with senior writer and editor Scott Smith.
Speaker 2: And it's here. It's finally here.
Speaker 1: The Draft week is upon us. We've been talking about
Speaker 1: it for months. You guys have done a bunch of
Speaker 1: mock drafts. We have all these ideas. It's just going
Speaker 1: to be such a fun week. We hope a lot
Speaker 1: of people are coming out to the draft party out
Speaker 1: here at Raymond James Stadium.
Speaker 2: It's going to be a lot of fun. For now.
Speaker 1: We are going to talk a little bit of draft later,
Speaker 1: but of course we have to start with the most
Speaker 1: recent news of the Buccaneers and it's just some of
Speaker 1: my favorite news in a while. And I feel like
Speaker 1: we've got to do this a few times this offseason.
Speaker 3: The annual tradition have resigning Will Goles.
Speaker 2: That's true.
Speaker 1: We need to make it a holiday. We re signed him,
Speaker 1: one of the fan favorites, one of the team favorites.
Speaker 1: Tell me what comes to mind for you about not
Speaker 1: only this for him, the organization, but the defense as well.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 3: You know this will be what his twelfth year. Very
Speaker 3: few players make it to a dozen years for a
Speaker 3: single team. And he You and I both know he's
Speaker 3: been through different coaching staws, different defenses, and he's always
Speaker 3: been willing to maybe change his frame a little bit,
Speaker 3: he gets a different role, but he always just gets
Speaker 3: the job done. He's been a great buccaneer for a
Speaker 3: long time and now there's a good chance that he'll
Speaker 3: be a buccaneer for life, hopefully. And as it's noted
Speaker 3: here by somebody who covers the Buccaneers, he's now up
Speaker 3: there at what is at sixth place all time and
Speaker 3: games played and most bad defensive linemans, so most more
Speaker 3: than Warren Sap or Eroy Salmon. You know, that's saying something.
Speaker 3: If you can last that long, especially on one team,
Speaker 3: you're obviously a good player. But one of the interesting
Speaker 3: things about this is it it's showing how there's a
Speaker 3: little provision in the most recent CBA how that's helping.
Speaker 3: And it's called the four year qualifying offer. You have
Speaker 3: to have been a player, has to have been with
Speaker 3: the same team for four consecutive years without any break
Speaker 3: in there at least, and obviously Will has been more
Speaker 3: than that, and then they can you can sign them
Speaker 3: and actually pay them one point twenty five million dollars
Speaker 3: more than what it actually counts against the cap, and
Speaker 3: the whole point of that when they put that in
Speaker 3: I think they actually put it in the twenty eleven
Speaker 3: CBA I said most recent but I think it was
Speaker 3: that one. The whole point was to try to help
Speaker 3: the veterans who weren't necessarily stars or even necessarily starters
Speaker 3: at this point, helped them still have to spot and
Speaker 3: the lee because otherwise teams would be more likely likely
Speaker 3: to go, well, we could resign Will for three million,
Speaker 3: or we could we could sign a young player at
Speaker 3: the rookie minimum, and this allows you to sign that
Speaker 3: guy and pay him but not have it hurt the
Speaker 3: cap as much.
Speaker 2: Yeah, which is great.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's someone who just knows the organization so
Speaker 1: much as a locker room favorite, a fan favorite, a
Speaker 1: great guy does so much in the community just and
Speaker 1: I feel like that's been so awesome to watch how
Speaker 1: clearly the team has prioritized that this offseason of guys
Speaker 1: that mean a lot to the city, to the organization
Speaker 1: that do it right on and off the field.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, Lante, you got Mike, you got Will.
Speaker 1: Like it just feels like the trifecta of the long
Speaker 1: tenured great guys on and off the field. So that's
Speaker 1: gonna be really wonderful to see. And I mean, he
Speaker 1: just you're right, he just gets it done that whatever
Speaker 1: you need him to do. And heck, I remember him
Speaker 1: getting that interception his last season.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and his eleventh season in his first.
Speaker 2: Career in he got one.
Speaker 1: So I love this all right. And we have another
Speaker 1: signing as well. This is an offensive lineman. And of course,
Speaker 1: you know the Bucks played a game in Germany. Germany
Speaker 1: is our market, so this is a really cool signing
Speaker 1: as well. That for all of our German fans out there,
Speaker 1: we've got one. Now we have a German player, Lorenz Metz,
Speaker 1: so tell us about the signing.
Speaker 3: So he played at the University of Cincinnati and had
Speaker 3: a little brief period with the Chicago Bears last year
Speaker 3: he didn't play. So he's from Germany around Bavaria. I
Speaker 3: believe he didn't play a down of American football till
Speaker 3: he was eighteen years old and a friend of his
Speaker 3: brought him out to practice for a pro team playing
Speaker 3: in Germany, and he was obviously good. He made the team.
Speaker 2: He played for a while.
Speaker 3: He got noticed by this organization that helps international prospects
Speaker 3: find places in US colleges and that's how he came
Speaker 3: over here. And so you know, that's a really late
Speaker 3: introduction to football. But he played really, really well at Cincinnati,
Speaker 3: and you know, it's interesting. He's a very big guy.
Speaker 3: You know, we'll see see if he's got a shot.
Speaker 2: I think he's what like six ' nine, Yes, he's.
Speaker 3: Been six y or six nine, and he does not
Speaker 3: because he was in the International Player Pathway program, he
Speaker 3: does not count against the ninety man roster. So it's
Speaker 3: just an extra spot and why not.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 1: And speaking of signings, we still have a couple of
Speaker 1: big name bucks that have yet to be signed to
Speaker 1: long term deals that Antoin Winfield, Junior Tristan Wurfs.
Speaker 2: Those are the next big things.
Speaker 1: As amazing as it has been to watch guys like
Speaker 1: we talked about Mike and Lavonte and will get resigned,
Speaker 1: those are kind of the I'm sure next things on
Speaker 1: the to do list for Jason light And I know
Speaker 1: we got to hear from him recently. So in general,
Speaker 1: what do we feel like those deals are, Where do
Speaker 1: they stand in terms of how soon they're going to get.
Speaker 3: Done well because of the franchise tag with Antoine and
Speaker 3: the fact that Tristan's going into his fifth year option year.
Speaker 3: Both of those guys are under contract for twenty twenty four,
Speaker 3: and that's important, and that's why while we had the
Speaker 3: rush of signings for Baker and Mike and Lante and
Speaker 3: all that these can play out out over a little
Speaker 3: bit of time. In fact, that's basically what the franchise
Speaker 3: tag is for extending your exclusive no negotiation window, but
Speaker 3: they still don't necessarily long term deals don't have to
Speaker 3: get done, but you really don't want to go into
Speaker 3: this year with both those guys playing on one year
Speaker 3: left on their contracts. So will they get signed. That's
Speaker 3: definitely the plan, and Jason light did say he feels
Speaker 3: good about where they are with both of those processes ongoing,
Speaker 3: and there were some reports that didn't come from the
Speaker 3: Bucks before that that said the same thing. So it
Speaker 3: seems like there's plenty of optimism that these guys will
Speaker 3: get done, and you just don't want to let players
Speaker 3: this talented and this young out of the building. And
Speaker 3: if you look at this, Tristan was the first team
Speaker 3: APL pro by his second season, which is as fast
Speaker 3: as anybody. Michaelstane Levante did the same thing, and then
Speaker 3: Antoine by his fourth season, and he'd already been to
Speaker 3: a Pro Bowl before that. So these guys came into
Speaker 3: the league, well you remember it was the Super Bowl year,
Speaker 3: immediately started, immediately were impact players and had got just
Speaker 3: gotten better and better. Interest In has moved to left tackle,
Speaker 3: which is even more important. And again, these guys came
Speaker 3: in the league, were immediately good, have been good every
Speaker 3: year since. And you just want them to remain Buccaneers
Speaker 3: for a long time.
Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, And you know, obviously Jason Lyn and his
Speaker 1: team did an incredible job evaluating those guys, and I
Speaker 1: mean they are incredible people again on and off the field,
Speaker 1: stepped in and were ready to go right away. We've
Speaker 1: gotten to hear from Jason Light recently because of leading
Speaker 1: up to the draft. Used does his pre draft press conference,
Speaker 1: talks about their evaluation, and he said this a few
Speaker 1: different times, talking about there's you know, of course, all
Speaker 1: the physical things you watch the combine, you see the forty,
Speaker 1: you watch the tape, but there's all that other mental
Speaker 1: stuff on and off the field, and then even in
Speaker 1: a game that I've heard him say before, things about
Speaker 1: how if they miss on someone a lot of times
Speaker 1: it's more about from the neck up, is how he
Speaker 1: describes it. But that he feels like they've really done
Speaker 1: a good job at that. And I mean, I'm sure
Speaker 1: we see it from a bunch of these guys, but
Speaker 1: but he talked a little bit about that this last week.
Speaker 3: Well we've talked before about how they have a picture
Speaker 3: that's a silhouette of a player and it happens to
Speaker 3: be Levonte David in draft from that says, I am
Speaker 3: that man, and they are trying to find people like him,
Speaker 3: players and people like him, and he thinks, Jason thinks
Speaker 3: he and his crew have gotten a lot have really
Speaker 3: gotten good at evaluating the whole person of a prospect.
Speaker 3: You can watch the forties and you can watch the film,
Speaker 3: and you can see how fast they run, and those
Speaker 3: things are obviously important, but it's not going to come
Speaker 3: to anything if they're not the people that you want.
Speaker 3: And he said, lots of times these days, if a
Speaker 3: guy gets in trouble in the league, a player gets
Speaker 3: in trouble, he'll go back and look at their evaluations,
Speaker 3: and lots of times, really sure enough. That was a
Speaker 3: guy we took off our board for character reasons. So
Speaker 3: they feel like they've done a good job of homing
Speaker 3: in on the players that really fit in terms of
Speaker 3: the whole person.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's very true.
Speaker 1: And you know, we're gonna have a whole road to
Speaker 1: the draft after this that we're going to be shooting
Speaker 1: as well, So it'll be the final one. Stay tuned
Speaker 1: for that, But for right now, just to talk about
Speaker 1: one other position potentially as we talk about evaluating and
Speaker 1: talent and what this team might need. In his press conference,
Speaker 1: did he address some of the positions maybe of where
Speaker 1: they might still be looking or you know, positions of
Speaker 1: need versus kind of you already have somebody.
Speaker 2: And something that might compliment that.
Speaker 3: And I don't think we're going to talk about this
Speaker 3: position on road to the draft because we're going to
Speaker 3: talk about the first round and it's running back and
Speaker 3: there are not a lot of evaluators out there who
Speaker 3: think there's a running back who's going to go in
Speaker 3: the first round. But Jason has said before that he
Speaker 3: does feel like this draft has depth at the running
Speaker 3: back position. Maybe not top heavy first rounders, but good depth.
Speaker 3: So maybe the Bucks take one in the second third round,
Speaker 3: and then you think, well, we ever shot White. I
Speaker 3: mean he's only going into his third year. Yeah, he's
Speaker 3: only going into his third year. He really emerged and
Speaker 3: got better and better last year, great pass catcher, really
Speaker 3: started to come on as a runner as things went along.
Speaker 3: But then you look at look at all the snaps
Speaker 3: this guy took because he was on the field. He's
Speaker 3: a three down back. Obviously, I didn't know until I
Speaker 3: looked this up that shot actually led all running backs
Speaker 3: in the league in offensive snaps. Now, Christian McCaffrey might
Speaker 3: have beaten him if he'd played the seventeenth game, which
Speaker 3: he didn't, But still that's saying a lot. I mean,
Speaker 3: that's what they call a belle cow back right. And
Speaker 3: it worked fine, and it could work again. But as
Speaker 3: Jason put it as if he was saying this to
Speaker 3: Rashad White, He's like, we love you. What if we
Speaker 3: had two of you, you know, we could spell you get.
Speaker 1: Some longevity you kind of you know, insulate against injury,
Speaker 1: all those things that it's just a lot to ask
Speaker 1: of one player to take that many snaps and to
Speaker 1: be having to run and catch and block and all
Speaker 1: the things that that's going to take a toll over the.
Speaker 2: Course of the whole season.
Speaker 1: So I'm sure, especially just for a little bit of
Speaker 1: increased freshness, whether it's the fourth quarter or the last
Speaker 1: quarter of the season, that might be handling.
Speaker 3: Yeah, even in one game or the long view, So
Speaker 3: it's not out of the question that the Buccaneers would
Speaker 3: add to that position.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: Well, again, like we said, we have another road to
Speaker 1: the draft. We're going to be shooting, so if you
Speaker 1: have more questions about that, this will be our final one.
Speaker 1: And again we hope to see you at the draft
Speaker 1: party or at least watching all of our draft coverage
Speaker 1: this week on buccaneers dot com.