Speaker 1: Welcome to Bucks Insider, presented by Verizon. Casey Phillips here
Speaker 1: with senior writer and editor Scott Smith continuing our off
Speaker 1: season coverage of the Bucks. And there's just never a
Speaker 1: boring week. The NFL has managed to be relevant all
Speaker 1: year round and even right now in this offseason with
Speaker 1: a bunch of different changes. As much as we kind
Speaker 1: of hated to lose coaches, it's definitely kept things interesting
Speaker 1: for a little while and kept us with some news
Speaker 1: headlines to get to. And I know that we have
Speaker 1: officially some new coaches that we've brought on that we
Speaker 1: can announce.
Speaker 2: In fact, they I think we just like a minute ago,
Speaker 2: officially announced it. You've probably seen some of the names
Speaker 2: out there, but this pretty much fills out the rest
Speaker 2: of the offensive staff. It wasn't a one for one
Speaker 2: replacement some positions, like we don't have a run game
Speaker 2: coordinator like we.
Speaker 3: Had last year.
Speaker 2: So the hires today are wide receiver coach Brian mcclindon,
Speaker 2: who comes to us from Georgia where you just helped
Speaker 2: coach up Ladin McConkey.
Speaker 3: You might go in the first round.
Speaker 2: Obviously Georgia did very well, so any connection he has
Speaker 2: to that is good. From the Dolphins, we hired Josh
Speaker 2: Grizzard to be pass game coordinator. That's a position that
Speaker 2: we didn't have last year, so that's new. And then
Speaker 2: from Liam who've worked with Liam Cohen at the University
Speaker 2: of Kentucky, Brian Pacucci is the new assistant offensive line coach,
Speaker 2: which was not a position we had last year. So
Speaker 2: there's been a little bit mixing around of the actual positions.
Speaker 2: But I think they're to the point now where they've
Speaker 2: finished filling out.
Speaker 1: The staff and great for before combine, before free agency,
Speaker 1: before draft, kind of know how everybody feels, getting all
Speaker 1: the coaches, all the staff know what they're looking for.
Speaker 1: I'm sure that helps with all everybody being on the
Speaker 1: same page as you go into some h moment.
Speaker 2: I think the biggest part of that is you have
Speaker 2: a new offensive coordinator and you want to get that
Speaker 2: staff felt as quickly as possible so they can start
Speaker 2: working because he has to translate his offense to them
Speaker 2: so that they can then teach it to the players.
Speaker 2: And that's that's starting now. Like they're not waiting. In fact,
Speaker 2: I'm not sure that the offensive guys are even going
Speaker 2: to go to the combine because it's more important to
Speaker 2: them to get work get to work on installing the system.
Speaker 1: And you brought up a wide receiver coach. We've talked
Speaker 1: about pass game coordinator, and this is an interesting thing
Speaker 1: this time. I mean a we still don't know a
Speaker 1: lot about what's going to happen in free agency, but
Speaker 1: as of what the wide receiver room has looked like
Speaker 1: in recent years, these are people that have some fun
Speaker 1: weapons to play with and have just put up numbers
Speaker 1: that are so incredible in recent years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Brian McClinton has a nice coaching track record, but
Speaker 2: this is his first hop to the NFL, I believe
Speaker 2: and he inherits now you brought up the point it's
Speaker 2: not sure yet. The Bucks, I'm sure, are hoping to
Speaker 2: resign Mike Evans. We'd all love for Mike Evans to
Speaker 2: be a Buccaneer for life. And obviously he is still
Speaker 2: a fantastic player. And if you walk in to your
Speaker 2: first NFL room as a wide receivers coach and it's
Speaker 2: Mike Evans and Chris Godwin and some others too, but
Speaker 2: especially those two. Wow, I mean, between the two of them,
Speaker 2: in the last five years, they've They've put up nine
Speaker 2: thousand yard seasons, which is.
Speaker 3: About as good as you could possibly do.
Speaker 1: Incredible.
Speaker 2: Ten would be the most she could do between two players,
Speaker 2: and that's the most no matter how many players are involved.
Speaker 2: That's the most thousand yard seasons by individuals on a
Speaker 2: team in the last five years.
Speaker 1: Amazing. And as we talk about this in all the
Speaker 1: things we don't know about free agency, one of the
Speaker 1: things happening in this time of year is the franchise
Speaker 1: tag windows. So explain the timeline of that, the process
Speaker 1: of that, and then just what do we think are
Speaker 1: the Bucks going to use it? Who do they use
Speaker 1: it on? What could this look like?
Speaker 2: So the franchise tag window opened Tuesday, two days ago.
Speaker 2: It's a two week thing, so it'll stop on March fifth,
Speaker 2: eight days before the startup free agency, at four pm.
Speaker 2: So four well, I guess now about twelve more days
Speaker 2: teams run in the NFL can choose whether or not
Speaker 2: to put one franchise or a transition tag on a play.
Speaker 2: You can only do one and a year and really
Speaker 2: usually about eight, seven or eight teams do it. So
Speaker 2: a lot of teams don't end up doing it because
Speaker 2: they just don't have a player who's in the right
Speaker 2: spot for it. What you need to have is a
Speaker 2: player that's going to be a free agent, a player
Speaker 2: obviously that you want to keep, and a player where
Speaker 2: the compensation from the trans franchise tag makes sense for
Speaker 2: what you would probably pay this guy. And so you know,
Speaker 2: the Bucks have some candidates. I'm not sure how you
Speaker 2: know Baker Mayfield. You talk about that the quarterback tag
Speaker 2: is very, very very high. It'd probably be like thirty
Speaker 2: million dollars something like that. You've got Mike Evans. I
Speaker 2: don't know of this along your news career, if that's
Speaker 2: something they would want to do with him, because a
Speaker 2: lot of time players don't really like it in the
Speaker 2: franchise tag. You got Antoine Winfield. Have seen that name
Speaker 2: out there a lot. That could be a guy that
Speaker 2: fits because obviously he's a great player, first team All
Speaker 2: Pro this season. And the best thing about the franchise
Speaker 2: tag when it works out great for everybody, is when
Speaker 2: it's used successfully to basically extend the exclusive negotiating period.
Speaker 2: So right now we're the only team that can negotiate
Speaker 2: with Antoine Winfield. But on March eleventh, which is the
Speaker 2: beginning of the legal tampering period, anybody can. And so
Speaker 2: if you put that franchise tag on him, at least
Speaker 2: the exclusive one, they can't negotiate with other teams. And
Speaker 2: as you can see here, it's been done set with
Speaker 2: the Bucks of views of franchise tags seven times in
Speaker 2: their history, frequently recently three of the last four years,
Speaker 2: and Chris Gottin's listed there twice.
Speaker 3: That's why there's only six names. So it's been done
Speaker 3: seven times.
Speaker 2: And in this right hand column you see over here
Speaker 2: is what eventually happened after the franchise tag. Did the
Speaker 2: Bucks and that player come to a long term deal?
Speaker 2: You could see most of the times they have. I mean,
Speaker 2: there's been some different situations. In Paul Gruber, that was
Speaker 2: the very first year, and Paul Gruber is in the
Speaker 2: Ring of Honor, one of the most beloved Buccaneers ever.
Speaker 2: Awesome dude, So I'm not saying anything negative, but he
Speaker 2: was very upset about it. It was a whole new thing
Speaker 2: and a lot of players didn't like it, and he
Speaker 2: held out. Yeah, and this is a guy who threw
Speaker 2: his first five seasons in the NFL, had never missed
Speaker 2: a single offensive snap. So he missed games for the
Speaker 2: first time. He held out for five games and they
Speaker 2: got a long term deal done. Some of them were easier,
Speaker 2: you know, Chris played on the tag his first year
Speaker 2: and the second year they got a deal done like
Speaker 2: a week after getting the tag. Another guy that could
Speaker 2: be a candidate is a kicker, Chase McLaughlin. It seems
Speaker 2: weird to say franchise player for a kicker, but teams
Speaker 2: have done that a lot because yeah, Connor Barth's up there, and.
Speaker 3: Then he got a long term deal after that too.
Speaker 2: And the reason you see kickers get franchise tags is
Speaker 2: because compared to the other positions, that's a pretty low tag.
Speaker 2: I don't know what it is, maybe four million or something,
Speaker 2: whereas I think Antoine will probably around sixteen million.
Speaker 1: It's going to be interesting to see ri. And then
Speaker 1: we know the combine is starting next week. So what
Speaker 1: are some of the big storylines you're watching or things
Speaker 1: that you feel like Bucks fans should be paying attention
Speaker 1: to at the combin.
Speaker 2: Well, just to give you a little procedural bit, it'll
Speaker 2: start next Monday. That's when everybody arrives. The actual workouts
Speaker 2: don't start until the twenty ninth, but on Tuesday is
Speaker 2: a big day for fans of teams because both the
Speaker 2: head coach and the general manager of each team goes
Speaker 2: to the podium in the big interview room and spends
Speaker 2: about half hour there and then at least our guys
Speaker 2: Jason Light and Todd Bowles will also then go to
Speaker 2: a table in another spot and sit down with the
Speaker 2: locals for another fifteen thirty forty five minutes something. So
Speaker 2: over the course of about an hour, they touch on
Speaker 2: a lot of topics, so you get a lot of nuggets,
Speaker 2: get allowed pieces of news, and they're going to be
Speaker 2: asked about all these free agents, so it'll be the
Speaker 2: first time they've talked about that in a while, So
Speaker 2: stay tuned for that. Breed Dix our team writer reporter
Speaker 2: Brianna she will be there covering it live, but we'll
Speaker 2: also have the videos on the website so you can
Speaker 2: see what they say when they're at the podium.
Speaker 3: But why are they there?
Speaker 2: Why is Jason and all his people there and a
Speaker 2: lot of the coaches, because it's a chance to see
Speaker 2: all these players, and they will say every time a
Speaker 2: forty yard dash isn't what changes their mind. The film
Speaker 2: is what matters most. But I still think when a
Speaker 2: guy goes there and does something that makes a big.
Speaker 1: O wow, yeah, you light it up.
Speaker 2: That might cement your spot a little bit. And if
Speaker 2: you look back in recent years, the Bucks have had
Speaker 2: some pretty the Bucks have ended up drafting some guys
Speaker 2: that had some pretty amazing combine performances. I assume that's
Speaker 2: Callija there, and he ran a four to six seven.
Speaker 2: I believe it's ridiculous at that size. It was the
Speaker 2: fastest forty yard dash by a defensive lineman since two
Speaker 2: thousand and three. All right, so he's showing you there, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I got speed. And look at Tristan Morris, I mean
Speaker 2: what we all remember that?
Speaker 1: Yes, and that did translate to the field.
Speaker 2: That four point eighty five forty yard dash was the
Speaker 2: fastest among the offensive linemen. And then he those vertical
Speaker 2: leap and broad up numbers are huge too, so he
Speaker 2: was just big. Zion McCollum ran a fourth through three
Speaker 2: forty and I don't remember how they put it all
Speaker 2: the game O, but ninety nine athletics SYSM.
Speaker 3: Score is actually the maximum.
Speaker 2: So he was incredible athletic as you can get.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's an athlete.
Speaker 2: We know that Trey Palmer ran really really fast, and
Speaker 2: we know that's the main reason why the Bucks actually
Speaker 2: traded a pick to draft him, So it can make
Speaker 2: a difference.
Speaker 3: So keep an eye on those workouts.
Speaker 2: See the guys that maybe have you know, a four
Speaker 2: point three forty yard dash, or they do the bench
Speaker 2: press fifty times or something.
Speaker 3: You know, just those guys help themselves.
Speaker 1: Yep, that's going to be interesting. And you know, since
Speaker 1: we already talked about the wide receiver group a little
Speaker 1: bit earlier in the show, we figured this is a
Speaker 1: good time to use them as our position breakdown for
Speaker 1: the draft. That each week on Insider we have been
Speaker 1: talking about a different position group and saying how likely
Speaker 1: is it this is a high pick for the Bucks.
Speaker 1: So wide receiver do you see that being a round
Speaker 1: one maybe round two type of direction.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we've already talked about safety, interior linement and defensive
Speaker 2: end or outside linebacker, but I do think wide receiver
Speaker 2: is a position the Bucks could target, and unfortunately, well
Speaker 2: we'll know by then. Unfortunately one of the reasons could
Speaker 2: be if they don't manage to resign Mike Evans. Again,
Speaker 2: as we already said, we really hope that happens, and
Speaker 2: we all want that to happen, But you have to
Speaker 2: acknowledge the fact that he could become a free agency
Speaker 2: free agent and not be a Buccaneer. But even if
Speaker 2: Mike is back, it still wouldn't hurt to plan for
Speaker 2: the future there a little bit. I know Trey Palmer
Speaker 2: did a good job as a third receiver, but maybe
Speaker 2: you could get another guy to add to the mix.
Speaker 2: And the other half of that equation is because of
Speaker 2: all the prolific offenses on the college level now, there's
Speaker 2: almost never a bad receiver class anymore. Every receiver class
Speaker 2: it seems like there's good guys, and there's enough good
Speaker 2: guys to go into the second and third round. So yeah,
Speaker 2: I could see no matter what happens with Mike, but
Speaker 2: especially if Mike departs, wide receiver being something they target
Speaker 2: early first roun definitely a possibility, but there will be
Speaker 2: some available in the second round.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, we are going to talk a lot
Speaker 1: more about the draft in the coming weeks, including our
Speaker 1: show Rode to the Draft where we talk about some
Speaker 1: individual prospects. Are they guys we feel like we could
Speaker 1: see on the Bucks To make sure you stay tuned
Speaker 1: buccaneers dot com for that, and we'll see you next time.