Speaker 1: Um, hello, they are Buccaneers fans. This is Casey Phillips
Speaker 1: and senior writer and editor Scott Smith, and it is
Speaker 1: time for Buccaneers and Sideur Live, presented by Miller Lte.
Speaker 1: As always, this is where we take your question. So
Speaker 1: if you're not already watching on the Buccaneers Facebook page,
Speaker 1: you can head on over there and in the comments
Speaker 1: section underneath our live video you can submit your questions
Speaker 1: there for us. So I know as we give people
Speaker 1: a chance to do that. Now is the time of
Speaker 1: year that there are a lot of things that are
Speaker 1: going to start happening in terms of roster building looking
Speaker 1: forward to the team. So first of all, just give
Speaker 1: us a little bit of an idea of a couple
Speaker 1: of things coming up on the calendar that Bucks fans
Speaker 1: might want to watch. Well, the next I guess date
Speaker 1: on the calendar of some significance is the start of
Speaker 1: the two week window in which teams can use franchise
Speaker 1: and transition tags on their players, and that's next Tuesday.
Speaker 1: That's when that will begin. And then you have two
Speaker 1: weeks leading up too close to free agency to do
Speaker 1: that if you soak shoes, and then the NFL scouting
Speaker 1: combine is back and missed a year last year due
Speaker 1: to the pandemic, but um, it's back in person and
Speaker 1: that's always a big event that draws pretty much all
Speaker 1: the personnel people and coaches and media from around the
Speaker 1: league to Indianapolis. So that would be March one to
Speaker 1: March seven, and then the start of free agency, which
Speaker 1: is the new calendar year for the NFL, is March sixteen. Okay,
Speaker 1: So let's talk a little bit about the franchise tag
Speaker 1: part Um, What are some of the potential options for it,
Speaker 1: how likely it is the team uses it. Just kind
Speaker 1: of break down some of the things that maybe we
Speaker 1: would want to know when it comes to the franchise tag. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, the last couple of years, the big story
Speaker 1: for the Buccaneers and free agency was how well they
Speaker 1: were able to retain all of their key free agents,
Speaker 1: especially last year, and in both cases, one of the
Speaker 1: key elements there was using the franchise tag, first on
Speaker 1: Shack Barrett in two thousand twenty and then on Chris
Speaker 1: Godwin last year, And in both cases that really helped
Speaker 1: because that was one off the table that you didn't
Speaker 1: have to worry about. And in Shack's case, it d
Speaker 1: it end up leeding to a long term contracts to
Speaker 1: keep around for a long time, which is great. That
Speaker 1: didn't happen with Chris Godwin, and so people are gonna
Speaker 1: wonder with the Bucks um tag Chris Godwin for the
Speaker 1: second year in a row. The issues there are when
Speaker 1: you when you do that a second year in a row,
Speaker 1: you have to give them one of what they had
Speaker 1: last year, or if the formula works out to being
Speaker 1: more than you've give them that. But it's gonna be
Speaker 1: at least about nineteen point three million dollars for the
Speaker 1: wide receiver franchise tag for Chris Godwin this year. Obviously
Speaker 1: he's probably worth that given what he does to the team,
Speaker 1: but you're also talking about a player who is early
Speaker 1: in the stages of recovering from a knee injury, and
Speaker 1: that always makes it harder for teams to make big
Speaker 1: long term decision well not long term, but big decisions
Speaker 1: on right now, So that complicates matters. I would think
Speaker 1: probably the most likely candidate if the Bucks decided to
Speaker 1: do with three years in a row is Carlton Davis,
Speaker 1: because the Bucks certainly think and I think a lot
Speaker 1: of people run the league think that he's a number
Speaker 1: one caliber cornerback. He's also only twenty five years old,
Speaker 1: and it's hard to hard to let that go, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. So the franchise tag for a
Speaker 1: Corners about seventeen million dollars. That's a lot, but you
Speaker 1: know that's market value. So we'll see. I would think
Speaker 1: he's probably the most likely one, Okay. And we had
Speaker 1: a question um from Seawan asking what is your prediction
Speaker 1: of what position we will draft in the first round?
Speaker 1: And uh, that kind of also links to what I
Speaker 1: was gonna ask next about the combine coming up and
Speaker 1: just how we feel like the draft evaluation process itself
Speaker 1: might be different this year compared to last year when
Speaker 1: you were bringing everybody back for sure, and you have,
Speaker 1: you know, just how things might be different terms of
Speaker 1: how you're evaluating not only the first round pick, but
Speaker 1: but the draft overall. And so yeah, for you first round,
Speaker 1: what position seems likely and then overall, how you think
Speaker 1: they're going to be evaluating draft prospects this year. Okay,
Speaker 1: So it's a little tough that question right now in
Speaker 1: mid February, and you kind of alluded to the reason
Speaker 1: why there's a long list of free agents, and depending
Speaker 1: upon whom the Buccaneers can bring back will really in
Speaker 1: packed how they decided to go. Last year, we all
Speaker 1: remember the story was the Buccaneers were in a position
Speaker 1: to draft just about anywhere they wanted to. Um edge
Speaker 1: rusher did seem like the most likely candidate for a
Speaker 1: clip position, and that's how it ended up being. But
Speaker 1: it was sort of a luxury draft in which you
Speaker 1: could really go best player available. I don't think that's
Speaker 1: gonna be the case this year. I think the Buccaneers
Speaker 1: are gonna have a hard time getting all of those
Speaker 1: free agents back. Probably lose one or two of them.
Speaker 1: I don't want to predict predict two, but it's hard
Speaker 1: to imagine us getting all of them back. So if
Speaker 1: you lose Carlton Davis, quarterbacks suddenly becomes very important. Also
Speaker 1: because Sean Murphy, Bunting and Javel Dean will be in
Speaker 1: line to hit for agency next year. So depending upon
Speaker 1: what you're able to keep out of all those guys,
Speaker 1: corner can become an issue really quickly. And Uh, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna fall back on the line that you've heard me
Speaker 1: say a million times, Casey, you can never have enough
Speaker 1: quality cornerbacks, So to me, I like that, Uh, the
Speaker 1: Bucks probably could use another edge rusher, who knows if
Speaker 1: Jpp is gonna be back. Um, you could always use
Speaker 1: help on the offensive line, who knows if Ryan Jensen
Speaker 1: is gonna be back. So one of those three positions
Speaker 1: probably would be at the top of my list. And
Speaker 1: then running back. And I'm not a big proponent of
Speaker 1: first round and running backs, but we were talking about
Speaker 1: the end of the first round around where the Buccaneers
Speaker 1: took Doug Martin ten years ago and that worked out
Speaker 1: pretty well. So there's a lot of possibilities. But we'll
Speaker 1: have a better focus on that after free agency begins. Okay,
Speaker 1: and we asked me about evaluating players. I think the
Speaker 1: biggest thing about the combine, being back and in person
Speaker 1: is not the workouts, because the scouts and coaches will
Speaker 1: always tell you they know what they know from film,
Speaker 1: uh and the pro days, they'll get plenty of time
Speaker 1: to see the players work out there. What they value
Speaker 1: most is those sit down meetings in the evenings, and
Speaker 1: those obviously had to be conducted via zoom last year.
Speaker 1: I think the fact that you'll get to be back
Speaker 1: sitting down with all those guys for that whole week
Speaker 1: and just knocking out tons of fifteen minute interviews is
Speaker 1: probably the biggest difference in the evaluation process this year. Right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that makes sense alright. Our next question was from Eric.
Speaker 1: He said, do you see us getting a quarterback in
Speaker 1: free agency? There's not a bumper crop of quarterbacks in
Speaker 1: fre agency. I think the biggest names are like Teddy Bridgewater,
Speaker 1: Tyrod Taylor, Jamis Winston, which seems very unlikely, and that's
Speaker 1: I'm probably missing one or two of them there, but
Speaker 1: it's not It's not a really exciting group, I would say.
Speaker 1: So that's why there's so much speculation about every quarterback
Speaker 1: who seemingly doesn't have does not have a totally solid
Speaker 1: will to stay with the team he's with right now,
Speaker 1: where the team may want to move on, like San
Speaker 1: Francisco may want to turn to Trey Lance and let
Speaker 1: Jimmy Garoppolo go. So that's why you're hearing all that.
Speaker 1: And those names are a little bit more exciting because
Speaker 1: their guys like Russell Wilson. So I don't know that
Speaker 1: the free agent market doesn't seem like a bumper crop
Speaker 1: right now. Right. Sean had asked if you see us
Speaker 1: bringing back Richard Sherman as a potential coach, considering he
Speaker 1: ended up being used in that role some this season. Well,
Speaker 1: that depends on if Richard Sherman wants to transition into
Speaker 1: coaching right now. I know injuries kind of marred his
Speaker 1: attempt to come back with us here last year and
Speaker 1: he ended up not playing a ton of games. But
Speaker 1: he might still want to play, you know what I'm saying. Um,
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean sure, he obviously is good at it.
Speaker 1: And and uh, we've seen Bruce Arians through the years
Speaker 1: at times do that quickly. With some of these players,
Speaker 1: you know, they finished their career and they're coaching almost
Speaker 1: right away, So it's possible. Sure, Okay, And I'm sure
Speaker 1: you're shocked that we've had a whole bunch of questions
Speaker 1: about just the quarterback situation at large. Um. So we
Speaker 1: will again run back what we can know at this
Speaker 1: point in time. We know that we're gonna be talking
Speaker 1: about this every Wednesday, as as we should. I know
Speaker 1: that this is a huge topic of discussion for all
Speaker 1: of the fans and everything going on. So I'll essentially
Speaker 1: sum up all the different versions of it, um, from
Speaker 1: whether it's someone yelling at us who is going to
Speaker 1: be our quarterback? Always love the all Caps questions really
Speaker 1: really fun, and then also the idea of just what
Speaker 1: is the most likely route we would go, whether it's
Speaker 1: in house, draft, free agency trade. Well, starting in house,
Speaker 1: there's only one quarterback under contract right now. Well that's
Speaker 1: not technically true because Tom Brady remains technically on the roster,
Speaker 1: but he's retired. Um Kyle Trash, the second year guy
Speaker 1: who we drafted at the end of the second round
Speaker 1: last year, didn't really get to see him play, so
Speaker 1: it's really kind of hard to evaluate if he'd be
Speaker 1: ready at the start of next season. Blaine Gabbert is
Speaker 1: actually a pending unrestricted free agent again like he was
Speaker 1: last year. But I believe that if the Buccaneers came
Speaker 1: to him and said we want to resign you and
Speaker 1: you have a real good job, just fight for the
Speaker 1: starting job, he'd probably be pretty motivated to come back.
Speaker 1: So even though he's not under contract yet for two
Speaker 1: I think he remains one of the options. Uh. We
Speaker 1: talked already just a minute ago about how the free
Speaker 1: agency field isn't really strong at quarterback this year, so
Speaker 1: that one seems unlikely to me. So then you're talking
Speaker 1: about possible trade acquisitions, and listen, we can be asked
Speaker 1: this every week. There's no way we're going to have
Speaker 1: an answer for that right now until things start happening.
Speaker 1: But I kind of in a bigger sense, do think
Speaker 1: that the Buccaneers will try to take a big swing
Speaker 1: like they did two years ago with Tom Brady. You
Speaker 1: can't take a bigger swing than Tom Brady, but you
Speaker 1: can take a pretty big swing, and uh, I think
Speaker 1: they'll try. It. Doesn't mean it's not gonna be easy
Speaker 1: because there's salary cap considerations and what do you give
Speaker 1: up in a trade? And does any team even want
Speaker 1: to trade their stud quarterbacks? So, but I just think
Speaker 1: because this roster is still so so talented at so
Speaker 1: many positions, uh, that the Buccaneers consider themselves contenders, that
Speaker 1: window is still open. And so the first thing we'll
Speaker 1: do is try to swing big and then if that
Speaker 1: doesn't work out, then you have to, you know, try
Speaker 1: something like Lane Gabbard or somebody from the fage market. Okay,
Speaker 1: well that is going to do it for us. On
Speaker 1: this edition of Buccaneers Insider Live presented by Miller Lte.
Speaker 1: Thanks as always for those great questions. We'll be back
Speaker 1: here next week again to answer them, so we'll see
Speaker 1: you then