Speaker 1: Morning, everybody. How's everyone doing. We are officially four days
Speaker 1: away from the Super Bowl. Casey Phillips here a senior
Speaker 1: writer and editor Scott Smith, and this is where we
Speaker 1: take all of your question, thoughts, and comments on Buccaneers.
Speaker 1: Inside are live presented by Miller Lte. We are doing
Speaker 1: the show again, just like we've done the last few
Speaker 1: weeks of the playoffs Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week,
Speaker 1: so there's plenty of time for you guys to get
Speaker 1: all of your thoughts, comments, questions, everything in so as
Speaker 1: we give people a chance to start doing that. There's
Speaker 1: been a lot going on this week, of course, leading
Speaker 1: up to the super Bowl. That's always how it is.
Speaker 1: There's crazy amounts of media and obligations guys have, which
Speaker 1: is great for us because we get to hear all
Speaker 1: sorts of fun little nuggets of information. But I know
Speaker 1: the one that people are probably most going to be
Speaker 1: asking about and most care about at this point is
Speaker 1: the injury situation. So tell us what we know at
Speaker 1: this point and then when we might know more, well,
Speaker 1: we'll know a little bit more later today. UM, But
Speaker 1: I think with the four main guys that were concerned about, UM,
Speaker 1: we probably won't really have a good feel for it
Speaker 1: til the end of the week. Um, they did a
Speaker 1: walkthrough yesterday since it was like a bonus day after
Speaker 1: they'd had a couple of extra days off, and uh,
Speaker 1: all four of the guys were talking about which is
Speaker 1: Lavante David with a hamstring, Antonio Brown with a knee,
Speaker 1: Jordan Whitehead with a shoulder, and Antoine Winfield Junior with
Speaker 1: an ankle. All four of them took part in the walkthrough,
Speaker 1: but coach said they weren't ready to go yet, so
Speaker 1: in other words, had been a full speed practice, they
Speaker 1: would have been out or limited in some way. But
Speaker 1: I still think I always tend to think it's a
Speaker 1: good sign when they're taking part in the walkthrough, because
Speaker 1: the walkthrough is when you actually go through plays on
Speaker 1: both sides of the ball that you plan to use
Speaker 1: in the game. And so if you didn't think this
Speaker 1: guy was gonna play in the game or had a
Speaker 1: good shot at it, then why would you bother having
Speaker 1: You'd have his his replacement in there, wouldn't you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a really great point that I hadn't even thought about. Um,
Speaker 1: So yeah, that's a good sign. And and again just
Speaker 1: a reminder anyone who saw the injury reports from last week,
Speaker 1: those were based on the idea that the game would
Speaker 1: have been this last Sunday. So I was just like
Speaker 1: reiterating that in case there's anybody knew that didn't hear
Speaker 1: that disclaimer and has been panicking about some of those designations.
Speaker 1: In fact, that that injury report is still displayed on
Speaker 1: the website on our injury report page until it gets
Speaker 1: replaced later this afternoon. The one that goes up today
Speaker 1: will not have game stest designations that won't happen until Friday,
Speaker 1: but it will now be applying to the actual Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: So um, that's good news. I would have liked for
Speaker 1: Lavante to be just a little bit more definitive with
Speaker 1: I'm definitely playing. I wouldn't miss this for the world.
Speaker 1: He I mean, he he did. He said the truth
Speaker 1: and the right thing. But he just said he's taken
Speaker 1: a day today trusting the trainers, and then we'll see
Speaker 1: on Sunday. Well, I know what I want to see
Speaker 1: on Sunday. So you know, he's waited a long time
Speaker 1: for this game, so he'll go if you can. It's
Speaker 1: just that hamstring, I would say, if it was an
Speaker 1: elbow or even a knee or something. I'm like, there's
Speaker 1: no way he like, let's say keep him out of
Speaker 1: this game. But hamstrings are tricky. I mean, hamstrings are
Speaker 1: injuries that sometimes your body just won't let you even
Speaker 1: if you want to fight through the pay Yeah. I
Speaker 1: mean the good news is that sometimes with things like hamstrings,
Speaker 1: you hold somebody out because you're afraid it will make
Speaker 1: lows for future games. Well, you don't have to worry
Speaker 1: about that with this. At least it's just the one
Speaker 1: game and you're not worried about what it would mean
Speaker 1: long term the rest of the season. I also think
Speaker 1: it's a good sign that he injured, that he suffered
Speaker 1: that injury in the third quarter in Green Bay and
Speaker 1: he didn't miss a snap, so at least at that
Speaker 1: point he was able to play through it. That's a
Speaker 1: that's a really good point. Um, So of those guys
Speaker 1: in general, we we've heard a little bit from Bruce
Speaker 1: and all that. What do you feel like in terms
Speaker 1: of who's the closest or further way, do we know
Speaker 1: who's more certain or less certain of those guys? I
Speaker 1: think you just gotta go with um what we said before,
Speaker 1: the evidence that we have at hand, uh, is that
Speaker 1: Antoine Winfield actually went on the trip to Green Bay,
Speaker 1: UM and they actually worked him out in the morning
Speaker 1: before the game with the chance that he might play,
Speaker 1: And that was what at this point a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks ago. So, UM, I gotta feel like he's probably
Speaker 1: your best bet to play. And then Lavante just because
Speaker 1: what coaches said, Um, he seems like the best bet.
Speaker 1: So the two guys that were actually listed as doubtful
Speaker 1: for that Phantom game last Sunday were Whitehead, who got
Speaker 1: hurt in the game. It hasn't practiced since in Antonio
Speaker 1: owner didn't go on the trip. And then Daniel had
Speaker 1: a question. He said, take Tom Brady out of the
Speaker 1: equation for this answer. Outside of him, who do you
Speaker 1: think the defensive player and offensive player most valuable player
Speaker 1: for the game would potentially be? And he said, you
Speaker 1: could give either a dark horse or a most logical answer. UM.
Speaker 1: On offense, I think I would go with Chris Godwin.
Speaker 1: I just I think he's gonna have a lot of
Speaker 1: opportunities in this game to make big plays of a slot,
Speaker 1: especially because they they blitz a lot, and so if
Speaker 1: you've got hot reads. I could see Chris Godwin being
Speaker 1: a hot read on short passes that he could gain
Speaker 1: extra yards on. He's very, very good at that. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm hesitant to pick a running back just
Speaker 1: because I don't know how the flow of the game
Speaker 1: is gonna go, and you never know. Leonard Fournett has
Speaker 1: been the you know, the lead back in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: but Ron Jones could have a big day and then
Speaker 1: I would have picked the wrong one. So I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go with Chris Godwin. Um. And you really could go
Speaker 1: with any of our receivers, but that's one I'll choose there.
Speaker 1: On defense, you know, it's it's gonna have to be
Speaker 1: for defensive player to when he's gonna have to make
Speaker 1: some splash plays. I mean, when we were in the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl last time, Dexter Jackson had two game turning
Speaker 1: interceptions in the first half, and since there was nobody
Speaker 1: that really blew you away on the offensive offensive side
Speaker 1: of the ball, Um, he got it. That's the kind
Speaker 1: of performance you need. So it's gonna have to be
Speaker 1: somebody with you know, a bunch of sacks or you know,
Speaker 1: like Von Miller uh in Super Bowl fifty, he he
Speaker 1: won the m v P because their seven sacks against
Speaker 1: Cam Newton was really what made the game, and he
Speaker 1: had two and a half of them. So with that
Speaker 1: in mind, I would say one possibility would be Shack
Speaker 1: Barrett if he has another performance like he did in
Speaker 1: Green Bay. Okay, Um, Mike had said, who do you
Speaker 1: think are some of the big contributors to this team
Speaker 1: getting to this point that haven't necessarily gotten the name recognition?
Speaker 1: And he throughout Will Golston. Yeah, that's a good one,
Speaker 1: of course. And uh, I feel like Will was getting some,
Speaker 1: um some attention earlier in the season, which was good
Speaker 1: because he was deserving of it. We were kind of
Speaker 1: calling him out saying, hey, did have you guys noticed
Speaker 1: that this guy is leading the team and which he
Speaker 1: did by the way, he led the team in quarterback hits,
Speaker 1: which is pretty pressive for Will considering you know, his
Speaker 1: value to the team coming into the season. Was how
Speaker 1: very very good. He is stopping the run and sealing
Speaker 1: the edge on the strong side against the run, so
Speaker 1: for him to give you that pressure is great. Um,
Speaker 1: But I would say just about anybody on the offensive line,
Speaker 1: I think we hear Ali mar Pet's name a lot,
Speaker 1: which is deservedly, but that that offensive line has been
Speaker 1: phenomenal this season and they're peaking at the right time.
Speaker 1: They're playing great right now. Um, you know, maybe a
Speaker 1: guy like Ryan Jensen would be a good answer there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that is a good one. Um. Scott had asked, do
Speaker 1: you think Tom is more motivated to get his seventh
Speaker 1: ring or these young guys to get there first? I
Speaker 1: would not. I would hesitate to put anybody above Tom
Speaker 1: Brady when we're listening how motivated a person is. Um,
Speaker 1: so I'd have to go with Tom. You know, the
Speaker 1: these young guys, it's their first time, and I'm sure
Speaker 1: everybody's motivated. Of course that's obvious, but um, they may
Speaker 1: not have a full grasp of what this means and
Speaker 1: and how often or how well to not often most
Speaker 1: players make it to this stage. You know, Tom's got
Speaker 1: things on on the on the plate there like seven titles,
Speaker 1: which is more than any franchise has, you know, So, um,
Speaker 1: that'd be to be one individual with more Super Bowl
Speaker 1: championships than any NFL franchise would be pretty remarkable, Um,
Speaker 1: I think, and you know, it would be one more
Speaker 1: than Michael Jordan's got because at the point where Tom
Speaker 1: Brady is now, people are comparing him to the best
Speaker 1: athletes in every sport, right right, Yeah, he's in a
Speaker 1: class all his own. You can't even it's like you
Speaker 1: don't even have anything to compare him to hardly anymore. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So I think the seventh three and he'd be the
Speaker 1: first guy to um to get too after the age
Speaker 1: of forty. I think in any major sport he'd be
Speaker 1: the first guy. He'd be the second guy after Peyton
Speaker 1: Manning to win two as a quarterback with two different teams.
Speaker 1: So there's a really a lot of historical things on
Speaker 1: the plate for Tom Brady, which I'm sure he would
Speaker 1: say he's not focused on any of that right now.
Speaker 1: But when it's all of a sudden done, it's gonna matter.
Speaker 1: Um jose had asked, do you think that the Bucks
Speaker 1: should be expecting some unique or different offensive formation plays,
Speaker 1: trick plays? And how do you prepare for that kind
Speaker 1: of thing? And that's the last part of that is
Speaker 1: a great question, And as I wish somebody would ask
Speaker 1: Todd Bowls that, I'm sure you would say, you just
Speaker 1: have to read your keys, you know, train your eyes,
Speaker 1: believe your eyes, all that. But um, I absolutely think
Speaker 1: you'll see something from the Chiefs on offense that you
Speaker 1: haven't seen before, because every time I got a chance
Speaker 1: to watch the Chiefs this year, that happened. I mean
Speaker 1: you'd see a play, Oh, that's really cool, I've never
Speaker 1: seen that before, and then the next week you see
Speaker 1: them that happened actually against US. I had seen them
Speaker 1: play the week before. I saw a crazy play that
Speaker 1: I've never seen before that worked really well. And then
Speaker 1: they were playing US and they started to run the
Speaker 1: what looked like the exact same thing, but then it
Speaker 1: changed into something else, and it would have worked. I
Speaker 1: think one of our I think maybe Lavant or something
Speaker 1: made a really good defensive play to stop it from working.
Speaker 1: But it was a cool play. Uh. I think there's
Speaker 1: no way any reads going into the Super Bowl without
Speaker 1: some new wrinkle that we haven't seen before. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: think that's a it's a very fair point. Um. I
Speaker 1: don't know the answer to this question. I'm not sure
Speaker 1: if you do, and if we don't, we can try
Speaker 1: to find it. But st I asked, will are injured
Speaker 1: players be on the sidelines for the game to get
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl experience or do they have to watch
Speaker 1: from home because of all the COVID stuff. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're right, I don't know to answer to that, so
Speaker 1: maybe we can try to find it out. We'll try
Speaker 1: to track that down. I hadn't thought about that. In
Speaker 1: normal times, Um, you know, they've injured, guys tend to
Speaker 1: either sometimes watch from the sideline or maybe be up
Speaker 1: in a suite with like your practice squad players. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know how that works with it being a
Speaker 1: Super Bowl and being COVID times. And hopefully we'll not
Speaker 1: have to worry about that because we won't have anybody
Speaker 1: that's outdue to injury. But well, I mean I think
Speaker 1: he said he. I think people that asked us about
Speaker 1: like O. J. Howard, Alex Kappa, people like that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that'll be interesting. Well yeah, boy, it's hard to imagine
Speaker 1: them being on the sideline, but maybe maybe as a
Speaker 1: luxury suite somewhere a site or something. Yeah. Um, Dustin asked,
Speaker 1: do you think we'll be able to keep most of
Speaker 1: the players for the next season. That's a good question. Um,
Speaker 1: I'd like to believe that most of them will be
Speaker 1: in the same spot they were last year, where they
Speaker 1: believe that where this team is headed. Um, win or lose.
Speaker 1: It's been a pretty magical season for the Buccaneers, and
Speaker 1: you know everybody expects Tom Brady back. Um So, I
Speaker 1: would think that'd be a motivating factor for a lot
Speaker 1: of these guys. Obviously, Shack is playing on the one
Speaker 1: year franchise tag, but has said on multiple occasions that
Speaker 1: he wants to stay. Obviously the Bucks want to keep
Speaker 1: him around. Um. You know the others, I guess or
Speaker 1: Chris Godwin and Don Mckinsue, Levante David. Um it's a
Speaker 1: tough prediction to say all of them will be back,
Speaker 1: but some of those guys you have a hard time
Speaker 1: picture of them going anywhere else, like Lavante David. Um. So,
Speaker 1: I would say the majority will probably be back, but
Speaker 1: it will take a lot of work, just like it
Speaker 1: did last off season. Um do you I love this question?
Speaker 1: Tony asked, do you think Vita Via might be featured
Speaker 1: as a fullback in any of the plays in the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl? Sure? Why not? I mean it worked when
Speaker 1: we've done it. Um, it probably isn't. It is a
Speaker 1: matter of just how close to percent they think he is.
Speaker 1: Because we really need Vi Tovey on defense, and you
Speaker 1: wouldn't want to lose any of of his availability because
Speaker 1: you put him on offense. Right, Yeah, maybe if he's
Speaker 1: it's less likely, but I don't think it's impossible. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a good point. Um, this is an interesting question.
Speaker 1: We've talked a lot about the shift that happened at
Speaker 1: halftime the last time we played the Chiefs and how
Speaker 1: that was sort of the beginning of the rest of
Speaker 1: the season and how well the Bucks did. Scott asked,
Speaker 1: do you think the Chiefs softened up at halftime or
Speaker 1: do you think our offense just really started to figure
Speaker 1: things out. I don't know if i'd use the term
Speaker 1: softened up, but I remember during that game as we
Speaker 1: were making our comeback, I think the Chiefs were playing
Speaker 1: with the lead, and they, you know, they were playing
Speaker 1: more conservatively on both sides of the ball that they
Speaker 1: normally would. You know, I don't think that um on offense,
Speaker 1: they were attacking quite as much, and so it made
Speaker 1: it possible for us to um build, you know, to
Speaker 1: make that comeback. But just there just wasn't enough time.
Speaker 1: We ran out of time. We got we got to
Speaker 1: within three points and there were four minutes left, and
Speaker 1: Patrick Mahomes engineered three first downs and that was it.
Speaker 1: You know, they were able to run out the clock.
Speaker 1: I think you see that with the Chiefs a lot,
Speaker 1: to be quite honest with you. Last year in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: they got down dub digits in every game and then
Speaker 1: just came storming back. So I think there's a little
Speaker 1: bit of a you know, flip being switched sometimes with them.
Speaker 1: In this case, they just went absolutely bonkers at the
Speaker 1: beginning of the game. And um, some of that also
Speaker 1: was adjustments on our part. For instance, in the first
Speaker 1: quarter of that game, we were in single high safety
Speaker 1: on defense about the time and that didn't work and
Speaker 1: uh Tyreekill caught something like six passes outside the numbers
Speaker 1: against um single high coverage in that quarter. We went
Speaker 1: for two high safeties on snaps the rest of the way,
Speaker 1: which was obviously an adjustment because of the previous strategy
Speaker 1: was not working. Um, so some of it was adjustment
Speaker 1: on our part. But I think it's fair to say
Speaker 1: that the Chiefs may have eased off a little bit
Speaker 1: after they got the big lead and it worked. I mean,
Speaker 1: they won the game. I'm not criticizing, right, Yeah, absolutely. Um.
Speaker 1: Matt asked how big of a deal is it? That
Speaker 1: Eric Fisher is out, and how much do you think
Speaker 1: will be able to pressure Mahomes because of the injuries
Speaker 1: they've had to their offensive line. I think it's a
Speaker 1: big deal, and I don't want to say that in
Speaker 1: a way that's disrespect to the people that are stepping
Speaker 1: in there now. Mike Rimmers, probably a left tackle who,
Speaker 1: by the way, started his career here. Um. I don't
Speaker 1: think he ever got to play in a regular season game,
Speaker 1: but he was here. Um, Mike Rimmers. And then uh,
Speaker 1: I think their guard Andrew Wiley will kick out to
Speaker 1: right tackle. Um. You know, I would just say, take
Speaker 1: a look at the Green Bay game. Heading into that game, Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, we knew actually we felt that. I didn't
Speaker 1: know this until after the game and they talked about it,
Speaker 1: but they felt like they had a good matchup against
Speaker 1: those tackles because David Baker had been lost before the season.
Speaker 1: He's a Pro Bowl left tackle, and they had two
Speaker 1: guys that they've sort of been rotating between during the
Speaker 1: season on the right side, Ricky Wagner and Billy Turner,
Speaker 1: and then moved Billy Turner to the left side, and
Speaker 1: Ricky Wagner got the right tackle job. And I just
Speaker 1: feel like our guys thought we had the advantage in
Speaker 1: both those matchups, and certainly the results indicate they were right. Uh,
Speaker 1: it looks on paper like the same thing here and
Speaker 1: again no offense to Mike Rimmers, but again, Eric Fisher
Speaker 1: was a Pro Bowl left tackle and that's a hard
Speaker 1: thing to replace at the last minute, you know, And so, um,
Speaker 1: it certainly seems like on paper you would look at
Speaker 1: it and go, that's a place where the Buccaneers have
Speaker 1: an advantage. And I hope that proves to be true,
Speaker 1: because any pressure we can get on Patrick Mahomes will
Speaker 1: make a lot of difference. Right. He definitely is one
Speaker 1: of the harder people to pressure. So even if you're
Speaker 1: you're winning your matchups on the line, he is so
Speaker 1: mobile that just just beating that offensive lineman may not
Speaker 1: mean a whole lot in terms of pressure. So that's
Speaker 1: gonna be really interesting to see how well they're able
Speaker 1: to not only win those matchups but contain as well. Um, well,
Speaker 1: that's gonna do it for us. On this edition of
Speaker 1: Buccaneers Inside a Live presented by Miller Lite. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for being with us, and again we'll be
Speaker 1: back here tomorrow morning and Friday morning for any of
Speaker 1: the questions that I didn't get too, so we'll see
Speaker 1: then