Speaker 1: Welcome into Bucks Insider, presented by Verizon Casey Phillips. Here
Speaker 1: was senior writer and editor Scott Smith, and we actually
Speaker 1: were in Orlando this week already for the annual league meetings.
Speaker 2: A couple of nice drives on night Ford.
Speaker 1: Yes, who doesn't love doing that? Who doesn't love it?
Speaker 1: But you know, there's always a lot that comes out
Speaker 1: of it that's so interesting. You have owners voting, you
Speaker 1: have coaches and gms there for people to talk to.
Speaker 1: So we are going to get into that in a minute,
Speaker 1: but we cannot go without mentioning the Levante David press
Speaker 1: conference last week. Again on the show last week we
Speaker 1: mentioned he had re signed, but the press conference hadn't
Speaker 1: happened yet and there were just too many lovely things
Speaker 1: that his daughter, for instance. I mean, who doesn't want
Speaker 1: I want to get into every press conference. I think
Speaker 1: it should be a requirement, but there's one at every
Speaker 1: press conference. But we wanted to give you a listen
Speaker 1: to Jason Light and Levonte David talking at the press
Speaker 1: conference last week.
Speaker 3: For organization to you know, you know, draft me and
Speaker 3: I'll be able to you know, you know, have that
Speaker 3: faith in me, you know, give me a contract after
Speaker 3: three years, you know, just goes to show like how
Speaker 3: they feel about me. So it was only right that I,
Speaker 3: you know, rid it out to see you know how
Speaker 3: far it'stn't gonna go. And you know, you know, it's
Speaker 3: been a blessing and I'm thankful, you know, and we
Speaker 3: got a Super Bowl.
Speaker 4: I love it. So I'm definitely grateful for that. I mean,
Speaker 4: he is the He's the poster child literally for us.
Speaker 4: We have a picture of a silhouette of a buck
Speaker 4: player in our draft room. Says, I am that man,
Speaker 4: and this is the person that we want in a player,
Speaker 4: the traits that you just or some of them that
Speaker 4: we just said, and it's doesn't show his face, but
Speaker 4: it is Levante. So he's the one that we that
Speaker 4: we look for every year. He's the standard.
Speaker 1: I just love this idea of whatever it is that
Speaker 1: everybody watching does that your company, your friends, your family,
Speaker 1: that everyone would say things like you're the prototype for
Speaker 1: this thing would be nice, Like what a compliment of
Speaker 1: Like as we look for future players, we want them
Speaker 1: to be Levante David's. And I think that every single
Speaker 1: person that is interacted with Levante at this facility as
Speaker 1: a fan in any capacity would agree.
Speaker 5: With that, and we were. That was no accident that
Speaker 5: they chose that. It wasn't just because it was a
Speaker 5: good picture or something like, we want Levonte David to
Speaker 5: be the guy we're staring at when we're deciding what's
Speaker 5: the next guy we want to bring to this team.
Speaker 2: It's amazing.
Speaker 5: And then Levonte himself, how much I know Buck fans
Speaker 5: already love him deservedly so, but how much more do
Speaker 5: you love him?
Speaker 2: When you hear you know?
Speaker 5: I could have left it any time no one was
Speaker 5: eight years, but that didn't feel right. I wanted to
Speaker 5: be there when we got I wanted to be part
Speaker 5: of turning it around rather than leaving, and he would
Speaker 5: have felt like a quitter. Yeah, so I'm so glad
Speaker 5: it worked out for him, right.
Speaker 6: Of course.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he absolutely has deserved the fact that now he
Speaker 1: does have the ring, he does have a little bit
Speaker 1: more national attention. We all know he deserves it and
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame resume. We are not biased, but let
Speaker 1: me tell you, I think that we all know and
Speaker 1: agree that he is a Hall of Famer through and
Speaker 1: through on and off the field, just a wonderful guy.
Speaker 6: We're so glad he's still around.
Speaker 1: We're so glad of all people to be able to
Speaker 1: sign four new deals with him, which how does that
Speaker 1: does not happen often? Someone else signed a deal with
Speaker 1: the Bucks. Again, we are continuing to dwindle down that
Speaker 1: free agency list a little bit. Zach Trinner, the long
Speaker 1: snapper re signed with the Bucks. Tell me a little
Speaker 1: bit about this and then what it means for how
Speaker 1: many guys we still have on that Penning free agency.
Speaker 5: Yes, obviously, right before freegency and right in the first
Speaker 5: few hours of it, the Bucks had their top priority
Speaker 5: list and Mike Evans, Baker Mayfield all that, but you
Speaker 5: know there were some other guys there on that list.
Speaker 5: Originally twenty three players if you count the guys that
Speaker 5: could have been restricted and exclusive rights for agents, and
Speaker 5: then Russell Gage's last year option was declined, so it
Speaker 5: ended up being a total of twenty three guys.
Speaker 2: And to this.
Speaker 5: Point you could see the list here. Four of them
Speaker 5: have found spots on new teams and seven of them remain.
Speaker 5: But the Buccaneers have brought back twelve of them. And
Speaker 5: that's listed alphabetically. That's not in order of who I
Speaker 5: thought was most important. Antoina, of course, has a franchise tag,
Speaker 5: but they're working on a long term deal.
Speaker 2: So a lot of the work has been done.
Speaker 5: There's maybe a couple guys over here on the right
Speaker 5: hand column that still could come back. I wouldn't be
Speaker 5: surprised Will Golson, another lifelong buccaneer, Cam Gill, because you
Speaker 5: could always use more depth at that position. So, but
Speaker 5: a lot of work done and it's pretty impressive.
Speaker 1: Yeah, is And that was something I know we got
Speaker 1: to hear a little bit of at the owner's meetings.
Speaker 6: You know that Todd Bowles and.
Speaker 1: Joel Glazer and a bunch of different people were talking
Speaker 1: about the fact of what Jason Lyden his staff have
Speaker 1: been able to do bringing all these people back and
Speaker 1: how amazing it has been. But also, of course one
Speaker 1: of the big takeaways of the annual meetings every year
Speaker 1: are the potentials for rule changes. This is where they
Speaker 1: get voted on. So what was discussed, what was past
Speaker 1: this week?
Speaker 2: Yeah, there was a lot.
Speaker 5: Actually I'm not going to go through all of them,
Speaker 5: but I think i'll hit the ones that probably got
Speaker 5: the most attention.
Speaker 2: One of them was the ban of the.
Speaker 5: Hip drop swivel tackle and got to get the word
Speaker 5: swivel in there, because that's one of there's like three
Speaker 5: parts of it that you have to do in order
Speaker 5: to draw the flag, and the most important one is
Speaker 5: they're calling a swivel, but it's the part where you've
Speaker 5: grabbed the guy from behind and then you take all
Speaker 5: your weight.
Speaker 2: They say you unweight yourself.
Speaker 5: Basically, you're taking your feet off the ground, swilving your
Speaker 5: hips and that causes all your body weight to bring
Speaker 5: down the ball carrier and you land on the back
Speaker 5: of his legs, which has a disproportionate number of injuries.
Speaker 5: So that's why they wanted to get that playout of
Speaker 5: the game. You know, it's going to be interesting to
Speaker 5: see how this is officiated early on. It's of course important,
Speaker 5: and Jason Light said this that player safety is what
Speaker 5: that rules about, and that's of course very important. It's
Speaker 5: the same thing when they banned the horse callar tackle
Speaker 5: a few years back. To me, I can see this
Speaker 5: unfolding a little bit. You remember a couple of years
Speaker 5: ago when they decided to emphasize the part of the
Speaker 5: roughing the passer rule where you couldn't land on them
Speaker 5: with your full body weight, and for like the first
Speaker 5: five six seven weeks of the season, those flags were
Speaker 5: everybody everywhere, and everybody was losing their minds. And then
Speaker 5: they kind of calmed it down, right, They kind of
Speaker 5: figured out how to call it right.
Speaker 2: It wasn't happening three times a game.
Speaker 5: There was an egregious calls that you thought were bad,
Speaker 5: and so I think you'll probably have an adjustment period here,
Speaker 5: but in the long run, it's gonna make the game safer,
Speaker 5: which is what everybody wants in the end, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And this is where I'm sure teams are going
Speaker 1: to be talking to their players too, if you know,
Speaker 1: this will be a point of emphasis, especially in these
Speaker 1: early weeks, So don't do it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And Todd Bowles's reaction to it was, it's not
Speaker 5: really a big problem for us because we don't tackle
Speaker 5: that way. We don't teach it, we don't preach it,
Speaker 5: we don't practice. Of course, you really don't practice tackling
Speaker 5: at all, but you definitely wouldn't practice that technique. So
Speaker 5: he doesn't think it's going to be a big adjustment
Speaker 5: for the Buccaneers. I'd say one of the other really
Speaker 5: big rules was the new kickoff that they're going to try.
Speaker 2: It's one of those rules.
Speaker 5: They approve it for one year and see how it goes,
Speaker 5: and then they can make it permanent after that.
Speaker 2: Because this is a massive change.
Speaker 5: I explained most of it last week when we were
Speaker 5: talking about the stuff they were going to discuss. But
Speaker 5: the big thing is there's a landing zone from the
Speaker 5: goal line to the twenty where that's where you're trying
Speaker 5: to hit. They did change one little alteration this week.
Speaker 5: If you get a touch back in the end zone,
Speaker 5: like flies all the way into the end zone, the
Speaker 5: ball comes out to the thirty They previously said thirty five,
Speaker 5: So it's a little less punitive if you want to
Speaker 5: just keep kicking touchbacks and not worry about returns.
Speaker 1: This is going to be really interesting and I just
Speaker 1: I can't wait to see all the ways this will
Speaker 1: affect a team's strategy players they keep, because you know,
Speaker 1: even the idea of special teamers that they almost make
Speaker 1: the roster purely for their special team skills, is that
Speaker 1: more of a thing less of a thing? Does it
Speaker 1: change the body type the type of player that is
Speaker 1: your protote typical one? Is speed less important than just
Speaker 1: short field tackling ability. I just is your punter is
Speaker 1: your kicker, the one kicking off. I just I think
Speaker 1: it's going to be fascinating.
Speaker 5: We have a lot of answers ahead of us. But
Speaker 5: said you mentioned, like the how you put a roster together.
Speaker 5: One little thing that Todd Bowles pointed out when somebody asked,
Speaker 5: you know, do you want to find more options as
Speaker 5: a return man and he said, well yeah, because on
Speaker 5: kickoff now you have to have nine men from the
Speaker 5: return team at the thirty five. But you can have
Speaker 5: two return men and you don't want to let the
Speaker 5: ball we talk about this last week. You don't want
Speaker 5: to let the kick hit in the landing zone then
Speaker 5: go into the end zone because then it's a touch
Speaker 5: back to the twenty. So I think it's likely that
Speaker 5: people will put two returnment back and have him split
Speaker 5: the field. And so you want two guys you're comfortable
Speaker 5: return like last year Devin Tompkins literally handled every single
Speaker 5: punt and kickoff return for the Bucks. You got to
Speaker 5: have another guy that you're confident in to put back there.
Speaker 2: So that's interesting.
Speaker 6: That will be interesting, all right.
Speaker 1: And then you mentioned Todd holes speaking that that's part
Speaker 1: of these annual meetings as they have a coach's breakfast.
Speaker 1: They split it up AFC NFC into different rooms and
Speaker 1: every coach is given a table and then the media,
Speaker 1: whoever wants to listen to them, kind of goes and
Speaker 1: surrounds that table and gets to hear from that coach. So,
Speaker 1: I know you were there listening to Todd Bowles and
Speaker 1: his speech. What did you learn from that?
Speaker 2: Sci You know, a thirty minute interviews is a really
Speaker 2: long interview. So by the end of it, someone who.
Speaker 1: Coach, he used to be an hour, literally an hour,
Speaker 1: so many questions.
Speaker 5: And well it gets to the point where people are
Speaker 5: cycling around and they come back and they ask a
Speaker 5: question that's already been asked before.
Speaker 2: But whatever.
Speaker 5: In thirty minutes you cover a lot and so we
Speaker 5: Todd hit on a lot of different parts of the team.
Speaker 5: A couple minus stood out for me. We've already talked
Speaker 5: about Jordan Whitehead and his return and how much how
Speaker 5: good that is for the Buccaneers. But another point he
Speaker 5: made was Jordan's a really good communicator and and you know,
Speaker 5: not that Antoine isn't back there, but when the two
Speaker 5: of them played together, Jordan was the more vocal the
Speaker 5: two in terms of getting people into place, and so
Speaker 5: now Todd feels like.
Speaker 2: He's got a really good communicator at all three levels.
Speaker 5: And Beata Bay up front, Levante David in the middle,
Speaker 5: and Jordan white Head back there at back.
Speaker 2: So that's interesting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And then I know, you know, we always love
Speaker 1: talking about edge and corners.
Speaker 6: Those are our little soap boxes of how you can
Speaker 6: never have too much depth. What did he mention about
Speaker 6: those two positions.
Speaker 5: Well, the addresser position. Of course, you had the tough
Speaker 5: decision of letting Shack go and he's now with the Dolphins,
Speaker 5: and so clearly you know you need somebody at least
Speaker 5: for those snaps at the very least. I think the
Speaker 5: way Todd sort of thread the kneels like, yeah, of
Speaker 5: course that's something we could look to add at.
Speaker 2: But we do like the depth that we have.
Speaker 5: And he mentioned two guys that maybe don't immediately come
Speaker 5: to mind for Bucks fans when they're thinking about what
Speaker 5: that rotation is, and that's Marquise Watts and Jose Ramirez. Now,
Speaker 5: Marquis Watts made the team as an undrafted free agent,
Speaker 5: had a couple of nice moments during the season, but
Speaker 5: really didn't see a ton of playing time.
Speaker 2: But I think they like his development.
Speaker 5: And then Jose Ramirez was the six round draft pick
Speaker 5: who actually spent the season on the practice squad, but
Speaker 5: he's still around and he resigned, and so he said,
Speaker 5: they're really high on both of those guys. So we'll
Speaker 5: have to see how that impulse, but it's interesting. And
Speaker 5: then as far as the corners, he was talking about
Speaker 5: the two new ones that the Bucks signed, Bryce Hall
Speaker 5: and todby Thomas, and he just explained that both those guys,
Speaker 5: like TAVIERI says, is a very tough guy. He can
Speaker 5: play in the nickel, he can be an option there,
Speaker 5: and he's also probably going to be a really core
Speaker 5: special teamer. And then Bryce Hall is a guy they've liked.
Speaker 5: Had some injuries early in his career, but they've liked
Speaker 5: his tape for a while.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 5: He can play a little outside, he can play a
Speaker 5: little slot and maybe even a little safety. So these
Speaker 5: are a couple more guys that fit into that mold
Speaker 5: of the very versatile defensive back that the Bucks obviously like.
Speaker 1: And then I know, of course Tod Goles is gonna
Speaker 1: ask answer a lot of things about the defense.
Speaker 6: That's kind of his thing.
Speaker 1: But I know He also talked about Rashad White and
Speaker 1: what we've seen from him leading up to this point
Speaker 1: and what they expect from him this year.
Speaker 6: What did you learn?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think we all enjoyed the development of Rashad
Speaker 5: White last year in his first year as the full
Speaker 5: time starter and really one of the few bell kyw
Speaker 5: backs in the NFL who handled like eighty five percent
Speaker 5: of what you did in the backfield. And Todd said
Speaker 5: he really developed as a runner as the season went
Speaker 5: along because he did a better job of understanding where
Speaker 5: his cutback lanes.
Speaker 2: Were going to be.
Speaker 5: Instead of waiting to see them, he hit them quicker
Speaker 5: and before they could close. And that's why if you
Speaker 5: look at now his pass catching numbers throughout the season,
Speaker 5: we're very consistent. That was a good addition all along.
Speaker 5: But in the this is including the postseason. First ten
Speaker 5: games of the season, you see he was averaging forty
Speaker 5: five point nine yards per game and three point three
Speaker 5: per carre, which is not great. And we were talking
Speaker 5: about that at mid season, how the running game still
Speaker 5: wasn't going great. And then as he started to see
Speaker 5: those lanes better, you see seventy three point one yards
Speaker 5: per game and four point two, which is totally acceptable,
Speaker 5: and if you could get that for a full season,
Speaker 5: you'd probably be pretty.
Speaker 2: Happy with that.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think that's very accurate.
Speaker 1: It always makes me think of the quote you always
Speaker 1: hear of a Peyton Manning talking about how he was
Speaker 1: taught like what open was in the NFL row and
Speaker 1: how it's like you have to predict it being open,
Speaker 1: and that the tenth of a second of a window
Speaker 1: is open. And it feels similarly with the running back
Speaker 1: and how you diagnose those lanes that if you already
Speaker 1: see it.
Speaker 2: It's too late, it's going to be closed. Yeah, time
Speaker 2: ball gets there yet.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's interesting.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, that's going to do it for us
Speaker 1: on this edition of Buccaneers in Cider. We'll see you
Speaker 1: next week.