Speaker 1: Good morning, Good morning everybody. How's everyone doing? Happy first
Speaker 1: playoff bound edition of Buccaneers Insider Live presented by a
Speaker 1: miller like Casey Phillips Scott Smith here to take all
Speaker 1: of your questions. We are sure there are a ton
Speaker 1: of them as we go into this final week of
Speaker 1: the regular season, begin to look forward to the playoffs
Speaker 1: a little bit. And as always, if you want to
Speaker 1: submit a question to us, you can do it in
Speaker 1: the comments section of the live Facebook video, so we
Speaker 1: know that takes people a few minutes while we give
Speaker 1: them a chance to do that. I figured we'd start
Speaker 1: with some of the recent news that Ronald Jones has
Speaker 1: been activated from the COVID list, and I wanted to
Speaker 1: hear from you what don't we know about that, plus,
Speaker 1: of course not forgetting his finger injury, what it can
Speaker 1: mean about his availability when he might play, and now
Speaker 1: that we've seen for net Keyshawn Vaughan in there just
Speaker 1: that whole big picture of what all this could look like. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: since he's been activated from the list, he can now
Speaker 1: return to practice, which was the first one would be
Speaker 1: today in about an hour. And uh that's the key
Speaker 1: because even though he's now available the team has yet
Speaker 1: to have in practice since he had the fractured finger
Speaker 1: and had the surgery to have some pens inserted in there.
Speaker 1: And we saw that uh that Chris Godden was able
Speaker 1: to play with a similar injury after missing one game,
Speaker 1: and Ronald Jones has now missed two weeks because of
Speaker 1: this day on the COVID list. But it's there's a
Speaker 1: difference between playing wide receiver and playing running back. You
Speaker 1: might think it's actually a tougher injury for a receiver
Speaker 1: to play through because he has to catch the ball,
Speaker 1: but um god, one showed pretty easily that he can
Speaker 1: catch the ball with the splint thing he had on
Speaker 1: his hand. For the running back, the issue is can
Speaker 1: you get hit on that hand? Because you're gonna get
Speaker 1: hit a lot if you're getting a lot of carries
Speaker 1: up the middle and through the pack. If he gets hit,
Speaker 1: is he gonna be able to hold onto the football?
Speaker 1: And that's what Bruce Arians means when he frequently says,
Speaker 1: will Ronald Jones be able to protect himself? So they're
Speaker 1: gonna try to figure that out in practice this week.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure the mechanism of how you figure that
Speaker 1: out because You're clearly not gonna hit him in the hand.
Speaker 1: That wouldn't be very smart. So they're gonna have to
Speaker 1: figure that out somewhere or another to see if he
Speaker 1: can play in in the interim. Uh, Leonard Fournett has
Speaker 1: done a decent jobs. He scored three touchdowns. He's definitely
Speaker 1: got some tough yards. His total yards through the two
Speaker 1: games or eighty three, which wasn't a huge amount. We
Speaker 1: did see a nice little extent there from Keshawn Vaughan
Speaker 1: in Detroit, which was encouraging and makes you want to
Speaker 1: see a little more from him. You do wonder, though,
Speaker 1: with any of the accomplishments in Detroit, you have to
Speaker 1: take them with a little bit of grain of salt
Speaker 1: because that was such a depleted team. So I think
Speaker 1: the team would be ecstatic to have a fully functional
Speaker 1: Ronald Jones back as the lead back. Okay, And we
Speaker 1: had a couple different people asking about Mike Evans getting
Speaker 1: the potential thousand yards being the first player ever to
Speaker 1: do that for seven seasons in a row, and people
Speaker 1: asking do you think he'll get it? And then is
Speaker 1: there a risk of maybe sitting a lot of the
Speaker 1: starters kind of what's the Wayne wanting to get him
Speaker 1: the record versus who you playing and what there is
Speaker 1: still to play for. Just to be clear on that record,
Speaker 1: it's the first seven seasons to start a player's career.
Speaker 1: There have been other players like Jerry Rice and had
Speaker 1: seven year in a row, but to start a player's
Speaker 1: career might could be the first one. Right now, he
Speaker 1: and Randy Moss are the only two that have done
Speaker 1: it six times in a row to start their career.
Speaker 1: And about three weeks ago, it didn't look very likely
Speaker 1: he needed an average about a hundred ten yards a
Speaker 1: game or more. And uh, you know, since he'd had
Speaker 1: I think at that point two yard games this season,
Speaker 1: you didn't think, well, that's likely to happen. But since
Speaker 1: then against at Landing got about one tin and last
Speaker 1: week he went off for and that hasn't met nine
Speaker 1: six and obviously forty yards away, you're very much arranged.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's potentially one big play. Uh, it'll be
Speaker 1: harder to get the ball downfield as consistently and easily
Speaker 1: as we did against Detroit then against Atlanta. Atlanta's past
Speaker 1: defense is not great, but Detroit was Brilli in shambles. Um,
Speaker 1: so we'll see I think, first of all, in terms
Speaker 1: of starting and resting players, I think Bruce arians made
Speaker 1: it pretty clear that at least at the beginning, they're
Speaker 1: gonna play their guys and try to win. And you know,
Speaker 1: he said it had nothing to do with who we
Speaker 1: end up where we end up going in around one
Speaker 1: of the playoff us although I'm sure a lot of
Speaker 1: us are thinking about that and the difference between the
Speaker 1: five and six seed. To him, he said, it's a
Speaker 1: pride issue for the team, and then eleven and five
Speaker 1: is a lot better than ten and six, and that
Speaker 1: the fifth seed is a lot better than the six seeds,
Speaker 1: So they're gonna try to win. Now, could they start
Speaker 1: resting players depending upon how the game is going, Yes,
Speaker 1: I believe that's very possible, particularly if we can get
Speaker 1: a big lead. But I think at the beginning, you're
Speaker 1: gonna see see the guys play, and I think they
Speaker 1: are going to make an effort to get the ball
Speaker 1: to Mike govns well, and it's perfect that you brought
Speaker 1: up the idea of getting that seed. Mitch asked, can
Speaker 1: you explain who we might play if we are the
Speaker 1: fifth or the sixth seed? And we'll go ahead and
Speaker 1: give a disclaimer that after this we're gonna be shooting
Speaker 1: our Path to the Playoffs video that we've been doing
Speaker 1: every week, where we'll dive into this a lot more
Speaker 1: in depth, but if you want at least just kind
Speaker 1: of give a little quick cliff notes version before we
Speaker 1: do that. Well, the funny part about this is there
Speaker 1: are still with one week to go, and the Bucks
Speaker 1: can only be five or six seed. You think you'd
Speaker 1: be close to locked in, but there are actually six
Speaker 1: different possible destinations the Bucks could go to if they
Speaker 1: get that five seat, which they will do so by winning,
Speaker 1: or even if they don't win, by having the MS lose,
Speaker 1: then they're gonna go to the in the home of
Speaker 1: the MCS champion, which will be Washington if Washington wins,
Speaker 1: but if Washington loses, it will be whoever wins between
Speaker 1: Dallas and the New York Giants, So there's three possible
Speaker 1: destinations there. If the Buccaneers lose and the Rams win,
Speaker 1: now you're the sixth seed and you're playing at the
Speaker 1: three seed, and even though that's most likely to be Seattle,
Speaker 1: it could also still be Green Bay in New Orleans.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot still to be decided not so
Speaker 1: much for the Buccaneers, but the whole picture around the Buccaneers.
Speaker 1: All right, uh, And I thought this was pretty funny.
Speaker 1: Mitch asked me, who makes me laugh or has surprised
Speaker 1: me most during interviews, which I thought was very funny.
Speaker 1: I feel like that's something we haven't ever talked about
Speaker 1: on this show. Um. So yeah, I feel like this
Speaker 1: year in particular, UM, I have to say Gronk because yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's he's exactly everything that you think he
Speaker 1: would be. And I still remember the first event that
Speaker 1: I was doing with him, and it's weird because all
Speaker 1: these people have just kind of only talked to over zoom.
Speaker 1: We still haven't really gotten to do in person things.
Speaker 1: So before an event, you know, we're sitting here kind
Speaker 1: of time how the event is going to go. It's
Speaker 1: like a live stream thing and we're on zoom like this,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, he just starts like disappearing
Speaker 1: out of the frame, and I was like, what is happening?
Speaker 1: And then he's coming back, and he was in a recliner,
Speaker 1: like an automatic recliner chair, and he would just all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, like as I start to be like Okay,
Speaker 1: here's what we need to do, like me, and he
Speaker 1: just disappeared, and I was like, this is incredible, and
Speaker 1: all of the interviews and everything, like he has just
Speaker 1: been so fun and so funny and and even when
Speaker 1: he's miked up that there's not a moment that he
Speaker 1: doesn't seem to be just having the time of his
Speaker 1: life in whatever he's doing. So, yes, I think that
Speaker 1: would be my answer for this year setting. I laughed
Speaker 1: out loud at the Robot dance, Oh my gosh, that
Speaker 1: was amazing. Yeah, which apparently, um, he actually thought of
Speaker 1: it as more of a Frankenstein and yeah, so I
Speaker 1: heard that he was calling it either the Gronkenstein or
Speaker 1: the Robin Stein or something, which I thought was pretty Yeah.
Speaker 1: I liked that a lot. Um. Okay, this is a
Speaker 1: good one that we didn't really get a chance to
Speaker 1: talk about last week when the news came out. Matt
Speaker 1: asked who was the biggest snub for the Pro Bowl
Speaker 1: in your opinion, and he gave the options in his
Speaker 1: mind of Brady Ali, Marpett, Tristan Worth's, Lavonte, David or
Speaker 1: Devin White all the above in a in a career.
Speaker 1: Since it's Lavante David. The fact that he's only made
Speaker 1: one is amazing to me. But at this point it's
Speaker 1: not at all surprising. And it's a little bit tough
Speaker 1: for him and Devin White because there are only two
Speaker 1: two spots and there's not gonna be any replacements at
Speaker 1: inside linebacker, and they're kind of both probably stealing votes
Speaker 1: from each other a little bit. So it went to
Speaker 1: Fred Warner of San Franz and Bobby Wagner, who makes
Speaker 1: it every year of Seattle. So that's just a tough
Speaker 1: go um. You know, it's hard to ignore Devin White
Speaker 1: simply because if you're voting on numbers, there's not really
Speaker 1: a player out there that has a combination of stats
Speaker 1: that Devin White has. With his hundred forty tackles, his
Speaker 1: nine sacks, I think something like fifteen quarterback hits. He's
Speaker 1: got some pass breakups, some fumble forced and recovered. He's
Speaker 1: got the full compliment of stats that look like a
Speaker 1: pro bowler. So that one's a little tough. And the
Speaker 1: one that isn't surprising, just because it's really hard for
Speaker 1: offensive lineman good traction is Ali Marpett. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think all of us here know that he was playing
Speaker 1: at a Pro Bowl level before he went on into
Speaker 1: reserve with the concussion, and since he's been back, he's
Speaker 1: made a big difference. You know, they're all they're all
Speaker 1: snubs of some sort, but I think Devon and Ali
Speaker 1: stand out the most. To me. Yeah, I think the
Speaker 1: Ali would have been my answer if he hadn't missed games.
Speaker 1: I think that I I tend to see where unless
Speaker 1: it is someone that is just like always going to
Speaker 1: win the popularity contest because of their name recognition, if
Speaker 1: a player misses very much time, it tends to hurt
Speaker 1: them a lot in the Pro Bowl. So if he
Speaker 1: hadn't missed those games, and yeah, I think he would
Speaker 1: be my top answer. I do think Devon is a
Speaker 1: big one because what we've talked about in the past
Speaker 1: of why we felt like Lavonte didn't make it was
Speaker 1: because we're like, well, with linebackers, it tends to be
Speaker 1: the people vote based on sacks, you know, and inside
Speaker 1: linebackers when he's having to kind of compete against your
Speaker 1: in the past, these outside linebackers on a three four,
Speaker 1: But now Devin has nine sacks and so that sort
Speaker 1: of went like that, that blew that argument out. Of
Speaker 1: the water of why our inside linebackers don't always get
Speaker 1: the recognition. So now I'm just like, well, yeah, I
Speaker 1: think I don't know what you can do about it.
Speaker 1: To be honest with you, we're just gonna be on
Speaker 1: the soapbox and for next year and try even harder.
Speaker 1: And asked for Tom Brady, I don't I know Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers is one of them, and I guess Drew Brees
Speaker 1: probably and they both had very good years. And Kyler Murray.
Speaker 1: I think Kyler Murray was really I think Kyler Murray
Speaker 1: is the third pick, and he was really helped by
Speaker 1: some really phenomenal and exciting games around mid season, and
Speaker 1: that's what's fresh and in the voters minds. If you
Speaker 1: look at the if you look at their numbers side
Speaker 1: by side and how their teams have done, I think
Speaker 1: you blindly, if you just blindly looked at the numbers
Speaker 1: of the team records, you probably picked Tom Brady over
Speaker 1: Kyler Murray, so that that probably could be considered a
Speaker 1: snub at this point. Um, but Tim's bendo I think
Speaker 1: fourteen of them, so he'll probably be okay, okay, uh yeah,
Speaker 1: I think he'll probably He's probably not up crying at
Speaker 1: night about about this stat. Um all right, Riley said,
Speaker 1: if Rojo's injury goes through the wild card, do you
Speaker 1: think we see more of Vaughan or for net on
Speaker 1: the goal line? Yeah, you'd probably still do for net
Speaker 1: on the goal line. I mean, if there's anything that
Speaker 1: he has definitely proved that he's very good at so
Speaker 1: far with the Bucks, it's punching it in from one
Speaker 1: or two yards out. I mean, that's worked, so why
Speaker 1: go away from it? Uh? I think it's be more
Speaker 1: likely to see Vaughan taking away some of his carries
Speaker 1: between the twenties, and Kevin asked, how much do you
Speaker 1: think we'll be seeing Scottie Miller anymore? And how all
Speaker 1: that has been shaking out of who gets what targets? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I wish I could remember how many snaps he had
Speaker 1: in this last game. Um, you know, the story is
Speaker 1: pretty much established at this point. He was dealing with
Speaker 1: some injuries that had limited him hip and groin injuries
Speaker 1: that it made it hard for him to really be
Speaker 1: at full speed. And in the meantime, the Bucketeers signed
Speaker 1: Antonio Brown and he's pretty much stepped right into that
Speaker 1: third receiver role. And that hasn't changed week to week
Speaker 1: to week. So I think we're pretty set and established
Speaker 1: with the top three receivers, and you run that eleven
Speaker 1: package more than anything else, and Scotty gets sometime in that,
Speaker 1: but not as much as Antonio Brown. So now we're
Speaker 1: talking about different packages that specifically a Scottie in them,
Speaker 1: or four receiver packages, and there's less snaps for that.
Speaker 1: So they obviously have some place for him, and we've
Speaker 1: seen that in recent weeks, but I don't see his
Speaker 1: playing time going through the roof for the rest of
Speaker 1: this year. All right, Well, that is going to do
Speaker 1: it for us on this edition of Buccaneers Insider Live
Speaker 1: presented by Miller Lte. Thanks as always for joining us
Speaker 1: and for those great questions, and don't forget after this
Speaker 1: we're gonna be shooting our path to the playoffs, and
Speaker 1: stay tuned to that to hear all the details of
Speaker 1: all the myriad options that are still out there of
Speaker 1: who the Bucks might face depending on which seed they get.
Speaker 1: So we'll see you next time.