Speaker 1: Hey there, good morning, Bucks fans. It is time for
Speaker 1: Buccaneers Insider Live, presented by Miller like Casey Phillips here
Speaker 1: with Scott Smith and as always, this is where we
Speaker 1: take your questions, everything you want to talk about with
Speaker 1: your Buccaneers. And we know we're getting closer and closer
Speaker 1: to the draft, we are getting closer to essentially having
Speaker 1: free agency almost wrapped up. Maybe uh it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's I will I love a free agency. There's
Speaker 1: not really this you know, date that we're like you
Speaker 1: ever done, but it feels like we've at least got
Speaker 1: a lot more information now, a lot to talk about.
Speaker 1: So I'm sure you guys have plenty questions. You can
Speaker 1: submit those under our live video on Facebook and the
Speaker 1: comment section for me to be able to find them,
Speaker 1: and as we get people chance to do that, I
Speaker 1: figured we'd start with the news that we have brought
Speaker 1: back and Dominican Sue, and I know it also feels
Speaker 1: a little bit longer ago, but Leonard four Nett had
Speaker 1: not technically been signed by our last one of these shows,
Speaker 1: so we didn't get to dive into it tons. So
Speaker 1: if we'd start with both of those and just your
Speaker 1: initial thoughts on on both of those signings. Well, the
Speaker 1: great phrase right now was all twenty two Bucconers, the
Speaker 1: first team since nineteen seventies seven to bring back all
Speaker 1: twenty two of their starters, I mean, the first Super
Speaker 1: Bowl champion since nineteen seventy seven to bring back all
Speaker 1: their starters from that Super Bowl. And you know, you
Speaker 1: can judge it either way, or we're talking about the
Speaker 1: starters that were there on Day one last year or
Speaker 1: the stars in the Super Bowl because it wasn't the
Speaker 1: exact same one up. But in either case, the answer
Speaker 1: is yes. So everybody is back, including most of the
Speaker 1: key reserves as well. So, um, it's it's it's exciting.
Speaker 1: It's a little hard to believe that that Jason Letton
Speaker 1: and Mike Greenberger and Jackie Davidson and everybody were able
Speaker 1: to get it all done, because back when Bruce arians
Speaker 1: was telling everybody at the boat parade that that they
Speaker 1: weren't going anywhere, so to speak, Uh, it's sounded good,
Speaker 1: but it also sounded like, well, that's a lot of
Speaker 1: promises it's gonna be hard to keep. But they managed
Speaker 1: to do it. And I think it probably comes down
Speaker 1: a little bit um of the bond. They keep talking
Speaker 1: about how closely knit this team is, and that's easy
Speaker 1: to say after you've had a successful season that helps
Speaker 1: build that bond, But everybody's tends seems to think that
Speaker 1: this has a particularly tightly knit team. And you know
Speaker 1: is usually you see one or two guys when you
Speaker 1: win a championship. Obviously that's a big incentive to come
Speaker 1: back and try to do it again, but you'll also
Speaker 1: get that bit of a super Bowl balance if you're
Speaker 1: a free agent, like, hey, this is my chance. I'm
Speaker 1: high profile right now, this is my chance to go
Speaker 1: get a big contract somewhere. So that generally happens avoted
Speaker 1: two players on the need championship team, and the fact
Speaker 1: that didn't with the Buccaneers is almost amazing. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: completely agree. Uh. And in terms of like we talked
Speaker 1: about free agency not technically being done, even though we
Speaker 1: did bring back all those starters, one person that we
Speaker 1: keep getting lots of questions about, of course, is Antonio Brown.
Speaker 1: So what do you think the odds are bringing him back?
Speaker 1: And if we didn't bring him back, what would that mean?
Speaker 1: Just kind of the larger implications of his role on
Speaker 1: the team. Or not on the team. Yeah, it would
Speaker 1: make sense that the news is and all the rumors
Speaker 1: and the reports now are focused on Antonio Brown because
Speaker 1: he's really the only significant contributor that has not that
Speaker 1: is not under contract now. So um, it makes sense
Speaker 1: to keep asking about that and all the reports I see, um,
Speaker 1: you know, and the things that we hear that it's
Speaker 1: not particularly close. So that sounds like a team that
Speaker 1: would you know, the Buccaneers quite frankly, I have been
Speaker 1: scraping up against the top of the cap during all
Speaker 1: of this process, so they probably are in a position
Speaker 1: where they can't really break the bank. And maybe on
Speaker 1: the other side, the players looking for specific number and
Speaker 1: if they're not there, then then he's gonna keep looking
Speaker 1: for the bucks and elsewhere. We'll see what happens with that.
Speaker 1: But um, it's hard to get too upset about possibly
Speaker 1: not getting one of all those guys back when you
Speaker 1: got all of them back. I mean, you know, we
Speaker 1: really can't complain at this point. Yes, And if there's
Speaker 1: into the rest of your question, if you don't have
Speaker 1: a B which was the case for the first half
Speaker 1: of the season last year, anyway, you just probably see
Speaker 1: more of Scotty Miller and probably development of Tyler Johnson.
Speaker 1: And you know, I think some of Buck fans will
Speaker 1: probably be excited about seeing more of those guys. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a great point. All right. I love this question.
Speaker 1: Mike said, do you think the league will keep the
Speaker 1: i R rules from last year? It seemed to help
Speaker 1: a lot of teams, especially in the playoffs. I know
Speaker 1: that the play the teams wanted, that's for sure, absolutely,
Speaker 1: And that is a very good question, and I hope
Speaker 1: that they do. Um. If anybody doesn't know the history
Speaker 1: of this, that used to be the way injured reserve was,
Speaker 1: you could put guys, You could put any number of
Speaker 1: guys on and bring them back off. Uh. The problem
Speaker 1: of the reason they finally changed that and made injured reserve, um,
Speaker 1: you know once you went on a final for the season,
Speaker 1: was that there were teams that kind of played a
Speaker 1: little fast and loose with that, and it was it
Speaker 1: was a way to stash some players, some extra players
Speaker 1: that you didn't have room for. Just oh he's you know,
Speaker 1: his his his knees acting up a little bit for
Speaker 1: three weeks, and then he's back when you need him.
Speaker 1: But then after years and years of realizing that you know,
Speaker 1: once you're on I are you're finished, was a little
Speaker 1: too restrictive. They started to chip away at a little
Speaker 1: bit and giving those options of you could have one
Speaker 1: guy that you brought back from injury as long as
Speaker 1: he was there for eight weeks, and then they made
Speaker 1: it two, and then they made it three. And then
Speaker 1: of course last year, driven by the pandemic and try
Speaker 1: to give teams roster flexibility, they did the thing where
Speaker 1: you could bring back an unlimited number of guys and
Speaker 1: I think they only had to be on there for
Speaker 1: three weeks if I remember correctly. Um, I think that's
Speaker 1: the where we are as a league now. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't think you need to worry about teams going
Speaker 1: back and you know, stashing players with that, I think
Speaker 1: legitimately you need that option. It really does help the flexibility.
Speaker 1: I mean, it certainly worked out for the Buccaneers that
Speaker 1: when Vida veya surprising was able to come back, we
Speaker 1: were able to bring him back. So I'm in favorite
Speaker 1: of it. I think, if not exactly the same rules,
Speaker 1: at least more in that direction of being more flexible
Speaker 1: will be the case going forward. Yeah, I agree, and
Speaker 1: I think especially with now they're being the seventeen game season,
Speaker 1: that feels like an even bigger reason to have something
Speaker 1: like that in a good sort of concession, when you're
Speaker 1: talking about the health potential you know of your guys
Speaker 1: and injuries being one of the big concerns of it.
Speaker 1: If you know you can bring everybody back that that
Speaker 1: that could really help your team if you haven't even
Speaker 1: you know, one more week to worry about. Um. We
Speaker 1: also Dustin asked about the status of O. J. Howard,
Speaker 1: which we can take multiple ways to be a let's
Speaker 1: talk both about his health and about whatever his contract
Speaker 1: situations are and what you think the role on this
Speaker 1: team be now that especially we know that Gronk is back. Okay,
Speaker 1: so o j Um. Last time that I think it
Speaker 1: was Bruce arians was talking, he said, oh j looks great.
Speaker 1: He's coming along perfectly. Hasn't had no setbacks in his
Speaker 1: recovery from his injury. And as we remember, that was
Speaker 1: a week four injury, so you know, it sucked that
Speaker 1: he missed most of the season, but on the other
Speaker 1: side of that coin, he's had a lot longer to rehabilitate,
Speaker 1: so um, apparently he's coming along fine and Bruce Arians
Speaker 1: does expect him to be on the field at some
Speaker 1: point in the off season program, if, of course there
Speaker 1: is on field work in the off season program. We
Speaker 1: still don't know the answer to that. So that's the
Speaker 1: good news on that front. I don't think there's any
Speaker 1: doubt that he'll be ready to go for training camp
Speaker 1: barring some such some setback. As for his contract status,
Speaker 1: the Bucks elected last year to pick up right around
Speaker 1: this time of the year is when you have to
Speaker 1: do it and when we will be doing it shortly
Speaker 1: with Vita Vea pick up the fifth year option that
Speaker 1: every first year or first round player gets on their contract.
Speaker 1: It's a team option, so it's every first round player
Speaker 1: gets a four year contract with a team option for
Speaker 1: a fifth year. But you have to decide if you're
Speaker 1: gonna pick that team up that option up before his
Speaker 1: fourth season, and the buckeyer said yes with o J,
Speaker 1: so they have that and now, um, since the new
Speaker 1: cb A, that contract is fully guaranteed. And also it
Speaker 1: goes up quite a bit. You know, if it was
Speaker 1: a quarterback, he'd probably be like seventeen or eighteen million.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure exactly what it is thinks about eight
Speaker 1: million for a tight end. So his contract went up
Speaker 1: a big amount, and so he's getting paid a lot
Speaker 1: more this year, but it's also guaranteed. And uh, you know,
Speaker 1: and I know they've talked a lot about how well
Speaker 1: they think how you know, Bruce Arian said, this guy's
Speaker 1: limit for o J in this offense. So all things
Speaker 1: pointing out for o J. How hard. He just needs
Speaker 1: to have a season when he doesn't have some freaky
Speaker 1: bad luck with an injury. Right, Absolutely, we will be
Speaker 1: hoping for that because man, I do want to see
Speaker 1: him fully healthy, fully ready to go that that in
Speaker 1: that arsenal, and with Tom Brady loving his tight ends,
Speaker 1: I think that's gonna be really fun to watch. Um.
Speaker 1: All right, Kyle asked who's going to be the backup quarterback?
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna add onto this of why don't we
Speaker 1: not just talk about this year, but uh, just the
Speaker 1: quarterback situation moving forward? When you know, do you draft somebody,
Speaker 1: do you keep the group that you've had, Let's just
Speaker 1: look at the quarterback position overall. You know, you don't
Speaker 1: have to take these questions and raise the level of difficulty. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's exactly what I do. That's what I'm here for
Speaker 1: everybody else is being too nice to you. I gotta
Speaker 1: make your earn your money. You know, well, there is
Speaker 1: no backup quarterback right now. There there isn't one. So
Speaker 1: the answer to the question right now is there nobody.
Speaker 1: But obviously that has to change. Um. Probably I applied
Speaker 1: for the position. It hasn't called me back yet. I'm
Speaker 1: very frustrated. You know, did you have a drill? Did
Speaker 1: you show him how you can throw? Yeah? I mean
Speaker 1: obviously he just Ye, he's a little busy right now,
Speaker 1: he's been he's got some things going on. But I'm
Speaker 1: convinced he's going to recognize my potential. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: I think I still continue to think that the most
Speaker 1: likely option is the resigning of Blaine Gabbert. And um,
Speaker 1: obviously you needed to get through a lot of other
Speaker 1: free agency stuff first. Uh, that's not guarantee, but it
Speaker 1: seems like the best option to me because I think
Speaker 1: Bruce arians wants a veteran backup and one that has
Speaker 1: experienced as a starter in the NFL, and in his case,
Speaker 1: has experienced starter of in this offense back in Arizona
Speaker 1: U Ryan Griffin also unsigned. He's a guy that knows
Speaker 1: the system. It's been around a long time, and we've
Speaker 1: talked a few times about the draft and quarterbacks because
Speaker 1: Bruce Arians and Jason light A Bull said, yeah, they
Speaker 1: would like to draft a quarterback. In fact, they felt
Speaker 1: that way last year and said they were waiting to
Speaker 1: see if it worked out right. If the if a
Speaker 1: player and his value and the pick came together, then
Speaker 1: they would do it. They didn't end up doing it
Speaker 1: last year. Tried an undrafted freation and read Senate that
Speaker 1: didn't work out here, although he is still with the Dolphins. UM,
Speaker 1: I think it's even more likely that they would do
Speaker 1: that this year a few rounds in. Tom Brady is
Speaker 1: probably going to play the next two seasons, and so
Speaker 1: it would make sense to take a second, third, fourth
Speaker 1: round player if there's one that's a good value there
Speaker 1: and really has some potential. And I think there are
Speaker 1: some quarterbacks like this in this class because it's so
Speaker 1: top heavy with five of them, that that means five
Speaker 1: teams probably in the first round, are going to get
Speaker 1: their quarterbacks. And then there's other teams that aren't going
Speaker 1: to be interested in quarterback. So some guys that could
Speaker 1: have been a little higher on the board in other
Speaker 1: years might last a little bit longer because there's fewer
Speaker 1: teams that are looking for a quarterback as you go along.
Speaker 1: So it's's It seems to make a lot of sense
Speaker 1: to me that somewhere in the middle of the draft
Speaker 1: of Bucks will pick up a quarterback and and probably
Speaker 1: that would be your third guy behind a veteran. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I know that after the show, Scott and I
Speaker 1: are going to be shooting our Road to the Draft
Speaker 1: segment and I'm sure we'll get into this a little
Speaker 1: bit more with that. So if you want more draft
Speaker 1: specific talk, definitely stay tuned for the next edition of
Speaker 1: The Road to the Draft, because that's definitely a topic
Speaker 1: we'll get into. Shann As you asked, do you think
Speaker 1: we trade back with our first pick at thirty two?
Speaker 1: Every time you ask Jason light a question like this, uh,
Speaker 1: he says, Hey, we can do anything. I'm not saying
Speaker 1: we're definitely gonna trade back. I'm not saying we're definitely
Speaker 1: gonna trade up. We're really flexible. Um. The one thing
Speaker 1: to keep in mind when you trade back from thirty two,
Speaker 1: that means you're trading out of the first round and
Speaker 1: whatever player you pick you then only have a four
Speaker 1: year contract. The advantage of that first you know the
Speaker 1: advantage of the thirty second pick over the thirty third
Speaker 1: pick pick as you get a contract where you would
Speaker 1: have that fifth year option. I don't think that's enough
Speaker 1: to keep the Bucks from trading back at the value
Speaker 1: is there, And certainly that seems like it could work
Speaker 1: out well for the Buccaneers if there's somebody that wants
Speaker 1: to move up and get that last pick in the
Speaker 1: first round, because again, the need isn't strong there. And
Speaker 1: if you get the thirty two and you've got three
Speaker 1: ed dressers and three corners and two tackles and a
Speaker 1: running back and you like all of them, um, and
Speaker 1: you'd be happy with any one of them, then it
Speaker 1: makes a lot of sense to try to get some
Speaker 1: more assets and end up with one of them seven
Speaker 1: or eight picks later. I like this questions. I asked,
Speaker 1: how many of the players from this last year's team
Speaker 1: do you think will eventually make the Bucks Ring of honor?
Speaker 1: M hm, Oh, that's a good one. I feel like
Speaker 1: that could be a whole article for you. Yeah, good idea.
Speaker 1: They're looking for some content. Levante David is a lock obviously.
Speaker 1: Mike Evans is an absolute stone cold lock. Those two
Speaker 1: for sure. Um, those two could retire right now when
Speaker 1: I would be sure they will be in the Ring
Speaker 1: of on Um, Well, there's a lot of possibilities. I mean,
Speaker 1: if Tom Brady plays three seasons for US and we
Speaker 1: win two Super Bowls, is he in the Ring of Honor?
Speaker 1: I mean I almost feel like he is, even just
Speaker 1: with one super Bowl, like you know, like I just
Speaker 1: it's it's I mean, and don't tell me that wouldn't
Speaker 1: be a draw for the game that he's getting inducted
Speaker 1: to the Ring of Honor. But Brad Johnson won one
Speaker 1: Super Bowl and he's not in the ring about It's true.
Speaker 1: That's a good point. Those two are the obvious ones.
Speaker 1: It's probably little too early on any of the others
Speaker 1: to know for sure. Allan Mark pett is the one
Speaker 1: that would come to mind. Um, I think Chris Godwin,
Speaker 1: if he is here long term, definitely he could be one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll have to see because right now, you know, he's
Speaker 1: only playing on a one year contract, so hopefully he's
Speaker 1: around for a long time. I think you gotta just
Speaker 1: say Lavante and Mike are sure things and after that,
Speaker 1: we need a few more years to have a better idea.
Speaker 1: I like that, all right, Well that's gonna do it
Speaker 1: for us on this edition of Buccaneers Inside are Live
Speaker 1: presented by Miller Lyte. Thanks for being with us, and
Speaker 1: we'll see you next week.