Speaker 1: Welcome to Bucks Insider, presented by Verizon. Casey Phillips here
Speaker 1: with senior writer and editor Scott Smith. But he feels
Speaker 1: like maybe we're just going to have a pattern of
Speaker 1: we got some new coaches to talk about. Well, feels
Speaker 1: like this has been a thing now that it's just
Speaker 1: keep rolling through as guys, you know, that's what happens
Speaker 1: this time yere, there's turnover all across the league. People
Speaker 1: get promoted, which you're excited about because it means they
Speaker 1: did a great job for you.
Speaker 2: And then that means you got to fill these spots
Speaker 2: and or somebody retires or someone.
Speaker 1: Retires, which also is part of it today as well.
Speaker 1: So we figured we would start with this. So speaking
Speaker 1: of that one with the retirement, let's talk about our
Speaker 1: special teams.
Speaker 3: So we had a special team's coordinator opening because Keith
Speaker 3: Armstrong retired after thirty years of coaching in the NFL.
Speaker 3: Lots of success for him, last five here in Tampa.
Speaker 3: So the Buccaneers interviewed quite a few people and at
Speaker 3: the end they hit on Thomas mcgahey, who was in
Speaker 3: the same position for the Giants the last six years.
Speaker 3: Their units did some nice things over that time period,
Speaker 3: particularly in terms of kickoff and punt coverage, which is
Speaker 3: good to see one thing that whoever was going to
Speaker 3: inherit at this job or win this job, especially team's cornerator,
Speaker 3: was going to inherit two really strong legs. Yeah, Chase
Speaker 3: McLaughlin as a placekicker and Jake Kmart as a punter.
Speaker 3: Those two, like Jake Camart hit five field goals of
Speaker 3: fifty yards or more or no, maybe it was seven.
Speaker 2: I think it was seven.
Speaker 3: The five of them were fifty five or a yarder.
Speaker 3: And then Jake Camarta led the NFL with eighteen punts
Speaker 3: of sixty or more. He seemed to get one of
Speaker 3: those like every game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it just became like routine, which is crazy.
Speaker 3: So the Bucks were one of only two teams in
Speaker 3: the league that had a kicker and a punter ranked
Speaker 3: in the top five of those two categories. So talk
Speaker 3: about having a pair of strong legs on your team.
Speaker 3: Your very few teams can boast what the Buccaneers have.
Speaker 3: So that's a great thing for Thomas mcgahey coming in.
Speaker 3: I'm sure he's gonna work on things like getting more
Speaker 3: out of the return game and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's got to be exciting as a special teams
Speaker 1: coordinator to feel like you have true weapons. I think
Speaker 1: that's got to be a great feeling of knowing what
Speaker 1: all that can mean that you can do. And then
Speaker 1: I mean, heck, Jake, I think could be a weapon,
Speaker 1: even in terms of some fakes, some other things.
Speaker 2: Waiting for that.
Speaker 1: Oh, he talks all he can throw, he can throw,
Speaker 1: he can incredibly fast, So I'm hopeful that he sees
Speaker 1: him as a weapon in.
Speaker 2: Some other ways too.
Speaker 3: Before I get ahead of myself, I should point out
Speaker 3: that Chase McLaughlin is a pending unrestricted free agent, so
Speaker 3: he would have to be resigned for him to you know,
Speaker 3: for this coach to have both of them. I think
Speaker 3: the Buccaneers are going to put quite a premium on
Speaker 3: resigning him because we know the history year after year
Speaker 3: after year, draft picks, free agents, whatever, trying to get
Speaker 3: that kicker. And you know, of course Ryan Suckup had
Speaker 3: a nice three years, but to have a shot at
Speaker 3: locking down that position with a guy who has very
Speaker 3: accurate and has a big leg, you don't want to
Speaker 3: let that get away.
Speaker 1: Yes, And then there was another coach announced as well.
Speaker 1: We know that our offensive line coach Joe Gilbert had
Speaker 1: left to go be with the Panthers, and so tell
Speaker 1: us about who will be joining us.
Speaker 3: Well, it's Kevin Carberry, who was the assistant oil coach
Speaker 3: for the Saints, and that's a good place to be
Speaker 3: if you want to work with an offensive line. The
Speaker 3: Saints have consistently poured a lot of assets, draft assets
Speaker 3: and so on into their offensive line. It's always been very,
Speaker 3: very important for them, especially in the Drew Brees era,
Speaker 3: and they've generally had really good offensive line. So he's
Speaker 3: worked with guys recently like Andrews Pete and Ryan Ramchick,
Speaker 3: and so he's been around a very good unit for
Speaker 3: some time now.
Speaker 1: And then I know, also this is going to be
Speaker 1: a really exciting part to talk about in our show.
Speaker 2: So we've got those new coaches.
Speaker 1: Now, it seems like kind of a dead time year
Speaker 1: around the Buccaneers right other than basically you have head coach,
Speaker 1: you've got coaches, you're hiring, you're kind of talking.
Speaker 2: About free agency.
Speaker 1: But the Buccaneers have something going on right now that
Speaker 1: I know both of us have talked about. We think
Speaker 1: is just one of the coolest things out there. So
Speaker 1: we have the sixth annual Girls Flag Football Classic. This
Speaker 1: tournament is absolutely incredible.
Speaker 2: One plus teams, over.
Speaker 1: One hundred teams, I think it's one hundred and nine
Speaker 1: teams and over two thousand athletes.
Speaker 2: All right, this is happening right now.
Speaker 1: The Buccaneers are putting it on and games started last night,
Speaker 1: but there was the actual kickoff event Tuesday night and
Speaker 1: I got a chance to m see it. It was pretty incredible.
Speaker 1: But also I know that our co owner Darcy Glazer Cassowitz,
Speaker 1: this is definitely a passion project of hers, and she
Speaker 1: spoke on Good Morning Football about the tournament.
Speaker 4: One hundred and nineteen. That's incredible.
Speaker 2: I love this.
Speaker 4: Think back to six years ago because this is not
Speaker 4: just that overnight that you guys have been devoted to this.
Speaker 4: Six years ago was when this all started. How has
Speaker 4: this grown? And how proud are you to see where
Speaker 4: it's blossom today?
Speaker 5: There's year over year growth in participation. It's really this
Speaker 5: is a sport that's just booming right now. And last
Speaker 5: night we announced at our opening night that we're going
Speaker 5: to host the Girls Flag State Championships. So now the
Speaker 5: season will begin and with the support of the Buccaneers
Speaker 5: and We're just so happy to be there support all
Speaker 5: the girls.
Speaker 2: It's just amazing to watch this.
Speaker 1: And I know also, you know here this is basically
Speaker 1: the kickoff to the flag football season for all of
Speaker 1: these athletes. But now also the Bucks are going to
Speaker 1: be hosting the state championships, which is going to be awesome.
Speaker 1: So their season is basically beginning and ending here with
Speaker 1: the Buccaneers showing their support of how much we believe
Speaker 1: in girls sports, girls being involved in sports, and it's
Speaker 1: just it's pretty incredible. And so, like I said, I
Speaker 1: got to MC the opening night kickof off. We had
Speaker 1: a panel discussion, we had a bunch of speakers, and
Speaker 1: it was amazing. I got up to the podium and
Speaker 1: I looked out. It was literally just a sea of girls'
Speaker 1: faces in their football jerseys. It was truly an incredible thing.
Speaker 1: And I just found myself thinking I would have killed
Speaker 1: for this.
Speaker 2: In high school. We didn't have flag football. I'm from Texas.
Speaker 1: Anyway that we could have been involved in football would
Speaker 1: have been an amazing thing. And it's truly incredible.
Speaker 2: The way that the Bucks have.
Speaker 1: Prioritized this so much and given so many opportunities for
Speaker 1: these girls and One of the big themes of the
Speaker 1: event was the fact that flag football is now going
Speaker 1: to be an Olympic sport, and to think of how
Speaker 1: Florida is so far ahead so many ways in girls
Speaker 1: flag football. To note there are potentially girls in that
Speaker 1: audience Tuesday night, Wow, they could be on the Olympic team.
Speaker 1: And I was like, that's just such a cool thing
Speaker 1: to see the way that this sport is growing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well said, I couldn't agree more. I think this
Speaker 3: is one of the best things the Bucks got going
Speaker 3: in the community in recent years. I love flag football.
Speaker 3: I think it's the fact that you've shown how much
Speaker 3: it's grown, and that sea of faces just shows that
Speaker 3: this was a void that needed to be filled. This
Speaker 3: was an opportunity that girls need to have in high
Speaker 3: school and it's so great that it's growing.
Speaker 2: I just love it.
Speaker 1: Yep, I completely agree. So yeah, So the games are
Speaker 1: still going on these next couple nights. It's a four
Speaker 1: day event, so good luck to all of the athletes participating. Also,
Speaker 1: in this last week, we had the NFL Honors. It
Speaker 1: was right after our show we filmed last week, and
Speaker 1: so tell us a little bit about how the Bucks
Speaker 1: were honored.
Speaker 3: I don't think that we were expecting any award except
Speaker 3: potentially Baker Mayfield getting Comeback Player of the Year. That
Speaker 3: actually went to Joe Flacco of the Ravens who played
Speaker 3: five games.
Speaker 1: But yeah, oh wait, of the Browns. I know it's fine,
Speaker 1: I totally but you know what, that's the whole thing.
Speaker 1: He was a comeback because all of sudden, it wasn't
Speaker 1: the raining.
Speaker 3: Back off the couch.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Anyway, we did have players that that got recognized and
Speaker 3: coaches they got you know, the voting system go each
Speaker 3: voter's forty nine voter voters in each vote first, second, third,
Speaker 3: and you get five points for first, three points per second,
Speaker 3: and one point for third. So Baker, for instance, got
Speaker 3: ten first place vot votes, but he also got like
Speaker 3: ten second place votes and thirteen third place votes something
Speaker 3: like that. So he ended up with ninety three points
Speaker 3: was third in the list. But you can see here
Speaker 3: Antoine Winfield got some love for Defensive Player of the Year.
Speaker 3: I think he was sixth in the balloting. Both Yah
Speaker 3: Yah and Callijah got a couple of votes throwing their
Speaker 3: way for Defensive Rookie of the Year. Todd Bowles got
Speaker 3: a vote for Coach of the Year and Dave Canal
Speaker 3: it's no longer with us, of course, but he got
Speaker 3: two votes for Assistant Coach of the Year for what
Speaker 3: he did with the Buccaneers, So there was some recognition
Speaker 3: of what the Buccaneers did. There were no actual awards,
Speaker 3: but you know, it cool.
Speaker 1: Great to see, great to see them there, and of course,
Speaker 1: again not like we're biased, but we might have thrown
Speaker 1: a few more votes towards all those people.
Speaker 2: But it was good to see there was getting some
Speaker 2: recognition there. And you know you brought up Chase McLaughlin earlier.
Speaker 1: This is the time of year where the whole free
Speaker 1: agent discussion is huge, especially again as we talked about
Speaker 1: them hiring coaches of those coaches are intrigued to.
Speaker 2: Know who the players are that they'll be coaching.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so tell us where we sit at this point
Speaker 1: in terms of how many, especially unrestricted free agents the
Speaker 1: Bucks have.
Speaker 2: To know what this might look like.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the Bucks are facing a list of eighteen potential
Speaker 3: unrestricted free agents. I say potentially because right now you
Speaker 3: have the exclusive rights to negotiate, so you could sign
Speaker 3: any of these guys to a contract between now and
Speaker 3: the start of the legal tampering period on March eleventh,
Speaker 3: and nobody else can talk to these guys till then.
Speaker 3: But if nothing happens, these eighteen guys would hit the
Speaker 3: open market. This is presented alphabetically, so you know there's
Speaker 3: some big names at the bottom of both.
Speaker 1: You didn't want to irritate anybody make it seem like
Speaker 1: you prioritize someone over.
Speaker 2: We're going alphabetic.
Speaker 3: I mean you look at the bottom there. You got
Speaker 3: Baker Mayfield and Antoine Winfield Junior. Youve got Levante David
Speaker 3: up there, Mike Evans, Chase McLaughlin, you mentioned Devin White.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of players that and you know, like
Speaker 3: Aaron Stinny started for a majority of the season. There's
Speaker 3: a lot of players up there that you would probably
Speaker 3: like to get back. I think they have already made
Speaker 3: their priority list and that they're going to try to
Speaker 3: get everybody on that list back. It's just you know,
Speaker 3: how do.
Speaker 2: You do it? But can you afford it?
Speaker 3: And I'll tell you what, I have faith in Jason
Speaker 3: light and Mike Greenberg and John Spytech and all those
Speaker 3: people in that department, because we've seen them navigate several
Speaker 3: different types of off seasons. We saw after the Super Bowl
Speaker 3: when they did the whole keep the whole band together
Speaker 3: thing and somehow resigned everybody, and then did it again
Speaker 3: for a good extent in twenty twenty one or twenty
Speaker 3: twenty two, and then last year when a lot of
Speaker 3: the bills came due from those type of contracts to
Speaker 3: keep everybody together type of contracts which were backloaded. The
Speaker 3: Buccaneers faced the most dead cap space in the league
Speaker 3: and really had to figure out how to build and
Speaker 3: keep a competitive team under that restriction and did so.
Speaker 3: You know, one of the key signings obviously was Baker Mayfield,
Speaker 3: but they found a way to get done. So this
Speaker 3: is just basically like a third different type of challenge.
Speaker 3: And I've seen enough from the last couple of years
Speaker 3: to think if they set their minds to it, as
Speaker 3: long as those players are amenable to returning, which I
Speaker 3: kind of feel like they are, we'll see. That's up
Speaker 3: to them, but I think they'll find a way to
Speaker 3: get done. Everybody on their priority list.
Speaker 2: I agree. All right.
Speaker 1: Well, something we're doing right now leading up to the
Speaker 1: draft on Insiders. Each week, we're picking a different position
Speaker 1: and talking about how likely it is that the Bucks
Speaker 1: address it, especially early in the draft, so first round,
Speaker 1: maybe second. So let's talk about in interior offensive line
Speaker 1: this morning. Where does that rank in your mind in
Speaker 1: terms of potential for being addressed very early on.
Speaker 3: It could be something that the Bucks do in the
Speaker 3: first two days, and they've done that a lot recently,
Speaker 3: you know, with Luke Geticky and Cody Mauk, they've been
Speaker 3: able to find good value like in the second round.
Speaker 3: It just kind of depends a little bit on this
Speaker 3: free agency thing. You know, Aaron Steney was the starter
Speaker 3: there and before him Matt Feiler, and they're both on
Speaker 3: that free agent list we just looked at. You've got
Speaker 3: Robert Hainsey, who's your center, but he has a lot
Speaker 3: of flexibility on the interior. So if you could find
Speaker 3: a guy that could play either center or guard or
Speaker 3: maybe be flexible to play both, you'd have a lot
Speaker 3: of more options there. And if you could find a
Speaker 3: guy that you thought was plug and play from day one,
Speaker 3: like Cody Maulk was last year, you could really build
Speaker 3: on what they already think is a pretty good offensive line,
Speaker 3: especially with the way the tackles played last year. If
Speaker 3: you could get even stronger in the middle. That could
Speaker 3: make a big difference. And there's there's some good candidates out.
Speaker 2: There, all right, Well, that's going to be interesting to
Speaker 2: keep an eye on.
Speaker 1: And of course, once we get a little bit closer,
Speaker 1: we'll be doing our Road to the Draft show where
Speaker 1: we break down even more about some of these different
Speaker 1: position groups and potential guys that will be targeting. Yes,
Speaker 1: we will be starting that very very soon. And our
Speaker 1: last little bit of news here we just thought people
Speaker 1: might be interested in seeing this. So the Buccaneers are
Speaker 1: replacing their practice fields outside of the Advent Health Training Center.
Speaker 1: You know, those fields go through a lot, see big
Speaker 1: men running on them a whole lot, especially a lot
Speaker 1: of those drills. I watched some of the offensive line
Speaker 1: special teams drills. They tear that sucker up and shout
Speaker 1: out to Rob Julian, our guy who takes care of
Speaker 1: all the fields and does an incredible job. And I
Speaker 1: know for all of us who try to keep along
Speaker 1: looking nice, we would love to know how he does this.
Speaker 2: But yeah, they were restarting it right now.
Speaker 3: Well I asked him why because the bucks of the
Speaker 3: fields always looked really good and they maintain them obviously,
Speaker 3: very well, And I asked Rob and was given a
Speaker 3: very detailed answer that made a lot of sense. Now
Speaker 3: this is going to be skim surface compared to what
Speaker 3: he told me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but sure got very technical about it, he did.
Speaker 3: So this is this facility was open in two thousand
Speaker 3: and six and these are the original fields from them.
Speaker 3: They have not been replaced. Now, why do you need
Speaker 3: to replace them when they look pretty good already? Well,
Speaker 3: year after year they they bowed those lunes like every
Speaker 3: day during the season. And when you mow, you know,
Speaker 3: you get some detritus, you get the clippings, and they
Speaker 3: try to get those clippings up, but they don't always
Speaker 3: get them all and so over the course of years
Speaker 3: they build up. And he said, if you had looked
Speaker 3: before we started tearing these fields up and you saw
Speaker 3: the drainage at the tops of the drainage pipes which
Speaker 3: used to be flush with the grass, they're now six
Speaker 3: inches below the surface. That's how much is built up
Speaker 3: over the what two thousand and six, like seventeen years.
Speaker 3: So what happens is there's a lot of things that
Speaker 3: that issues that causes, one of them being the roots.
Speaker 3: It catches moisture in there in this level above this ground,
Speaker 3: and you want your roots to grow down into the ground. Well,
Speaker 3: the roots don't have to grow in the ground because
Speaker 3: they can find the moisture here, so you're not getting
Speaker 3: that firmly entrenched. Also, the field is a little bit
Speaker 3: softer than they really want it to be, not to
Speaker 3: the point where players are minded. It's been fine, but
Speaker 3: ideally you would like it to be a little bit
Speaker 3: more firm than it is now because of all that
Speaker 3: built up is a little soft. So you got all
Speaker 3: kinds of issues, like you know, insects and whatever diseases
Speaker 3: that can be fostered in that kind of that big
Speaker 3: glop on top. So they just want to get back
Speaker 3: to square one where it's flush with where it's supposed
Speaker 3: to be.
Speaker 2: That's going to be so interesting. I love that you
Speaker 2: got science on the Insider show.
Speaker 1: Very well, we'll give you all of it. You know,
Speaker 1: some lawn care. What can't you get coming here to Insider.
Speaker 1: So yes, we'll keep you guys updated on that and
Speaker 1: show you some of the progress as that goes along
Speaker 1: as well. That's going to do it for us on
Speaker 1: this edition of Bucks Insider. We'll see you next time.
Speaker 2: M hm.