Speaker 1: Welcome into our final road to the Draft company from
Speaker 1: Bucks Studio, presented by ticket master Casey Phillips here with
Speaker 1: senior writer and editor Scott Smith.
Speaker 2: I don't know, maybe we.
Speaker 1: Should call this the road back from the drafts the
Speaker 1: road passed it. We're just continuing on here that we did.
Speaker 1: You know, every week leading up to the draft, we
Speaker 1: talked about what we thought was going to happen, and
Speaker 1: now we finally know we have the newest additions to
Speaker 1: the crew to talk about.
Speaker 2: So today we thought we'd just go through the different.
Speaker 1: Draft picks, look at kind of big picture what the
Speaker 1: Bucks did, look at each of them individually where we
Speaker 1: feel like they could contribute now that we know who
Speaker 1: these guys are. So let's start with the big picture side.
Speaker 1: As you just look at what the Bucks accomplished, what
Speaker 1: they did, and especially maybe compared to what we thought
Speaker 1: they were going to do, what stands out?
Speaker 3: I guess I'll ask you, how do you feel about
Speaker 3: reading like draft grades right after a draft? Is it
Speaker 3: kind of similar to how you feel about draft mock
Speaker 3: drafts before the Yeah?
Speaker 1: I mean it's yeah, it's pretty much as useless, isn't
Speaker 1: what the same year rule isn't that.
Speaker 3: Typically I still do it, of course, and so what
Speaker 3: I immediately noticed this year is that the draft grades
Speaker 3: for the Buccaneers tend to vary between like a B
Speaker 3: and an A plus or remember Pete Prisco's Gonna be
Speaker 3: a Sports Game of an A plus and really gave
Speaker 3: Jason light his flowers for once again drafting a lot
Speaker 3: of good players. And you're seeing a lot of that
Speaker 3: now that people are starting to realize what a great
Speaker 3: job Jason's been doing for year of the year now,
Speaker 3: and it all comes down to the variance there between
Speaker 3: the B and the A plus. Every single time comes
Speaker 3: down to how do you feel about the Buccaneers using
Speaker 3: their first round pick on wide receiver?
Speaker 2: Yeah, on a non defensive guy. Yeah.
Speaker 3: And I'm not gonna I'm not gonna be a revisionist
Speaker 3: historian here. I was one of those people that have
Speaker 3: skeptical right up to the end, even though Todd Bowles
Speaker 3: and Jason Lytt were dropping all these breadcrumbs about, hey,
Speaker 3: we might actually do this, and then afterwards you see
Speaker 3: the wisdom of it, and a lot of it just
Speaker 3: has to do with value, The value of getting a
Speaker 3: player like that in a past driven league, even if
Speaker 3: you already have a good passing offense. That value was
Speaker 3: there in the first round. And yes, the Buccaneers needed
Speaker 3: to hit defense. And who am I, I'm the cornerback guy, right.
Speaker 3: You tell me at the end of this draft that
Speaker 3: we got Benjamin Morrison and Jacob Parrish in the second
Speaker 3: round the corner I'm ecstatic. Yep, So there was to me,
Speaker 3: there's no flaw in this plan of using the first
Speaker 3: pick on a player that they absolutely love and love it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we hear this all time, right, the I
Speaker 1: am that Man's strategy exactly. And we have seen in
Speaker 1: recent years how well this has worked out when you
Speaker 1: look at the fact of what a huge percentage of
Speaker 1: our starters, of our stars are homegrown talent, and it
Speaker 1: is because they have stuck to this idea. And I
Speaker 1: think after just spending one day with a Mecca, every
Speaker 1: single person here is like he is that man.
Speaker 2: That That's the thing.
Speaker 1: You can see why he plays like a Chris Godwin,
Speaker 1: carries himself like a Chris Godwin. We have seen that
Speaker 1: if anyone tells a Bucks fan, hey, there's a chance
Speaker 1: you could get another Chris Godwin.
Speaker 2: I mean, how how would you not be excited about that.
Speaker 3: And the Bucks got Chris Godwin the third round, but
Speaker 3: if they did that draft over again, he would be
Speaker 3: a first.
Speaker 2: You would one hundred percent thrilled.
Speaker 3: Yeah, if you can get another guy like that, And
Speaker 3: you know, they you talk about things like maybe the
Speaker 3: forty yard dash, and you can see incrementally, Okay, that
Speaker 3: four point four is better than that four point five,
Speaker 3: which is in four point three is better when they
Speaker 3: talk about judging these guys character and that whole I
Speaker 3: am that man thing. There's not really a number you
Speaker 3: can put to that. Yet there's still say and Meca
Speaker 3: Book is off the charts when it comes to how
Speaker 3: they value him in that regard. And as you said,
Speaker 3: I think that's the reason why so many of these
Speaker 3: draft classes are working out over and over again, and
Speaker 3: why this team is so incredibly home grown, particularly on offense.
Speaker 3: So you know, after it's all said and done, I
Speaker 3: think we love the fact that we have a Mecca
Speaker 3: Book here. And you know, two months ago, would we
Speaker 3: have expected a first round wide receiver. No, But I
Speaker 3: when you put it all together and what the Buccaneers
Speaker 3: were able to do on defense after that, and we'll
Speaker 3: get to each guy. But not only did they hit
Speaker 3: cornerback position in a way that I love, But at
Speaker 3: the end of that night, you had Mike Beale, director
Speaker 3: of a Vice President Player Personnel Stanther saying, yeah, I
Speaker 3: think we can still address the pass rush, and then
Speaker 3: to do what they did with David Walker and Elijah
Speaker 3: Roberts on Day three, I think they did hit that.
Speaker 3: And I didn't know. I don't know if I would
Speaker 3: have thought it was possible going into the draft to
Speaker 3: take a receiver in the first round satisfy what I
Speaker 3: was hoping we get in cornerback and help the front rotation. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it looks like they I agree.
Speaker 1: I think that would have been the concern people had
Speaker 1: was if you take a non defensive guy in the
Speaker 1: first round, how well can you address Yes, And now
Speaker 1: I think, getting now the hindsight of seeing what they
Speaker 1: did the rest of the days, I don't think you
Speaker 1: feel that way at all, which is great. And of course,
Speaker 1: as much as we talk about Amcca for his character,
Speaker 1: which is phenomenal, it's not like he's a shalob on
Speaker 1: the field like this guy.
Speaker 2: I mean, for an Ohio state wide.
Speaker 1: Receiver room that is consistently stacked, this is the guy
Speaker 1: who's the all time leader in receptions for that school.
Speaker 2: That is wild to me.
Speaker 3: And it's not because he stayed around like four years
Speaker 3: or something.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, it's incredible, and yeah I love he could
Speaker 1: have come out last year even and just decided to stay.
Speaker 1: So I am incredibly excited about him. So let's get
Speaker 1: to the round two and three, which I imagine they
Speaker 1: put you in charge of. That's how I felt when
Speaker 1: we took two cornerbacks in a row. I was like,
Speaker 1: did they just let Scott make the phone calls up there?
Speaker 1: And that's what happened. So uh, Rich, Yeah, let's start
Speaker 1: round two. Benjamin Morrison, Notre Dame. Tell me a little
Speaker 1: bit about what stands out to you.
Speaker 2: About this guy.
Speaker 3: One thing I like about if you look back on
Speaker 3: a Road to Draft, we are Road to the Draft series.
Speaker 3: We did cover a lot of these guys. I mean,
Speaker 3: we did talk about a mecha Buka and like I
Speaker 3: think our second episode showed some nice highlights of him
Speaker 3: catching the ball down the middle. The very first guy
Speaker 3: that I gave the Buccaneers of my first mock draft
Speaker 3: was Benjamin Morris. And now, as it turns out, because
Speaker 3: of concerns about the fact that he missed all but
Speaker 3: six games last year with the hip injury, although he
Speaker 3: really didn't have a history of injuries before that. That
Speaker 3: probably meant he didn't get taken in the first round,
Speaker 3: But the Buccaneers felt like they got a first round
Speaker 3: talent in Benjamin Morris, and so that worked out very
Speaker 3: well for the Buccaneers day. I think he probably was
Speaker 3: maybe one of the last guys in the in the
Speaker 3: top tier of corners that they wanted to get. And
Speaker 3: so this is a guy who just before he got
Speaker 3: hurt was playing as well as any cornerback in the nation.
Speaker 3: And he you know, I think he had what he
Speaker 3: of nine interceptions from twenty twenty two to twenty twenty three.
Speaker 3: The you know, Todd Bowles once more, ballhawks, ballhawks and
Speaker 3: his secondary and then that's what this guy is. And
Speaker 3: he can play, he can make interceptions. And Mike Bialde
Speaker 3: told me, he's like, it's not just playing zone and
Speaker 3: having your eyes on the quarterback. That the whole guy
Speaker 3: he covers so well that he makes interceptions and passes
Speaker 3: defense while in man demand coverage where his back is
Speaker 3: to the ball most of the time. So the guy
Speaker 3: has a feel for the football, and that's, you know,
Speaker 3: obviously something we want.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think we've seen that.
Speaker 1: I mean, we always talk about the fact that Todd
Speaker 1: Bowles values versatility, especially because when we've looked at the
Speaker 1: ways that we've been able to deal with some injuries,
Speaker 1: especially in the secondary, is by having these Swiss army knives,
Speaker 1: like a Christianisy and like a Tyke Smith. So you
Speaker 1: want guys in your secondary in particular to be able
Speaker 1: to do multiple things, whether it's man in zone or
Speaker 1: it's even kind of playing multiple positions. And I know
Speaker 1: they feel like a guy like Benjamin Morrison can do that.
Speaker 1: And you know a lot of people think, yeah, the
Speaker 1: only reason he was even here is because of the
Speaker 1: medical stuff that he had go on with his hip.
Speaker 2: And I think it's interesting to look at the draft.
Speaker 1: It's always sort of a gamble and a trying to
Speaker 1: predict the future of what people are going to be
Speaker 1: and there is no sure thing.
Speaker 2: But if you feel like there is.
Speaker 1: Someone you feel good about where they're progressing health wise,
Speaker 1: and you know that if not for that injury, they
Speaker 1: might have been a first round pick, that's that is
Speaker 1: the way you get a steal. That's how you take
Speaker 1: those risks in a draft of saying we think we
Speaker 1: can try to predict that this guy is going to
Speaker 1: be healthy at a certain point and can then really
Speaker 1: contribute in a way that we get a steal at
Speaker 1: that pick.
Speaker 3: And what else does Todd Boles love in his cornerbacks?
Speaker 1: Speed?
Speaker 2: Speed?
Speaker 3: Yeah, he was asked about how important speed testing is,
Speaker 3: like at the combine and so when you're evaluating those prospects,
Speaker 3: and Todd Boles specifically said, well, it's important in some
Speaker 3: positions like cornerback. You need speed at cornerback. And so
Speaker 3: look at Jacob Parrish. You know, I think Maxwell Harrison
Speaker 3: of Kentucky is a guy that Bucks might have been
Speaker 3: interested in if they didn't get Abuka, And he was
Speaker 3: the fastest guy at any position at the combine. But
Speaker 3: Jacob Parrish wasn't far off. Yeah, four point three five
Speaker 3: forty yard dash. Very feisty player they call him because
Speaker 3: I guess he's about five to ten. So he's not
Speaker 3: the biggest, longest cornerback in the world. As you can
Speaker 3: see there, he's matching up against a bigger guy and
Speaker 3: doing a good job physically there. He has a ton
Speaker 3: of pass breakups the last couple of years. So he's productive,
Speaker 3: he's fast, and he probably again would have gone a
Speaker 3: little bit higher if he was six foot tall.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he was a one and two hundred meter state
Speaker 2: champ in Kansas. Not so shabby.
Speaker 1: And and I also like, yeah, I also played basketball,
Speaker 1: and I think Mike bial City also wrestled.
Speaker 3: Like love this his brother did too. See you can
Speaker 3: picture the two brothers. Yeah, absolutely was a wrestler.
Speaker 1: Yeah, five interceptions, ninety four tackles, and twenty three passes
Speaker 1: defensed in his last two seasons.
Speaker 2: And so again, yeah, both corners seem to have that versatility.
Speaker 1: Which now you take a position that you were a
Speaker 1: little unsure of just because of the idea of depth,
Speaker 1: and you know what if there are injuries and now
Speaker 1: you shored up with two guys who both bring versatility,
Speaker 1: and now suddenly you feel so much better about where
Speaker 1: you could move everybody in the.
Speaker 2: Depth and what that could look like.
Speaker 1: All right, So now let's move to our fourth round pick,
Speaker 1: outside linebacker David Walker out of Central Arkansas.
Speaker 2: What did you like about this guy?
Speaker 3: Well, so, first of all, David Walker was just productive.
Speaker 3: And if you're going to play at a level like
Speaker 3: Central Arkansas, that level you really have to dominate consistently
Speaker 3: to be on teams radars for the draft, because you
Speaker 3: can't just you can't play at that level and just
Speaker 3: sometimes be dominant. You have to dominate consistently and then
Speaker 3: still teams are gonna worry. Can they do that at
Speaker 3: a higher level? Will translate And that's why it's important
Speaker 3: that David Walker went to the Senior Bowl and just
Speaker 3: absolutely dominated there as well. And so that answered a
Speaker 3: lot of questions for obviously Buck Scouts and some others
Speaker 3: around the league that this is a guy who can
Speaker 3: produce like he did at Central Arkansas at this level
Speaker 3: and to get that guy in the fourth round if
Speaker 3: he can produce anywhere near that level.
Speaker 2: Thirty nine sacks, that's an insane number.
Speaker 3: Yeat.
Speaker 2: His stat line blew my mind off.
Speaker 1: The thirty nine sacks, eighty two and a half tackles
Speaker 1: for loss, Yeah, two hundred and forty four tackles, six
Speaker 1: force fumbles, eight passes defense.
Speaker 2: That is a stat line.
Speaker 1: And so you're right, like, if you're going to be
Speaker 1: playing at that level, that's the stat line you want
Speaker 1: to see. But I did love that sack number because
Speaker 1: of the finishing clearly that he has of where I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's he's clearly not only getting to the quarter of
Speaker 1: but getting them down.
Speaker 2: And that's what we want to see.
Speaker 1: Is those finishes, especially off the edge, especially off the
Speaker 1: edge like that, and Bowles has really emphasized, like, man,
Speaker 1: we've got to be able to get that rush before
Speaker 1: and to see a guy like this who clearly knows
Speaker 1: how to get there and finish a play, I think
Speaker 1: that's really exciting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I don't think the Buccaneers have to rely
Speaker 3: on hitting an absolute grand slam right off the bat
Speaker 3: with David Walker because they are comfortable with their depth
Speaker 3: there before and after drafting David Walker. Hassan Reddick, I
Speaker 3: think really makes them feel a lot more comfortable. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah's going into his third year and is progressing upwards.
Speaker 3: They think Chris Braswell can take a step forward. This time,
Speaker 3: you still got Anthony Nelson. They feel like the pieces
Speaker 3: are there to have a decent but it passed rush
Speaker 3: edge rush, but it's always good to get more.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be surprised if the Hassan Reddick signing is
Speaker 1: what allowed them to draft a mecha Abuka that like, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that I can see that that would have
Speaker 1: been the thing that makes them go, Okay, we now
Speaker 1: don't have to do this out of a true like
Speaker 1: kind of desperation need situation that as much as there
Speaker 1: were things on defense we knew that they wanted to address.
Speaker 1: I almost feel like that could have directly correlated to
Speaker 1: getting to just and then you still get to address
Speaker 1: edge later, but maybe you didn't feel that first or
Speaker 1: second round pressure.
Speaker 3: It's the same thing with linebacker, with signing Anthony Walker
Speaker 3: and getting Servasi, a dentist back from injury.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So David Walker, I think is an exciting one.
Speaker 1: Next up, fifth round, Elijah Roberts, defensive line out of SMU,
Speaker 1: my dad's.
Speaker 2: Alma mater, T guy.
Speaker 3: I think this was an indication of really the depth
Speaker 3: of defensive interior defensive lineman in this draft. It may
Speaker 3: have been the deepest position overall. You saw those guys
Speaker 3: going in every round right off right from Kenneth Grant
Speaker 3: and Mason Graham at the top of the draft, and
Speaker 3: on and on. Round after round, teams getting interior defensive
Speaker 3: linement they like, and so there was still one that
Speaker 3: the Buccaneers liked very much. In the fifth round in
Speaker 3: Elijah Roberts from SMU. And it was funny because I
Speaker 3: talked to Mike Beial right after the pick and he
Speaker 3: was giving me some insight on what type of player
Speaker 3: he was, and he had just seen a tweet from
Speaker 3: Pro Football Focus about him. And it was funny for
Speaker 3: me the rest of that afternoon evening to see various
Speaker 3: people in the organization here come across that tweet because
Speaker 3: they're looking for information on this newest player, and everybody's like, wait,
Speaker 3: is this true? And I kept seeing that in different
Speaker 3: forms because it PFF said he led the entire FBS
Speaker 3: over the last two years, combining with one hundred and
Speaker 3: thirty one quarterback pressures. That's incredible at every position.
Speaker 2: One thirty college football like wild.
Speaker 3: It's a wild stat. It's a crazy stat. And it
Speaker 3: was just so fun seeing people come across. They wanted
Speaker 3: for the other and you know, you're talking about a
Speaker 3: guy that's probably gonna play, he's probably going to be
Speaker 3: in your rotation, and get that in the fifth round.
Speaker 3: I think, again, this is just showing how this you know,
Speaker 3: you take the receiver at you take that premium position
Speaker 3: and player you love in the first round and you
Speaker 3: still hit the needs you wanted.
Speaker 2: It's a big deal.
Speaker 1: And still I mean seventeen and a half sacks over
Speaker 1: the last two seasons too, so it's not like he's
Speaker 1: only pressure and like he was, he was getting there
Speaker 1: and finishing that as well.
Speaker 2: And I thought it was interesting that might be also.
Speaker 1: Said that he played a little bit on the edge
Speaker 1: he did in college, and he was like, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe there's a chance he can play out there a
Speaker 1: little bit too. But again going back to how much
Speaker 1: Bulls loves that versatility. If you're seeing b to a
Speaker 1: occasionally drop like you know, I just know that no
Speaker 1: matter where on that defense, he loves guys that he
Speaker 1: can figure out ways to surprise the offense with stuff.
Speaker 1: So a guy like this where yeah, like Beale said, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's gonna be in the defensive line room, he's not
Speaker 1: an edge, But how cool that he has done a
Speaker 1: little bit of both.
Speaker 3: When they talk about doing that, I think they mostly
Speaker 3: talked about third downs. So you still you probably want
Speaker 3: as much as possible at Vdavey and college CANCI in
Speaker 3: there when your even fronts, when you have just four
Speaker 3: guys rushing the passer, and again you have your edge
Speaker 3: rush rotation, but you could always use more. And if
Speaker 3: some of those stats are snaps are occasionally taken up
Speaker 3: by a guy like Elijah Roberts maybe playing a little
Speaker 3: bit on the edge in those obvious passing situations, you
Speaker 3: know you can get more pass rushers on the field.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: And then finally, seventh round, we did not have a
Speaker 1: sixth rounder because that was part of the trade with
Speaker 1: Carlton Davis with the Lions. So seventh rounder tes Johnson
Speaker 1: Tesmanian devil, which I love. Course he talked about that
Speaker 1: of that that's why he's got that thing that says
Speaker 1: to the Tasmanian Devil around his neck. And he's wide
Speaker 1: receiver slash punt returner out of.
Speaker 3: Oregon, slash Bucky.
Speaker 1: Slash Bucky Irving's best round. I'm like, that's reason alone
Speaker 1: to draft him. You know, give give Bucky his best
Speaker 1: round up here. So yeah, I mean, one hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty nine catches twenty touchdowns in this Oregon offense these
Speaker 1: last two seasons. This is another guy that we think
Speaker 1: is available maybe later than you would have thought because
Speaker 1: of just his size, and man, I will take a
Speaker 1: guy that is smaller with that chip on his shoulder
Speaker 1: any day. I mean, I feel like I've heard so
Speaker 1: many guys on our team, if they.
Speaker 2: Are undersized, talk about what a motivating factor that is.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean this, this guy.
Speaker 3: Seems like a playmaker that We've got to set of
Speaker 3: reactions in the media afterwards, and they did feel like
Speaker 3: it was a steal, and you know, some of them
Speaker 3: were as high as I would have taken this guy
Speaker 3: in the third round because of production. Now, obviously you
Speaker 3: said it. The reason is he's five to four. I mean, sorry,
Speaker 3: he's not. I was like, whoa, and fifty f four
Speaker 3: pounds is what I meant to say.
Speaker 2: He's like, okay, now I might understand.
Speaker 3: Yeah, fifty four pounds and his forty His official forty
Speaker 3: yard tash time was four point five one, which is,
Speaker 3: you know, pretty good. I wish I could run a
Speaker 3: four or five one, but it's not that absolute off
Speaker 3: the chart speed that would go. Okay, he's maybe only
Speaker 3: on fifty four pounds, but he runs a four point
Speaker 3: two eight. No, he runs a nice four point five one.
Speaker 3: But everybody says he plays a lot faster than that
Speaker 3: forty time, and you see it. I think the tape
Speaker 3: is the best thing to go to with him because there's.
Speaker 2: Always what matters more.
Speaker 1: There's tons of people who can run fast, but it
Speaker 1: doesn't show up in the game, and the game is.
Speaker 2: Where it matters.
Speaker 3: Is you see him turning cornerbacks.
Speaker 2: Forty yard dashes are not deciding an overtime game for us.
Speaker 3: You see him getting separation really quickly. You see him
Speaker 3: turning cornerbacks around. So he's a really good route runner.
Speaker 3: He's a very sudden player. He might help in the
Speaker 3: in the punt return. He said that punk return game
Speaker 3: is mine.
Speaker 2: Oh, I love it. Yeah, he seems fun. I'm exciting,
Speaker 2: a lot of fun. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Rob McCartney, assistant general manager, said he doesn't play four
Speaker 1: or five plays a lot faster, And then I love this.
Speaker 2: He said.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of instances when he's the fastest
Speaker 1: player on the field, and there's multiple games when he
Speaker 1: was the best player on the field too, And I'm like,
Speaker 1: and we got him.
Speaker 2: In the seventh round, So all right, that's gonna do
Speaker 2: it for us.
Speaker 1: On this draft recap show, and again, we were just
Speaker 1: so fired up to see all of these newest members
Speaker 1: of the crew. Make sure you're stay in tune for
Speaker 1: all the coverage of them as they head into Rookie
Speaker 1: Mini Camp and OTAs We'll see you next time.