Speaker 1: Welcome to Buccaneers Inside are Live presented by Miller. Like
Speaker 1: Casey Phillips, youre with senior writer and editor Scott Smith,
Speaker 1: and we have some fun things to talk about today.
Speaker 1: First of all, the full schedule will be coming out tonight.
Speaker 1: The way it is finally over, we know that is
Speaker 1: always such a fun moment for everybody to look ahead
Speaker 1: and start speculating about the matchups, are making even plans
Speaker 1: to go on certain road trips, and of course it
Speaker 1: determines our lives for months on end. We get very
Speaker 1: excited to find out the whole things. To make sure
Speaker 1: you're tuned into buccaneers dot com for the schedule release
Speaker 1: later on. I know they have a fun video for it,
Speaker 1: and uh so for now though we at least a
Speaker 1: couple of them have already been released, they try to
Speaker 1: release a couple of things ahead of time. Yes, a
Speaker 1: little chromes. So one of them that we have found
Speaker 1: out is the Buccaneers versus the Chiefs, and I wanted
Speaker 1: to hear your thoughts on finding out about that matchup,
Speaker 1: when it's happening and what you think that could end
Speaker 1: up meaning for this season. Well, it's week four, it's Monday, Night, UM,
Speaker 1: which I think has become like the best showcase of
Speaker 1: all the prime time games. And uh so that's NBC
Speaker 1: and being a twenty kickoff on September October two. And
Speaker 1: obviously you could have guessed all along that when you
Speaker 1: looked at the buck schedule, even though it's packed with
Speaker 1: playoff teams from last year and marquee matchups, what's better
Speaker 1: than the rematch of Super Bowl the rematch of Brady
Speaker 1: versus Mahomes for the sixth time. Um, It's it's just
Speaker 1: it's a game you knew they were going to give
Speaker 1: a major spotlight too, so it's no surprise, but it's
Speaker 1: it's cool to find out exactly when. Yeah, and I
Speaker 1: kind of like that it's earlier in the season. I
Speaker 1: think that that will be something that could be a
Speaker 1: big tone setter, you know that if you get that
Speaker 1: win that makes you feel really good prime time spot
Speaker 1: in that first quarter of the season. I think that's
Speaker 1: going to be a really big deal. So yeah, and
Speaker 1: then you know, we were talking about Brady Versus Mahomes
Speaker 1: every time these guys meet, and who knows how many
Speaker 1: of them there are left? Because who knows how much
Speaker 1: longer Tom Brad's gonna play, but every meeting is just
Speaker 1: a huge story. Patrick Bones has actually done quite well
Speaker 1: against Brady, you know, which is hard to do think,
Speaker 1: but Brady has the upper hand and the winds and
Speaker 1: especially to see their postseason wins. Both times they've met
Speaker 1: in the postseason, including Super fifty five, Tom Brady's teams
Speaker 1: have won. Some of these games were with the Patriots,
Speaker 1: the last two have been with the Buccaneers, and just
Speaker 1: basically they both have put up really, really good numbers.
Speaker 1: So they tend to put on a show. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: going to be incredible, And so we talked about the
Speaker 1: fact that the schedule is coming out tonight, but we
Speaker 1: also figured we could talk about the off season schedule
Speaker 1: and what is coming ahead for the Buccaneers. Where they
Speaker 1: at in the off season program at this point, and
Speaker 1: the things that are coming in the next month or so.
Speaker 1: What they're doing right now is they're finishing up Phase two,
Speaker 1: and in Phase two, the coaches can go out on
Speaker 1: the field with the players, but they really have to
Speaker 1: stay like you can't do offense versus defense. So they're
Speaker 1: basically working on laying the groundwork. You know, if you're
Speaker 1: working with receivers and young receivers that are new are
Speaker 1: still fairly new. Uh, you know, working on alignment and
Speaker 1: and their routes and their footwork and dbs working on
Speaker 1: footwork and how they turn their hips and things like that.
Speaker 1: That's the kind of thing you're working on now. Coming
Speaker 1: up after Uh, well, first thing we got is rookie
Speaker 1: Minicamp that's this weekend, and that involves all your draft
Speaker 1: picks plus about plus there'll be some number of twelve
Speaker 1: or thirteen undrafted free agent that will officially announce probably today,
Speaker 1: and then you'll bring in about thirty guys that will
Speaker 1: that will work on tryout contracts, so you'll have enough
Speaker 1: for a full mini camp, but it's just rookies, a
Speaker 1: couple of first year players usually. And then after that
Speaker 1: you see the Buccaneers roll into Phase three, which is
Speaker 1: when you get to do the O T O T
Speaker 1: a S, which is offseason training. I can't remember what
Speaker 1: they stands for, but anyway, we said, right, um, any
Speaker 1: organized team ACTIMT. I was sitting there, Wait a minute,
Speaker 1: I don't think the word off seasons in there, but
Speaker 1: it should be. It should be anyway you've said O
Speaker 1: taste for so long as you have to lose the
Speaker 1: meaning of it. But organized team activity days, which are
Speaker 1: a lot more like real practices. You get to have
Speaker 1: up to ten if I'm we're gonna do ten over
Speaker 1: the course of three weeks there, and then you can
Speaker 1: start doing the drills you you you recognize, like seven
Speaker 1: on seven, nine on seven full team. You still can't
Speaker 1: wear pads, have contact on purpose. Um, but it's a
Speaker 1: lot more like a real practice. And finally the whole
Speaker 1: thing wraps up with a mandatory minicamp. Now everything above that,
Speaker 1: all those otes are voluntary and uh, but that June
Speaker 1: seven to night is the only three days of the
Speaker 1: offseason program that are mandatory, so we should have the
Speaker 1: whole team there. And then after that players and coaches
Speaker 1: are off until training camp. It's the best time in
Speaker 1: the year for them. It is that is their favorite
Speaker 1: time of the year. Okay, and I know something else
Speaker 1: we wanted to talk about. Of course, everyone still is
Speaker 1: wondering about Gronk. Is he gonna sign, is he gonna
Speaker 1: come back, is he gonna retire? All the questions. And
Speaker 1: then of course when the Buccaneers went through the draft,
Speaker 1: they drafted too tight ends and everybody said, Oh, does
Speaker 1: this mean he's not coming back? What could this look like?
Speaker 1: What could this mean? So let's talk a little bit
Speaker 1: more about that of how this team likes to use
Speaker 1: tight ends. Do you see that draft affecting whether or
Speaker 1: not Grunt comes back or they want him back? And
Speaker 1: if he did come back, how could this look with
Speaker 1: all of them? Yeah, it was funny when Byron left,
Speaker 1: which was at the podium on Tuesday, he was asked
Speaker 1: a question long lines of you know so about Grunt
Speaker 1: coming back, about not coming back, and he's like, well,
Speaker 1: I don't really want to think about not coming back.
Speaker 1: So I think we all have the feeling, and we
Speaker 1: could be wrong, but we all have the feeling that
Speaker 1: at some point you'll choose to return and play one
Speaker 1: at least one more season one Tom Brady. Um, I
Speaker 1: think it'd be a different story of Tom Brady and
Speaker 1: back so um that I think the Buccaneers drafted two
Speaker 1: tight ends. Uh it regardless of whether or not Gronk
Speaker 1: is going to come back. I think they would have
Speaker 1: done that, um without Gronkowski. Uh. And even with him,
Speaker 1: you don't have a lot of guys that can play
Speaker 1: that why inline tightan, we're the first thing they do
Speaker 1: above all else is are good blockers. And both the
Speaker 1: guys we've drafted, Kate Dotton and co Kft are good blockers.
Speaker 1: Now Kaid probably has a little bit more ability to
Speaker 1: um help in the passing game. But what those guys
Speaker 1: will give you, depending on if they both make the
Speaker 1: team or whatever, what they'll give you if gron comes
Speaker 1: back is a is a much better personnel for twelve personnel,
Speaker 1: which is when you put to two tight ends and
Speaker 1: two receivers on on the field. And if you look
Speaker 1: at this here in we ran about percent of our
Speaker 1: plays in twelve personnel, and the success rate was very
Speaker 1: good and the yards for play was very good. Just
Speaker 1: you don't have anything to compare with here, but those
Speaker 1: numbers were better than when we were in eleven personnel,
Speaker 1: which is what we do more than the time last year.
Speaker 1: You see they they kind of went down in those categories.
Speaker 1: And mainly the reason why it was Gronkowski missed like
Speaker 1: five or six games and right in the middle of
Speaker 1: the season. And in fact, if you look at the chart,
Speaker 1: you can see the twelve personnel usage just dips dramatically
Speaker 1: during that time and then came back up when he
Speaker 1: came back, and then if you look there at the
Speaker 1: bottom with Gronkowski back in the postseason, nearly thirty of
Speaker 1: our snaps we did in twelve personnel. So clearly our
Speaker 1: coaches and we still I know it's a new head coach,
Speaker 1: were still the same offensive coordinator and most of the
Speaker 1: same coaches, they do want to use this twelve personnel
Speaker 1: and drafting these two guys, especially when and if gron
Speaker 1: comes back, will make that a lot easier. Absolutely, all right,
Speaker 1: We're gonna get into some of our Facebook questions again.
Speaker 1: If you want to leave one of those for us,
Speaker 1: you can do it in the comments section underneath our
Speaker 1: live video. Market asked, so, do you think we are
Speaker 1: bringing Sue back? Or is there a chance of bringing
Speaker 1: in a veteran D alignment? So let's kind of look
Speaker 1: at the Sue part another veteran D A lineman or
Speaker 1: do you think where the D line stands that it's okay, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: um one at a time there. I think every week
Speaker 1: we go that in Dominican Su doesn't return makes it
Speaker 1: seem less likely that's going to happen right now. And
Speaker 1: now we're after the draft and they had to make
Speaker 1: decisions in the draft based on the likelihood that you
Speaker 1: based on the fact that you can't assume that he'll
Speaker 1: be back so earlier in the offseason, because we get
Speaker 1: this question pretty much every week. I was saying, I
Speaker 1: think it comes down to what does he want to do,
Speaker 1: because this is the fourth year in a row where
Speaker 1: he's basically waited into the free agency and decided, after
Speaker 1: some contemplation on it, whether or not he wanted to
Speaker 1: come back. The other three years he did. Who knows,
Speaker 1: he may want to move on to other things now.
Speaker 1: So I don't think you can assume that he'll be
Speaker 1: back at this point. But I do think there is
Speaker 1: room for the Buccaneers to add a veteran at that position,
Speaker 1: because if you look at it, they drafted Logan Hall
Speaker 1: and with with Dominican Sue out of the picture, if
Speaker 1: he is that opens up a really big role for
Speaker 1: Logan Hall. He's probably starting along with Vida Via and
Speaker 1: Will Golston, assuming you know he's not gonna be given it,
Speaker 1: but he'll have to earn it. But he probably is
Speaker 1: the guy you would expect to start there, and that's
Speaker 1: a lot to put on a rookie, right you'd like
Speaker 1: to have some other options. Steve McClinton hasn't resigned either, So, UM,
Speaker 1: if you look at it, behind those three, you have
Speaker 1: your your main backup is Nachos Roaches, but he's really
Speaker 1: more of a backup news Tackle raise more redundant with
Speaker 1: Vita than the than So now you're talking about Patrick O'Connor,
Speaker 1: Kobe Smith beaning pat guys like that, which, hey, maybe
Speaker 1: one of them will emerge, but I don't think you
Speaker 1: can count on it, right, So it wouldn't shock me
Speaker 1: if they added another player at that position. Francisco had asked,
Speaker 1: how do you guys feel about Trask? And UM, I
Speaker 1: think we did get a chance to hear um about
Speaker 1: that from Clyde Christensen this week, and that really I
Speaker 1: guess I this will change my answer on this because
Speaker 1: this is another question we've gotten a lot. Right. My
Speaker 1: feeling was when Brady briefly retired and the Bucks, Bruce
Speaker 1: Arians and Jason Light were questioned on what they were
Speaker 1: going to do. They always said they were going to
Speaker 1: try every avenue to try to see what's best. But
Speaker 1: one of the things they did say was, yes, Kyle
Speaker 1: Trask will get an opportunity to compete for the starting job.
Speaker 1: So to me, that said, even if Blaine Gabert is back,
Speaker 1: which he eventually did resign, Trash gets to compete for
Speaker 1: the starting job. Well, if Brady returns didn't, doesn't that
Speaker 1: also mean that Trask gets to compete from the number two. Well,
Speaker 1: Clyde made it pretty clear that's problem not gonna happen.
Speaker 1: That the plan that they'd still like Kyle trast quite
Speaker 1: a bit, and they think he's progressing nicely. But with
Speaker 1: Brady back now and you're back in full wind now
Speaker 1: all in mode if for some reason he wasn't available,
Speaker 1: they really prefer to have the veteran who they are
Speaker 1: confident in, who they've used before in their offense as
Speaker 1: the next guy. So Kyle probably is going to continue
Speaker 1: to be the three and continue to learn. Okay um.
Speaker 1: Our next one was Richard asked where is our salary
Speaker 1: cap it? Now? Well, we cleared up some space off
Speaker 1: with a few moves, so I think read about thirteen million,
Speaker 1: but some of that, a good chuck of that is
Speaker 1: going to have to go to signing the draft picks.
Speaker 1: Okay um. And we also had let me see where
Speaker 1: our questions are here? Um, we had a couple of
Speaker 1: questions about the schedule in terms of we still, of
Speaker 1: course don't know the times weeks that will be announced tonight,
Speaker 1: but we do know who they're playing, looking at just
Speaker 1: based on that before we know the times, the days,
Speaker 1: all of that. The strength of the schedule, the difficulty
Speaker 1: of it. What are you thinking compared to previous years
Speaker 1: or the league at large? Just schedule is I mean,
Speaker 1: it's fun, it's it's exciting. I don't think we've ever
Speaker 1: had one this jam packed with incredible marquee games, but
Speaker 1: it's also very challenging. There by strength of schedule, which
Speaker 1: is how the NFL determines, um, you know who has
Speaker 1: the toughest schedule, and strength of schedule is the combined
Speaker 1: winnings percentage of your opponents this year from last season,
Speaker 1: and the Buccaneers is around five thirty eight or something.
Speaker 1: It's the fourth hardest by that measurement. The Rams they'll
Speaker 1: have the toughest one. And but the way I look
Speaker 1: at is we have eight games against playoff teams from
Speaker 1: last year. That tells you a lot right there. That
Speaker 1: doesn't even include Baltimore, New Orleans, Cleveland. All those teams
Speaker 1: were in plaoffs in twenty but didn't make the playoffs
Speaker 1: last year. But I don't know what to me, they
Speaker 1: sure feel like playoff contenders. And look at Baltimore. They
Speaker 1: were eight and three last year then Lamar and a
Speaker 1: bunch of guys got hurt and they lost their last
Speaker 1: six games, and five of them by three or fewer points,
Speaker 1: three of them by one point. I mean to me,
Speaker 1: that's a playoff caliber team that just didn't happen to
Speaker 1: make it last right, due to a certainstances. So I
Speaker 1: think we have eleven to twelve games against playoff caliber teams. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that is a tough schedule, but you know you
Speaker 1: gotta beat the best to be the best, exactly. That's true.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure everybody else is looking at us as
Speaker 1: one of those tough games on the schedule too, so
Speaker 1: it seems fair, all right. Well, that is going to
Speaker 1: do it for us on this edition of Buccaneers Inside
Speaker 1: a Live presented by Miller Lte Against Stay tuned tonight
Speaker 1: for the schedule release. We're also going to have a
Speaker 1: reaction video up after it, so if you want to
Speaker 1: hear our full thoughts. Once we know all those dates
Speaker 1: and times for all those games, make sure you stay
Speaker 1: tuned to Buccaneers dot com and we'll see you. Then
Speaker 1: to Saccer