Speaker 1: Um, Good morning, Bucks fans. Happy Wednesday. It's time for
Speaker 1: Buccaneers Insider Live, presented by Miller. Like Casey Phillips, here
Speaker 1: was senior writer and editor Scott Smith, and we are
Speaker 1: going to take your questions. If you're not already watching
Speaker 1: on the Facebook page, you can head on over there
Speaker 1: and leave your questions for us in the comments section.
Speaker 1: While we give people a chance to do that, I
Speaker 1: figured we'd start with just some of your takeaways from
Speaker 1: O T A S so far that, you know, the
Speaker 1: one that we had yesterday and today's practice is a
Speaker 1: few minutes away still, so what we learned from yesterday
Speaker 1: and the days since our last show, and then also
Speaker 1: some of the media availability. I know Bruce talked yesterday,
Speaker 1: Anthony Nelson, Ryan Griffin, What were some of your takeaways? Well,
Speaker 1: the Ryan Griffin part is interesting because he's one of
Speaker 1: the few veterans who's participating. Most of the others are
Speaker 1: taking you know, participating their own workouts with Tom Brady,
Speaker 1: and it's interesting. He has pretty good logic for it
Speaker 1: because he says, when it comes to the preseason, these
Speaker 1: young guys are probably the guys he's going to be
Speaker 1: playing with, you know, when they get in to those
Speaker 1: preseason games. Tom Brady plays with the starters if he
Speaker 1: plays much at all, and Blaine Gabert could be the
Speaker 1: next one in Kyle Trash. So, um, Ryan Griffin is
Speaker 1: right that he's probably gonna be thrown to these young
Speaker 1: guys that are on the back end of the depth
Speaker 1: chart right now. They're trying to work their way up,
Speaker 1: and of course, so he wants to build that rapport
Speaker 1: with them, and um, you've seen him do that in
Speaker 1: previous years. He's he's been really good at that. He's
Speaker 1: been very good in the preseason and uh, you know
Speaker 1: it's interesting also that, uh one somebody asked him during
Speaker 1: his media availability. When you look at the quarterback situation
Speaker 1: for the Buccaneers, you have Tom Brady, who's obviously the starter.
Speaker 1: You have Kyle Trask, who is It would be very
Speaker 1: very unusual to draft a quarterback in the second round
Speaker 1: and then he doesn't make the roster, so let's assume
Speaker 1: he's on the roster. It would also be very unusual
Speaker 1: for any team to carry four quarterbacks these days, so
Speaker 1: if you have three, it's certainly it certainly seems like
Speaker 1: Blaine Gabbert and Ryan Griffin would be battling for that
Speaker 1: third that probably the second guy, but one of the three.
Speaker 1: And uh and Bruce arians kind of pushed back against
Speaker 1: the notion that Ryan Griffin is the odd man out
Speaker 1: in that picture. But Ryan did say that if the
Speaker 1: way it worked out was one of the you know,
Speaker 1: maybe him or one of the veterans ends up on
Speaker 1: the practice squad, that he's open to that as well,
Speaker 1: just some way to be here helping the team. Okay,
Speaker 1: and looking at what Bruce said as well, what were
Speaker 1: some of the takeaways from him and some of the
Speaker 1: things that he addressed in his media yesterday, Well, I
Speaker 1: know he'd like to have a few more guys there. Uh,
Speaker 1: every coach probably like to have the whole team there,
Speaker 1: although he's made it very clear that even if Tom
Speaker 1: Brady and and many of the starters were there, they
Speaker 1: wouldn't be practicing much. He would still be devoting almost
Speaker 1: all the time to the young guys. But there's probably
Speaker 1: a couple of guys he'd like to see in there.
Speaker 1: But you know, again, these are voluntary and that's what
Speaker 1: they are. And you know, next week we have the
Speaker 1: mandatory mini camp and he'll get to work with everybody
Speaker 1: but right now, coaches across the league just have to
Speaker 1: work with whatever players are showing up for these workouts. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and Giovanni Bernard was the only running back at practice yesterday. Um,
Speaker 1: which is kind of fun for us to get a
Speaker 1: chance to see him since he is one of the
Speaker 1: new additions. Um, what do you feel like his role
Speaker 1: could be and what they hope for him? Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: he got a lot of action and he looks pretty good.
Speaker 1: And he's obviously a very natural pass catcher. I think
Speaker 1: he's third in the league among running backs and in
Speaker 1: pass catches pass catches is a weird way to say that,
Speaker 1: in receptions since he came into the league over the
Speaker 1: last eight years, so and he looks very much the part.
Speaker 1: And uh, you start to figure out how that running
Speaker 1: back that depth chart, the touches, the receptions and the
Speaker 1: and the handoffs, how that's gonna be divvied up when
Speaker 1: you also have Ronald Jones and Leonard four Nett and
Speaker 1: Keyshawn Vaughan. But Brian Griffin, for one, said he thinks
Speaker 1: that Giovanni Bernard is gonna have a big role in
Speaker 1: this offense and is gonna catch a ton of passes
Speaker 1: and that Tom Brady is gonna love him so uh.
Speaker 1: You know, obviously you look at him as an analog
Speaker 1: to James White, who Tom Brady threw to so much
Speaker 1: while in New England in recent years before coming to Tampa.
Speaker 1: And uh, it's just I think he can do that.
Speaker 1: I think Giovanni Bernard still has a lot left and
Speaker 1: can do that. It's just how are they going to
Speaker 1: split up all the all the snaps between those running
Speaker 1: back says yet to be determined. It will be interesting
Speaker 1: to see. But like I said, Ryan Griffin for one,
Speaker 1: thinks he's gonna do a lot. And I know Bruce
Speaker 1: also talked about Jaden Mickens sort of mentoring Jadeen Darden,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to hear your thoughts on the two
Speaker 1: of them and and what you know he could offer
Speaker 1: in that mentoring area and what it means in terms
Speaker 1: of those two guys. Are they the ones directly in
Speaker 1: competition with each other for a roster spot and how
Speaker 1: you see that shaking out? Yeah, it certainly looks that way.
Speaker 1: I mean, the Buccaneers are so loaded at wide receiver
Speaker 1: that you can count down to six without you know,
Speaker 1: without having anybody. That seems like a bubble guy, and
Speaker 1: you usually carry six. Sometimes we go up to seven.
Speaker 1: We did that for a little while last year, but
Speaker 1: it it would seem unusual to devote two spots to
Speaker 1: receivers who, at least this year, their primary thing would
Speaker 1: probably be in the return game, which is probably what
Speaker 1: Jane Mickens would be. It's what he was last year,
Speaker 1: and it's probably what Jalen Darden would be if he
Speaker 1: makes the roster, and most Sports round picks do make
Speaker 1: the roster, so I think they probably have some ideas
Speaker 1: for Jalen in the offense UM, but I doubt you'd
Speaker 1: have a huge role early on given all the other
Speaker 1: receivers that we have to get the ball too. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I could see those two guys being in direct competition.
Speaker 1: So it is kind of an interesting dynamic when Jaden
Speaker 1: is out there um one on one while other receivers
Speaker 1: are doing other things, sort of teaching uh Jalen little
Speaker 1: tricks of the trade in the NFL, because there are
Speaker 1: differences to the rules between college and the NFL and
Speaker 1: little nuances like uh. I. The reason why coach arians
Speaker 1: was was talking about that was because somebody asked him
Speaker 1: about it, because this was taking place right in front
Speaker 1: of where all of us in the media group we're standing.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was close enough we could even hear
Speaker 1: what they were saying. And as an example, one thing
Speaker 1: that Jalen Jaden was teaching Jalen was that rule about
Speaker 1: if you're on a kickoff, if you're feeling a kickoff
Speaker 1: and you put one foot out of bounds and you
Speaker 1: feel the ball even if it's inbounds, that's a penalty
Speaker 1: on the kicking team for the ball going out of bounds.
Speaker 1: It's kind of an obscure rule that not everybody knows,
Speaker 1: and and Jaden was making sure that Jalen knew that
Speaker 1: that was just one of a lot of different scenarios
Speaker 1: he was going throughout the time. And of course they
Speaker 1: had to make it confusing on all of us with
Speaker 1: Jalen and Jaden as well trying to talk about this.
Speaker 1: It's just this. We're gonna screw this up a million times.
Speaker 1: I'm sure. Um, all right, Bobby asked with O. J.
Speaker 1: Howard coming back healthy, do you think the team will
Speaker 1: implement more too tight end sets? Well, they already did
Speaker 1: up at some last year, and you know, there's only
Speaker 1: so far they're gonna go with that because, um, the Bucks,
Speaker 1: like most teams, almost every team in the NFL, their
Speaker 1: primary package, the one that used most often is eleven,
Speaker 1: which is three receivers, and with the receivers we have,
Speaker 1: you can understand why they would want to get that
Speaker 1: on the field a lot. But yeah, the last year,
Speaker 1: I don't remember the exact totals, but from ninety it
Speaker 1: went up somewhere like we were in twelve, which is
Speaker 1: two tight ends personnel nineteen or in and went up
Speaker 1: to more last year. So with Rob Gronkowski arriving obviously,
Speaker 1: UM that became a more common, uh personnel package force.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I do think when you have, um, Rob
Speaker 1: Gronkowski and O j. Howard as a possible pairing, and
Speaker 1: Rob and Cam Braid and O Jane cam Braid, Uh,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of reason to why to want to
Speaker 1: get those two guys on the field as well. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I could see it. I don't think it would go
Speaker 1: up a whole lot, but it could go up a
Speaker 1: little bit perhaps. I know that. Another group that was
Speaker 1: a little thin in the workout yesterday was inside linebacker.
Speaker 1: It was basically just Grant Stewart and kJ Brett holding
Speaker 1: down the fort there, Um, what have you seen from
Speaker 1: the two of them? And I mean we know, obviously
Speaker 1: inside linebacker one of the most secure positions in terms
Speaker 1: of starters, but then we also talked about it was
Speaker 1: one that didn't have just tons of depth in terms
Speaker 1: of numbers of guys. So where do you see them
Speaker 1: keeping how many of those guys? How did the two
Speaker 1: of them look so far, how quickly are they picking
Speaker 1: things up, and what that position group could end up
Speaker 1: looking like. Yeah, one of the reasons why that group
Speaker 1: is thin is there seems to be a bunch of
Speaker 1: guys who them and their wives are having having babies
Speaker 1: right now. There's at least two or three guys out
Speaker 1: for that reason, including a linebacker we signed that long
Speaker 1: ago named Joe Jones. So hopefully that's going well for
Speaker 1: all those couples. But uh, yeah, it was just the
Speaker 1: two rookies and the you know, there's no contact. There's
Speaker 1: not a lot of eleven on eleven, so there's not
Speaker 1: a ton that you can tell. I guess the most
Speaker 1: important thing is that Bruce Arian said from the rookie
Speaker 1: mining camp to these O T A s. And then
Speaker 1: from week one to week two, both of those guys
Speaker 1: Britt and Steward are are really doing a good job
Speaker 1: of retaining and and so they're able to build on
Speaker 1: what they did the week before rather than having to
Speaker 1: go back and continue installing that. So that's made coach happy.
Speaker 1: I think with when it comes to KG Britt, we're
Speaker 1: not really going to see the true, um, you know,
Speaker 1: greatness to his game until there's more hitting, because that
Speaker 1: guy's a hitter first and foremost, and you can't really
Speaker 1: do that right now, So we'll see that maybe in
Speaker 1: August and September. Yeah. I always feel so bad for
Speaker 1: the defensive guys trying to make the team right now
Speaker 1: and they're just so hindered with all the rules of
Speaker 1: contact everything. Wide receivers can still go out there and
Speaker 1: make these great catches and look all fancy and then yeah,
Speaker 1: some many of your defensive guys they're just having to
Speaker 1: be like, oh, yep, I would have gotten you. They
Speaker 1: get the occasional interception and that's the big splash flight
Speaker 1: that everybody remembers. Yes, that's very true. Um Richard asked,
Speaker 1: how's the competition for the fourth tight end spot between
Speaker 1: Hudson and McElroy Goying and who do you think has
Speaker 1: the edge. Well, I think Hudson has the edge. Um.
Speaker 1: I did see Cody Cody make a couple of nice
Speaker 1: catches yesterday. Um It's just I just think that the
Speaker 1: coaches really like Tanner Hudson. I think if there wasn't
Speaker 1: so much depth, if we didn't have Gronkowski and Howard
Speaker 1: and Braid, that they would have already had him on
Speaker 1: the field a lot more. Um So I just think
Speaker 1: he's ahead of Cody on the depth chart, you know
Speaker 1: I do. That is obviously a place where a guy
Speaker 1: could make a move. Cody could make a move, So
Speaker 1: keep an eye on that one. But I would quit
Speaker 1: Tanner ahead right now. All right, Well, let's do for
Speaker 1: us on this edition of Buccaneers Inside Are Live, presented
Speaker 1: by Miller Lte. Thanks for all these great questions and
Speaker 1: we will be back here next week.