Speaker 1: Welcome into Bucks Insider Live, Casey Phillips. Here was senior
Speaker 1: writer and editor Scott Smith, and man, this is our
Speaker 1: final show before there will be a game that counts
Speaker 1: that we will have one more next week we will
Speaker 1: be talking about the upcoming Cowboy game. It's our final
Speaker 1: show where there's not one this weekend, you know, where
Speaker 1: it's like, we still gotta wait a little bit. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: I'm trying. I'm just so excited that we're almost to
Speaker 1: that point that I'm like, we're the show away from
Speaker 1: the show where there's going to an ultimate, an ultimate
Speaker 1: show before there's a game. And man, there is plenty
Speaker 1: to talk about, plenty of news because this is the
Speaker 1: week right now. Yeah, we just are posting some right
Speaker 1: now as we speak, because of course, all the roster
Speaker 1: cutdowns are happening, roster moves all over the place. Because
Speaker 1: we always talked about the fact that when they get
Speaker 1: down to the final fifty three, it's never the final
Speaker 1: fifty three, and this morning is proof of that. So yes,
Speaker 1: you know, yesterday was the final fifty three that now
Speaker 1: there were some other moves to talk about what happened
Speaker 1: this morning in particular, it's Honestly, it's the move everybody expected,
Speaker 1: or the pair of moves when the Buccaneers waived and
Speaker 1: released and put people on listen, made a variety of
Speaker 1: twenty seven moves to get from eight to fifty three.
Speaker 1: One of those that stood out was that they released
Speaker 1: Logan Ryan. And when you first see the like from
Speaker 1: what we saw in training camp, obviously he's gonna have
Speaker 1: a significant role in defense, So why would you release
Speaker 1: Logan Ryan. Didn't take long to figure out that that's
Speaker 1: just a way to create a roster spot for a
Speaker 1: day so that you can keep Ryan Jensen and not
Speaker 1: have to cut a player and send him through waivers
Speaker 1: and maybe get claimed by somebody. Since Logan Ryan is
Speaker 1: a vested veteran, he doesn't go through waivers, so you
Speaker 1: can say, hey, Logan, we need a spot, can you
Speaker 1: help us here? And I don't know how it went on,
Speaker 1: maybe they even give him a bonus or something, but
Speaker 1: he knows, and the team knows that the next day
Speaker 1: they'll just resign him back or in two days, as
Speaker 1: it turned out to be, because you want to get
Speaker 1: Ryan Jensen through to the fifty three men roster in
Speaker 1: order to have the option to bring him back from
Speaker 1: injury reserve. If you if you put a guy like
Speaker 1: Aaron Stinney on injury reserved before the cuts to fifty three,
Speaker 1: he's done for the year. He can't come back if
Speaker 1: you if you cut them, if you bring them both
Speaker 1: through to the fifty three and then put him on
Speaker 1: i R, then you have the option to designate them
Speaker 1: for return at some point during the season. And obviously
Speaker 1: the Buccaneers are holding out hope that Ryan Jensen's knee
Speaker 1: injury is not completely season ending, right, So that's the
Speaker 1: whole point of all that, Yes, which makes complete sense.
Speaker 1: So now we talked about this morning, let's go back
Speaker 1: to the final fifty three before that of some of
Speaker 1: the moves that were made to get down to that
Speaker 1: initial fifty three, anything that stood out to you in particular,
Speaker 1: well overall, the thing that was surprising was the offensive
Speaker 1: and defensive balance. So you have fifty three spots right,
Speaker 1: Three of those go to specialist kicker, punter, lung snapper.
Speaker 1: So you have fifty which the obvious breakdown would be
Speaker 1: twenty five on each side, but the Buccaneers kept twenty
Speaker 1: players and only twenty two on defense because they kept
Speaker 1: seven receivers, which was probably the most that you could
Speaker 1: possibly keep, four tight ends, which is probably the most
Speaker 1: you would ever keep, and four running backs. So I
Speaker 1: thought one of those positions would have to give up
Speaker 1: something for the other one. But instead the Buccaneers went
Speaker 1: deep at all three of them, and also or at
Speaker 1: least a day, had to keep a tenth offensive lineman
Speaker 1: and Ryan Jensen. Now it's back to three with the
Speaker 1: logan Ryan Ryan Jensen swap, but still it's really heavily
Speaker 1: leaning towards offense because there were just so many players
Speaker 1: that they wanted to keep, and despite all of that,
Speaker 1: they still had to cut Tyler Johnson, and it was
Speaker 1: it was inevitable that the Bucks were gonna have to
Speaker 1: cut a receiver that clearly can play in the NFL,
Speaker 1: and he immediately got claimed by the Houston Texans, who
Speaker 1: I believe we're second in the claim Raven because it's
Speaker 1: the same as the draft order right now, and I
Speaker 1: believe it was second. He was coveted, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: there are teams At the time that the Texans claimed him,
Speaker 1: they only had four receivers on their roster period, so
Speaker 1: there are teams out there that have a better, say
Speaker 1: I don't know depth and say inside linebacker than we do,
Speaker 1: but we have better depth at right and still do
Speaker 1: at wide receiver than almost every team out there. So
Speaker 1: we were gonna have to let somebody go that somebody
Speaker 1: else is gonna want. But what it came down to
Speaker 1: in them keeping Jalen Darton, Scottie Miller and even Brashad
Speaker 1: Perriman is that all those guys have some special teams
Speaker 1: value and they just didn't feel like Tyler Johnson had any.
Speaker 1: And you have your first four, hoping they're all healthy
Speaker 1: for the start of the season, Mike Evans, Chris Godwin,
Speaker 1: Julio John's, Russell Gauge. Those guys are gonna get the
Speaker 1: most of playing time when they're all healthy. So the
Speaker 1: other guys, if they're gonna have a helmet on on
Speaker 1: game days, are going to have to have some special
Speaker 1: teams value. Just didn't think Tyler Johnson gave them that.
Speaker 1: But they do believe he's a good receiver and we
Speaker 1: all wish him well in Houston. And then a couple
Speaker 1: of those undrafted wide receivers that had gotten a lot
Speaker 1: of attention during the preseason were brought back on the
Speaker 1: practice squad, so that was exciting to see that they
Speaker 1: will still be a part of the organization in Devin
Speaker 1: Tompkins and Caitlyn guy So a couple of exciting guys. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was great. Again, when you have that deep of
Speaker 1: a room, you know, you don't know you're gonna have
Speaker 1: to cut a lot of people you might like, and
Speaker 1: then you worry about are they gonna get picked up
Speaker 1: are they not? And it's great to see that they
Speaker 1: were able to come back. To the point that there
Speaker 1: was conjecture by some in the last preseason game when
Speaker 1: Devin Tompkins and Caitln Geiger hardly played at all, that
Speaker 1: the Bucks were like, let's not put them on tape
Speaker 1: anymore than we off to. Let's not let people have
Speaker 1: another look at them. I don't know if that's true enough,
Speaker 1: but certainly that's what people conjecture. And think about the
Speaker 1: fact that the the practice squad, now when I started
Speaker 1: in the league, it was a five man practice squad
Speaker 1: and now it's sixteen. Incredible, And he used to turn
Speaker 1: over constantly because you'd get players injured, and maybe now
Speaker 1: you need a linebacker and ad a receiver. Now you
Speaker 1: can keep guys the whole year we kept like ten
Speaker 1: guys the whole year last year, and because of those
Speaker 1: elevation rules, those guys are really an extension on the
Speaker 1: active roster. So those sixteen guys on the practice squad,
Speaker 1: a lot of them are actually gonna see regular season
Speaker 1: game playing time, Yeah, which is interesting. Another spot that
Speaker 1: I thought was intriguing in the UH in the cutdowns
Speaker 1: on roster moves this week was the backup inside linebackers
Speaker 1: that of course we all know Lavonte Devon, Yeah, but
Speaker 1: then after that it was sort of interesting that there
Speaker 1: was a trade that there was a maybe unexpected person
Speaker 1: to make the roster. Tell us a little bit about
Speaker 1: that position. Yeah. And in fact, Todd Bowles yesterday was
Speaker 1: asked what the hardest spots were when they had to
Speaker 1: make the final decisions for the roster, and he said,
Speaker 1: wide receiver obviously, and back up in side linebacker. And
Speaker 1: the Buccaneers decided to trade Grant Steward to the Colts
Speaker 1: that we just played. You should have just stayed there, right, um,
Speaker 1: And this is sort of the opposite of the receiver situation.
Speaker 1: Grant Steward is very good on special teams, but they
Speaker 1: didn't see him going forward adding much value on defense
Speaker 1: compared to kJ Brett and the undrafted Rickie Old Cuillotas.
Speaker 1: And so it's kind of the backwards that at receiver
Speaker 1: they needed to play special teams. At inside linebacker they're
Speaker 1: going to play special teams. But they also wanted them
Speaker 1: to have some value on defense because that's all that
Speaker 1: we have after Lavante, Devon and Devin White. So if
Speaker 1: you those guys is missing for any period of time,
Speaker 1: kJ Brett and or Old on the field and you
Speaker 1: need them to be give you some value on defense. Right,
Speaker 1: And we got a question from Jermaine He said, who
Speaker 1: would be are starting safety besides Windfield? So figured, now
Speaker 1: we've talked about some of those different roster moves and
Speaker 1: who all is back there at the safety position? What
Speaker 1: do we feel like that could end up shaking out?
Speaker 1: That's a very germane question. You can't help it, jokes,
Speaker 1: I can't help it. Um, I told you my no,
Speaker 1: I won't do it. I was gonna tell another one,
Speaker 1: but I won't, um unless you have a cap Okay,
Speaker 1: next week, next week? So who are we talking about again? Well, now,
Speaker 1: besides Winfield, who is starting sum the starting safety is
Speaker 1: in the base package? Will be Windfield and Mike Edwards,
Speaker 1: and I think both those guys will be on the
Speaker 1: field for snaps. They're not coming off like and that's
Speaker 1: great news for Mike Edwards. That's where he's been wanting
Speaker 1: to get to UM for the last three years and
Speaker 1: good for him. Obviously, we never take Antwine off the field,
Speaker 1: but we're gonna move them around a lot. And so
Speaker 1: you're in sub package is a lot. In fact, probably
Speaker 1: fifty to six of your snaps are in the nickel
Speaker 1: defense and so that third, that fifth defensive back is
Speaker 1: pretty much the same as the starter. And for what
Speaker 1: we saw in training camp, a lot of times that's
Speaker 1: gonna be Logan Ryan We're just talking about and that
Speaker 1: could be Logan Ryan uh in too deep with Mike Edwards.
Speaker 1: That could be Mike or Logan, you know, as a
Speaker 1: single center fielder and like a cover three or something
Speaker 1: like that. UM And when one of those guys, we
Speaker 1: saw a lot of Antoine Winfield in the slot close
Speaker 1: to land screment, So I think you can see a
Speaker 1: lot of those guys and Kim and Neal on the
Speaker 1: field sometimes. So it's probably gonna be a lot of
Speaker 1: mix and match, a lot of different looks, a lot
Speaker 1: of disguise looks for the offense, and I think they're
Speaker 1: gonna make use of all those guys, but the bass
Speaker 1: starters should be Antoine and Michael. It was funny I
Speaker 1: actually uh am seed an event with Antoine last night.
Speaker 1: I was talking to him about Mike Edwards and just
Speaker 1: what a ball hawk he is, and Antoine said, yeah,
Speaker 1: every game, I likeced my shoes up and say make
Speaker 1: me like Mike, like Mike, you know, and uh and
Speaker 1: he was just time, He's like, it's just crazy. He's like,
Speaker 1: he'll get ten snaps and two interceptions and we're talking
Speaker 1: about what that would mean for Antoine of how many
Speaker 1: if it was proportioned, fifty interceptions, you know, in a game,
Speaker 1: and it's just incredible. And so it'll be interesting to
Speaker 1: see him in more of a starting role getting maybe
Speaker 1: a few more snaps of what that could look like
Speaker 1: for him. Knowing well, and the question is, if Mike
Speaker 1: Edwards is such an incredible ball hawk and gets interceptions
Speaker 1: every time he's on the field, then why for the
Speaker 1: last three years have we not put him on the
Speaker 1: fielderson the time? Well, the reason, probably for the most part,
Speaker 1: was he needed to improve. Yeah, and get getting the
Speaker 1: more physical side of his game, and according to the
Speaker 1: coaches even as soon as like even as recently as
Speaker 1: the second half of last year, really making big strides
Speaker 1: in that to the point now they're comfortable having on
Speaker 1: the field all the time. Okay, and we have a
Speaker 1: question from Rob. He said, which of the Buck's first
Speaker 1: year players do you see as having the biggest impact?
Speaker 1: That including Rocky's I assume Logan Hall. Well, if Luke
Speaker 1: Getticky is starting, you know, think about who's starting. Logan Hall,
Speaker 1: he's not starting at the moment, should play a lot.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'll have a big impact as a pass rusher.
Speaker 1: That would be what the Bucks are hoping for. Luke
Speaker 1: Getticky probably starting. So if you're starting on the offensive line, Brady,
Speaker 1: that's a big impact. Rashod White, I think he's actually
Speaker 1: gonna I think he's done a good job and it's
Speaker 1: actually carpet U punters obviously gonna have a j Camarda.
Speaker 1: I'd probably go with Getticky though, I mean every day
Speaker 1: is tempting, but every snap protechnique and Getticky would be
Speaker 1: involved in a lot of what Rashad White would be
Speaker 1: doing too, So we can say that he gets some
Speaker 1: credit for that. Um, you know, I think that we're
Speaker 1: talking about the offensive line. Of course, that's been a
Speaker 1: huge topic and with injuries and still not knowing a
Speaker 1: lot of that and the left guard position. So what
Speaker 1: do you think that's going to affect about the offense overall?
Speaker 1: Do you think that we already know Brady likes a
Speaker 1: lot of the shorter passes and things like that. Do
Speaker 1: you feel like we're going to see that the offense
Speaker 1: adjusts a little bit to whatever needs to be done
Speaker 1: with the O line? Yeah? Well, and I think Tom
Speaker 1: Brady enjoys all the facets of passing, and it's just
Speaker 1: it's been over the last two years. What is the
Speaker 1: defense giving you? And the amazing part is over the
Speaker 1: last two years combined since Tom Brady has been here,
Speaker 1: he actually leads the NFL in vertical routes both completions
Speaker 1: with two and touchdowns with already nine. You're like, oh,
Speaker 1: no risk, no biscuits. But we know from being there
Speaker 1: and a lot of Bucks fans know that, uh, that
Speaker 1: was more in one. They had to adjust to all
Speaker 1: the two deep safety shells and then taking the deep
Speaker 1: passes away. And as you saw in that graphic there
Speaker 1: Tom Brady adjusted to in the offense, and Byron Leftwich
Speaker 1: and and everybody adjusted to an amazing degree, to the
Speaker 1: point that he became the best or most productive passer
Speaker 1: in the league on what they call quick passes, which
Speaker 1: are ones that are get out of the hand in
Speaker 1: two point five seconds or less from the snap. He
Speaker 1: has that graphic showed he led the league in completions, yards,
Speaker 1: and touchdowns on such passes. So there it is again
Speaker 1: when the Buccaneers, when defense has started play Tom Brady
Speaker 1: and his deep ball differently than the Bucks, and Tom
Speaker 1: Brady adjusted and you can see how efficient they were
Speaker 1: at it. And a lot of that had to do
Speaker 1: with such great receivers like Chris Godwin, who was great
Speaker 1: in this type of game. I do believe, because of
Speaker 1: the uncertainty on the offensive line and the fact that
Speaker 1: I think those defenses are going to continue to play
Speaker 1: the Bucks a lot the way they did last year,
Speaker 1: that the Bucks are gonna have to do that a
Speaker 1: lot again. But they got a lot of guys that
Speaker 1: canna do that, and they added Russell Gage, who is
Speaker 1: also very good out of the slot and with the
Speaker 1: ball in his hands. They might make more use of
Speaker 1: guys like Jalen Darden get in the ball quickly. I
Speaker 1: think if you compare, the Bucks offense is going to
Speaker 1: look more like last year's, but it always has to adjust,
Speaker 1: and fortunately Tom Brady has proven that he can pretty
Speaker 1: much adjust to any system that the Buccaneers wanted to do.
Speaker 1: And then we'll close out with this. I know that
Speaker 1: one other thing in the roster cuts that we learned
Speaker 1: was who won the kicking battle, So we now know
Speaker 1: that Ryan suck Up will again be the kicker. What
Speaker 1: do you think went into that decision in him winning
Speaker 1: that spot and what that means for maybe even some
Speaker 1: of their strategy this year. Well, that's a good question.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's completely answered yet because what you
Speaker 1: what you had in this kicker battle in the battle,
Speaker 1: and the reason why there was a kicker battle is
Speaker 1: that while Ryan suck Up over the past two years
Speaker 1: has as he has been throughout his career, very reliable,
Speaker 1: especially from forty yards in, He's only missed one kick
Speaker 1: from warty yards in since he got here, which is awesome, right,
Speaker 1: that's what you need first, um, and look by the numbers,
Speaker 1: he's the most accurate field goal kicker in team history,
Speaker 1: so that's good. But last year he only attempted one
Speaker 1: kick of over fifty yards. He didn't make it. I
Speaker 1: believe his longest one was forty nine, and it got
Speaker 1: to the point where the Bucklers really were not sending
Speaker 1: him out there to try lung field goals. That's why
Speaker 1: jose Borgas had a shot. Clearly has a big leg
Speaker 1: if he can give you some fifty two and fifty.
Speaker 1: He had a fifty six yarder in the preseason, but
Speaker 1: then he missed a fifty two yarder and he missed
Speaker 1: the forty nine yarder that could have won the first game. Um,
Speaker 1: before you coaches have to decide. I think that before
Speaker 1: you can have the luxury of a guy who can
Speaker 1: give you a fifty five yard or you have to
Speaker 1: make sure he can make the gimmes. And I think
Speaker 1: they just decided in the end, Ryan suck Up is
Speaker 1: the better choice. It's the guy that you know can
Speaker 1: do it. Maybe Jose could have done it. Honestly, I
Speaker 1: think he's going to get on somewhere in the league.
Speaker 1: Maybe Jose could be that guy, but they weren't sure.
Speaker 1: With Ryan suck Up here a lot more sure. I think,
Speaker 1: and then he made a fifty two yard in the
Speaker 1: field goals, so you know it could have been physically choose.
Speaker 1: It could be that Ryan Sucker is back to not
Speaker 1: only being automatic from forty in, but also you can
Speaker 1: send them out their forty five or fifty two and
Speaker 1: maybe that's what they're thinking. Okay, well that's going to
Speaker 1: do it for us on this edition of Buck's Insider Live.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining us, and we'll be
Speaker 1: back here next week to take your final questions leading
Speaker 1: up to that regular season opener. We'll see then