Speaker 1: Welcome to Bucks Insider Live.
Speaker 2: Casey Phillips here with senior writer and editor Scott Smith,
Speaker 2: and we are here to bring you all the Buccaneers
Speaker 2: news that you need and our new tradition, a Bucks
Speaker 2: Trivia question. I like this one. I think this is fun.
Speaker 2: I did not know it, but I think it's very fun.
Speaker 2: So why don't we start out? And again, if you
Speaker 2: want to answer for it, leave it underneath our live
Speaker 2: Facebook video. We'll see if we can read out some
Speaker 2: of the people to get the right answer.
Speaker 3: Later on, somebody will get it right.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, let's hear it.
Speaker 4: All right. Our question this week is, and I'm doing
Speaker 4: this because we just signed a whole bunch of undrafted
Speaker 4: players like you do after the draft. And the question
Speaker 4: is who is the only undrafted player ever to make
Speaker 4: the Pro Bowl as.
Speaker 3: A rookie for the Buccaneers.
Speaker 4: So to be clear, some undrafted guys like Shelton Quarrels
Speaker 4: and Donald Penn have eventually made the Pro Bowl. But
Speaker 4: I'm saying they sign as undrafted rookie and to make
Speaker 4: the Probowl that year.
Speaker 3: It's I've been done once and you.
Speaker 2: Just helped by giving a couple of clues of who
Speaker 2: is not, so it just helps everyone to either of
Speaker 2: those people. So all right, So again, if you have
Speaker 2: the answer to that, leave it underneath our Facebook live
Speaker 2: video stream here. So right now, let's dive into because,
Speaker 2: as you pointed out, we've signed a lot of new
Speaker 2: people and you have the rookies, you've got even some
Speaker 2: other free agents they've brought in. So recently we put
Speaker 2: up the idea of the numbers of how many at
Speaker 2: each position we have on the team.
Speaker 1: That has changed since the last time we did it,
Speaker 1: so we.
Speaker 2: Thought we'd give an updated look at those numbers, how
Speaker 2: many guys we have at each position and what that
Speaker 2: means to the team might still need to act.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we updated it because they did the draft and
Speaker 4: they did the undrafted free agents, and so the roster
Speaker 4: is now at ninety players. It can still change, obviously,
Speaker 4: you could release somebody and sign somebody else, but it's
Speaker 4: at ninety which is the limit, which is what you
Speaker 4: take to training camp. And you look there, teams, particular,
Speaker 4: coaching staffs and personnel staffs tend to try to hit
Speaker 4: the same numbers closely each year. So if you look
Speaker 4: at what they bucks took to training camp at each
Speaker 4: position last year compared to what they have now, you'll
Speaker 4: see some areas where there probably will be some tweaking.
Speaker 4: Like I think they're going to need a few more receivers.
Speaker 4: You tend to like to have a lot of receivers
Speaker 4: because it's tiring they run their routes or a lot
Speaker 4: of running right as opposed to say like a defensive
Speaker 4: lineman or something, So you want to have a lot
Speaker 4: of them on hand for training camps. So I would
Speaker 4: think you'd see a couple more of those, but it's
Speaker 4: maybe one more quarterback. Seems to be running a little heavy.
Speaker 4: At the linebacker position right now, ten outside linebackers, and
Speaker 4: I think that's a matter of just that's hard position
Speaker 4: to fill and if you find any talent there, Like
Speaker 4: they just signed after the tryouts after the rookie mini camp,
Speaker 4: there were four guys signed that had participated on tryout
Speaker 4: contracts and one of them was a rookie outside linebacker
Speaker 4: named Marquise Watts. So I think some of these positions
Speaker 4: right now they have just signed players because they're good
Speaker 4: and they have a shot. But I would imagine that
Speaker 4: some of those numbers will be tweaked a little bit, what.
Speaker 2: Are some of the other factors you think in terms
Speaker 2: of why we would have certain numbers at certain positions
Speaker 2: that why might it be a little different this year
Speaker 2: versus last year, some of the motivations behind some of
Speaker 2: those different numbers or.
Speaker 4: Now in sort of the I guess the third phase
Speaker 4: of the offseason and your roster building. You have the
Speaker 4: really quick rush of free agency and a few signs
Speaker 4: here or there in April, and then you have the draft,
Speaker 4: and after the draft, and after you signed some undrafted
Speaker 4: free agency. And remember, you don't necessarily get every one
Speaker 4: of those that you want. All the teams are calling
Speaker 4: around trying to get land the guys that they want,
Speaker 4: and so you may not get exactly what you want.
Speaker 4: And this is when you look at your roster now
Speaker 4: and go, okay, good, we did a good job of
Speaker 4: getting enough receivers, but we have to find a few
Speaker 4: more running backs or something like that, and that could
Speaker 4: involve veteran free agents that are out there, and sometimes teams.
Speaker 4: First of all, teams waited until after the draft. I
Speaker 4: don't remember which exact May date, but it was some
Speaker 4: date in May. After that, if you sign a free agent,
Speaker 4: it no longer counts in the compensatory formula. So a
Speaker 4: guy that if an unrestricted free agent, that if you'd
Speaker 4: signed him in March or April, he would count against
Speaker 4: you in that formula.
Speaker 3: Now he doesn't.
Speaker 4: And then and then after June one, you have the
Speaker 4: thing where you can spread out the salary cap pit.
Speaker 4: So you know it's this is the time to reevaluate,
Speaker 4: reevaluate your roster and say, man, I don't feel good
Speaker 4: about our cornerback situation.
Speaker 3: We really need another veteran cornerback.
Speaker 4: And there's guys out there in every position, obviously not
Speaker 4: superstars at this point, but there's still.
Speaker 3: Some pretty well known free agents that are out there
Speaker 3: on the market.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: Also, I realized that we read the trivia question so
Speaker 2: quick off the top, there's probably some people that have
Speaker 2: joined in watching a little bit later. So I figured
Speaker 2: we again read it one more time, just to give
Speaker 2: people a shot, and then we'll.
Speaker 4: Keep well in honor of us just having signed a
Speaker 4: bunch of undrafted free agents. The question is who is
Speaker 4: the only undrafted player ever to make the Pro Bowl
Speaker 4: as a rookie for the Buccaneers. So Right, signed that
Speaker 4: year as an undrafted for agent, played for the Bucks
Speaker 4: made the Pro Bowl that.
Speaker 1: Year, Okay, I like it.
Speaker 2: And in terms of the drafted guys on our team,
Speaker 2: I know that every year there's always typically somebody maybe
Speaker 2: you know, the later rounds that can end up making
Speaker 2: an impact on the team. And you know that there's
Speaker 2: the guys that you kind of know or maybe get
Speaker 2: you know, getting drafted early on to start, But then
Speaker 2: there's always guys that maybe that sixth, you know, round, fifth, sixth,
Speaker 2: seventh round that they're always like, man, look at that
Speaker 2: this guy stuck around. I think about an Anthony Nelson,
Speaker 2: who's you know, had some some big impact, you know,
Speaker 2: kind of that mid round guy. What do you feel
Speaker 2: like is a guy this year that has a chance
Speaker 2: to do something like that?
Speaker 4: Actually I kind of feel pretty good about all of
Speaker 4: our six round picks because there seems to be obvious
Speaker 4: roles for them. Josh Hayes is a shot at being
Speaker 4: the nickel. Trey Palmer is that Berner who can be
Speaker 4: sort of I guess the next Scotty Miller who can
Speaker 4: take the He could probably do more than just that,
Speaker 4: but he can take the top off the defense. But
Speaker 4: the guy would focus on is Jose Ramirez. Which was
Speaker 4: the last of those three, and that was a very
Speaker 4: well received If you read draft braids and stuff, people
Speaker 4: think the Bucks got a little bit of a steal there.
Speaker 3: Very very productive.
Speaker 4: And after the draft on that night, John spy Tech
Speaker 4: he said, I'm not saying he's Shaq Barrett, but he
Speaker 4: sort of compared him to Shaq Beart because their style
Speaker 4: of play, how they just work really hard and they
Speaker 4: may not be the absolute biggest or the absolute fastest guys,
Speaker 4: which is why Shaq Barrett went undrafted out out of
Speaker 4: Colorado State and Jose Ramirez lasted until the sixth round,
Speaker 4: but both of them are really really productive players. And
Speaker 4: actually it was kind of funny because John Spytech was
Speaker 4: making that comparison basically because of the sort of players
Speaker 4: that they were. But if you look at their last
Speaker 4: year in college and how they peaked, it's nearly identical.
Speaker 3: I mean, look at this.
Speaker 4: The shack is on the left and Joseier and Maris
Speaker 4: is on the right. Look at those numbers, they're practically identical.
Speaker 4: They both had twelve sacks, nineteen or nineteen and a
Speaker 4: half tackles for loss, and they both were their conference's
Speaker 4: defensive player of the year that year, so they really
Speaker 4: peaked at the right time.
Speaker 3: Shaq arrived.
Speaker 4: He signed with Denver as an un drafted free agent,
Speaker 4: kind of had to wait a little bit, but then
Speaker 4: became a rotational player and did well when he got
Speaker 4: playing time. But then he got a chance to start
Speaker 4: here in Tampa and we all see what happened. So hopefully,
Speaker 4: if you get anything like the sort of production that
Speaker 4: you got out of Shack from Jose Ramiers, then you've
Speaker 4: really nnowned that.
Speaker 3: Sixth round pick.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I know that we talked about in the
Speaker 2: numbers that wide receiver was a position we had seen
Speaker 2: lately of Yeah, the odds are they're going to be
Speaker 2: adding Yeah, some more of those that we were low
Speaker 2: on that going into camp, and so they have made
Speaker 2: one of those editions. They've signed wide receiver. David Moore
Speaker 2: tell us a little bit about this guy and what
Speaker 2: are the odds that he's going to be a contributor.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: The fun thing about that one was he tried out,
Speaker 4: he participated in the rookie camp on a trial contract.
Speaker 4: But he's anything like a rookie and you can do that.
Speaker 4: You know, there's no rules against that, but it kind
Speaker 4: of it's not that common. And after the draft, after
Speaker 4: the week in mini camp, the Buccaneers signed him. He
Speaker 4: was a seventh throne draft pick of the Seahawks in
Speaker 4: twenty seventeen. But as you can see, I'm not seeing
Speaker 4: these are blowers the doors off numbers, right, But this
Speaker 4: is three years in a row of being a relatively
Speaker 4: you know, productive player, like a third or fourth receiver.
Speaker 4: You can see from his averages in his foot in
Speaker 4: eighteen and nineteen and the long receptions he had each
Speaker 4: year that he can he can get deep, he can
Speaker 4: make some big play shore. That's a lot of touchdowns
Speaker 4: honestly for the amount of playing time, thirteen touchdowns.
Speaker 3: Wow, that's that's a lot.
Speaker 4: So, I mean, this is the guy that's shown he
Speaker 4: can play in this league and you know, just kind
Speaker 4: of uncover that and gave you a little bit of
Speaker 4: depth there and more competition for maybe like the fifth
Speaker 4: or sixth spot on the receiving core.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean we've seen we know Mike Evin's, Chris Godwin,
Speaker 2: Russell Gage, we know who those guys are to an
Speaker 2: extent what they bring to it.
Speaker 1: So what are the other things that you feel like,
Speaker 1: what are.
Speaker 2: The maybe the gaps or holes that the other you know,
Speaker 2: people whether it Howard Many and up with are going
Speaker 2: to be trying to fill. Is it going to be
Speaker 2: the special team's ability? And then how much is it
Speaker 2: going to be the wide receiver ability.
Speaker 3: It's a great point in your part.
Speaker 4: Those guys that are like the fourth, fifth, and six guys,
Speaker 4: usually you really want them to also have a special
Speaker 4: team's role, and if they don't, they have a hard
Speaker 4: time being active on game to either they maybe you're
Speaker 4: sixth receiver, but you only keep five actives.
Speaker 3: So I'm sure all of these guys know this.
Speaker 4: I know Trey Palmer has talked about playing on special
Speaker 4: teams as an example. But you also want a little
Speaker 4: I know you think, okay, you got Mike Evans who
Speaker 4: does this, and Godwin who does this, and Russell Gage
Speaker 4: who does this?
Speaker 3: What else do we need? But you also need a
Speaker 3: little bit of redundancy, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: So because like Rashad Perryman didn't necessarily do anything in
Speaker 4: his last few years with Bucks that Mike Evans or
Speaker 4: Godwin didn't do. But there are times when somebody's hurt
Speaker 4: just undertaible. So it's nice to have a little bit
Speaker 4: of redundancy. You can't find a second exactly Mike Evans,
Speaker 4: but if you can find a guy that can fill
Speaker 4: the same role. You know, Mike runs a deep route
Speaker 4: and then has to come out the field for a
Speaker 4: couple snaps, and this guy goes in and can do
Speaker 4: the same thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's going to be interesting to see.
Speaker 2: And I'm just intrigued to see how having a new
Speaker 2: offensive coordinator changes the types of guys that make those
Speaker 2: last positions. How they're wanting to use some different people.
Speaker 2: I think, you know who really excels in a new scheme.
Speaker 4: Well, they may want somebody who can really do well
Speaker 4: in the slot, because I think the goal is to
Speaker 4: get Chris Godwin out of the slot for more. Like
Speaker 4: I don't think they want to use him as much
Speaker 4: in the slot as they have because you get beat
Speaker 4: up a lot in the side, and you know Chris,
Speaker 4: he's such a willing blocker.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he'll take it right.
Speaker 3: He'll take the hits and he'll deliver the hits.
Speaker 4: And so if he plays more snaps on the outside,
Speaker 4: they think he'll be able to play more snaps period. Right,
Speaker 4: He's missed some time in the last couple of years,
Speaker 4: and he's so valuable to the offense. It's not saying
Speaker 4: he won't play in the slot, but I think he's
Speaker 4: not gonna be in there as much. So to have
Speaker 4: other guys can do that would be helpful.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, Well that is going to do it
Speaker 2: for us on this We have to give our answer
Speaker 2: to the trivia question before we go.
Speaker 1: Tell us.
Speaker 3: Sorry, everybody get it.
Speaker 1: Nobodybody has gotten it.
Speaker 4: I know it's so it's so crazy, but especially because
Speaker 4: it's a Smith. Oh it's Clifton Smith, is the answer.
Speaker 4: So do you want me to tell you this story?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: Tell the story.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 4: So in two thousand and eight, the Buccaneers use a
Speaker 4: second round pick on Appalachian state wide receiver Dexter Jackson.
Speaker 4: Not the Super Bowl MVP Dexter Jackson, They're a different one,
Speaker 4: thinking he would be the return man. It didn't really
Speaker 4: work out, and sometime about on October, the Bucks We're like, well,
Speaker 4: this isn't working out, So they brought up Clifton Smith,
Speaker 4: who they'd signed as an undrafted free agent. I'm San
Speaker 4: Diego and I mean small guy. That's why he was undrafted.
Speaker 4: He was a very productive running back in college. But
Speaker 4: he was really small and he was amazing, Like he
Speaker 4: immediately returned to kickoff for a touchdown and you were
Speaker 4: trying to punt for a touchdown. I don't remember the
Speaker 4: exact averages, but he averaged like thirty yards per kickoff
Speaker 4: return or someone.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 4: And he made the Pro Bowl as a rookie. And
Speaker 4: that's the only time that's ever happened for the Bucks
Speaker 4: with an undrafted guy.
Speaker 1: That's amazing.
Speaker 2: I love that. All Right, that's going to do it
Speaker 2: for us on this edition of Bucks Insider Live. We
Speaker 2: will see you next time, and thanks again for watching.