Speaker 1: Ay they are. Good morning, Bucks fans. How's everyone doing,
Speaker 1: Casey Phillips. He was senior writer and editor Scott Smith
Speaker 1: at his time for Buccaneers Insider Live presented by Miller Light.
Speaker 1: And as always, this is where we take your questions.
Speaker 1: So if you have questions for us, if you're not
Speaker 1: already watching on the Facebook page, head on over there
Speaker 1: and leave them in the comments section underneath our live video.
Speaker 1: And as we give people a chance to do that,
Speaker 1: I figured we would start with a little bit of
Speaker 1: the news from this week. Ross Cockerell, quarterback was re signed,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to hear your thoughts on on the
Speaker 1: contributions we saw from him. He's he's a guy that
Speaker 1: isn't necessarily one of the most recognizable names on the team,
Speaker 1: but ended up playing a pretty big role last season. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it was very telling. At the end of
Speaker 1: the year, without even being prompted, um Jason Light, I
Speaker 1: think this is around the beginning of the playoffs. Jason
Speaker 1: Light was just talking about how the season went and
Speaker 1: acquiring players along the way, and he said Ross Cockrell
Speaker 1: was one of the best pickups they made all year,
Speaker 1: and it was really kind of an under the radar
Speaker 1: thing beginning of September, just that we put him on
Speaker 1: that you know, that expanded practice squad, and at the
Speaker 1: time we had rookie Parnell Motley on the active roster,
Speaker 1: and after a couple of weeks, I think it just
Speaker 1: became mobby obvious to on the practice on the practice
Speaker 1: field that Cockroll was should be playing, so they kind
Speaker 1: of switched those two and then Parnel Motley ended up
Speaker 1: getting side elsewhere, but Russ Cockroll stayed on the roster
Speaker 1: the rest of the way, and while there were times
Speaker 1: where he didn't play for a bunch of games in
Speaker 1: a row, when he was needed, he stepped in very well.
Speaker 1: He played well in the slot, he played a little
Speaker 1: bit on the outside as well, and ended up through
Speaker 1: the playoffs getting almost three hundred snaps on defense. And
Speaker 1: when he was out there, you know, the defense didn't suffer.
Speaker 1: When guys like Carlton Davis was missing a little bit
Speaker 1: of time, the defense didn't suffer. And I think the
Speaker 1: thing they really liked about him was he really grasped
Speaker 1: the defense well and was generally where he was supposed
Speaker 1: to be when he was supposed to be there. So,
Speaker 1: you know, I think that's the first thing in coaches
Speaker 1: look for is do they understand our assignments and are
Speaker 1: they in the right place. Yeah, that's every coach's dream, right,
Speaker 1: not having to yell and scream at the guys to
Speaker 1: be in the starting point at least for yes. Okay,
Speaker 1: we had a question from Logan saying, do you think
Speaker 1: Giovanni Bernard is going to be a good veteran half
Speaker 1: back to help Lenny and Roe Joe developed to be
Speaker 1: even better. So we know that there has not been
Speaker 1: official news about Giovanni Bernard, but there is a press
Speaker 1: conference with him happening uh this afternoon, So I thought
Speaker 1: that is that we can we can chat about this
Speaker 1: question here. Yeah, I would think so. I would think
Speaker 1: at this point, Buck fans, uh can see the pattern there.
Speaker 1: You know, the Buccaneers as a team, and that includes
Speaker 1: are us as an arm of the team doing officially
Speaker 1: announcing thing until the paper is signed. So you're generally
Speaker 1: going to see the news before it's officially announced by
Speaker 1: the team. But the fact that they've scheduled a zoom
Speaker 1: call with him for two thirty afternoon too, thirty in
Speaker 1: the afternoon today is pretty good sign that that is A. A.
Speaker 1: That's a good and correct report that the Buccaneers are
Speaker 1: signing running back Jovanni Bernard, who spend his first eight
Speaker 1: seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals, And um, you know, first
Speaker 1: of all, if you just look at it as a
Speaker 1: one for one, Lashawn McCoy is not been resigned, Giovanni
Speaker 1: Bernard now basically takes that spot. And the Bucks didn't
Speaker 1: end up needing a lot from Lashan mcoy last year,
Speaker 1: as it turned out, because Ron Jones was very good
Speaker 1: throughout the offseason, I mean the regular season, and Leonard
Speaker 1: Fournett stopped up in a big way and a few
Speaker 1: times they used Keishaw Vaughn, So that fourth running back
Speaker 1: last year wasn't needed. You can't count on that always happening,
Speaker 1: though they may need him more or they may want
Speaker 1: to carve out a little bit of a role for
Speaker 1: their fourth guy because he was active on some occasions,
Speaker 1: so on most occasions, I would say, So, you know,
Speaker 1: the best thing about Giovanni Bernard that I would say
Speaker 1: is that he's he's been a very good pass catcher
Speaker 1: throughout his career, and that wasn't something that was a
Speaker 1: real big strength of the Buccaneers backfield last year, Leonard
Speaker 1: Fournette had some good moments there. Ron Jones really didn't
Speaker 1: get involved in the passing game very much. We still
Speaker 1: don't know about Keishaw Vaughan of them that great touchdown
Speaker 1: catches that he made. But um, I think right there
Speaker 1: you could see that Bernard might have a chance to
Speaker 1: be a little bit more involved than our fourth running
Speaker 1: back was last year. And and certainly there's plenty of
Speaker 1: time to figure that out. Okay. Jermaine asked, do you
Speaker 1: see us picking up any more free agents before the
Speaker 1: draft or the season? Yeah, before the Bernard signing. I've
Speaker 1: been seeing that question a little bit in mailbags and
Speaker 1: so on, and I did think there we're going to
Speaker 1: be one or two. I think what you'd call value signings.
Speaker 1: And I don't mean that to be derogatory to the
Speaker 1: players at all. It's just that you get to this
Speaker 1: point in free agency and there's so still some useful
Speaker 1: players out there, but they're not going to command big contracts,
Speaker 1: and that's probably that's reportedly the case with Jovanni Bernard.
Speaker 1: It's a value signing for the Buccaneers. So I could
Speaker 1: see one or two more of those but there's really
Speaker 1: not a lot of room for it. You know, we
Speaker 1: brought everybody back. We're gonna be adding six or seven
Speaker 1: draft picks and some undrafted free agis after that. But
Speaker 1: I mean, you look at any season and there are
Speaker 1: signings that happened along the way. Um, you know, just
Speaker 1: like last year Leonard Fournett, you know, guys that came
Speaker 1: on a little bit late. Um, it's so yeah, I
Speaker 1: could see it happening, but it's pretty hard to predict
Speaker 1: who that would be. And then of course we've had
Speaker 1: about a thousand people asking about Antonio Brown and the
Speaker 1: status of that, the likelihood of him being resigned, and
Speaker 1: and the implications either way for the team. Well, I
Speaker 1: guess I I guess I'd piggyback on what I just
Speaker 1: said about this being the time of free agency when
Speaker 1: you're talking about value signings, and that may be what
Speaker 1: we have here. And and I don't want to speak
Speaker 1: for Jason Light or any of our people doing their contracts.
Speaker 1: This is just theoretical speculation, not telling you what's happening.
Speaker 1: But um, if you're at the stage and freegency where
Speaker 1: you're talking about guys signing kind of value contracts, it
Speaker 1: maybe that that's what the team is hoping for and
Speaker 1: that's what they see as the right thing to do, Um,
Speaker 1: And maybe the player doesn't agree with that. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, he's still looking for a certain number,
Speaker 1: and the Buccaneers have a certain number and they're just
Speaker 1: not meeting in the middle at the moment um. I
Speaker 1: know that Jason light has said there have been some
Speaker 1: offers made, so it's obviously I would assume that means
Speaker 1: it's not what he's looking for at this point. But
Speaker 1: we're just gonna have to see in the end who
Speaker 1: who has the right not the right position, but who
Speaker 1: ends up having the correct position. But you know, is
Speaker 1: is he a player that's going to sign for this
Speaker 1: much or is he a player that some team is
Speaker 1: going to give this much? And I've sure he you know,
Speaker 1: he'd like to find out if that ladder is true,
Speaker 1: right for sure? UM. Mike asked a very interesting question.
Speaker 1: He said, with the seventeen game season, do you think
Speaker 1: the league might expand roster size or at least let
Speaker 1: a couple more players dress on game day? And I
Speaker 1: think we talked about some of these different rules because
Speaker 1: of COVID that happened with like the I R and
Speaker 1: you know all of us of it. Now, do you
Speaker 1: see some of the same things that were done to
Speaker 1: help with COVID maybe implemented because of the seventeen game season. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've been very interested to see what the final ruling
Speaker 1: and all those rules are, how many of them they keep.
Speaker 1: I know, the teams, the coaches really like them, and
Speaker 1: that would actually basically serve the purpose of what this
Speaker 1: question is asking. You know, because we did essentially have
Speaker 1: severaltra or extra roster spots last year. Just having a
Speaker 1: sixteen man practice squad pretty much took care of that issue.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you look at the comings and goings
Speaker 1: on the on the roster last year compared to previous years,
Speaker 1: there were a lot fewer guys coming and going. You know,
Speaker 1: you had a couple of guys a Q Shippling and
Speaker 1: and uh in Antonio Brown and so on, but you
Speaker 1: didn't have a lot of the roster tire and usually
Speaker 1: see because you had sixteen guys in your practice squad,
Speaker 1: so you had sixty nine guys essentially every week to
Speaker 1: choose from. Because you could elevate two of those guys
Speaker 1: if you wanted to every week. So just having all
Speaker 1: those and the ability to move them up down, and
Speaker 1: the ability to move up and down from I r
Speaker 1: UM after just three weeks with anybody you wanted to.
Speaker 1: That gave you basically the flexibility that you needed to
Speaker 1: get through COVID and would do the same thing for
Speaker 1: a seventeen game season. And I'm certainly not one to
Speaker 1: downplay the significance of that. I think it's a big
Speaker 1: deal to add a seventeenth game, and but it is
Speaker 1: just one more game we're talking about, and I think
Speaker 1: getting through the COVID situation last year was probably more
Speaker 1: difficult than one more game. So same rules would probably
Speaker 1: help quite a bit. Right. Of course, we've had people
Speaker 1: ask us if the retired Julian Edelman would be contemplating
Speaker 1: coming to the Buccaneers, which I mean, you know, to
Speaker 1: people's credit, you know, Bruce arians was retired, Gronk was retired.
Speaker 1: There's a pattern here of was thinking that, you know, hey,
Speaker 1: the Buccaneers may be worth coming out of retirement, especially
Speaker 1: if they maybe some of these guys with the Patriots.
Speaker 1: I understand why everybody's asking that, but I want to
Speaker 1: hear your thoughts on what you think the odds would
Speaker 1: be of Edelman becoming a Buccaneer. Yeah, I mean it's
Speaker 1: obvious to connect the dots there. That was happening before
Speaker 1: he retired. Um and uh, I can see the logic
Speaker 1: in it. And after last year, I don't want to
Speaker 1: discount any of those kind of theories, you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: at one point the idea of Gronkowski coming out of
Speaker 1: retirement and joining us seemed like, okay, sure whatever, and
Speaker 1: then that happens and Leonard Fournette cut gets cut? Should
Speaker 1: we learned Fornett? I don't know if we really need
Speaker 1: it then that happens, so certainly we don't want to
Speaker 1: discount any of it. One thing to point out is
Speaker 1: the Buck's best slot receiver is Chris Godwin, And I
Speaker 1: don't know if you really if slot receivers the number
Speaker 1: one thing the Buccaneers need to add at the moment.
Speaker 1: The one player that they haven't had back from last
Speaker 1: year was Antonio Brown, who was more of an outside guy. Um,
Speaker 1: So I don't know if the but then again, who
Speaker 1: knows what the situation is gonna be like in November
Speaker 1: or December, you know, maybe knock on wood hopefully not.
Speaker 1: But there could be injuries or other developments that that
Speaker 1: make it, you know, make it more platypal to do that.
Speaker 1: But at the moment, it doesn't seem like the perfect fit.
Speaker 1: But if you know, if Tom Brady wants him, it's
Speaker 1: hard to say no. Apparently it is very hard to
Speaker 1: say no to the Crady. That is true, okay, um.
Speaker 1: I thought this was an interesting question. Richard asked, Uh,
Speaker 1: since we don't have any glaring needs to the draft,
Speaker 1: would it be better to trade out of the first
Speaker 1: round since we're basically drafting for depth and special teams?
Speaker 1: So do you agree with that sentiment and in terms
Speaker 1: of what we are looking for in the draft, and
Speaker 1: then the trading down would be the best way to
Speaker 1: do it. Yes, I agree with that sentiment. I don't
Speaker 1: know that will necessarily happen because it takes two to tango.
Speaker 1: You've got to have somebody that really wants to move
Speaker 1: up um at that moment. But I think that Jason
Speaker 1: light will definitely be keeping his ears open for that
Speaker 1: type of opportunity. Absolutely. If you know, the one negative
Speaker 1: to trading down from from thirty two is that if
Speaker 1: you trade down for thirty two year, you're necessarily trading
Speaker 1: out of the first round, and if you take a
Speaker 1: player in the first round, you get that useful fifth
Speaker 1: year option on his four year contract, and that's only
Speaker 1: for first rounders, so you lose that on whichever player
Speaker 1: you take. So if you were if you were saying,
Speaker 1: should we move down two or three spots might not
Speaker 1: be worth it. You could probably get the same guy
Speaker 1: three spots later, but then you don't have that fifth
Speaker 1: year option. But if you're talking more like you get
Speaker 1: to the end of round thirty two and there's seven
Speaker 1: or eight guys that you like and you can trade
Speaker 1: down ten or twelve spots, I think it makes a
Speaker 1: ton of sense. On the other hand, and we'll probably
Speaker 1: talk about this a little bit in our road to
Speaker 1: the draft this week. The Bucks, the fact that the
Speaker 1: Bucks don't have a lot of glaring needs. Look at
Speaker 1: it another way. If you have I think we have
Speaker 1: seven draft picks. If you have seven drafts or maybe
Speaker 1: eight eight draft picks, um are do you have room
Speaker 1: on your rest for eight guys to make the team?
Speaker 1: Do you really need to take eight guys? So you
Speaker 1: can look at it either way and say we don't
Speaker 1: really need to add more assets and maybe you could
Speaker 1: use some of that to trade up a little bit
Speaker 1: if there's a guy that you like. But to get
Speaker 1: back to the original question, I'm a big fan in
Speaker 1: this situation of trading down a little bit. Yes, okay, uh,
Speaker 1: And we'll close with this. Anthony said, what do you
Speaker 1: see happening with O. J. Howard this year? Well, I
Speaker 1: just what I hope to see is him get a
Speaker 1: little better luck in terms of injuries. I don't think
Speaker 1: that this is a situation of a player being injury prone.
Speaker 1: They all seem pretty flukey to me, particularly the first
Speaker 1: two ankle injuries. I mean, an ankle injury is like, Okay,
Speaker 1: you stepped a wrong in turns to hell, right. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know. The Achilles one is maybe a little
Speaker 1: bit different. But I'm just I don't have seen any
Speaker 1: reason why he should we should worry about him more
Speaker 1: than any other player getting hurt. So let's say he
Speaker 1: has better injury fortune this year. I think you're gonna
Speaker 1: see a very productive player and a lot of good
Speaker 1: use in two tight end sets with Rob Gronkowski, and
Speaker 1: we were seeing that in the first four games last year.
Speaker 1: He was off to a really nice start, looked really
Speaker 1: good before his injury, and Bruce arians was talking about
Speaker 1: him the other day and just said, the sky's the limit.
Speaker 1: I mean, remember, this is a guy that Bucks were
Speaker 1: absolutely thrilled felled the nineteen to them. Nobody expected, uh,
Speaker 1: they thought he might be a top ten pick in
Speaker 1: the draft that year. And I mean that's because he's
Speaker 1: he's got he's so talented, you know. I mean, he's
Speaker 1: just he's huge and fast and talented and you can
Speaker 1: get down the seams, he can make catches over guys.
Speaker 1: I think that there's a ton of potential for him
Speaker 1: to have a big season if he just gets that
Speaker 1: better injury fortune. Okay, well that's gonna do it for us.
Speaker 1: On this edition of Buccaneers Inside are Live presented by
Speaker 1: Miller w Lite And again, like Scott said, we're going
Speaker 1: to be shooting a road to the draft. So if
Speaker 1: you want even more draft coverage, make sure you check
Speaker 1: that out and we'll see you next week.