Speaker 1: Welcome to Buccaneers Inside are Live, presented by Miller like
Speaker 1: Casey Phillips here with senior writer and editor Scott Smith,
Speaker 1: and man, we are about to get real fancy. We
Speaker 1: are over here at Raymond James Stadium in the Control room.
Speaker 1: This is where they control everything that happens in the
Speaker 1: stadium on game day, on all the video boards, all
Speaker 1: the sound, you hear everything. And now they are helping
Speaker 1: us take Buccaneers Inside of Live to the next level.
Speaker 1: So now we're gonna have graphics, We're gonna have video
Speaker 1: for you guys, and still as always, we're gonna be
Speaker 1: taking your Facebook questions, so make sure you submit those
Speaker 1: now on the Buccaneers Facebook page in the comment section.
Speaker 1: That's where you can leave it for us to find
Speaker 1: for the end of the show, so as we give
Speaker 1: people a chance to start submitting some of those Some
Speaker 1: big news, of course, happened yesterday, So Chris Godwin franchise
Speaker 1: tagged first of all, just tell me your thoughts on that,
Speaker 1: what that means for this team and that decision, well, clearly,
Speaker 1: somewhere along the lines, as we headed up to free agency, uh,
Speaker 1: the team decided they just could not bear using Chris Godwin,
Speaker 1: and you can understand why if you just watch a
Speaker 1: couple of our games, because he's just so integral to
Speaker 1: the offense in every way. But you know, yesterday at
Speaker 1: four pm Eastern Time was the deadline for that franchise
Speaker 1: tag to be placed, and the Bucks pretty much went
Speaker 1: right up to the deadline. And what that tells you
Speaker 1: is there was an effort to try to keep Chris
Speaker 1: Godwin on a long term deal, which I'm sure both
Speaker 1: sides would love if they can come to the right terms.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing that's important to realize. Getting the
Speaker 1: franchise tag putting place in the franchise tag on Chris
Speaker 1: does not end the necessary does not necessarily end negotiations
Speaker 1: until he signs it. Until or if he signs it,
Speaker 1: you can continue to negotiate with him. So basically, it's
Speaker 1: just extending your exclusive window and hopefully that's what happens.
Speaker 1: I think both sides would like to see it get there.
Speaker 1: And if that's the case, then all the franchise tag
Speaker 1: did was extend that window. And the I guess the
Speaker 1: only reason you'd try to get it done before the
Speaker 1: four cock deadline was if maybe you wanted to use
Speaker 1: the franchise tag on a different player, but we didn't
Speaker 1: hear any rumors of that in the first place. So
Speaker 1: I think this is just a pretty good turn of
Speaker 1: events overall, and it a speaks to how much they
Speaker 1: value Chris on one, but then also maybe to your
Speaker 1: point that it means they're confident about getting long term
Speaker 1: deals with a lot of the other free agents they
Speaker 1: would care a lot about is compared to the feeling like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, we need to use this franchise tag.
Speaker 1: There's all these people that are going to need this.
Speaker 1: And Bruce Arian said at the comment that he doesn't
Speaker 1: like the word rebuild. I don't think they feel like
Speaker 1: they're in the rebuild, even though obviously you have to
Speaker 1: come up with a new answer at the most important
Speaker 1: position with Tom Brady's retirement. But this is a team
Speaker 1: that still believes it's very talented in many ways. And yeah,
Speaker 1: you were talking about all the different free agents that
Speaker 1: the Buccaneers have, Uh, Chris Godwin fortunately is no longer
Speaker 1: on that list. But you see another what is that
Speaker 1: ten guys who playoffs included started at least ten games
Speaker 1: for the Buccaneers last year, including two of the five
Speaker 1: starting offensive linemen, and that's without even listing Ali Marpett,
Speaker 1: who has retired. So there's a lot of work to
Speaker 1: do then. But getting back to Chris Godwin for a second,
Speaker 1: I said briefly that he was integral to the offense,
Speaker 1: and that's that's the thing that makes him so valuable.
Speaker 1: You know, you're already spending quite a bit of money
Speaker 1: on your other starting receiver who's fantastic and the best
Speaker 1: off into player in team history and Mike Evans, so
Speaker 1: to spend another very large amount on another receiver isn't
Speaker 1: necessarily common, but he does so much for the Bucks.
Speaker 1: Since Bruce Arians got here and emphasized using Chris Godwin
Speaker 1: out of the slot, he has had he's been one
Speaker 1: of the most productive players in the entire league. As
Speaker 1: you can see here just working out of the slot.
Speaker 1: That's yards per game in his last three years while
Speaker 1: in the slot. And that's not all that Chris Godwin does.
Speaker 1: He works on the outside as well. About fifty of
Speaker 1: his snaps last year we're in the slot, but he
Speaker 1: also produced a total of ninety eight catches even after
Speaker 1: missing the last three games. And then also it goes
Speaker 1: even beyond that because the Bucks run the ball a
Speaker 1: lot better when Chris Godden was on the field. We've
Speaker 1: all seen plenty of times our coaches talk about how
Speaker 1: important he is to the blocking schemes, and I'm just
Speaker 1: just talking about, you know, holding up corners on the outside.
Speaker 1: He'll line up tight, he'll come in motion, line up tight,
Speaker 1: he'll block a defensive end, he'll block an outside linebacker.
Speaker 1: And look at this when chriss is According to NFL
Speaker 1: Next Gen Stats, when Chris god has been on the
Speaker 1: field in the last two years, are running backs at
Speaker 1: average four point five yards per carry. When he's not
Speaker 1: in there three point seven. That's a big difference. Is
Speaker 1: you can see why he's so important to me, and
Speaker 1: I think that is one of the most underrated aspects
Speaker 1: of it, and and also speaks so much to Godwin's
Speaker 1: character that he is the kind of guy that will
Speaker 1: do whatever is asked of him, and that is a
Speaker 1: coach's dream and why it is not just about hey,
Speaker 1: he can catch that football, which he can. He makes
Speaker 1: this team better in every way. And also it's just
Speaker 1: such a pillar of the locker room and in the community.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's just they say that it's almost like
Speaker 1: if you could build an NFL player, Chris God is
Speaker 1: everything you want in a player. And like you said,
Speaker 1: coaches like to use the phrase, he'll put his face
Speaker 1: in the fan. That means he'll get in there and
Speaker 1: block a defense. And if he has he's not just
Speaker 1: gonna cut you know, Patty, He's going to actually put
Speaker 1: his face in the fan and try to block that guy.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. And well, we also were at the Combine
Speaker 1: last week, so we wanted to chat a little bit
Speaker 1: about that. We did do an Insider Alive from the
Speaker 1: Combine where we talked a little bit more about it.
Speaker 1: But there was one thing in particular that happened after
Speaker 1: we had done our Insider Live that you wanted to
Speaker 1: bring up, and that was the big man that got
Speaker 1: a lot of attention based on his death. Well, there
Speaker 1: were two Base six themes throughout the week. One of
Speaker 1: them was that the receivers ran incredibly fast. There's a
Speaker 1: ton of fast receivers available this year. But also every
Speaker 1: player from Georgia was an absolute star. I mean, George's defense,
Speaker 1: if you watch any college football, is obviously the best
Speaker 1: defense in all of football, all of college football last
Speaker 1: year and now a bunch of those guys are in
Speaker 1: the draft and they all just blew away the combine.
Speaker 1: But most of all, there's usually at least one guy
Speaker 1: who's like the toll star of the combine. That guy
Speaker 1: this year was their defensive lineman, the Georgia defensive lineman,
Speaker 1: Jordan Davis, who absolutely blew away uh the four yard dash,
Speaker 1: the bench press. But it made me think about just
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago when everybody's saying the same
Speaker 1: thing about Vita Via and if you look at these
Speaker 1: numbers from their their combines, they're pretty close. I mean,
Speaker 1: the Vita is actually bigger, or was at the time. Uh,
Speaker 1: he actually did more bench press reps. And Jordan Davis,
Speaker 1: who tied for the league this year among all players
Speaker 1: with thirty two and looked Vita did four. He won. Now,
Speaker 1: Jordan Davis clearly was faster, but even for uh the
Speaker 1: size that Vita is five point one. Oh, was a
Speaker 1: great fortyr dash, really open eyes at the time. So
Speaker 1: now look at Jordan Davis, almost the same size running
Speaker 1: a four seven six. I mean that's about what Jerry
Speaker 1: Rice ran at his combine. It's incredible. There's a there's
Speaker 1: a couple of running backs at this year's combine that
Speaker 1: ran the same thing. So the guy stream in forty
Speaker 1: pounds and he's running like a running back. That's incredible,
Speaker 1: and it does make you remember how fortunate we are
Speaker 1: to have you to and thankfully that his name is
Speaker 1: not on the free agent list, and there's a deal.
Speaker 1: We know that name won't be on the list for
Speaker 1: a while. We got that deal with him, which is
Speaker 1: really great. All right, Well, we are going to turn
Speaker 1: our attention now to your Facebook question. So again, if
Speaker 1: you haven't submitted that yet, make sure you do on
Speaker 1: the Buccaneers Facebook page in the comments section. So our
Speaker 1: first one is from Zachary And look at how fancy
Speaker 1: we are. We can even put it up on the
Speaker 1: Look at that what about four nete. Well that's straight
Speaker 1: into the point. Yeah, very to the point. I appreciate that. Well,
Speaker 1: he was on that list we showed, so he's definitely
Speaker 1: a free agent that the Buccaneers have to decide what
Speaker 1: they're gonna do with. You know, he played last year
Speaker 1: after he sort of had a little career renaissance when
Speaker 1: he got cut by the Jaguars, came to the Bucks
Speaker 1: right before the season, didn't really take over the lead
Speaker 1: role from Ronald Jones most of the year, than Jones
Speaker 1: had some injury and COVID issues at the end, and
Speaker 1: he got the lead role at the end. It was
Speaker 1: just an absolute monster in the playoffs and probably thought
Speaker 1: there was gonna be more of a market for him
Speaker 1: last year in free agency, but it never really materialized.
Speaker 1: So he came back with a one year deal with
Speaker 1: the Bucks and showed that his stuff in the playffs
Speaker 1: the year before wasn't a fluke. He became a very
Speaker 1: important part of this offense. So the Buckner's obviously have
Speaker 1: to um really think hard about how hard they're going
Speaker 1: to try to go after learning for that. And it
Speaker 1: will be interesting this interesting to see. It's too fancy
Speaker 1: in here, That's what It'll be interesting to see if
Speaker 1: if there is more of a market for his services
Speaker 1: this year, and if there ever really is going to
Speaker 1: be big market for running backs again. You know, you
Speaker 1: see a big contract every now and then, usually like
Speaker 1: a Christian McCaffrey with the team that they're already on. UM.
Speaker 1: You don't really see a lot of guys hit it
Speaker 1: big in free agency at the running back position. But
Speaker 1: you know, he's still in his prime. He's he's i
Speaker 1: think four or five years into his career. Uh, he
Speaker 1: probably deserves a pretty good contract. We'll see if the
Speaker 1: Buccaneers can make it work out. I've always thought that
Speaker 1: was so interesting that the conventional wisdom always said that
Speaker 1: it was bad to draft running back so high because
Speaker 1: you can find them later or than the idea of
Speaker 1: the free agent part. But it's like, man, if if
Speaker 1: you don't feel like that second you know contract is
Speaker 1: as reliable for running backs, maybe you should just go
Speaker 1: after them in the draft. That It's just an interesting
Speaker 1: thing of all the ways that our views of how
Speaker 1: to find a good running back and how much value
Speaker 1: to place in it, either in the draft or in
Speaker 1: free agency, is so interesting. Yeah, I think you could
Speaker 1: probably do a strategy like that as a team. It's
Speaker 1: just as long as you can at least sort of hit.
Speaker 1: You could draft a first or second running round running
Speaker 1: back every four years and to just plan on not
Speaker 1: having the second contract with that guy. But it gets
Speaker 1: a little more difficult when that guy has performed for
Speaker 1: you really well and you see, well he really fits
Speaker 1: into our offense. He does a lot of things well
Speaker 1: that we want to do, and if we don't resign them.
Speaker 1: We got to find another guy and that's that is
Speaker 1: a lot easier so than done. Alright, our next question, uh,
Speaker 1: where did it go? Here? We go? All right, Robert
Speaker 1: wants to know, are we trying to keep Kappa and Jensen?
Speaker 1: I would think I would think so for sure, and
Speaker 1: especially now that Alan marp Pett is retired, and and
Speaker 1: those two things may go hand in hand. You know,
Speaker 1: there there are some cap and cash savings with Ali's retirement,
Speaker 1: and that could make it easier for the Buccaneers to
Speaker 1: try to bring Alex Kappa and or Ryan Jensen back.
Speaker 1: But you know, at the combine, both Bruce Arians and
Speaker 1: Jason Light really stressed how important it is to keep
Speaker 1: the offensive line strong. And they felt like they have
Speaker 1: some pieces, uh that could do that even if you
Speaker 1: lose what you did lose allimor Pett, even if you
Speaker 1: lose another one of these guys or both of them,
Speaker 1: they got some options, but they stressed how important it
Speaker 1: is to keep that offensive line strong. So when you
Speaker 1: look at that free agent list that was just up
Speaker 1: on the screen, you know, I have the top two
Speaker 1: guys on now it's ranked by it's ordered by how
Speaker 1: many starts they did last year. But you see the
Speaker 1: first two names up there are offensive lineman and I
Speaker 1: could see the Buccaneers looking the same way at their
Speaker 1: list and putting it in the same order because that's
Speaker 1: the top priority. Yeah, absolutely, all right. Our next one
Speaker 1: is from Richard. He says, out of all the other
Speaker 1: free agents, I think it means outside of Godwin, who
Speaker 1: is the most important to resign? Well, I think Jensen
Speaker 1: would be a big one. Can we see the list
Speaker 1: again so I can be reminded, um, Jensen or Kappa? Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, Jordan Whitehead had a really really nice year
Speaker 1: last year and um, and he's become one of the
Speaker 1: best safeties around the line scrimmage, you know, and in
Speaker 1: the box kind of safety, A real enforcer. Whenever he's
Speaker 1: close to line of scrimmage. He makes an impact almost
Speaker 1: all the time. Uh. I would hate to lose him.
Speaker 1: Although there is some depth at safety with Mike Edwards
Speaker 1: and then Carlton Davis, the important number for him there
Speaker 1: is that twelve. He missed seven games last year and
Speaker 1: he's had trouble playing a full season. He's had some
Speaker 1: injury issues and at the combine, both Bruce Arians and
Speaker 1: Jason Light praised him for being a very good player,
Speaker 1: but they both did mentioned he's like he's a he's
Speaker 1: a really good player when he's on the field. You know,
Speaker 1: he's he's had some injury issues and that has to
Speaker 1: be factored in. But on the other hand, you have
Speaker 1: a quarterback when he is on the field, has been mentioned,
Speaker 1: as Bruce Arians has mentioned, and he thinks he's one
Speaker 1: of the best corners in the league. So you know,
Speaker 1: you've got the two issues there, how good he is,
Speaker 1: but how availably he is, and but he's still an
Speaker 1: important player in our defense. Okay, Well we will close
Speaker 1: out with this one. S I said, Oh, I've clicked
Speaker 1: the wrong one sometime. We're not doing that. There go Sin,
Speaker 1: We're not gonna do that or get Russell. I don't
Speaker 1: know what's happening, but we're having our first technical issues
Speaker 1: all day. It was our first try. I know. Well,
Speaker 1: here's the thing, east Side, Yeah, I can just eat it.
Speaker 1: I can just read it here east I said, what
Speaker 1: are the top needs in the draft or are we
Speaker 1: going for best player available? Well, Bruce has said. Bruce
Speaker 1: Arians has said that they're in position to go for
Speaker 1: best player available and really they were in that position
Speaker 1: last year. Remember when we re signed, everybody had all
Speaker 1: the starters and regulars back from the championship team, and
Speaker 1: you really could have the luxury of picking like a
Speaker 1: defensive end even though you already have to, or outside linebacker,
Speaker 1: even though you already have two starters. They're taking a
Speaker 1: quarterback in the second round. Those were what you might
Speaker 1: call luxury picks. I don't know for in the exact
Speaker 1: same position this year. So I think when you when
Speaker 1: it comes down to it to pick twenty seven, if
Speaker 1: that's where we stay, that it will be best player available,
Speaker 1: sort of best player available at a position that the
Speaker 1: Buckets could probably use some help at. And the most
Speaker 1: obvious one now is is the inside of the interior
Speaker 1: line of the offensive line. With Ali's retirement and not
Speaker 1: only Kappa and Jensen, but also Aaron Stinny potential undrestricted
Speaker 1: free agents. We talked a lot about how we're hoping
Speaker 1: to get all those guys back, but it's not a guarantee,
Speaker 1: so you could end up needing your replace anywhere from
Speaker 1: one to three starters between your two tackles, and and
Speaker 1: that obviously makes it something that should probably be uh
Speaker 1: addressed in the draft. Other than that, I would also
Speaker 1: look at maybe running back if Leonard Fournette doesn't come back,
Speaker 1: and cornerback if Carlton Davis doesn't come back. And even
Speaker 1: if Carlton Davis does come back, you know what I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say, enough you can never get enough good. And
Speaker 1: we saw that again last year. We had so much
Speaker 1: trouble with the injuries. Last year very much made you
Speaker 1: look like a little nos John. You're signing guys off
Speaker 1: the street and then they're getting hurt. Um So, cornerback,
Speaker 1: if you could get a cornerback at the end of
Speaker 1: the first round, I would never complain about that. You'll
Speaker 1: find a way to use that guy absolutely all right, Well,
Speaker 1: that is going to do it for us. On this
Speaker 1: edition of Buccaneers Insider Live presented by Miller Lite, Thank
Speaker 1: you guys so much for joining us, and we'll see
Speaker 1: you next week.