Welcome into Buccaneers Insider Live, presented by Miller. Like Casey Phillips here it was senior writer and editor Scott Smith. It is great to be doing this in person. We're back and we are back in Indie. We are in the convention center right now. Actually right behind the cameras what's called Radio Row. There a whole bunch of different teams and reporters set up there. But as you can tell, right behind us, that is the official bench press. Now, no,
those are not actual Combine participants. These are high schoolers that they have allowed to come in and try some of the drills. In case you're like me and thinking these prospects get younger and younger, we were a little worried we were getting very old. So we got which is also tu these are not usually exclusive. So yeah, we got the bench press right behind us. And then on the other side of those curtains over there is where we had guys like Bruce arians Jason like doing
their media appearances yesterday. So first I want to talk about that. What do you feel like you learned, because man's we haven't heard from them in a little bit, and there's there's been some developments since we've gotten to talk to them, So what were some of the biggest things that they were getting asked about and that you felt like you learned? And they talked to us up to this I too, with like a little local contingency.
So we got a good half hour with each guy yesterday and I guess maybe learned isn't the right word, but reconfirmed that this team does not feel like it's in the rebuild mode, even with a couple of Pro bowlers retiring on us. Uh, this is a team that I think it was Bruce, I mean Jason light who said, we think we're in position to make another very strong run at the at the division championship, and you know
that's the first goal. Obviously, the biggest goal is the Super Bowl of the year, but the best way to get there is to win your division first, like the Bucks did last year. So uh, there, they think that the roster is talented enough even without Tom Brady, that this team, especially with the defense that we have going and some things they think they can do on offense, will be competitive again next year. So there's no tear down going on here. Yeah, and you mentioned the couple
of Pro bowlers retiring on us. We've all heard about Tom Brady, we know that what happened there, But the Ali Marpette one has happened since we had our last show, and that one I think was very much less expected than the Brady one potentially. So what have you seen from the reaction from the team and fans and everybody
about Hey, what he meant to this organization? But be what this now means in terms of the priorities in the draft, priorities in the free agency, and how you try to replace a guy like him who has been just such a huge part of this team in this offensive line. It was definitely a shock. I mean, it was a three pm on Saturday on Sunday, I think, and I know I wasn't expecting. And Alan mar Pet's been in the league seven years, He's twenty eight years old.
You could easily say he's in the prime of his career or he was first Pro Bowl just made his first Pro Bowl. Although when that happened, I think the general since was finally right. Probably been three or four seasons where he could have been easily been a Pro Bowler. But the only thing, the only reaction you can really have in this situation is to be happy for Ali because obviously he had his reasons for doing so, and doing this is what's going to make him happy now
and going forward. So you just look back and you you're you're thankful for what he did for the franchise, which was a lot and helped us win that Super Bowl championship, and uh, it was a great, great career for him, even just seven years, you'd have to say he's one of the best offensive lineman in team history. But what do the Buccaneers do to move forward? I mean, you got to do something right now. You're looking at
the situation. The Buccaneers had three Pro Bowl, three offensive linemen in the Pro Bowl, and by a lot of metrics, had maybe the best Pro Bowl breast offensive line in the NFL last year. But Ali's retired and center Ryan Jensen and left and right guard Alex Kappa are both potential unrestricted free agents. So that's a little bit worrisome, right,
That's a lot to potentially have to replace. But Bruce Arian said, Ali's retirement definitely, uh, definitely changes how you approach free agency, and in particular those two offensive lineman there's more money to spend now the Bucaneers might go a little bit harder to try to keep Jensen and
or Kappa right. And so, now, what are some of the other priorities that this could affect in terms of the cap space and looking at what else we need of are there going to be things now that you didn't think you needed an alignment where that's got to take precedent. And then also if regardless, what is this free up for some of those other areas that you're trying to look for. Well, I mean again, I think
it probably just stays in that same category. Whatever you've freed up here with Ali in terms of the cap, you have more than you can allocate either to Jensen and or Kappa or somebody from the outside. But also I think it does sort of change your focus in this draft just a little bit. Uh Or Jason Light said yesterday that this is a draft where we we I think actually I think it's Bruce arians where we'll be going for best player available. It's not positional need.
That's something that every team believes and says, but when it comes down to a generally, the positional need does factor in when it comes time when you're on the clock in the second round or something. Um, you may be picking best player available, or you maybe picking best player available at one of these couple of positions that
we really need. UM, so I think you should. You could see the the solution for that three man interior line be a combination of more aggressively going after Jensen and Kappa something in the draft, and then these young guys that they like, like Robert Hanzi and Nick Leverette and Sidarius Hutcherson, a lot of guys that Bruce talked about yesterday, young guys he thinks are ready to potentially step up into bigger roles. And then there's been some other news that has come out this week. This has
just been a crazy week all the way around. And the first bit I feel like people are going to hear about because I think you and I this might be the most common question we've been asked, at least in my seven years of being here, when are the throwback uniforms coming back? And you and I have never had an answer for that, and we finally have an answer for that. It's funny how much is going on because you said you were gonna talk about another topic
that we haven't talked about yet. And that's not even the one I thought. Yeah, yeah, there are so many so we still have more, so don't worry. So the throwback uniforms are coming back in three It won't be this season, but it will be the one after that.
First time since I think two thousand and thirteen, the throwbacks stopped happening because the NFL changed their rules about how many sets of helmets that teams could use, and the Buccaneers couldn't really would have had to wear the Peter helmets, which wouldn't look good with the old Buck Bruce throwback. So they're coming back. We know the fans love them. We love them. Um, it's as soon as we could have possibly gotten them in terms of getting
the uniforms. We just couldn't for supply side reasons. We just couldn't get it done for two But they're back in Okay. And then we also found out we're going to journey. Yeah, that we are finally found out we are definitely playing a game in Germany this year. So how exciting is that for for you and for the
team at large. It's great. So there's four games coming in Germany and over the next four years, one each year Munich Frankfort, Munich, Frankfort, and the Buccaneers are the designated team for the very first one of those games. This is the first NFL game ever played in Germany. Now, I don't know how many of the people watching have been founding the NFL long enough to remember days of like NFL Europe. It's called World League of Football at
one point. I think it's been called many things. Probably the place where NFL football was most popular during that time was Germany. Like four of the teams were in Germany, and there's millions of NFL fans in Germany already. And the Buccaneers recently got an international Home Marketing Agreement area
UH granted to them for Germany. So the Buccaneers will be marketing themselves in Germany, trying to you know, create more fans there and create opportunities for fans to get merchandise and and other things, and and so getting to play a game there on top of that is just really really exciting to be the first team to do. So we don't we don't know our pony yet, but we're the designate team for that game, and yeah, it's
really exciting. The Buccaneers will played games in London. They played a preseason game in Japan, but Germany is a new territory. It's gonna be incredible. And then we will close with this. Also, the team announced some new coaches on staff. Uh so overall some some shake up there. What do you see as that impacting the team? And some of the people brought in, some of the people leaving.
But still how secure overall the coaching staff is these last few years of that continuity, there hasn't been much change in Bruce arians was actually said he was actually, I won't use the exact words, but he wasn't very happy that. I mean, he's happy that that Byron Leftwich and Todd Bowles are still around for selfish reasons, but he's not happy that those guys haven't gotten their opportunities yet.
And so the Buccaneers over the last two years, despite all their success, haven't had to make too many changes to the coaching staff, which is great because that's a strength of the team and continuity is awesome. So each
year there's just been a few changes. This year, uh, Mike Caldwell went to become the defensive coordinator for the jag Wires, and so the Buccaneers brought in a former coach that had worked with Bruce Arians as a linebackers coach back with Cardinals, and I have to admit that right now and blanking on the name, and now I am fair to him because he's a very well tinured coach and it's just that we've just had this new yas. Yeah, I wasn't prepared for that question. My apologies on my
end for not remembering right now. Um, but he's a he's a very well established coach coach that position under Bruce Arians. And then there's been a couple of their changes sort of at the quality control level. Yeah, and then Larry Foote moving over to the inside linebacker instead of outside. Also, um, uh Rick Christophel is now the assistant uh is An is a senior offensive assistant, which opens up the tight ends job for John Dan Dan who had been the quality i mean the assistant Titans coach,
but now he's in charge of the tight ends. But it is incredible how much consistency there has been there and that is a huge factor for a team. All right, well, that is going to do it for us. On this edition of Buccaneers Insider Live presented by Miller White. Thank you so much for joining us, and stay tuned all the rest of our combine coverage on buccaneers dot com w pfe A. Here, he thought,