Breaking Down Potential QB Competition & Offseason Moves | Bucs Insider

with the media. And last week when we did the show, it was sort of like there were reports we couldn't talk about yet, so now we can talk about it. Tell me your initial thoughts on bringing Baker Mayfield in and what you think his participation could be in this team when he could bring his experience and just kind

of what fans might not know about her. I think I think the move makes sense for both the team and the player of The Bucks obviously needed some sort of veteran competition at the very least for Kyle Trask. And you have a guy that has started in this league quite a bit, and Baker, I mean look around the league. Where else could he have gone with as clear of an opportunity to compete for a starting job.

You know, it's not being given to him. They've made it extremely clear, especially to him, that this is a competition. So Kyle Trask could win that job, Baker Mayfield could win that job. But where else was Baker going to go for this clear cut of an opportunity. Yeah, and to have the kind of weapons the Bucks have. You know that if you're going to try to compete for a starting job, then you care about what's going to be there if you win it. And he's looking forward

to throwing the ball to Mike and Chris. He called him dogs. I love that, which is true. Now, what you're hoping for, obviously, is that you get the twenty twenty version of Baker Mayfield. And you know, in twenty twenty one he struggled with a shoulder injury. Who knows how much that affected him, but it wasn't as good

of a year. Last year with Carolina didn't really work out, and then he kind of had a little renaissance to their team with the Rams, particularly starting less than forty eight hours after he got there and helping them beat the Raiders. But if you can get to twenty twenty version of Baker Mayfield, which is not that long ago.

This is pretty good. I mean, he led his team to the playoffs, first time they'd been in playoffs in like eighteen years, sixty two point percent completion percentage, thirty five hundred yards, and that touchdown to interception ratio is what you're looking for. That's what hasn't been there in the majority of in his other seasons. That really good touchdown to interception ratio. Too many picks and other seasons.

But man, if you can get that, and there's no reason why that can't happen, right, I mean, the circumstances were probably really good in Cleveland that particular year, But I think you've got a similar thing here with the Buccaneers. So you know, it's who knows, right. It's not like the Buccaneers know for sure that Baker Mayfield is gonna play that good. But there's there's a chance, there's a shot.

It's totally worth the role of the dice, I think, and it's I think it's going to be so fun to watch a quarterback competition that I was thinking in my time here with the Bucks, I haven't watched. Were talking about that the other day Yeah, how long has it been since there's been a quarterback competition? And man talk about training camp storylines that are fun to watch and you know, reasons to come out and come to practice.

It's going to be really fun to I mean twenty twelve there was there was Josh Freeman and Mike Lennon, but I don't think we knew it was a competition. We didn't know that, Greg Shan, I don't want to get rid of Josh Freeman. So it took three games in the season two thousand and nine when Josh Freeman was drafted, you had him and Byron Leftwich and Josh Johnson and maybe in May you didn't know who's going to start. But it really wasn't a big competition in

training camp. So I really can't tell you. Maybe Vinney Testaverdi and Chris Chandler back in the early nineties. There just haven't been a lot of these QB competitions. So it's it's kind of interesting. It is, we'll make for an interesting campers it is, which is you know, we kind of enjoy the interesting storylines of now here. Yeah, you know, you really don't want to have back competitions a lot, right, because you want to have a good, solid,

settled quarterback. But hey, if you don't have that and Tom Brady anymore, then this could the next best thing. Yeah, I agree. And also another edition for free agency, the Bucks now have a new running back. Tell us about this edition and what you think that that role would be looking at, especially with Rashad White. I'm gonna do the same thing I did with Baker Mayfield there. And I don't mean to be cherry picking here and saying, you know, picking the one time they were good and

saying that's that. But you could understand why the Buccaneers would sign these players because they have reasonably they can be that version of themselves. Chase Evans spent four pretty good years in Arizona, then last year signed with Miami, and Miami signed about a thousand running backs, give or take a few, and so it never really He never really got much a role there in Miami and got

traded to Denver, whose offense was a mess too. So if you write that off and go back to his last full season in Arizona, that was twenty twenty one, again not very long ago. These are his per game and per carry averages, so that's about seventy five yards a game. Would you take seventy five yards of scrimmage from your backup running back? Yes, per game? And yards per carry is good. Yards perception. You don't see yards for touch very often. You know that's yards for all

carries in catches combine. You just don't see that Stevery oven. So it was five point seven good? Do you have any idea is five point seven goods? It's pretty good for running back? Last year, our guy Leonard Fournette was four point five, Rashad White was five point zero, se Quon Barkley was four point seven. Josh Jacobs five point two. Nick Chubb. I'm not saying he's Josh Jacobs or Nick Chubb. I'm just saying there's reason to believe he can give you good quality snaps on offense and and be an

asset to that. Yeah. I think I saw that. What is it? He and sa Quon Barkley are the only ones from that draft class that have what is it? Fifteen hundred rushing yards and a thousand receiving both good. Yeah, I thought that was pretty cool. I mean, anytime it's you and sa Quon Barkley, I'll take that stab anytime, And so, yeah, what do you see as the way potentially he and Rashad White kind of get used off of each other. How could they help each other potentially?

And just now again we have a new offensive coordinator. We don't know as much about what the offense overall could look like, except he did say he really wants to emphasize that run game. He does want to make sure that we have a running game, which we haven't had for the last couple of years. And so I think that means, you know, like most teams, you're running backs, you do have a number one, Rashad White your number one, but you have several that you use quite a bit

during the game. Most teams are like that. Most teams don't have one Saquon Barkley that they ride on every snap or Derreck Henry. So you need a couple guys. And I could see him, especially carving out a third down role. He's a good pass catcher out of the backfield, I would imagine, although I can't say no for sure that having played that role in his career pretty steadily, he's probably a good pass blocker as well. Has to

be in order to be the third guy. Rashad White catches the ball well, but I don't know if he's your every down, third down guy, so at the very least I think he can be that. Okay, And then I know, we also had another signing, Cam Gill. This is a guy that's been with us before, and I feel like this is definitely going to be one of those under the radar signings in terms of just name recognition all of that. But for me, I'm actually really intrigued and excited by this. This is a guy that

I think we've both been kind of fascinated by. Has an interesting story. So tell people a little bit about what this real small school guy. I think Wagner correctly him. You know, he came in, made the roster as an undrafted free agent out of Wagner as in his rookie year, didn't really play a lot, and then very notably got his very first SAC ever in the Super Bowl half

and half with domin Coin Sue. But then in twenty twenty one only played maybe one hundred snaps of defense, but did have a sack and a half, had some quarterback pressures, and last year, going into training camp, you know, we eventually signed Karl Nasson Dard Avery, right, But the plan was he was going to be the fourth guy in your olb rotation, which means he would have played

a handful of snaps. And then had it been that way when Shaq got hurt, he would have moved up into the third role and would have played a lot lot more. Instead, he had a Liz Frank injury in his right foot in the first preseason game, was gone for the year, and the Bucks eventually signed Karl Masse and Card Avery. But he was intended to have a pretty significant role and so we'll see if you can

do that again. He plays on special teams as well. Yeah, And I think it's also good to emphasize not only like what you said about he being an undrafted guy who was able to make the roster, it was in the COVID year where there was like no off season, so I think about what a limited time this guy had.

It's already stacked against you in terms of even having you know that ability no matter what when you're undrafted, but when there's almost no snaps that speaks so highly to what he does, and then you see it when he gets in the game. So few snaps and he makes that mark that he's a guy that no matter where, how little he's given, he makes something of it. It reminds me kind of what we talked about with Mike Edwards of where he may not have played as much, but every time he was in it felt like he

got an interception. That cam Gill kind of feels like that to me of when he may not play that many snaps, but when he gets in there, he makes a mark. You know who else came in the league as an undrafted guy and kind of weigh his chance to get a shot, Shack Barrett. That's true's and what a great guy to learn from. In recent we do have a couple bits of news so we can talk about yeah, yeah, go ahead. I've been told you know,

I know, we've been said said several times. We really before the team announces things, you kind of have to sit on a little bit, like we did with Baker Mayfield last year. But I am led to believe that Greg Gaines, that defensive lineman from the Rams, is going to officially sign today with the Buccaneers, and that Levante David,

thank Goodness, is going to officially signed. So that's probably going to happen today, yes, well, and the Great Gains one is interesting just in general, where do you see our defensive line at this point and in terms of who we have who is that you know, how much of a position is that going to be where they might still need to add some pieces and you know just how those snaps are going to be shared at

this point. Well, you've already lost Rakine Nuna's roches or Natro to the Giants, so at the very least it's a one for one replacement there. And Nato played a lot, you know, especially when Vito get would get banged up. Real good backup nose tackle. I think Great Gains probably has a little bit more of a pass rush to him. He's got eight and a half sacks in the last

couple of years. Really kind of didn't get a lot of playing times first couple of years, but it has the last two and has really kind of, you know, emerged as a pretty decent guy in there. To give you He's sturdy and good against the rum, but he gives a little bit of a pass rush to him. And Vita Vea played together for three years at Washington and their stats for those three years were practically identical. Yeah, the our scouts love them some Washington the guys, and

you've been able to see why they've the line. It's incredible. Yeah, and then I mean even Kadalen, Right, that's right. But I'm also always thinking you mencho try and say yes. But I was just saying in general, like our team overall, they're just collecting these kinds they've done for Yeah. So that's a good edition, and obviously we're thrilled out the Dante. Yes, Yes,

everyone is excited for that. All right, Well, we are going to also record our road to the draft after this, So for all these moves that we just talked about and more, we're going to discuss how they might affect what the Bucks are or are not going to do in the draft. To make sure you stay tuned for that later on on Buccaneers dot com. And we'll see you next time.