Good morning everybody. It is time for Buccaneers Inside or Live. Casey Phillips here with Scott Smith, and this is as always where we take your questions, talk about everything you want to hear about your team. Before we get into that, I gotta shout out I got my Bucks Vote t shirt on and little sticker because I voted right send it in today, so made officials. So again, just wanted
to let everybody know Bucks Vote. If you guys have any questions about getting registered or making sure actually the registration deadline is past, but if you need some information on how to vote, where to vote, all of that stuff, you can text Bucks Vote to to six seven nine seven. It has been so cool to see the initiative that the team has taken on to help get the word out about voting. So again we're getting down to the wire here, so make sure you've got a plan. Don't
wait till the last minute, get out, get your vote going. So, now that we've gotten the voting party on the way, I want to hear from you. I know we had essentially sort of a bonus practice yesterday and a whole flurry of roster moves, So why don't we kind of start with the roster moves and then what you were able to see in the limited part of practice that was open yesterday to tell us kind of where we're
at in terms of injuries. Well, it all began with the it's all it's all stemming from early v to Vea's injury, which is really a terrible happenstance for him first and foremost of course, but also a huge blow to the Bucks defense. Um and also Jack Cichy, who's as we know, has had some bad injury uh fortune throughout his NFL career. He's got a hamstring injury and
hopefully this is short term. I are for him. But both those guys went on I R. And then the Buccaneers promoted a veteran corner, Ross Cockrell, from the from the practice squad, and also Chappelle Russell, the rookie, the seventh round linebacker. He should be a one for one replacement for Jack Cichy and probably play on special teams.
A bunch of players added the practice squad. We brought back Cody McElroy, the tight end at Travis Johnson receiver Eccentric were running back, and then a linebacker that's new to the team named t Gray Scales. Don't really know a whole lot about him yet. He hasn't played any NFL games yet all so we've uh Parnell Motley, and I think he did get claimed by the forty Niners.
That's the rookie corner. I wonder if the Buccaneers were hoping to make a switch between the practice squad and the active roster between him and Cockerell and just couldn't quite get him through waivers. So there's a few other moves, but that's the That's the meat of it right there, Okay, And then what you learned from watching practice in terms of I know that I'm sure the vast majority of our questions today are going to be about injury updates.
Who's going to be available, who's not. We talked about we know that Vita's out for a while, but a lot of these offensive injuries that um, we're hoping maybe the extra days could help get some guys back. So, UM, I know we won't have an actual injury report until today because that was a bonus practice yesterday, But what could you tell based on who was out there? Well, Fortunately for us, even though we don't we didn't get
an actually injury report yesterday. Bruce arians did make a few statements that you could, um, you know that we're actually pretty informational at the best, one being that he thought there was a good chance that all of those injured running backs and receivers who have been missing time could be back on the practice field by Thursday and some capacity. Some of them are already back, like Mike
Evans and Scottie Miller and Justin Watson. And we're talking about in the case of Evans and Miller, two guys that have actually been playing through injuries, and I think it's pretty obvious it's it's not been easy for them and it's limited their production a little bit. But with that long weekend, hopefully those guys are closer to and then so we're waiting on guys like Chris Godwin, Leonard for Lett, and Lashawn McCoy and so we'll see on
Thursday if it does work out as well. Um. On Tuesday, at the portion of practice that we were allowed to watch, all those guys were out on the field and running around a little bit, but it was it was you know, conditioning work and not not actual practice. Okay, we had a question from Tony who asked, what do you think we do on the defensive line now that Vita's out? Well, the number one guy that's gonna pick up more time is uh Nacho as we call him a Rakie Nunez roaches.
He was really one of the main stars of training camp. So it's actually you wouldn't want it to happen this way, but it's actually pretty cool that he is getting an opportunity to see more playing time just to see what we saw in training camp can translate to a big role in games. Uh. He actually added upper body bulk and strength in the off season because he was told by a team they wanted him to be the primary nose tackle to share snaps with Vita Veas. So he's
ready for this role. He's also done this before in Kansas City a few years back, so he's ready. But another guy that I think, um, you might just see more of his Will Golston. He's been a bit of the unsung hero on that line. I think you might be surprised to know that Will Galston actually leads this team with seven quarterback hits right now. He's always been
a key to the rush defense. He's got a couple of sacks, so he would often come off the field in our sub packages when you only have two down linemen. Maybe he'll get to see some more time in those packages with in Domi Kun Sue and get a chance
to rush the passer a little bit more. Yeah, I've heard from both Bruce and Todd Bowls recently on a couple of the shows that I've done with them about how this defense fits Will Golston so well, and that Todd Bowls even talked about how similar it is to what he played in college and so in sort of your your biggest formative years there. So it has been
really cool to see that. I think he is a guy that, for whatever reason we just haven't always talked about as often, hasn't gotten all the accolades he deserves. But now it does feel like this defense and this year seemed to just be right up his alley and letting him really show off his skill set. I'm sure We'll himself would tell you that every one of his seasons since he arrived here hasn't been great. Some of them have been up and some have been down, but
some of them have been really good. And to build on your point about playing in that system in college. That's exactly why the Buccaneers drafted him when they did, and it was a great Shiano year. And even though you would not realize this because one was a four three and one supposedly a three four, the two systems are actually very similar for the guys up front. And so this defense is very much what Will was drafted for and it's so it's not a huge surprise that
he's succeeding in it. Yeah, that's an interesting point. Um, Okay, So Michael asked, what are some of the keys to the game plan against the Packers? Well, you know, how do you stop the highest scoring team in the league with the scoring thirty eight points a game and being led by Aaron Rodgers who seems to have a chip on his shoulder. To prove the doubters wrong and to prove the Packers wrong for drafting Jordan's Love. Jordan Love might be the rookie of the year if you consider
his drafting pushing Rogers to doing what he's doing. As Bruce Arian said, you can't be be scared though when you play against Aaron Rodgers, you have to you have to be aggressive, and so I think the key is probably going to be getting some pressure on him. It would be best if that could occur with just your front guys, your pass rushers, four guys hopefully, so you don't have to blitz. Because obviously Aaron Rodgers has seen at all and can extend plays and can make big
plays against the blitz. So blitz is a big risk reward, big risk, big reward um proposition against Daron Rodgers. So getting pressure up front with your main rush would be would be important. I think, yeah, And I've thought about how important playing penalty free or less gonna lie us will be because Aaron Rodgers has just always been so good at taking advantage of those free plays. That's exactly right.
Oh my gosh. When he it's like you you can almost see the excitement he gets when he sees that flag and he knows that there's there's no you know, worries about what he does and he can just air it out that That seems like when he does some of his best work. So I feel like we're definitely on at least on that side of the ball for sure. I'm gonna have to make sure that we don't give him those free plays. Um, Aaron asked, will Tanner Hudson be more involved with the offense now that o J
Is out? I think he already was. I think you saw him get a number of targets in that game in Chicago. Yes, And Tanner Hudson at the moment is more of a pass catching tight end, so uh, then he is a blocker. So I still think your primary to tighten sets are going to be uh, Gronkowski and Cam Break. But yeah, he's he's getting some action in there. And we all know he's got fantastic hands. Mike Kevan says he's got the second best hands on the team after him. Um, and you know he's an athletic guy
who's got a lot of potential. We talked about him a lot during training camp, how we thought this guy would be on the rae Man roster for almost every team in the league, but it was gonna be tough for him with the tied end depth that we had. But as you can see, uh, we ended up needing him. So um, yeah, I think I think you'll see a little bit more Tanner Hudson. I don't I still don't think he's going to get the same amount of targets as gronkows game break, but I think he'll be involved well.
And actually that works out because our next question was from Kevin asking about how Breake fits in with that with o J being out, So it's kind of funny to hear you can tell that each of them have sort of been given credit for filling in for the O J role to a degree. So I guess overall, how do we we We've only really had one game to look at, But how you think o J being out has affected the whole group? And and is it more of a replacement by committee or is it more
of break specifically. Yeah, it's a little bit of a committee thing, because I think Tanner Hudson is if you're if you're trying to replicate those plays where you get down the field quickly like O J. Cannon, you can work the seams, maybe get some mismatches against the linebacker that you can beat. Uh, that's more like Tanner Hudson. He's more likely to get farther down the field and make plays like that. But we all know that can
break and make. Is just such a sure handed receiver and a good route runner and a very trusted guy for his quarterbacks. So you see him catch a lot of passes, um, you know, of the more like eight to tin variety or the big ones in the red zone where he's he's fantastic from about the eighteen yard line in runs that like skinny post and makes the catch in traffic. He did, however, catch a twenty yard pass on third and fifteen in the last game, So I guess every now and then you can get him
down the field a little bit. Okay. Mark asked, do you see Jamal Dean becoming the starter opposite of Carlton Davis in base defense? Uh? Well, I mean, what's the impetus for that. I mean, the past defensive were all. It seems like it's been pretty good. And also it's been in it's always in nickel more often than not. In some teams, that's up to like you know, that depends on what the offense does, and sometimes that's up
to like, Um, I mean, it's possible. That's what they said at the beginning of the year that that was going to remain a competition, and so Dean is Dean is obviously, uh, putting up some numbers. He had four passes defense in the last game. He was encouraged on the tight end a lot in that game, so I'm not sure that was necessarily him being just the outside guy covering the outside receiver. So I think they like
to set up the way they have it. But yeah, the guy that's producing the most is going to be on the field. Okay. And we had Sean asked why we're wearing the white jerseys more than the red so far this season, and I always always love that question, and it's very fair. Um. I think a lot of times people don't know that you have to select it all before the season starts, and so it's not just a week by week thing, and so knowing how hot it can potentially be, they want to be in the
lightest color possible early on. Is that Is that accurate? That's what I feel like I've always heard. Yeah, And it's a shame that you can't pick week the week. You basically have to pick way back in like May, uh not long after the schedule comes out, and then all your choices are communicated to your opponents, so that you know, I'm saying you choose what you're wearing at home, I should put that out there first, which is communicated to your opponents, so they know they have to wear
the opposite. If you're wearing white, they have to wear the color jersey, and vice versa. Uh. And then of course worked a bit at the whim of the opponent. Uh, unless we decided to wear our alternates, which I believe we're doing three times, which is great because they're awesome, the Pewter ones. But if they decide to go color at home, you know, like if you're in Denver and they want to wear their color jerseys in their nice
sixty degree weather, then we're going to be in white. Um. So, like you said, the Bucks do this every year because we all know it's still hot here, very very hot now most years, all the way through October. So we usually don't even try to wear anything but white at home until November to give our um, to give us an advantage, whatever advantage you can get, put your opponents
in the dark color. And so the combination of having to wear white on the road a lot because other teams choose their color, plus us wearing white early in the year is why you end up with that. It's it's always been that way through the history of ye Yeah. Yeah, And thankfully our white jerseys are great. We're a big fan, so I have it stay back here. Um. Gilbert had asked, Uh, does Tyler Johnson looked promising now that he's gotten some reps. Yeah. Yeah,
I thought he had a nice game. Um. You could see his run after the catchability, which is something that I was talked about. You also could see that he could get open short and intermediate. I didn't really throw him a bomb yet, but he had that one down field where he turned it into a thirty five yard play. Um. That was another part of the scouting report on him. He's just naturally good at getting open at several levels on the field. So I think he's very promising. Yeah. Absolutely.
And Dan had asked, how do you see the running back carries be split? Win for net and Shady possibly come back, but now Rojo's coming off a couple straight hundred yard games. Probably about the same, though. I mean, I still think that coach wants to run to at least two guys to carry the ball during the game. Uh. Shady, if he's back, would probably go back into a third down role, although I wonder if Keyshawn Vaughan might start to eat into that a little bit because he looks
like a pretty good pass catcher out of the backfield. Um. In the last game, I think Ronald Jones had all of the carries, uh, and you know, with those guys out, but there were only seventeen of them, and we only had twenty carries overall, because I think Tom Brady had like three kneel downs or he had that one sneak um, but really just seventeen handoffs in the game and they all went to Ronald Jones. But that's because he only had seventeen. We probably want to be somewhere in the
thirty range. And in that case, there's definitely room for both him and four net or Vaughan, but probably four net when he's back to get some carries. Okay. And related to that, James h or Sorry Alex had asked, do you think Keyshaw Vaughn will be more involved after his production in recent weeks. It seems like it's gonna be. It's a little hard to answer that question right now, when when we don't know what the picture has looked like,
when all those guys are healthy. So the very first time that we have Leonard Fournette back and then Keyshaw Vaughn is active, we'll get a better feel for it, which could be this Sunday of course. Um, you know, I still think it's gonna be hard for Keshan to get a bunch of carries in the foreseeable future as long as Leonard Fournett is active, but he could factor into the passing game a bit more, as I said before. Okay, we'll close at this. Anthony asked Carlton Davis is tied
for um the league and interceptions. What do you think he has done to improve his game from last season to this season. Yeah, I think he must have just been working on getting his head around to to see the ball. Um, you know, sooner. Uh, he has been since last year. For most of the last year, he's been very, very good in coverage and he ends up with a lot of passes defense. But he didn't get he didn't translate into interceptions because he wasn't seeing the
ball in front of him. I mean, I mean, some of it is just just making an incredible play like the one in Chicago. He just threw his hand in there and then caught the deflection. So maybe it's just a matter of because his coverage has been so tight and remains that way, that the opportunities are coming and now he's just starting to take advantage of them a little bit. Okay, well that's gonna do it for us.
On this edition of Bucckeers Insider Live presented by Miller Lte, we will be coming to you live forty five minutes before kickoff on Sunday before the Packers games. We hope to see you guys. Then, have a great rest of your week here, he thought him