Breaking Down the NFL Trade Deadline | Bucs Insider Live

in Nashville. Um, it was sort of a hard game to interpret at times of where man, lots of mistakes that happened, but then you're still have a lead, you know, late in the third, which based on how things have gone, I feel like that's sort of encouraging and not. It was just sort of a hard game to to figure out. And then you have the fumble at the end that turned into not a fumble, and I felt like it could have led a very different storyline. How how that

if that had gone differently minutes? Yeah, that's kind of handy in the end of a football game. I've heard to be ahead there, so just how how have you now that you've got a chance to look back at a little bit. Um, diagnosed what all pros cons good bad happened in that game. You know, during the game. The thing that struck me in the first half was that every time it seemed like we were grabbing the momentum in some way, we gave it right back. It was really an air filled and um first half and

uh first half full of momentum swings. As an example, very first possession, you get the big past inference calling Mike Evans part of his huge day. You got a first and goal right away, and then you don't get the ball in the end zone. So momentum momentum swinging back. First drive for Tennessee. The defense looks phenomenal. Jpp as a sack on the very first play of the season for him again it feels like, okay, we're taking control here.

The next six plays after the punt were essentially all negative. It was like penalty, penalty, penalty, uh, turnover, penalty, touchdown. And that kept happening throughout the first half, and it started to feel like, man, this is gonna be a long day. And then I will say, and I know I can't see quite what the comments are, but I'm suspecting they're not going to be very very today, happy today.

And I get that. So nobody's gonna want to hear me say that the word encouraging, I'm sure, but it was encouraging to me that they did come back from that. All those issues in the first half, some of themselves inflicted. Some of them just bad luck, you know, some of them good play by Tennessee. The touchdown right before the

half on a nice drive. Mike Evans had to make an amazing play to get us down there, and then he scored the touchdown on a really nice play by Jamis and then to get another touchdown right after the half. That was a nice job of coming back. And it was a bit surprising at that point when the defense which had given up very little, uh the two touchdowns the Tennessee scored where drives up like four and five yards, they had given up very little. They gave up two

extended drives that were ten points. And that was a bit surprising at the time. And that's what has to change, right, you know, somebody has to make a play in those situations, especially on third down, which is what Bruce arians was talking about. You just we gave up a couple of or downs that we have to not do and stop that drive. But even then you're down by four and

you still have a shot. And then the great play by Devin White on the fake field goal and what could have been a touchdown but wasn't, and then of course the fourth down play that didn't work, and so you end up at the end of that game. I think I think the team felt worse at the end of that game than any other game this year except maybe the Giants, and probably worse because things have accumulated since the Giants game just left you one and two.

This game leads you two and five. So a lot of emotional swings in that game, and and again at the end, it felt like really one other than the Giants game. It's the number one game that got away. But you at the end, you're like, how did we not win that game? Yeah, that's a great point. Um, I know we we're probably gonna get a million questions related to this topic, so we'll start. David asked, why was there not more of a push for help in the trade deadline? Well, again, it's the same, it's the

same answer as always. I know, it seems like the trade deadline and the week before, you know, there was a couple of deals made, There was a lot of activity, but overall there really wasn't how many teams actually went out and got something that helps them because there's not a whole lot of that available usually, right. I mean, a couple of guys got receivers, a couple of teams got receivers. Yet to be seen if mohammedan new is going to be a different s Maaker in New England

or or Emmanuel Sanders in San Francisco. Uh, you know what, they are sure they would have liked to tackle a you know, some offensive line help. Um, a cornerback who got one of those you know, a key till he was traded, but he's on injured reserve and he was basically it looked like a salary dump. So the reason that there wasn't a lot done is because there's usually not a lot done. Yeah, that's a great point, goodline, especially not something substantive that helps a team that's two

and five suddenly become a team that wins every week. Right. Um. I saw a few people asking about Brashad Perriman and if that would have been someone that maybe could have been either you know, traded or um just the idea of what his value is. Trade talks or e you when you're like, okay, I think we should trade Bushad Perriman for X. Well, you gotta get something to agree with you, right, Um, So all we had. There were also a few people asking just about his value um

to the team moving forward. And I've also seen a couple of people asking if, um, there's a chance that you could move like an O j Ra cam into that more of a true receiver spot. I think there's some valid um validiting to that. You. The point is, and I'm sure that person knows that are two starting receivers, Mike Evans and Chris Godwin are the most productive duo of receivers in the NFL, and it's not particularly close. Um,

and those guys are producing off the charts. I mean, it's amazing to me to think that Mike Evans is still on pace for about fifty yards when so is Chris Godwin. You would think that would be a little given take there, but I guess the give and take

has come with everybody else there. If you look at all of the people that have played third receiver for us, their combined output is very very small, Uh, and and I agree we have two tight ends at least maybe even three with Tanner Hudson who can do something and create mismatches in the passing game. And so yeah, what you're basically talking about is playing instead of playing is so much eleven personnel as we've been playing, playing more

twelve personnel. Uh. And then yeah, you could flex, ub, you could push, and they do. They can put Cam or or o g Out in a slot and create mismatches. And the good thing about that also is when you when you do go out there in twelve, defense usually responds with more of a base package than going to Nickel. So you're you're gonna have o J or Cam in the slot, and what does he what do they match up with him? It's usually a safety or linebacker. And that's of course they don't want to match him up

with the quarterback is of the size problem. But match them up certain safeties and certain linebackers are gonna have issues with the speed. Right. So yeah, I think there's a lot of validity and that and hopefully o J comes back quickly from his um hamstring injury. I know Cam was a bit beating up at the end of that game. So if those guys are available, like, I definitely think there's a lot of validity in that. Okay, and round that same position with Gene asked, what is

the status on Tanner Hudson. Um. I guess he's just sort of meaning the role that he could play moving forward or how we felt. That was his first game actually being active this season because o J was out. I think every game they're going to go into it with the intention of having three active tight ends. We have four on the roster, and there's gonna be three. Uh. Tanner was obviously active, and he's a pass catching tied in.

You remember from the preseason, he had an enormously good preseason, tons of numbers and a lot of really like acrobatic catches, I mean, really showed off some amazing hands. But the storyline along the same time was he's still developing as a blocker, same thing that they've said about Cam throughout his career. Um, so he's more likely to be your

replacement for O J when he's hurt. Right, Uh, You're gonna keep Antonio Claire up because they love his blocking and you need a guy like that for a lot of your two and three tighten sets, and then you have O. J. And Cam who are both good and proven pass catchers. So as long as those guys are healthy, Tanner sort of just waiting his turn, right, But I

do like him. I do like his potential. I was sad he didn't get that one touchdowns, especially he's from Tennessee and his whole family was there would be it was a it was a tough catch. Yeah, I don't think you're expected to make that catch, but maybe he would have. Um Nick said, looking at this first half of the season and the mistakes that have been happening, what do you think is the biggest issue that needs to be corrected, either for this season or for next year. Well,

the biggest issue just simply by the numbers. Obviously the past defense hasn't been good enough, although it was quite a bit better. I think in this last game, if you look at what the receivers for Tennessee did, it was about fifty yards. We didn't seem to have an answer. And I don't know if his breakdowns or mismatches or what. For their two tight ends, they koind of for about a d twenty of their two forty yards, right, um you know, the biggest issue for this team obviously is

the turnovers. But that's not as simple as saying, Okay, next year we have to have a few returnovers and there's It's not like they don't already know a lot of different things go into it. I mean, take one of the turnovers, the first fumble that went off James's face mask on the snap. Coach makes a point of telling us afterwards, and it seemed prettybvious actually watching it that really that wasn't Jameis fault ause the snap came too early, so then you think, well that was Then

that means it was the center's fault. Range in his fault because he snapped early. Well, Harold Goodwin on one of the radio shows on Money, he was with you, so you know, he explained that when it's loud in a visiting stadium, you often have a system where the guy next to him, who's a guard who can look back and get the signal from the quarterback right taps him and then that tells him okay, in a second, I snapped the ball. But didn't Harold say that he

was whoever was and Ali? Yeah, he said that it was Ali. That Ali was trying to communicate something else because essentially Jamis had asked to change who was going to be on the mic, and you know some of these matchups for blocking, and Ali was trying to convey that to Jens, trying to get his attention, and in doing that, tapped him in a too similar way to the hey, snap the ball right now. So yeah, it's just one of those sort of things. So yeah, one

of the things that you blame. You say, Okay, that was a turnover you shouldn't have in an easy touchdown for them, But that's kind of a flukey thing, right, I mean, yeah, Okay, Ali knows maybe next time to try to tap them in a different way, but that's not really like a problem you have to fix or

the last touchdown at the end of the game. Coach Coach Arian said after the game that the routes, the route wasn't run right and uh and Dave Moore, who was on her broadcast on the radio, was explaining that when it's when it's covered to like that, that route is supposed to cut more in like post and didn't. So yeah, that makes a lot harder to identify what all is going on that it's Yeah, if it's a

different reason for every turnover. It's hard to fix, but but I think there are things decision making, better protection, all that goes into Yeah, Michael said, do you think it is more personnel or scheme that is causing the secondary problems? Uh. I don't think it's scheme, but it

could be failure to execute the scheme. UM. In the last before the last game, because we haven't talked to him yet, Todd Todd Bowles was talking about what they were trying to clean up in the secondary because you know, Carolina game wasn't great and UM and he said the word communications settle times. So I think there's a lot of times when, especially if you're in zones or whatever you're you're trying to communicate with each other. There was a play the first touchdown for UM Tennessee in this

last game was really really easy. You know, you see a struggle on all these first and gold plays from the four and then they just do this really nice easy play to the tight end and they're like, well that was off the easy, but well there was a breakdown and communication on that and he essentially didn't get covered right. So it doesn't really matter what the scheme is if they're not getting right. Um, I think it's jammir.

I hope I'm saying that right. Um said, well, do you ever see Ronald Jones is getting more than twenty touches in a game? Well, twenties a lot. By the way, just so you know, I think Derrick Henry you would call him a bell cow back, right, he gets about twenty three touches a game Chris Carson for Seattle. I was just looking at his numbers. He gets about twenty three touches of game, So twenty touches a game is

a primary running back. I don't Ronald Jones isn't close to twenty touches a game yet, so let's get to twenty feet. But yes, I can see him getting I thought there were several carries in the Tennessee game where he looked really sharp. The running game never really quite got going. I think we ended up with a hundred six yards, but fifty three of those were Jamus scrambling. But she did a good job, by the way, Um, yes, I can see Ronald Jones his share of touches getting higher. Okay.

Dennis asked, do you see Earl Watford taking over the starting position? And then we also had a couple other people just ask about the old line overall and how we feel like they're playing. Yeah, no, I wouldn't think so, because I thought they were pretty happy with Alex Kappa before he got hurt. So when Alice can return, um, I think he'll go right back in there. But it's nice to have Rol Watford, who has been solid in his in his place. Um. The old line, you know,

ups and downs. There's been times this year when I think they played really well. I wouldn't say we've had the performance of one of the best lines in the league or anything, but it hasn't been a disaster. Yeah. Um. We also had a few different people asking about the play calling overall, and do you see how much Bruce is or isn't involved, And then just overall how the

offensive play calling seems to have gone. You know, when when Bruce talks about some place that went wrong, and sometimes and all coaches say this, they'll come down to execution. You know, there wasn't really necessarily anything wrong with that play call. It is just we didn't execute it very well. And then there's a few times when he'll say I

should have vetoed it. So you know, Byron left, which is making the calls, but obviously Bruce is on the helmet, and you go, yeah, you know, I don't think we should do that. And I'm sure the fact that he has said on several occasions I probably should have vetoed that play means there are times when he vetos plays so um he's involved in the offense, but Byron is

still a play caller. I mean, the offensive output as a whole has not been terrible, and I understand there are moments like the fourth and one carry that was so critical at the end of the game that we didn't get where people are going to second guess play calls and you're you're that's what you do as a fan. There's nothing wrong with that. That's part of the process. That's part of the enjoyment. You know, you know that guy shouldn't have done that, they should have done this, whatever,

And that's part of being a fan. I get it. I'm personally not a huge believer in second guessing play calls because I think generally you're doing it because it just didn't work. My point would be the opposite of that would be saying, oh, that was a terrible play call, but it worked. Often do you hear that. You never hear that, You only hear the opposite, that was a terrible call because it didn't work. Um, you know, I don't get me wrong. There there have to be times

when coaches make bad calls. And maybe that fourth on one call was a bad call. I don't know. But most of the time it really just it's a play that didn't work, so therefore it looks like a bad call. And take that fourth in one run. I know how I react to it emotionally on the moment. I don't like it, and I think part of that is because it's such a quick thing. Okay, you know this play is absolutely critical. If we don't get it, we're losing

the game. You know that. So he's like, we have to make this play and then it's snap handoff, tackle done, and you're like, that's it. If it had been something like Jamis rolls out, he's got two levels, he's maybe he can run for it. Then as the play is developing, you're thinking, well, if something breaks down, maybe something else can happen. But that play could blow up to it took a little bit longer, and now you're thinking, maybe

we had a shot. But all comes down to that fourth and according to Bruce, the fourth and one play didn't work because there was miss block on the back side. Okay, well, if you do that roll up play I was just talking about, it could not work because the Titan was supposed to release in this direction and he went too deep or something. You know what I'm saying. But I understand because it just happened so fast and then it's over and you're like, well, we had to have that

and we ran straight into the line and nothing happened. Yeah, understandable. Yea, all right, Well that's gonna do it for us. In this edition of Buccaneers and Satura I presented by Miller Lyte. Thanks so much for being with us, and we'll see you back here next week.