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