Bucs Insider Live, Oct. 16

some of those. I just wanted to hear your thoughts on we found out the big news yeshay, Mike Smith being released and you have now Mark Duffner being promoted. So what do you feel like this does for the team right now? And how does something like this you get employed? Even? I mean, what are the tangible effects of something like this? Well, first of all, before I directly answer that, I just want to say, and I

know it, it's not really critical to this decision. It's, as coach would say, it's a production based business and it's not necessarily something that fans care that much about. But Mike Smith is a wonderful guy. We all really loved him. Um, just one of the nicest guys you ever gonna want, every gonna want to meet upbeat all the time, and I'm sure it was very, very difficult for Coach Cutter, who's known him for a long time, to make that decision, which he said was his decision.

Coach Coach Cutter said, so uh so that being said again, it is a production based business, and when something is going as badly as our defensive results have been for the last two seasons, really, um, it's not a shocking move and certainly something that fans had been predicting for a little bit for a little while to make that move.

The question is what what's the impact going to be? Right, Because, as as almost always the case, when you let go of a coordinator in the middle of the season, you promote somebody from within, and that's something in this case is Mark Duffner. And this is a man who's been working under Mike Smith for the last three seasons, and they've been working in tandem, you know, with all the other coaches trying to get this right, and so it's they're cut they're coming from the same system, you know

what I'm saying. So I imagine that there are ways that Mark duffer is going to make changes, but it's not immediately obvious. In so we see it in actually a few times what those are going to be. And there's only so much you can do because you're not gonna make any substantive changes in personnel in the middle of the season. So there can be some changes in approach. Um, you know, just from the most simplistic ways of putting it, maybe maybe he would press more or press less, or

blitz more, blitz less. And you know, from standpoint of coach Duffner, what the players were saying yesterday, Lavante in particular, is that he's really very energetic, enthusiastic, uh, excited guy on the field, and Lavante thinks that could make a difference in terms of getting that to all three levels

of the defense, not just the linebackers. So that's true, and I mean, I think that was what was interesting is before when coach had been asked about letting him go after the Chicago game, he said, okay, and now what So that really had been the big discussion, and how just changes in general in the middle of the

season it can can be tough. So what what do you feel like the effect could be of, you know, when there are changes, what this team is going to need to do to make sure that that doesn't derail what they're wanting to do. Well. I mean, on one hand, I could see like you said, Coach Cutter said, and then what right? But at some point you decide, well, something needs to change and this isn't guaranteed to work,

but maybe it will help. And sometimes when you're making a change, especially like you know, if you've had a team Bucks only done this once in team history. But if you change head coach before the season is over, that's generally a season that's already off the rails. Right. That's far from the case here with the Bucaneers. Yes, the Bucks have lost three in a row and now we're two and three, but really it's far from over. We're two games out of first there's eleven games left.

We still got four games against our division points, three of which are at home, and we have a really, really good offense. So this team, even two of the three games we've lost, came right down to the wire. And that's the way it is in the NFL. And that happened to the Buccaneers repeatedly last year, and they didn't win many of those games and ended up what

were we five and eleven? UM and and Coach Cutter said that many times, look at all the games we lost by three points or less and one score or less, you know, we flip a few of those around. So that's what we're talking about here. We're talking about a relatively thin margin that the Buccaneers are on here on winning or losing. And if you can make any bit

of difference on the defense side of the ball. Now, nobody really expects the Buccaneers to turn into one of the best defenses in the league at this point, right, that would be very surprising, but they don't have to be to compliment this really good offer. Yeah, that's an interesting point. So looking at you said two and three, definitely not over yet, and that's a really huge thing

to emphasize when there is a change like that. You're right, I think it gives people sort of this idea that, oh my gosh, you know what's going on to the team. So how big now do you think this makes this weekend's game to essentially, you know, after coming you know, three game losing streak, just overall the mentality of the team, the feel about it. Do I mean, we never like to say that one game is must win or a huge deal, But I do feel like this game has

a lot of significance. Yeah, before this last game, I think you're asked me a similar question. My opinion on the matter was that the Buccaneers had more to gain from winning than they had to lose from from losing, right, didn't I say that? Because if you had gone to three and two and you were one game out of first, and you had two division wins already in your pocket, both of them on the road, that's a really good

position to be in. Falling to two and three where they have isn't isn't good, of course, but it's not disastrous. Now you have a chance to get back to three with Cleveland here. Cleveland is definitely an improved team, but now you're at home and they are one of the you know, after playing this pretty difficult start to the season on paper, this is a I don't want to use the word easier, but kind of easier matchup. And again you're at home, the offense is still clicking under

Jamis Winston. So it is an opportunity to get back on track, and and I do think that's big. Falling to two and four would be worrisome, particularly because that's four losses in a row, and as Jeff Ryan likes to say on our SELFI dogs podcasts all the time, that's when things start. It's not losing one game, it's when one turns into two and then that turns into three. Same thing happens on the winning side. If we can get there. Yeah, both winning and losing is contagious, and

you definitely don't want to get that four. With four straight losses, we wouldn't be able to sit here next week on the same show and say, yeah, everything's still We're still in good spot. Right. Let's at that point we'll be saying it's not over, but we got a

hold of day out. Yeah, that's very true. And uh, speaking of the odds of being able to turn around the ship, Jarrett said, there's no way that Baker Mayfield comes to Tampa and drops five tds, right, So I think that it's this idea of we've played some prolific offenses. So yes, the defense knows they have not been playing how they need to. But you know, we've gone against the likes of Drew Brees and Ben Roethlisberger and Matt Ryan, and I mean it's it's a tough We've talked all

offseason about that tough beginning stretch. So, um, do you feel like now, regardless of any changes even being made with Mike Smith and Mark Up, that already the defense has the potential to have a much better game simply because you're not going against a potential future Hall of Famer. I'm a pretty big Baker Mayfield fan, and I think he's got a lot of really good days ahead of him, and I personally think it's possible he could have a

big game it happens, you know. I mean, you said all the great quarterbacks we faced, but it was Mitchell Trabiskie, who didn't exactly have a good track record, who's that very best day maybe against. So I don't I don't

say that because I anticipate that happening, but it certainly can. Uh. But yeah, if the defense, like last week, we were coming off that horrible Chicago game and then through the by and we're hoping, as coach Cutter said when he was explaining why he didn't make the Mike Smith decision then but then he did this week, they were hoping that the changes they made in the game plan they came up with would produce better defensive results and you

wouldn't have to do something drastic and then that didn't happen. So um, if you could just make a small improvement before the Cleveland game, the you know, like you're saying, it's an opportunity for the defense to make a small step forward and that's enough to probably get a win. Okay, And Kevin wants to know, do you see us making any trades to help the secondary? Yeah, I'm just gonna have to say the same thing I say whenever these trade questions come up. It's possible, but they it's just

look back in history. How often has it happened. It's just doesn't happen that often. There's not a lot of guys that are going to be difference makers that are being traded now. I know there are rumors out there about certain players being available, which we can't really address

directly because they're under contracts other teams. Right And as I'll go in and addressing you, we had Paul asked us about Patrick Peterson because we we see your comments and questions, but unfortunately that's just not something we can really get into. I just go back to history. It's just getting an impact player on either side of the ball at the trade deadline in the NFL is so rare that I just never count on it. If it happens, great,

but it's rare, right. Um. We also had a question from de Kwan actually about the radio show last night where um, I got to talk with JPP for an hour, which was amazing. He's he's great. He is very candid, very insightful. Um, so passionate about football in this team. Uh, de Kwan wants to know our what the impression of

his answer. Somebody called in and asked about seeing some of the defensive guys dancing on the sideline after they had stopped on a third down, and people were saying that they didn't like how it looked because it was just a stop on they're down there acting like they've done something more, and so JPP was asked his thoughts on it, and he was just kind of I think I'm trying to remember the essence of what he said, but basically the idea of that he felt like, yeah,

like we need to be more accountable for our behavior and stuff. He seemed to believe that, yeah, we need to take things a little bit more seriously. I don't know I wasn't as offended by it because I'm a big I'm a big advocate of supporting when you do something well and celebrating it because then that can be especially on defense, you've got to have that attitude of getting excited and getting rolling, and you've got to be fired up, and especially when you don't have the home

crowd behind you. I and maybe I'll just sound like a Homer here saying this, but I I was not well. But I did think Jpp's answer was interesting. That he's just big on individual accountability. I think was what he was saying, of taking care of who you need to be on the field, and he didn't sound like he really made a judgment on them one way or the other. But well, I would draw a distinction between some bits of celebration and others, and I think that thing tends

to bother fans. I think, like I've seen people they hear about the players laughing on the plane flight back or something like that. And your tendency sometimes as a fan after things go badly, is to want everybody to suffer and willow and suffering for as long as possible, And at some point it's just human nature. You get excited about things that go well. I would say it's

a case by case basis. If you're losing forty two nothing to the Titans and in Austin, Soferian Jenkins is high stepping it into the end zone after a touchdown, that's bad. But if in the NFL you said it a little bit, don't you want your defensive players to be fired up and having fun. They talked about that all the time. They're just hanging their heads after stuff. They're not going to start turning things around. If you

make a big play, you're going to celebrate it. And that game was never completely out of hand now, so there was really if you get a big stop, you're gonna want to celebrate. And sometimes, as we've talked about it here before, even when your defensive results overall aren't very good, you win the game sometimes just because you get one or two key stops that could have been a very important play. I'm not familiar with the player you're talking about, but it could have been a key

play in the game. So that one from your description doesn't buy on me at all. Karl wants to know when Kindle back with is coming back. Well, he'll be eligible to come back starting this week. However, when asked about that last week, coach Cutter definitely did not define that would be this week. He left the door open eligible,

but yeah, you don't. You've got about a three week window to do something, and if you don't put him back on the active roster by the end of that window, then he's just basically on I R for the rest of the year. So definitely, from the tone of his answer, it didn't sound to me like he'd be back this week even though he could, so I guess you just crush your fingers and hope it's in the two weeks still exists. Andrew said, what can Dufner do different to

improve the defense that Mike Smith wasn't doing? Well, That's an excellent question, and that's really the question, right And I don't know if there's a fantastic answer to it, because presumably you're not overhauling the playbook. You have your same package of the things that you do. You could. To me, the only answer is you emphasize certain things you and de emphasize other things because it's all coming

from the same place. I guess he could make some personnel changes, but what would those be You know, we're kind of with Chris Conti and Vernon Hargrave's both out, you don't have a lot of leeway from making changes on defense right Um, with maybe with more the defensive line getting healthy, and that will depend up a little bit of how Jerald McCoy is feeling. You could get back, you could finally get to that deeper rotation that you wanted to have at the beginning of the year. You

could blitz more, you could blitz less. We did blitz a little bit more in Atlanta, and it was with mixed results. You have to blitz more effectively. It's not just blitzing, as we talked about before the game. I think going into that game. I looked this up before the Planta game because I knew people were talking about, hey, we need a blitz more because we're not getting there. Well, we were giving up a one point eight passer rating on place when we blitzed, So there's no point in

blitz and all the time if it's not working. Uh, And speaking of this, this kind of goes to that same point. Chad said, well, our defense be more aggressive, and I think there's a lot of ways you can take the idea of more aggressive, whether you mean the type of cover that your corners are playing, you know, at the line of scrimmage versus blitzain versus. Yeah, so well, how would you take that question of how what are the ways you potentially could see them being more or

less aggressive? Yeah, that's about it, really right. You can play more aggressive coverages. I guess somebody could say that playing man is a more aggressive way playing defense and playing zone. Um, so I guess you could play more man to man courage, you play more press coverage, you could blitz more often, And that's really about it. And Nick had asked do you think that we'll see more press coverage? He said he's tired of seeing the drop

off of the five to ten yard off coverage. I think a lot of people have been asking you for that, especially since Carlton Davis was drafted. But of course he wasn't a probably the best press corner, but he wasn't available exactly. So um, yeah, that could happen. Sure, Okay, that's true. Um And then Mark asked, are there any updates on Hargraves and Davis? I know one of those.

We definitely have an update, well, not an update but we just know, Yeah, well, except for the fact that you can come back from my r R. That's it seemed to me that the sentiment when Hargraves went on injuries or was his injury was not likely to be one that he could come back from this season. And then Carlton Davis was, you know, he's been more of a day to day thing. I think he was right up to game time decision in a couple of games this week, and then the last one it was it

was decided he couldn't go. He's got a couple of things going on because he's had the groin injury I think, and then or was his knee. He had the groin and then he had the tweaked Yeah, so that was the different That was the thing is that it was it looked like he was going to be fine, and it was a second. Yeah. The same thing happened to

Jordan Whitehead the previous week. So we've had some bad luck on the practice field because it's usually if you're if you're getting guys hurt with little nagging injuries on the practice field, it's usually you're like thirty four year old veterans, not your rookies. You know why we've been having such poor luck in that regard. But I don't think he's got anything that's long term, so hopefully he'll

be back this week. Okay, well, it's going to do it for us on this edition of Buccaneers Insider Live presented by Miller Lite. Thank you so much for being with us. We'll be back here every week on Tuesday, so make sure you're here to send all of your question thoughts and comments. We'll see you next time.