Bucs Insider Live, Oct. 30

quarterback or the announcement at quarterback for Carolina, So just your initial thoughts on what that's going to mean for this team going into a very important divisional game. It seems like we have one of these big announcements every couple of weeks, doesn't it. We have the defensives lively

for us, you know. Yeah, So, as everybody obviously already knows, Um dark Cutter didn't decide to hold onto the mystery throughout the week and told everybody on Monday that he has decided that Ryan Fitzpatrick will go back to starting. This comes after Jamis Winston's for interception performance in UH Cincinnati that got him pulled late in the third quarter,

and when Ryan Fitzpatrick came in, he did well. Now, if you look at the numbers of these two guys, and you look at our overall offensive numbers, you can see that both James Winston and Ryan Fitzpatrick are fully capable of moving this team up and down the field, and if throwing touchdown passes. The difference rather obviously is turnovers. And Jamis has ten interceptions in about three and a half games, and you just can't win that way. Does

that mean Jameis Winston won't ever rebound from this problem. No, but right now, when it happens week after week, it's it's kind of a pretty obvious decision, to be honest with you. You've got two guys that are fully capable of moving this offense and one of them is stuck in some some turnover problems, and you just you can't keep going on that way right now? At least that's

a great point. Um. J already wanted to talk a little bit about the defense as well, so I know we'll come back to I'm sure there's gonna be plenty of questions about the quarterback situation, so I'll go ahead and get Jay's question in here. He says, what needs to happen for the defense to improve, Well, it already has. It already has, And um, you saw that obviously in the in the Cleveland game and in second half at Cincinnati it was actually really really good, you know, except

for that final drive. And you know, great players like A. J. Green are going to occasionally make great plays. But other than that, they were practically they didn't procatically give up nothing the entire second half. Now you can't just wash away the first half. That happened and they had three seven yards in that half. But um, what's going to need to happen for the Bucks more consistently put up a good defensive results, and it's gonna right back to

we're just talking about. Is turnomers just not getting any at all. I mean we are negative thirteen I believe in turnovers and we have one in the last four games. Uh, and that was on special teams. The defense has not created a turnover since the first quarter of Week three, which is almost Yeah, I'm not even necessarily commenting on how good or bad they are at that. It's just amazing.

The luck just isn't even there. That so much about turnovers can be flukey of a tipped pass here there, and are there guys in the area where it gets tipto that it's just so frustrating. I had Carlton Davis on the radio show last night and I asked him about this idea of are they as fluky as as we kind of think they are? You know, how much

can you guys be striving to improve on turnovers? And he said, yeah, interceptions are not something that you can typically be like, Okay, we're going to do this in this to get more interceptions, right, But he said that they could do a better job of trying to make

plays on the ball to force fumbles. Yeah, And so he was saying that's something that he thinks that they've been working a lot on and that is going to be an even bigger point of inferences because you can't control the interceptions as much that they're going to be really trying very hard to make plays on the ball. Five of our six turnovers are fumble recoveries. And one guy who's really really good at that is Lavonte David. And he told me once that there is some I

don't know, science or technique to it. One of the things in for instance, that he always tries to do, and I actually saw him try it in this last game. He just didn't quite get his hand in there in time. Is a running back is going to when he's about hit the ground, he's a foot or two off the ground, he instinctively he's going to take one hand off the ball and put his hand on the ground, and that's when Lavonte tries to punch it out at that moment.

He obviously has done that many times in his career, and he's very good at that. And I'm sure he and the coaches have shared that with Carlton and all the young players. So it's good that they'll be trying that. But even then, you can't count on it right now. And plus, interceptions tend to I mean, if you get an interception, there's a much better chance you're gonna have

a chance to return it. I mean sometimes you see fumble's return, but lots of times it's just a big scrum and you want to make sure you fall on it right. You catch a turn, you catch an interception on the run like the Beagles did to us on their last one, and you might score. So you I agree, And obviously he would know better than I there's no Hey, if we do A and we do B, we're gonna start getting more interceptions. But the coverage can be tighter,

the pass rush can be more effective. It hasn't been bad, but it can be more effective and cause some um errant passes, some hurried passes, or some bad decisions, and all of that can create can increase your opportunities maybe for interceptions, you know what I'm saying. And then also you're absolutely right about the tip pass this thing. I mean, there was one in Cincinnati where it looked like three of our guys might have a shot at it, and it it just kind of falls right in between all of

them and they're all diving for it. But we throw up an interception. We throw a pass off a guy's helmet and the end zone and it goes straight up in the air like a infield pop up with four defenders around. So it's that part is definitely flukey, and it would be nice to see luck change in our direction a little bit. That would be very handy. Chris wants to know if you think there are any chances of us trading Jamis. I feel like we had to that.

I've seen so many different versions of a trade questions in general, which we always like to give the caveat that we can't really speculate about other teams individual players because we do work for the team. So I was like giving that caveat. But he asked about us trading Jamis, and I wanted to hear your thoughts. No, because the trade deadline is today at four o'clock and you just

decided to make this move. And you didn't say, or Coach Cutter didn't say, didn't specifically say this is permanent. And by permanent, I mean the rest of this season, um, he said. And he didn't, you know, And and of course this doesn't necessarily mean it has to be with the Buccaneers, but he does believe Jamis will get another chance and he can't succeed in the NFL. And you also might be thinking long term, I mean, how long are you going to have Ryan Fitzpatrick? How long does

he want to keep playing? That sort of thing. So I would find it hard to believe that be between the decision. I mean, you still started him on Sunday, that was two days ago. You started Jameis Winston. That was the guy you wanted in there now because of what happened as a Monday, you made the decision to switch at least for this week and probably more than that. But is that enough time for you've decided completely on

how you feel about his future with the team. It doesn't seem like it to me, so I would be very surprised, very surprised. Um, we had a question about the rumors that came out before the game about DeShawn Jackson wanting a trade, and now we have some questions asking if fits starting would seemingly change that. And now, granted, of course, we don't know the rumors of that, of the truth to the idea of him wanting to trade, So we want to preface it with that that we

do not have information on that. But I think the larger ideas are there certain guys that now we can expect to see more from or less from with the quarterback switch of who are the guys that really we could see a big game from in Carolina as that maybe because of the different guys that they seem to have chemistry with. You know, I'm sure a lot of the people, especially playing fantasy out there, would love some some thoughts on who we can expect to have some

some big and smaller games. Yeah, to start with the DeShawn Jackson trade rumors, which I don't believe he confirmed, and on the day of the game, both Dirk and Jason light said they had no knowledge of that. So, but the point is moot because Jason had subsequently said that Deshaun is gonna be here for the rest of

the year, right, So it's really a mood point. If we ever find out if he really did ask for that or not, it's it doesn't matter because it's not gonna happen, at least to take um Jason's one statement at face value on that. Uh, yeah, you know, obviously DeShawn has had more success when Fitzpatrick's been in there on the deep ball, although as you saw, James did hit him on that sixty yarder. I mean, if I were DeShawn, I'd be I would have been feeling good

about that. I'm like, maybe we got this figured out. But I bet you he's happy. I know he. I think he came out and said towards the end of that first run for Fits that Fits should remain the starter. So I imagine that he's happy. And and whether or not that one sixty yarder from Jamis was a sign that was going to start working out between them. We already know that it's working out between Fits and Sean, so I you know, we're putting ourselves in his shoes here.

I don't want to speak for him, but theoretically it would make sense that he would feel good about this move. Uh. You know the guy on the flip side that seems to get more when Jamis is in there than than Ryan is camp. Right, that's just kind of the way it's gone. I don't know. I don't in any way believe that Ryan Fitzpatrick is trying not to share the Harvard glory with his former or with his fellow Harvard guy. Uh,

but it just has worked out that way otherwise. You know, I think everybody, Mike Evans and O J and Chris Gotwan, they've all been producing, and Adam Humphreys, no matter who's in there. Right. Yeah, that's a great point. Um, we do you think Ryan Fitzpatrick would be a good pick up in fantasy right now? It's very true. Uh. Matt asked this question. I've seen several other people ask it just in general. We talked about specific somebody asked about

Jami's potentially being it a bit. Matt just said, do you expect us to make any moves today? Have seen several people asking the generic do we make moves today? I'm sure that anybody who has watched this before, we'll probably get tired of me saying the same thing. To start with, when it comes to trades, they're not that common. They do happen, but they're not. If you divide them by thirty two teams, how many teams actually make moves, and then how many of those moves are actually impactful?

You know, I can't think of I don't think I can think of one that we've made an attempt to go for it training for somebody that really made a difference. I mean, one year we were having we were a playoff contender, and we're having all kinds of problems with running back injuries, and we've got Michael Bennett, not to Michael Bennett defenseman, but a running back, and it didn't

really end up making much difference. So we have I do think one thing you can do impactfully at the trade deadlines if you're a seller and you can get something for a guy that maybe was going to leave at the end of free agency, anyway, So there are opportunities out there, particularly because there have been two teams that have clearly demonstrated, the Giants and the Raiders, that they are willing to trade guys and that they're in a rebooting mode. Whether they want to say it or not,

they're clearly doing so, especially the Raiders. So, like you said before, because we're team employees and we're talking about speculating about guys coming here that are under COUNTRCYT elsewhere, is technically tampering. I'm not gonna say specific names, but yeah, I mean I usually say and I don't think it's possible, but I think it's possible. I still think the chances

are pretty low, but I don't think it's possible. You could, um, you could maybe make a move at corner or safety or linebacker, although um, we need to wait and see what happens with Kendall Beck with if he returns to practice and is possibly coming back to the roster. I'm sure you'd prefer to get a guy, a middle linebacker type, guy who already knows the system over bringing something different, so we could end up getting help from within there. I want to hear your answer on this. I think

this is interesting. I've heard a few people debating it. Tim asked, what about a quarterback by committee approach that doesn't work in anyway? And why? In general? Why is that? I think it's an interesting You've heard the phrase before if you if you have three quarter you have no quarterbacks, right. I just think that's interesting. Well, you know you do quarter I could see, you know, in college. I think

some of it has to do with a guy. Maybe I haven't seeniority, but the young guy is better and they're trying to figure out when to make that transition. Or you have two different styles and you know you could have I suppose like if you were Baltimore, maybe use Lamar Jackson when you wanted to use some packages that involved more running than Joe Flacco. But both of our guys tend to move around better than you expect. Jami's people don't think he's a good runner, but the

numbers kind of show that he is pretty decent. And Ryan Fitzpatrick is what thirty five or something, so you think, oh, he's gonna slow down, but he's running the ball well too. They both seem to be able to make all the throws still, so I'm not sure stylistically, what would be the difference to make you want to platoon why? Why would you want to do that? And you want you guys to get in the flow of a game, right, Yeah, that's that's a good point. Nick asked what is the

severity of Vita's injury? That was sort of an interesting thing that came out of the press contract And we don't know the exact severity and we'll find out a Wednesday when we see what his practice status is, but we know it's good news. Um. It was funny the way Dirt Putters, Dirk Cutter put it in his press conference. You said, I think it's the first time in history that an m R R result has come back with

positive news. You know, so, uh, that's not totally true obviously, but you do when doctors are so good at an initial um evaluation of what the injury could be. I mean, you know they can tell just do a little wiggle with a knee and go, I think you're a sal Strnet and then you go get the m R and

your a sal Storn. This time, I think there was some fear that he had a significant injury, maybe an a c L and the m r A show that's not the case, and Dirk said he was moving around well on Monday, so all that is good news and we'll find out just how good on Wednesday. But everybody seemed pretty up a upbeat about it, right, which is a great point. Um, Matthew wanted to know, do you think we'll get to see Ryan Griffin get some action

this season at all? I don't think so. Um, you know, only if the season went down the drain, you know, which we obviously don't want to happen. You know, Dirk has consistently said the only thing that Ryan's his experience, But that's kind of a catch twoint two, because how do you get that guy experience when he doesn't have it already and you don't want to go to the experienced guy. But um, you know this team believe me that nobody upstairs or in the coaches after the locker

room has given up on this seasons. It's three and four with more than half the season to go and four division games to go, right, so there's no reason to give up on this season. And when Ryan Fitzpatrick has shown that he can get the job done, what would actually be the point of going to ryand Griffin right now, maybe if we lose six games in Rome or three and ten, ask again, right yeah? Um Abel asked if are we going to see Joe Dirt play, meaning Riley Bulla. Do you feel like he's somebody we

brought back after those linebacker injuries. Do you think he's gonna end up playing part here? It's a decent question because you you you started your response to losing Kwon by moving in Darius to the middle and DeVante Bond to the strong side. And I don't think that Devonte Bond played a whole lot in that game, and I have to look at the snap counts, but we were in Nickel for a very large part of that game.

So I'm not sure there's been enough evaluation yet on those two guys decide that is or is not the answer. So um, you could conceivably see them try DeVante Bond for a couple of games, and if they don't like how it's going, try Riley Buller there again, though, that strong side linebacker role isn't a really huge role in the defense, so at the moment, I don't think so, but it's certainly within the Roman possibility. Now, as I mentioned, if Kendall Beckwood can come back, that kind of pushes

everybody down the depth chart a little bit. Okay. Uh. We had another question asking if we noticed any difference in the defense, even if it's small, with Duffner as defensive coordinator. Well, he said that they have simplified it and they actually started that the week before Duffner took over for Mike Smith. But that appears to be helping. Some want the young cornerbacks with the simplified coverage options. Um, so there's that. I think in general, the coverage has

been better. Otherwise, it's just the stuff you can't quantify. Like the guys are saying they're they're playing hard every play, that kind of thing. So does it look like it to you on TV? Does it look like it's me a little bit? Maybe, But it's impossible to quantify, right, all right, Well, thank you for being with us on this edition of Buccaneers in Sidur Live presented by Miller Light. We're back here every Tuesday noon taking all of your questions.

Make sure to tune in every week. We'll see you next time.