Welcome to Buccaneers Inside are Live, presented by Miller like Casey Phillips here with senior writer editor Scott Smith, and boy, do we have things to talk about today. Just a few things have happened with the team across the league. It's been you know, mostly slow, but just a couple of things. First time, starting to think we maybe should do one of these every day. Yes, would have enough. We would, I mean normally in the off season, you're sin,
You're going, what are we going to talk about? In this time? We do not have enough time to get to all the things that have happened. So first of all, we knew last week we had to do a little bit of the tap dancing if there were reports out there about some things that were not confirmed yet. Now
some of those things have become confirmed this week. So let's start with with some of those things that First of all, in the wide receiver room, Russell Gauge and Chris Godwin are two things that have become for real since the last time we did this show. So tell
us about both of those deals. Well, the Russell Gauge contract was the one that we had to speculate about last time, but that has been officially announced now and then Chris Godwin, who already had the franchise, has tagging him, so we were pretty sure he was gonna be around this year anyway. Uh, what happened with him and the team is with is the goal really of the franchise
tag is it extends your negotiating period. It gives you more time where only the Bucks can negotiate with with Chris, and they got a deal done, which is fantastic because as we all know, and as we've talked about many times,
he's just such a critical part of this offense. And I think when Tom Brady decided to come back and shot a group chat to Chris and Mike right before he announced it, it made you even more um adamant about getting Chris god went back and back in the field, and you know, he's coming back from a torn a c l so there is a slight chance that he might not be ready to go right at the very beginning of the season. Though knowing him, I say there's a good chance he will be ready. But that's another
thing that Russell Gage gives you. He gives you, um, you know, if if Chris isn't quite ready to go, Russell Gate is already shown over the last couple of years that he could step in for a really high level wide receiver like Calvin Ridley or a couple of years ago, Julio Jones and keep his team, you know, on top and and really produce like a number one. When you do have Mike Evans and Chris Godwin and Russell Gauge, then you have what looks like the makings
of a really good three white package. And as you know, the Buccaneers on offense tend to go three wide or eleven personnel more than fifty of the time. So this is basically your starting formation here. And you've got Mike Evans, so we all know what he can do. Twenty seven touchdowns in the last two years, which is amazing. We
all know about his thousand yards season streak. Chris god when last year got the injury and couldn't finish out the season, but by the time he was knocked out, he had ninety eight catches and was about to break the Bucks all the time record for a single season. But look at that third in the league in receptions per game, seventh in yards per game, and he's also so critical to your running attack. He's blocking makes everything better.
And then you've been Russell Gauge, who, after the Falcons lost pretty much all their other receivers last year, was really really productive down the stretch. Look at that over the last eight weeks of the season, he was eighth in the NFL among all players in receptions in yards. So you've got three guys there that it's gonna be hard for an opposing defense to defend all three of those. Yeah, Tom Brady's got to be pretty happy with the choice
to come back. Looking at those office, that's going to be pretty exciting. Well, another thing that is now official that we had said was reported last week was the trade for Shack Mason. So tell us what you think about him as a player and what this can mean for this offensive line, a position group that, again, just a few weeks ago, we did not know what that interior was gonna look like. It's it's an incredible trade.
It's still a little bit hard to figure out how it happened to get a really quality starting guard for a fifth round pick. And he's under contract for two more years, so it's not like a one year rental. This is a guy that, uh, you know, offensive Lineman. It's hard to have stats for him other than group stats, which are actually gonna look at here in a minute
or right now. Last year, the Buccaneers were first in the league and sacks allowed per pass play and really allowed the fewest stacks by any team, despite the fact that they had the most past attempts. Those really shouldn't
go together. And then even though the running game wasn't necessarily a huge power for the team, they did finish right in the middle league and yards per carry, and in some more sophisticated stats that take into account situation and other things rush d v o A and adjusted line yards, both of which are on the respected site Football Outsiders, you can see they felt that the Buccaneers rush black run blocking was very good last year, top five.
But then you're thinking you could lose Ryan Jensen. You could and did lose Alex Kappa, and you and Ali Marpett retired, so your entire middle of your line is wiped out. Well, Ryan Jensen resigns, that's a great thing. Aaron Stinney resigns, and it has a very good chance to step up to stine lamp. And then you top it all off by getting Shack Mason, who, like I was saying, other than the stats, kind of stats we looked at. There's not a lot of individual stats for
offensive lineman other than maybe sacks allowed. But there are some services out there like PF and so on that grade uh, everybody but guards, and and he's really a highly graded guard for many years in a row. So it's a huge kid for the Buccaneers for a fifth round pick, and and it puts us back into position where the offensive line, despite would look like it could be a drastic turnover, now has a chance to once
again be a really big strength for this team. Incredible and again another confirmed move from this last week, Leonard four Nett officially back resigned. Lenn we'll call that. So tell me about this deal and what you think it means now again to the offense to have this incredibly important piece back. I think this is another one of these moves that was heavily influenced by the return of Tom Brady. I think Tom Brady likes Leonard four Nett in terms of what he can do in this offense.
And I would be willing to bet that the Tom Brady made his his opinions known on that and it probably made Leonard Fournette want to come back more. Right, Um, this is the chance to chase another ring. And and what you've done is you've brought back your guy who has basically been your workhorse back since the start of the playoffs in through the Super Bowl and then all last year. And he had a really good year, not
just running the ball but also pass catching. At the time that he was injured and lost for like the last three weeks of this regular season for net was leading all running backs in with sixty nine receptions. So he's to do it all back that that Tom Brady obviously trust very much, then the Buccaneers trust, and after playing several years in a row on one year contracts, he's got a three year deal now, so I guess
probably everybody's happy. Yeah. Part of that just real quick with the Chris Godwin signing and Leonard Fournette, because cap space is hard to come by right now, but probably will There'll be more of it as the cap rises in coming years. So those multi year deals for a Godwin and a four net are probably actually helping the
Buccaneers cap right now. Yeah, that's a great point. The fact that you have the flexibility to move some money around all these you know, talks of restructuring that we've heard. When when there's just a one year deal, restructuring becomes a little little challenge. You add some years, Yeah, you gotta add some years on there to make that possible. Okay, Well, now we're going to also talk about some just like we did last week, reports of things that are out there.
They are not confirmed yet, they have not been officially announced by the team, but you've probably seen them out there. We talked about Brashad Parraman last week that is still be announced, have been announced, but we did talk about the fact that again this wide receiver room shaping up to look very good this year, to have a lot of different options, when again a few weeks ago, we didn't know what it was going to look like behind
basically Mike Evans for sure. Um. And then now there are a couple of new reports since the show last week. We have basically Will Golston reportedly coming back, a guy that's been with this team all most as long as anybody else at this point. And then you have the addition of a new guy in town, Logan Ryan Safety.
So those again are the two reports that have not been officially announced yet, So looking at those and we kind of talked about Brashan Perriman last week, but with Logan Ryan and Will Galston tell us what those moves are when we talked about a lot of offensive moves, finally to talk about some defensive ones and what this
could look like. Yeah, and you know when we talk about speculating whether these reports are accurate or not, and we can't officially announce it, I can say that the Buccaneers are holding press conferences early this afternoon for Logan Ryan and Shack Mason. I mean, you never know what they want to about me about food. It can you never know, right, Yeah, you never know, but I think he can feel pretty solid about those reports. At this point.
We're not officially announcing anything, but come on, there's a press conference to talk about something with those people. Like those people there, so Will Golston, like you said, other than Levante David, he's been around the longest. He's been very, very durable throughout his career and over the nine years now I'll be going to his tent. He will have
switched defensive systems several times. But when Todd Bowles got here the three years ago, so Will it also already had a solid career, but Todd Bowl's defense really rejuvenated it. He's had I think nine point five of his nineteen point five sacks in the last three years. Two years ago he led the Bucks and quarterback hits with twenty. He had another seventeen last year. And he's just a really good strong side three four defensive end when it
comes to stopping the run. So he's a really good fit for this defense, and I think he really likes it here. So for those reasons, it wasn't a surprise to see him come back. Cool note about Will Galston, he has a hundred thirty six games played as a Buccaneer going into this season. That's the second most ever for a defensive lineman in franchise history. Number one is Warren Sapp was in the Hall of Fame with the
Hunter forty. So by the end of this season, Will Ghoston will be the most tenured defensive lineman in franchise history, which is pretty cool for me. Yeah, that is pretty cool, Okay, And then I know we've talked about so many moves, so many things happening. That's just the Buccaneers ones not to mention all the things that have been happening across
the league this free agency. It has just been a last couple of weeks, lots of shuffling where everybody thought they knew who was on what team and what was going on. I think everybody's gonna have to reassess that now recently. So tell us what the biggest things are that stand out to you, maybe outside of the Buccaneers moves in particular, of what has gone on these last
couple of weeks that could affect the Buccaneers. I think if you're a Buccaneers fan over the last two or three weeks and you're filing things on Twitter, perhaps every time you look at your phone, it's given you good news.
I mean, it's kind of incredible how well all this is going for the Buccaneers, because not only have we done all the moves that we've talked about, and every one of them seems like aimed at chasing another championship this year and maybe even next year we'll see what happens with Tom Brady, but all the moves that are happening around the league, the big dramatic moves that made this one of the craziest off seasons ever have been really good talent moving from the NFC to the a
f C. Davante Adams goes from the Packers of the Raiders. All of a sudden, Tyreek Hill yesterday out of the blue for us. It was probably in the works for a while, and oh my gosh, Tyreek Hill is going to be traded. Well, he stayed in the a f C, but at least even get you know, pushed over into the NFC. Matt Ryan went from the NFC to the a f C. Uh tehront Armstead, the really good tackle for the Saints no longer with the Saints and now
he's in Miami. Just a lot of big moves that when you look at go, we were gonna have to face those guys this year and now we don't. Right, So things just keep getting better. And when you look at it from the perspective of the quarterbacks in this division, it's kind of amazing the turnover that's been in the last couple of years. For a long time, the Buccaneers were playing in a division with with three teams that
had m VP caliber quarterbacks running their offenses. And even when you tried and You've got Jameis Winson with the first overall pick, and he put up a lot of big numbers. You kind of always felt like you had the fourth quarterback in the league. Look at who was the quarter of the starting quarterbacks in this league the year before Tom Brady decided to come to the Buccaneers, and now just a couple of years later, this is
what each team is featuring a quarterback. You can look at that and go, well, the Buccaneers pretty clearly have the best quarterback in the division. Right, not to take anything away from a Marcus Mariotta or at Jameis Winston, but those are teams that are, first of all, are in transition and and second of all, I don't think you can look at Marcus Mariota and say he's a
He's up there with Tom bradon. So the entire landscape of the NFC South in in terms of the quarterback rankings has changed in just a couple of years, and for the Buccaneers obviously a change really good. That is incredible. And then I know we talked a little bit about the offensive line, especially because of the trade for Shack Mason. This is a group that we had said we didn't know what it was gonna look like, and maybe it was going to be a big target of the draft.
And I know we're gonna talk more about this when it comes to the road of the draft, you know, when we do those videos as well. But and then the same thing with the wide receiver group, that these two position groups we just really felt like could be positions of need. And how differently we feel now. So how do you think that is going to just affect over all these moves that we've heard that are both confirmed and reported for those two position groups, how you
feel about them now? Are they still targets in the draft, and what these moves mean for just we view this team. Well, I can tell you from experience doing mock drafts every week since like mid February, that it's changed quite a bit. Early on, I was definitely giving offensive guards to the Buccaneers a pick number twenty seven, like a Kenyan Green
or a Zion Johnson. But it's hard to imagine the Bucks using that pick on a guard now because I think they not only have probably the guys that are gonna start, but you've got a couple other guys like Robert Hainzi, and Nick Leverett that you feel pretty good about as your depth. So if you draft a guard, I guess he's competing probably with Aaron Stenny for one of the jobs. But is that the best use of
your pick at seven in the first round. If you're trying to win this year, you'd probably like to get somebody that you know is going to have a big role, either on offense or defense. And the receivers, I'm not sure if you bring in another top notch receiver, who are you taking playing time away from? Because we talked about the Big three and we showed the graphic, but you've also got Brashad Perriman probably, and Tyler Johnson and
Scottie Miller and Cyril Grayson and Jalen Darden. I mean, there's a lot of guys there that you want to look at and see how they could possibly fit into your offense. And of course you always want more talents.
If another great receiver drops into your lap, that's fine, but again it's not something I think that you would spend a first round draft pick on because then you're just probably you're just replacing one starter with another, Whereas you might be able to find a guy like maybe a defensive lineman or an outside linebacker that can step right into the rotation right away. Okay, well that's gonna do it for us on this edition of Buccaneers Inside
our Live presented by Miller Lte. We had so much to talk about that we weren't able to get to the Facebook questions. But we will of course have the show again next week. I believe we will actually be doing it from the owners meetings, which is going to be very fun and we'll have a lot to talk about from there. To make sure you tune into that. And again if you had specific draft related questions. Every week we are shooting a road to the draft where that is all we talk about, are all the things
affecting the potential draft picks of the Buccaneers. To make sure you check that out. That's gonna do it for us this week. We'll see you next time.