How Did the Rookies Perform in Game One? | Bucs Insider

If you have a question for us, you can leave it in the comments section of the live video as we give people a chance to do that. Scott, I just wanted to hear some of your initial takeaways, things that stood out to you from that Week one game. Well, the defense looked like it was it was picking up where it left off last year to hold Drew Brees and the Saints to tune and seventy total yards I think maybe five thirteen on third downs. Michael Thomas had

three catches for seventeen yards. And I think we should talk about Carlton Davis at some point in an outstanding game he played against him. Uh. They the Saints average two point forward yards per carry. Uh, you know the difference obviously was the mistakes and the turnovers, which has been the case and was obviously the narrative that we wanted to change this year, and I still think it will change. It just didn't change in the first game.

The offense, I think, I think it's been said by I think it was actually said by Tom Brady before the game that this is gonna be a bit of a work in progress, figuring out what works best, getting everybody on the same page. Everybody's sort of jelling together, and I don't think they're there yet. And if you look at the teams, there were five teams that uh this first week that had a quarterback starting that wasn't on the team last year, and only one of those

teams won. That was the Patriots of Cam Newton. And I think you're seeing what a lot of people thought would happen. We've talked about it. There's great continuity on our defense, but some even with the greatest quarterback of all time, you still starting something new, and without any preseason, without any offseason, without any scrimmages, without or teams or anything. It stands the reason that it might take a little while to Jael and I don't think that's what they wanted.

I And you know, you saw the first drive straight down the field, you thought, this is gonna work, this is perfect. It wasn't perfect, and there's some things to work out, and you know, hopefully in the long run, we're gonna see what we expected to see, right and we actually it was funny you brought up Carlton the very first one of the questions that we had as East. I was asking, so, how good did Carlton Davis do? So, um, let's let's let's just talk about what what kind of

a performance you saw from him? The growth and and just how now the confidence moving forward knowing this is the guy who does tend to cover the number one ride receiver on the other team. It's right there in the It's right there in the stat sheet. I mean, Michael Thomas had three catches for seventeen yards. That's his second lowest output ever. It ties the lowest receptions he's ever had in the game. I mean, this is the guy that catches ten balls game every game. He had

a hundred forty nine catches last year. Uh, seventeen yards, that's his second lowest ever. Um Carlton was following him. He was I was watching, he was, you don't know what to do this with Carlton Davis. But coach Arian said during the during training camp when asked about do the Bucks have a guy? Do they want to develop a guy that can be a shutdown corner that you can if you choose to in any particular game put him on the other team's top receiver and follow him around.

He can really contain him. And he said, we already had that guy. He's Carlton Davis. He also said at one point, Carlton Davis is a top ten quarterback in the league, and what what Davis did really was proved that that wasn't hyperbole. It sounded a bit like hyperbole at the time, even though he said very matter of factly, You're like, wait a minute, He's already won the ten

best quarterbacks in the league. In Bruce Arian's mind, clearly, that's not his reputation coming into the season because he wasn't a Pro Bowler last year and there were more than ten quarterbacks that made it to the Pro Bowl. I think his reputation is gonna have to catch up with how good he is at this point, because he showed it. I mean, if if there was one thing that stood out to me in that game, it's it's

that Carlton Davis is really good. Yeah, and I think that he is one of the people that will benefit from the added national attention more of the prime time games that you know, we all talked about that for like guys like Lavonte, where we have known for years and years and years what they're doing on the field and outside of Tampa Bay, we just didn't think people

were giving them the credit. I think Carlton could be one of those people that benefits as well that when you're playing, you know, in the game of the week against someone like Michael Thomas, where people are gonna know what it means for you to limit him, Like that's a very evident example that will help people understand exactly how well he's been playing. Dustin asked, what is Shady's

fantasy projection considering what we saw week one? So I was love when we get the fantasy questions, but this actually is perfect case. I wanted to talk about the running back group overall and how you saw them be deployed, the different split of the workload, and overall how you see that potentially changing as especially guys like Leonard Fournette get a chance to be in this offense more, get

more adjusted and ready to play, maybe some more snaps. Yeah, I don't think i'd be starting Lashawn McCoy in fantasy football right now. Not to say he couldn't have a big game, but you would need things to break, right, I think, and I did. Um, I did have a little bit of a of a thought after the game of well, I don't remember seeing Leshan McCoy very much, and I thought he was going to be basically the

second guy. Um. But then I looked at the play by play and he was in for thirty six plays or thirties, something like thirty six percent of the plays, which is a pretty big amount when you're not the starting running back. Uh, much more than Leonard Fournette had. Leonard Fournette was only on the field for nine plays. The thing was, on those nine plays, he had five carries and a catch. So when we put him on

the field, we clearly intended to use him. I assume and I know to some extent that which what Leshan McCoy was doing was what we thought he was going to be the third the primary third down back. UM. With with Ronald Jones being for your first and second Hawn guy, with the exception of fact that we kept getting in third ones and they kept using um Ronald Jones and third ones and it worked. But I think in longer thirtain ones we were using Leshawn. It's just

that he only had one pass thrown to him. He didn't have any handoff, so it didn't seem like he played very much. And if you're from a Fanny fantasy standpoint, if you're trying to rely on a third down back in a three person backfield, you're you're you're probably rolling the dice a little bit to expect much out of that. Um Leonard four Nett. Clearly they wanted to use him. He's the guy that's getting the carries when Ronald Jones isn't on the field, and I think you're gonna see

more of that. Uh, you know, the numbers don't jump off at you. He was five carries for five yards, but he did have a nice six yard ron He had a nice fourteen yard catch, and I think several times he lost yards on plays where Tom Brady audible and it's possibly just didn't really know the audibles very well yet, and there was some blocking issues up front. To be honest with you, so I thought he looked like he ran well, but the numbers aren't very good.

And Delvin asked, will the old line be able to give Tom the protection he needs, especially considering he's not a more mobile quarterback. Yeah, I mean it was. It was a little bit on and off in that game. There were some bad moments. I thought there were plenty of plays though, where he had enough time to throw. Um. You know, I think coach didn't shy away from the fact that he didn't think it was Donovan Smith's best

game him. Um, And I know our guys, I think divid Smith is very good and it is capable of having dominant games. So they don't think that one bad game means he's a problem on the line. It was just a bad game. I expect I'm and Smith to play a lot better beginning this week. And yeah, I think we've got the guys up front they can protect Tom Brady for sure. And Tristan Worse was pretty good.

So that was actually the next question. Richard had asked, how do you rate Tristan Worth's play in his first game? And I mean not only is it a first game for a rookie on a weird offseason, but he's having to go against Cam Jordan. I mean, it's that's that's quite a welcome to the NFL start. Yeah, here comes my shameless plug. Jeff Ryan and I had Tristan on

our SALTI Dogs podcast which just came out. Um, so you can listen to him talk about what he thought about his game and and you know, Jeff, I asked him how he thought he did, and he was I thought he did pretty well. And then Jeff like, come on, man, did you watch the film? What did the film say? And he still felt pretty good about it. So, and he seems like a pretty straightforward guy. So if he thinks he did fairly well, Bruce Arian said, yesterday or

maybe Monday, I guess that. Um, he thought Tristan worse did pretty darn good, especially for a rookie um with who didn't have any preseason games or any sort of warm ups. And he's like you said, he's thrown in, Hey go block Cam Jordan. You know so, Um, I think it was a pretty good debut for him, and that's very encouraging and another rookie that we were excited to see the debut is Antoine Winfield Junior, and Brody had asked, was it just me or was Winfield Junior

flying around like a young Lynch? I think that's what he does. I think he flies around. I think he covers a lot of ground out there. Um wow, like a young John Lynch. Uh. I don't know if that's a direct comparison. I mean, I think John played a lot more around the line scrimmage, a lot more than we are having Antoine Winfield do. That's more of a Jordan Whitehead kind of thing. But yeah, he looked like he was flying around for sure. I think. I think

that's what the coaches love about him. I think that's why he's starting. I mean, he finds the ball and he's really he moves around very well. Yeah he was. He was real close to that interception in the end zone. That would have been a heck of a way to start your career. And A and A have a player right there. It's it's great to see him get their hands on the ball. But he was just it was like, oh,

just so close to that first interception. Daniel had asked, do you guys think will Golston is going to have a great year. He seemed to play really well this last week. He did play well. I think he had like seven tackles, which is really a lot for a down lineman in this defense. Lots of times those guys were just occupying blockers and and Devin White and Lavante David are cleaning up all the tackles. But he had

a he showed up quite a bit. He had that one play where he got the guy in the backfield and he just basically was unblocked. Uh So he made the most of that opportunity. Um, he is a guy that and we talked about this last year. This really worked out well for him that Todd Bowls came here because he was drafted in the in the one of the Shiano years. And the defense that that we were

running then is very similar. Even though it was called the four three and this was called the three four, it's very similar to what we're running now in terms of what they asked the down linemen to do. And he was drafted specifically to fill that role. So basically he's feeling a role that that he was made for. And he's he was saying on Monday, I think that he's or maybe yesterday that he's you know, worked to get his body in the right size that they want

for this role. And I think he's just in a really good spot. It's a good defense for him. He wants to rush the bat, he wants to get more more pressure on the Pastor. He says that every time he's involved in one of these zoom calls, and hopefully that happens. But simply what he's doing already in terms of stopping the run is is fantastic. Charlie brought up what great game Scotty Miller had and how he's wondering if he could have a potential breakout year this year,

just overall the role that Scotty could play. Yeah, I got invited on a podcast a week or two ago and at the end they surprised me with the who's your hidden hidden hero question? Pick somebody on the roster that people might not be talking about that could have a big year, and and he was my choice. And and I mean, I'm not saying that's a crazy prediction, because he got a lot of very positive press during training camp. But we're talking about is he an effective

third Bruce Eiver Or is a guy. If he gets six or seven hundred yards on the defense, that's I'm on offense, it's already loaded with all these other weapons. I think that's a huge breakout. And he started off grade he got seveny yards, so, uh, that's easily Yeah, he would easily get to six or seven hundred yards if he gets seven yards a game. He's not gonna get seven yards a game, but I could see him having a lot of games like this. I think he looks he's a little bit bigger, and I think he

I think he's just really confident now, you know. I mean, he came in as a sixth round draft pick. Three or four weeks before the draft. He didn't even think he was gonna get drafted. Nobody was talking about him, and then all of a sudden, he's drafted. He's thrown in a couple of games as the third receiver. He came from Bowling Green, not the biggest program, you know.

And and he didn't say this, Don't get me wrong, he didn't say this, But it wouldn't be surprising if he was a little big for him the first year. And he's not the biggest guy by NFL standards, And uh, this year. I just think he looks like a real NFL receiver out there. I'm really high. I'm Scotty Muller. Yeah, I completely agree. Matt had asked, Devin White looked bigger and faster than last year. What's his ceiling this season? Yeah, I don't. I don't remember anybody saying he bolted up

at all. He's already a pretty big dude and already very fast. Um, if he looked faster, maybe it's just simply what and this is what he says, that he has a better field for the defense, now knows what he's supposed to do, and so all the guys say this. When you get to know the system better, you can play with reactions and instincts rather than having to think about it, and that makes you a faster player. I think his ceiling this year would be a pro bowler.

You know, he was the rookie of the Month in the NFL, in the NFL defense, Rookie the Month the last two years. Last year, you can really see him coming on and uh, this defense gives him the opportunity to make a whole lot of place. So you know, he he set his goal before the year. Five interceptions that's a lofty goal for an inside linebacker. But we'll see if he gets some number of sacks and interceptions. I could see him getting some Pro Bowl buzz, partly

because what you were saying earlier. More people are watching the Buccaneers now and they're gonna see this. He had a good game. Seven million people were watching. Yeah, yeah, that's true. We had multiple comments and questions in a row about the Titans. Daniel had asked if Gronk's going to be more involved in the passing game bill and said it seemed like o J's Brady's favorite tight end and us Look, let's see somebody had asked about if where was great. It seems like I only saw him

in on one play. So let's kind of just combine all those together. Tight ends. Go CAMRA's I think Cam. I can look at it here real quick, but I think Cam's on the field for nine plays. So it did. Yeah, the game plan didn't really go his way, um in the first game, but you'll see some cambraid along the way. Um, he's just too He's just too good at a player. I'm looking at the sheet here. Yeah, he was on

for nine plays. Um. O J. Howard was on the field for thirty seven plays and Gronk was on for fifty four plays, which was seventy So he's the guy. I guess Gronks your default in in like eleven personnel when you only have one tight end and then when you go to two, it's it's usually oh J. At least it wasn't the first game. I wouldn't argue with the fact that O. J. Might be Tom Brady's favorite

tight in right now. I can see that he They hooked up well in training camp, and you know, we know he's a talented guy and he's in the prime of his career. You know, Rob Gronkowski is you know, hopefully still an efficient weapon force this year. But Howard is the guy that's in the prime of his career right now, so I can see that being the case. You know, I don't think we can judge this in

one game. I know Gronkowski only had two catches something like eleven yards, but Tom Brady did look for him on that one play down the seam that didn't work out. So they're still gonna try to hit some big plays with him. It's just we need to see three or four games before you can really say this is how the Titans are gonna be used, this is how the running backs are going to be used, this is Tom Brady's favorite target, etcetera. You know what I'm saying. I mean,

we got some evidence, but one game isn't enough. Yeah, larger sample size will definitely make that more accurate. And you never know for one game what the what the plan was versus compared to normal. Well, that's gonna do it for us on this edition of Buccaneers Inside or Alive, presented by Miller Lyte. Thanks to all of you guys

for joining in. Thanks for all those great questions. We will be back here next week to talk about that first home game against the Carolina Panthers, So we'll see you then, m yeah, yeah, mm hmm