Um, Good morning, Bucks fans. Happy Wednesday. It's time for Buccaneers Insider Live, presented by Miller. Like Casey Phillips, here was senior writer and editor Scott Smith, and we are going to take your questions. If you're not already watching on the Facebook page, you can head on over there and leave your questions for us in the comments section.
While we give people a chance to do that, I figured we'd start with just some of your takeaways from O T A S so far that, you know, the one that we had yesterday and today's practice is a few minutes away still, so what we learned from yesterday and the days since our last show, and then also some of the media availability. I know Bruce talked yesterday, Anthony Nelson, Ryan Griffin, What were some of your takeaways? Well, the Ryan Griffin part is interesting because he's one of
the few veterans who's participating. Most of the others are taking you know, participating their own workouts with Tom Brady, and it's interesting. He has pretty good logic for it because he says, when it comes to the preseason, these young guys are probably the guys he's going to be playing with, you know, when they get in to those preseason games. Tom Brady plays with the starters if he plays much at all, and Blaine Gabert could be the
next one in Kyle Trash. So, um, Ryan Griffin is right that he's probably gonna be thrown to these young guys that are on the back end of the depth chart right now. They're trying to work their way up, and of course, so he wants to build that rapport with them, and um, you've seen him do that in previous years. He's he's been really good at that. He's been very good in the preseason and uh, you know it's interesting also that, uh one somebody asked him during
his media availability. When you look at the quarterback situation for the Buccaneers, you have Tom Brady, who's obviously the starter. You have Kyle Trask, who is It would be very very unusual to draft a quarterback in the second round and then he doesn't make the roster, so let's assume
he's on the roster. It would also be very unusual for any team to carry four quarterbacks these days, so if you have three, it's certainly it certainly seems like Blaine Gabbert and Ryan Griffin would be battling for that third that probably the second guy, but one of the three. And uh and Bruce arians kind of pushed back against the notion that Ryan Griffin is the odd man out
in that picture. But Ryan did say that if the way it worked out was one of the you know, maybe him or one of the veterans ends up on the practice squad, that he's open to that as well, just some way to be here helping the team. Okay, and looking at what Bruce said as well, what were some of the takeaways from him and some of the things that he addressed in his media yesterday, Well, I
know he'd like to have a few more guys there. Uh, every coach probably like to have the whole team there, although he's made it very clear that even if Tom Brady and and many of the starters were there, they wouldn't be practicing much. He would still be devoting almost all the time to the young guys. But there's probably a couple of guys he'd like to see in there. But you know, again, these are voluntary and that's what
they are. And you know, next week we have the mandatory mini camp and he'll get to work with everybody but right now, coaches across the league just have to work with whatever players are showing up for these workouts. Yeah, and Giovanni Bernard was the only running back at practice yesterday. Um, which is kind of fun for us to get a chance to see him since he is one of the new additions. Um, what do you feel like his role
could be and what they hope for him? Well, yeah, he got a lot of action and he looks pretty good. And he's obviously a very natural pass catcher. I think he's third in the league among running backs and in pass catches pass catches is a weird way to say that, in receptions since he came into the league over the last eight years, so and he looks very much the part.
And uh, you start to figure out how that running back that depth chart, the touches, the receptions and the and the handoffs, how that's gonna be divvied up when you also have Ronald Jones and Leonard four Nett and Keyshawn Vaughan. But Brian Griffin, for one, said he thinks that Giovanni Bernard is gonna have a big role in this offense and is gonna catch a ton of passes and that Tom Brady is gonna love him so uh.
You know, obviously you look at him as an analog to James White, who Tom Brady threw to so much while in New England in recent years before coming to Tampa. And uh, it's just I think he can do that. I think Giovanni Bernard still has a lot left and can do that. It's just how are they going to split up all the all the snaps between those running back says yet to be determined. It will be interesting to see. But like I said, Ryan Griffin for one,
thinks he's gonna do a lot. And I know Bruce also talked about Jaden Mickens sort of mentoring Jadeen Darden, and I wanted to hear your thoughts on the two of them and and what you know he could offer in that mentoring area and what it means in terms of those two guys. Are they the ones directly in competition with each other for a roster spot and how you see that shaking out? Yeah, it certainly looks that way.
I mean, the Buccaneers are so loaded at wide receiver that you can count down to six without you know, without having anybody. That seems like a bubble guy, and you usually carry six. Sometimes we go up to seven. We did that for a little while last year, but it it would seem unusual to devote two spots to receivers who, at least this year, their primary thing would probably be in the return game, which is probably what
Jane Mickens would be. It's what he was last year, and it's probably what Jalen Darden would be if he makes the roster, and most Sports round picks do make the roster, so I think they probably have some ideas for Jalen in the offense UM, but I doubt you'd have a huge role early on given all the other receivers that we have to get the ball too. So yeah, I could see those two guys being in direct competition.
So it is kind of an interesting dynamic when Jaden is out there um one on one while other receivers are doing other things, sort of teaching uh Jalen little tricks of the trade in the NFL, because there are differences to the rules between college and the NFL and little nuances like uh. I. The reason why coach arians was was talking about that was because somebody asked him about it, because this was taking place right in front of where all of us in the media group we're standing.
I mean, it was close enough we could even hear what they were saying. And as an example, one thing that Jalen Jaden was teaching Jalen was that rule about if you're on a kickoff, if you're feeling a kickoff and you put one foot out of bounds and you feel the ball even if it's inbounds, that's a penalty on the kicking team for the ball going out of bounds.
It's kind of an obscure rule that not everybody knows, and and Jaden was making sure that Jalen knew that that was just one of a lot of different scenarios he was going throughout the time. And of course they had to make it confusing on all of us with Jalen and Jaden as well trying to talk about this. It's just this. We're gonna screw this up a million times. I'm sure. Um, all right, Bobby asked with O. J. Howard coming back healthy, do you think the team will
implement more too tight end sets? Well, they already did up at some last year, and you know, there's only so far they're gonna go with that because, um, the Bucks, like most teams, almost every team in the NFL, their primary package, the one that used most often is eleven, which is three receivers, and with the receivers we have, you can understand why they would want to get that
on the field a lot. But yeah, the last year, I don't remember the exact totals, but from ninety it went up somewhere like we were in twelve, which is two tight ends personnel nineteen or in and went up to more last year. So with Rob Gronkowski arriving obviously, UM that became a more common, uh personnel package force.
And yeah, I do think when you have, um, Rob Gronkowski and O j. Howard as a possible pairing, and Rob and Cam Braid and O Jane cam Braid, Uh, there's a lot of reason to why to want to get those two guys on the field as well. So yeah, I could see it. I don't think it would go up a whole lot, but it could go up a little bit perhaps. I know that. Another group that was a little thin in the workout yesterday was inside linebacker.
It was basically just Grant Stewart and kJ Brett holding down the fort there, Um, what have you seen from the two of them? And I mean we know, obviously inside linebacker one of the most secure positions in terms of starters, but then we also talked about it was one that didn't have just tons of depth in terms of numbers of guys. So where do you see them
keeping how many of those guys? How did the two of them look so far, how quickly are they picking things up, and what that position group could end up looking like. Yeah, one of the reasons why that group is thin is there seems to be a bunch of guys who them and their wives are having having babies right now. There's at least two or three guys out for that reason, including a linebacker we signed that long ago named Joe Jones. So hopefully that's going well for
all those couples. But uh, yeah, it was just the two rookies and the you know, there's no contact. There's not a lot of eleven on eleven, so there's not a ton that you can tell. I guess the most important thing is that Bruce Arian said from the rookie mining camp to these O T A s. And then from week one to week two, both of those guys Britt and Steward are are really doing a good job of retaining and and so they're able to build on what they did the week before rather than having to
go back and continue installing that. So that's made coach happy. I think with when it comes to KG Britt, we're not really going to see the true, um, you know, greatness to his game until there's more hitting, because that guy's a hitter first and foremost, and you can't really do that right now, So we'll see that maybe in August and September. Yeah. I always feel so bad for the defensive guys trying to make the team right now and they're just so hindered with all the rules of
contact everything. Wide receivers can still go out there and make these great catches and look all fancy and then yeah, some many of your defensive guys they're just having to be like, oh, yep, I would have gotten you. They get the occasional interception and that's the big splash flight that everybody remembers. Yes, that's very true. Um Richard asked, how's the competition for the fourth tight end spot between Hudson and McElroy Goying and who do you think has
the edge. Well, I think Hudson has the edge. Um. I did see Cody Cody make a couple of nice catches yesterday. Um It's just I just think that the coaches really like Tanner Hudson. I think if there wasn't so much depth, if we didn't have Gronkowski and Howard and Braid, that they would have already had him on the field a lot more. Um So I just think he's ahead of Cody on the depth chart, you know I do. That is obviously a place where a guy could make a move. Cody could make a move, So
keep an eye on that one. But I would quit Tanner ahead right now. All right, Well, let's do for us on this edition of Buccaneers Inside Are Live, presented by Miller Lte. Thanks for all these great questions and we will be back here next week.