Welcome in two Bucks insider Casey Phillips here with senior writer and editor Scott Smith. It has been a fun week because it is official. Antoine Winfield Junior is a Buck for a long time and making a big buck, so it was quite a deal for him. He had his official signing and press conference this week, and it was even cooler because the press conference was one year to the day from him calling his shot. So let's take a listen.
The worst Saturday morning, you know where everybody hung over. We get that good work here, big season to hear. I think I'm the only one I see it. That's just how I gotta be right now, That's how I got to be.
What are you going for?
I want team, I want All Pro, Pro Bowl, super Bowl.
I want it all in the final goal.
There we go, ice paid this year.
Mark my words.
I'm gonna come next to this video and be like I did it well. Probably shouldn't see you because on his work that we put here right now, we're gonna make it happen. So it's twenty third, so you got to speaking it into existence. All Pro, highest pay, all pro, highest paid, all Pro, highest pay, and eventually it's going to become reality.
So state some incredible and again to the day, one year from when he recorded that video was his press conference and when I interviewed him afterward, I was like, I have a list of things I'd like for you to manifest if you wouldn't mind, you know, winning the lottery, things like that. But I did talk to him a little bit about his next things he wants to manifest, So we have a slice coming out with him soon. That's gonna be fun to hear that about. So tell
me your thoughts on this deal. Listening to him at the press conference, just what this means to him, to the organization and to that defense.
Well, it was funny because he said, as we know, he's now the highest paid defensive back in the league, and he says that they're in the video and the goal when you say that, obviously you have to do something extraordinary to then be rewarded as the highest paid player at your position. Right, So it's a good goal to have beyond just you know, wanting to be wealthy. But he said, to be clear, I was going for highest paid safety, not necessarily defensive back. So that was
kind of even above and beyond. But again it's as was mentioned in the press conference, it's another example of you, if you're drafted by this team and you put in the work and you become a good player, they want to keep you around. And we're showing it again and again. That's the way that Jason Light wants to build this team and Antoine himself. He didn't put any numerical goals like in that video. I think he said ten as in ten takeaways if you add up his interceptions in
force fumbls and funnel recoveries. He did get there, but he didn't really have another statistical goal for this season. The goal was the super Bowl, which is what Jason Light, who was sitting next to him, wanted to hear. So he wants to get super Bowl number two and then go from there, as he said, and he plans to continue working just as hard. He says every year he wants to be better than the year he was before, and at this stage in his career that's still quite doable.
Yeah, which is incredible. I'm so excited to have him around longer term. Now. That was, of course the highest profile signing of the week. It wasn't the only signing of the week. We're always kind of in this point this time of year of trying to get all those rookies sign on their deals, and so tell us about who was able to get scared.
Yeah, draft pick, third round pick Tyke Smith, the safety or defensive back out of Georgia. He got his first deal done. Like every player picked after the first round, it's a four year deal. That leaves just three of the draft picks still to go. Graham Barton the first round center, Chris Braswell the second round outside linebacker, and Jalen mcmill in the third round receiver, and those will
probably get done in the next few weeks. They tend to under the current system because they're just not very difficult to do. And then we also had another little tweak to the roster. Signed a defender named Ernest Brown, formerly of the Rams, and then to make a spot for him, release Patrick Lair, who's been on the practice squad for quite some time. The running back Ernest Brown, he came in the league as a draft pick with
the Rams. He was considered an outside linebacker at the time, but he's kind of bulked up to about three hundred pounds now from two to seventy so the Bucks tend to use them, intend to use them like a three four defensive end, like a Will Golston type. So, and you know, as I always mentioned where these guys played their college ball, he played at Northwestern because I always I always mentioned.
That you always school no matter what, and not at all more emphasis when it's from Northwestern. I love that, all right. So you know, we don't typically have an injury report at this point in the year, but I saw your face like, what is happening? Coach Bowls on the on the injury report at this point. He had a knee surgery coming into OTAs, but that did not
keep him from being out there. He was in a golf cart and I loved watching him right on by and as he drove by, I gave a little Princess way and he gave the Princess way back as he's in his chariot being driven around OTAs. So he's still there, still made it to the first OTAs, just had to get that new replacement, which I mean, hey, he's gonna be an even even better coach this year once he get it all figured out.
Yeah, we have precedents of coaches going to practice in golf carts and it working out okay, something we had seen before. I was I was kind of impressed. To me answer you, I had heard some rumblings last week that he may not be at practices this week because the surgery was last Wednesday. Yeah, that's pretty quick, and this the first practice was Tuesday, so that's six days.
He said.
The first three days after the surgery were pretty rough, but he was getting around pretty well. And he says by the time the season, I would imagine also training cap comes around, he'll be move around just fine. Yeah, it's you know, that's a knee replacement. That's a big deal. Yeah, I personally was impressed he was out there. I imagine when you think about it, and we could talk a little bit about more what OTAs are, but you only get ten of them, and so.
I want to miss it. So tell us a little bit back again about that phase we're in OTAs, what the actual moment is of the off season.
We just started phase three, which is going to begin with three weeks of OTA, so you'll have three one week, three one week, and then four one week. The league only allows you to have ten. Sometimes teams maybe skip one of them and only do nine, but for now we have ten scheduled and in this third and then after that there will be a three day mini camp, which is the only mandatory part of the off season program.
In this third phase, you can now finally do full team drills like eleven on a having a nine on seven and so on, at which you couldn't do until this week started. Offense had to go against like other offensive players pretending to be defense, that kind of thing. But now they can go offense versus defense. There's still no contact, you're not supposed to hit each other, and these are not mandatory, but most of our guys have shown up. Baker Mayfield and very notably was out there.
You really, that's probably the most important person to attend you're starting quarterback because you're trying to get the offense. It's especially yeah and especially once again a new offense, So it would be unfortunate if Baker wasn't there, but he's there.
And then another person that one of those high profile people that is attending is Chris Godwin, and we got a chance to hear from him as he spoke about again new offense what his role might look like. So what did you feel like you learned. And you know, I feel like all off season we have been hearing rumblings of what we think that Chris Godwin Liam Cohen partnership is going to.
Yeah, yeah, Well Liam had mentioned that he intended to put Chris back into that role he used to play, where he's primarily working out of the slot, and but we hadn't talked to Chris about it, We hadn't really heard how he felt about it, and it was good to hear that he's very much in favor of this. You know, he was if we've shown graphics before about how he was playing like seventy to seventy five percent of snaps in the slot in the previous three years.
Last year it was only like forty percent. Now he's going to be your primary slot guy again. And a couple of things he mentioned one, as you see here, it allows him to be more creative in his routes, he says. But also, and I thought this was a really good point. If you recall a few years ago, we were raving about how good his run blocking was and how important he was to the rushing attack, which is not real common for a wide receiver tied end sure,
but receivers. They don't usually they're not usually that important to your rushing attack. They're getting new blocks on the outside in case of run is out and you maybe get some more yards. Chris notes that when he's playing in the slot, he can go back to being much more involved in the and much more important to the run blocking schemes without it being obvious if you're playing
the outside. If he's playing on the outside and he motions in and stops right near the end of the line, pretty good indication is probably a running play and he's gonna be blocking. But if he's already there, you're not giving anything away.
Yeah, that's true.
I thought that was a good point.
Yeah. Those One of my favorite things I learned last year was talking to Chris on one of our shows and that he started out as an offensive line minister did because of the weight situation, And I was like, it all makes so much sense now, all right, And so finally I know tight end room is going to be an interesting one to watch this year that we know we still have, you know, several guys coming back.
You have a little bit of additions, and again in this offense, what do you see is the role of the tight end, how Liam Cohan wants to use them and there for what that could look like for the guys that are on this roster.
Well, one thing we've talked about a little bit. I think we're going to run more eleven personnel rather than twelve, and twelve is where you get two tight ends on the field, So the snaps might be at a bit more of a premium. But Cade told us that he and the other tight ends, it's a really young group. We're talking before practice the other day and they were saying, we want to be the best position unit on this team, which is a lofty goal. I mean, better than the receiver.
I was like, oh boy, better than the safety. Yeah, I mean, if you're going.
To the goal, I love the goal. If they I mean, heck, if you come even close, you're doing pretty well.
So Kate is the quote unquote elder statesman of that room, even though he's just going into his third year. We've really totally rebuilt that room. You know, not that long ago it was Rob Gronkowski and Cam Bray and it's really changed quite a bit. As you see here. In the last three years, we've spent four day three picks on the position and that might be your position group. That might be it right there. I mean, there's a couple of other guys in the mix, but it could
into being those four. And you know, the oldest one is going into his third year. But you know, there's a lot of different types of guys in that group there, and there's a lot of room for growth. And you know what. The funny thing about kid I noticed when he was talking to the press. I love the guy and he gets asked questions that are directly about him, like what are your goals for this season? How many catches?
And he never talks about himself. Yeah, he always talks about the position, or the team or all the weapons on offense, no matter how the question was faceds in like trying to get him to say something good about himself, he was always just talking about the team. That's kind of a cool guy.
He's he's truly incredible. And I actually I talked to Devin Cult a little bit about him as well, knowing that they played together, and he was like, Kate is just the best human, Like he's just such a good person and guy, and I mean, you gotta love that. And it's got a middle school sweetheart and about to have their first baby, and so yeah, I mean, Kaid's an easy one to root for. All right, Well, that's gonna do it for us on this edition of Bucks
Insider Again. Stay tuned to all the coverage of OTAs on buccaneers dot com.