Welcome too, Bucks Insider Live. Casey Phillips here with senior writer and editor Scott Smith. And I feel like, as always, I have to start this time of year, this type of show with this big old disclaimer. Because we work for the team, we don't get to announce things until they're officially official by the officials. We are not those officials as much as we've tried to be. So we're going to talk about some reports that are out there, and then we do have news that we can fully
report ourselves. So we're going to start. I just always feel like I need to lay out we know about the reports out there before people say, why aren't you talking about That's why? That is why. So let's talk about some of these reports you want to clearinghouse. Yes, that's exactly it, officially exactly it. So the things that are not official that are reports as well. I could start with Anthony Nelson, the Bucks bringing him back on
a two year contract. The outside linebacker plays the last four years really has been an upward trajectory to nantat sacks the last two years. If we were doing this show, maybe I don't know, even a half hour from now, theoretically not to be given anything away, but theoretically, theoretically we might be able to do that. One. The most exciting one, probably the whole thing, is the reports the Levante David will be back. From an emotional standpoint, that
was probably number one on the list. We'll talk about what was probably from a significance and how well they're playing right now and how young they are the number one here in a minute on that list, but we all love the fact that it appears, according to reports, the Levante David will be back. Yeah. The heart and soul that defense in so many ways in the organization, I mean, just such an incredible really one of the
all time grades. Absolutely so. Yeah, I think that was the one people were probably most kind of sitting there twddlings waiting to hear when and if levant that comes back, and if he can, if he finished his career with the Buccaneers, he'll basically join Derek Brooks, Randi Barber and Paul Gruber as the four guys who played the longest and only as Buccaneers. Wow. And then of course Kyle Trust may have a little competition, but hopefully we'll be
getting into that maybe next time around. Yes, I think next show we will have more things to say. Theoretically, yes, So let's talk about what we look into the Let's do the part that's a little easier for us to talk about here. So Jamel Dean, this is a guy that we had all offseason. It was so interesting. He was on all these lists as one of the top free agents period in the league and then especially at corner and some had him as the top free agent
most of them did. And so now to know that the Bucks are bringing him back, just tell me a little bit about what we know about the deal and what this means to this defense. Yeah, it might have seemed like a surprise in an upset that the Bucks, with their cap situation, could bring Jamel Dean back after also,
they're already paying Carlton Davis, another great cornerback. But I think part of the reason there is because Jamal is very fond of Todd Bowles, and Todd Bowles is very fond of Jamal, and I think both of them really wanted that relationship to continue. And that's great for the Buccaneers because not only did Jamel have his best season last year, but he's kind of sneakily been good ever since.
He got here. And if you look at over the last four years, which is the four years of Jamalsman in the league, according to NFL next Gen Stats, he's allowed the fewest yards per target of any cornerback in the league over that an entire And look at some of the names there, stuffind him one of defensive Player of the Year words or Davis White is great. C J. Gardner Johnson is a really coveted guy on the market
right now. So Jamal has been good for a long time and he's only getting better and he's still young. It's a really big and important Probably if you listed all the free agents that the Buccaneers were facing, as I said emotionally, probably went Levante at the top of the list. But in terms of the player that is probably most important to get back, that was Jamal Dean. So really quite a coup for the Bucks to be able to keep him. Yeah, and I just love his story.
It's just so amazing being told I think he said, was given a three percent chance that he could play football again. Yeah, that he you know, all these knee surgeries early on, and then not only that, to have all those knee surgeries to be told you're not going to play and then to put a just blazing forty time that it's like three yeah, like absolutely insane. That to say that he was able to overcome that is putting it mildly. And to get to a second contract
after being told three percent chance. I mean, there's so few people in general that make it to a second contract in this league. And I just think it's a guy, a great story, So very excited about that. And then there's been a trade as well. I know that that was part of the news that we know we can report to tell us a little bit about that. Yeah, the Buccaneers knew they were going to be moving on from Shack Mason, who they got in a trade with New England last year to replace Alex Kapp, and he
started all eighteen games last year. It was very solid. But there were some hard cap decisions to be made, so he probably would have been released, but the Buccaneers were able to scare up a trade with the Texans. It's a common thing now with a trade like this. If the guy's gonna get released, you're not going to get a time. What you got was a pick swap.
You pick up a six, you give a seventh. The Bucks did a pretty good job within that though, because the Texans had three different sixth round picks, and we got their first one which is their own, which is the second, and around number one seventy nine. Overall, the Bucks had two late seventh round picks and gave up number two thirty. So that's a move up of fifty one spots, which you know, not bad. Yeah, not bad for a player you probably would have released anyway. So yeah,
that's if you look at it this way. The Buccaneers traded a couple seventh round picks last year in order to move up in the sixth round to get co keifed, and co Keefe turned up quite nice. So now you don't even have to make that movie you already have, yeah,
which is big. And it is amazing to think about how, even though the Bucks were in such a tough salary cap situation, if we kept talking about that all the way up until now the offseason, that they were able to become cap compliant when they needed to be and still be bringing back some different people and to have gotten some draft capital a little bit along the way too.
I mean a Greeny exactly our front office, who we love so much so tell me a little bit about in your mind what this means for the offensive line and maybe for the draft. I will probably get into this little bit in our Road to the Draft show.
We'll shoot later. So just a little bit, maybe even less on the draft side, but overall, looking at what the Bucks have on the offensive line right now, and Aaron Stinney, you know, that's another piece of news that we hadn't gotten to as well, so that to kind of discuss what we know we have on the O line right now. Well, the Buccaneers have Tristan Works of course, Nave, Ryan Jents and Pro bowlers, and Ryan Jens is back from his injury, which was great. We saw that he
came back amazingly for the playoff game. Tristan Works could be your Pro Bowl caliber, all pro calibl right tackle next year, and that would be fine. There is a possibility, and the Buccaneers have not discounted it. They really don't know yet because they haven't got a chance to get in there and see what it looks like. But you could move him to left tackle and have this premier athlete playing the premier one of the premier positions in all of football. In that case, then the Buccaneers will
be looking for a new right tackle. Could that be Luke Getticky who started the Week seventeen game or Week eighteen game against Atalanta and played that position in college. Possibly you could look for that position in the draft, and then to two guard spots. You know, Nick Leverett essentially is the returning the incumbent left guard, and he did get the tender offer to become an exclusive rights fore agent, so he'll eventually sign that and be back,
So he could be the guy. But you've got Robert Haynesy who played center last year, You've got Luke Ke couldn't figure in there, And you just said, Aaron Stinney, there's a lot of options for the Buccaneers even if they don't address that in the draft. Okay, that's going
to be interesting to see. And then now just in general free agency as it's become, you know, the official start of the new league year this week, we've seen a lot of movement around the NFC South, and so I know, right now it's always fun to especially look at what your own team is doing, but it's also smart to keep an eye on the teams you're going to face multiple times this next season, and they're gonna
this division is going to look very different. Well. It's interesting because obviously this division was down last year since the Bucks won it with an eight and nine record, and so everybody in this league obviously sees this as an opportunity, even though they had bad records last year, to win it. And you see some teams really going for it. And there's been a ton of movement as we see here. And one of the things I find interesting about it is there's been a lot of movement
between teams in this league. So I think I messed up when I submitted the information for this graphic because I think the Falcons should also have David an Yumada, the defensive tackle that the Falcons lost. But you see Shy Tuttle going to the Panthers. David an Yumada not shown they're going to the Falcons. You've got Andy Dalton going from the Saints to the Panthers. So there's a
lot of movement within the league. But you see the other thing I would note here is that the Saints, because of that cap situation, now they've signed a bunch of guys, so they were a replace or DTS they spent a lot of money, although it's backloaded on Derek Carr. They just got Jamal Williams last night, which I was upset to hear. Also, the Panthers got Miles Standers, so both of the kind of late in the in the process, they both picked up a pretty darn good running back.
But look at all the guys that the Falcons, I mean, the Saints actually lost, which is something that comes to roost when you do it the way the Saints do it in every single year, keep pushing money down the road. So Marcus Davenport, David and Jamaa, Shy Tuttle Caden Ellis, it's going to be a little bit hard for them to replace all that talent upfront. Yeah, and this means nothing, but I just think Shy Tuttle is one of my favorite names in the NFL. Makes me think of the
key and peels skin every time. It feels like one that they would have said in their as. Yeah, I feel like think of the shy kid that says I like turtles writing bad video. That's amazing. Um. Well, yeah, we're definitely gonna be recording a Road to the Draft after this to make sure you stay tuned to that because we're going to talk about all of this free agency news what it can mean for the Buccaneers Draft.
So we'll see you next time here on Buccaneers Inside or Live, and stay tuned for our road to the Draft.