Key Takeaways from the 53-Man Roster, Safety Depth | Bucs Insider

I'm trying. I'm just so excited that we're almost to that point that I'm like, we're the show away from the show where there's going to an ultimate, an ultimate show before there's a game. And man, there is plenty to talk about, plenty of news because this is the week right now. Yeah, we just are posting some right now as we speak, because of course, all the roster

cutdowns are happening, roster moves all over the place. Because we always talked about the fact that when they get down to the final fifty three, it's never the final

fifty three, and this morning is proof of that. So yes, you know, yesterday was the final fifty three that now there were some other moves to talk about what happened this morning in particular, it's Honestly, it's the move everybody expected, or the pair of moves when the Buccaneers waived and released and put people on listen, made a variety of twenty seven moves to get from eight to fifty three. One of those that stood out was that they released

Logan Ryan. And when you first see the like from what we saw in training camp, obviously he's gonna have a significant role in defense, So why would you release Logan Ryan. Didn't take long to figure out that that's just a way to create a roster spot for a day so that you can keep Ryan Jensen and not have to cut a player and send him through waivers

and maybe get claimed by somebody. Since Logan Ryan is a vested veteran, he doesn't go through waivers, so you can say, hey, Logan, we need a spot, can you help us here? And I don't know how it went on, maybe they even give him a bonus or something, but he knows, and the team knows that the next day they'll just resign him back or in two days, as it turned out to be, because you want to get Ryan Jensen through to the fifty three men roster in order to have the option to bring him back from

injury reserve. If you if you put a guy like Aaron Stinney on injury reserved before the cuts to fifty three, he's done for the year. He can't come back if you if you cut them, if you bring them both through to the fifty three and then put him on i R, then you have the option to designate them

for return at some point during the season. And obviously the Buccaneers are holding out hope that Ryan Jensen's knee injury is not completely season ending, right, So that's the whole point of all that, Yes, which makes complete sense.

So now we talked about this morning, let's go back to the final fifty three before that of some of the moves that were made to get down to that initial fifty three, anything that stood out to you in particular, well overall, the thing that was surprising was the offensive and defensive balance. So you have fifty three spots right, Three of those go to specialist kicker, punter, lung snapper.

So you have fifty which the obvious breakdown would be twenty five on each side, but the Buccaneers kept twenty players and only twenty two on defense because they kept seven receivers, which was probably the most that you could possibly keep, four tight ends, which is probably the most you would ever keep, and four running backs. So I thought one of those positions would have to give up

something for the other one. But instead the Buccaneers went deep at all three of them, and also or at least a day, had to keep a tenth offensive lineman

and Ryan Jensen. Now it's back to three with the logan Ryan Ryan Jensen swap, but still it's really heavily leaning towards offense because there were just so many players that they wanted to keep, and despite all of that, they still had to cut Tyler Johnson, and it was it was inevitable that the Bucks were gonna have to cut a receiver that clearly can play in the NFL, and he immediately got claimed by the Houston Texans, who I believe we're second in the claim Raven because it's

the same as the draft order right now, and I believe it was second. He was coveted, right, I mean, there are teams At the time that the Texans claimed him, they only had four receivers on their roster period, so there are teams out there that have a better, say I don't know depth and say inside linebacker than we do, but we have better depth at right and still do at wide receiver than almost every team out there. So we were gonna have to let somebody go that somebody

else is gonna want. But what it came down to in them keeping Jalen Darton, Scottie Miller and even Brashad Perriman is that all those guys have some special teams value and they just didn't feel like Tyler Johnson had any. And you have your first four, hoping they're all healthy for the start of the season, Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Julio John's, Russell Gauge. Those guys are gonna get the

most of playing time when they're all healthy. So the other guys, if they're gonna have a helmet on on game days, are going to have to have some special teams value. Just didn't think Tyler Johnson gave them that. But they do believe he's a good receiver and we

all wish him well in Houston. And then a couple of those undrafted wide receivers that had gotten a lot of attention during the preseason were brought back on the practice squad, so that was exciting to see that they will still be a part of the organization in Devin Tompkins and Caitlyn guy So a couple of exciting guys. Yeah,

that was great. Again, when you have that deep of a room, you know, you don't know you're gonna have to cut a lot of people you might like, and then you worry about are they gonna get picked up are they not? And it's great to see that they were able to come back. To the point that there was conjecture by some in the last preseason game when Devin Tompkins and Caitln Geiger hardly played at all, that the Bucks were like, let's not put them on tape anymore than we off to. Let's not let people have

another look at them. I don't know if that's true enough, but certainly that's what people conjecture. And think about the fact that the the practice squad, now when I started in the league, it was a five man practice squad and now it's sixteen. Incredible, And he used to turn over constantly because you'd get players injured, and maybe now

you need a linebacker and ad a receiver. Now you can keep guys the whole year we kept like ten guys the whole year last year, and because of those elevation rules, those guys are really an extension on the active roster. So those sixteen guys on the practice squad, a lot of them are actually gonna see regular season

game playing time, Yeah, which is interesting. Another spot that I thought was intriguing in the UH in the cutdowns on roster moves this week was the backup inside linebackers that of course we all know Lavonte Devon, Yeah, but then after that it was sort of interesting that there was a trade that there was a maybe unexpected person to make the roster. Tell us a little bit about

that position. Yeah. And in fact, Todd Bowles yesterday was asked what the hardest spots were when they had to make the final decisions for the roster, and he said, wide receiver obviously, and back up in side linebacker. And the Buccaneers decided to trade Grant Steward to the Colts that we just played. You should have just stayed there, right, um, And this is sort of the opposite of the receiver situation.

Grant Steward is very good on special teams, but they didn't see him going forward adding much value on defense compared to kJ Brett and the undrafted Rickie Old Cuillotas. And so it's kind of the backwards that at receiver they needed to play special teams. At inside linebacker they're going to play special teams. But they also wanted them to have some value on defense because that's all that

we have after Lavante, Devon and Devin White. So if you those guys is missing for any period of time, kJ Brett and or Old on the field and you need them to be give you some value on defense. Right, And we got a question from Jermaine He said, who would be are starting safety besides Windfield? So figured, now we've talked about some of those different roster moves and who all is back there at the safety position? What do we feel like that could end up shaking out?

That's a very germane question. You can't help it, jokes, I can't help it. Um, I told you my no, I won't do it. I was gonna tell another one, but I won't, um unless you have a cap Okay, next week, next week? So who are we talking about again? Well, now, besides Winfield, who is starting sum the starting safety is in the base package? Will be Windfield and Mike Edwards, and I think both those guys will be on the field for snaps. They're not coming off like and that's

great news for Mike Edwards. That's where he's been wanting to get to UM for the last three years and good for him. Obviously, we never take Antwine off the field, but we're gonna move them around a lot. And so you're in sub package is a lot. In fact, probably fifty to six of your snaps are in the nickel defense and so that third, that fifth defensive back is

pretty much the same as the starter. And for what we saw in training camp, a lot of times that's gonna be Logan Ryan We're just talking about and that could be Logan Ryan uh in too deep with Mike Edwards. That could be Mike or Logan, you know, as a single center fielder and like a cover three or something like that. UM And when one of those guys, we saw a lot of Antoine Winfield in the slot close to land screment, So I think you can see a lot of those guys and Kim and Neal on the

field sometimes. So it's probably gonna be a lot of mix and match, a lot of different looks, a lot of disguise looks for the offense, and I think they're gonna make use of all those guys, but the bass starters should be Antoine and Michael. It was funny I actually uh am seed an event with Antoine last night. I was talking to him about Mike Edwards and just what a ball hawk he is, and Antoine said, yeah, every game, I likeced my shoes up and say make me like Mike, like Mike, you know, and uh and

he was just time, He's like, it's just crazy. He's like, he'll get ten snaps and two interceptions and we're talking about what that would mean for Antoine of how many if it was proportioned, fifty interceptions, you know, in a game, and it's just incredible. And so it'll be interesting to see him in more of a starting role getting maybe a few more snaps of what that could look like

for him. Knowing well, and the question is, if Mike Edwards is such an incredible ball hawk and gets interceptions every time he's on the field, then why for the last three years have we not put him on the fielderson the time? Well, the reason, probably for the most part,

was he needed to improve. Yeah, and get getting the more physical side of his game, and according to the coaches even as soon as like even as recently as the second half of last year, really making big strides in that to the point now they're comfortable having on the field all the time. Okay, and we have a question from Rob. He said, which of the Buck's first year players do you see as having the biggest impact? That including Rocky's I assume Logan Hall. Well, if Luke

Getticky is starting, you know, think about who's starting. Logan Hall, he's not starting at the moment, should play a lot. Maybe I'll have a big impact as a pass rusher. That would be what the Bucks are hoping for. Luke Getticky probably starting. So if you're starting on the offensive line, Brady, that's a big impact. Rashod White, I think he's actually gonna I think he's done a good job and it's actually carpet U punters obviously gonna have a j Camarda.

I'd probably go with Getticky though, I mean every day is tempting, but every snap protechnique and Getticky would be involved in a lot of what Rashad White would be doing too, So we can say that he gets some credit for that. Um, you know, I think that we're talking about the offensive line. Of course, that's been a huge topic and with injuries and still not knowing a lot of that and the left guard position. So what do you think that's going to affect about the offense overall?

Do you think that we already know Brady likes a lot of the shorter passes and things like that. Do you feel like we're going to see that the offense adjusts a little bit to whatever needs to be done with the O line? Yeah? Well, and I think Tom Brady enjoys all the facets of passing, and it's just it's been over the last two years. What is the

defense giving you? And the amazing part is over the last two years combined since Tom Brady has been here, he actually leads the NFL in vertical routes both completions with two and touchdowns with already nine. You're like, oh, no risk, no biscuits. But we know from being there and a lot of Bucks fans know that, uh, that was more in one. They had to adjust to all the two deep safety shells and then taking the deep

passes away. And as you saw in that graphic there Tom Brady adjusted to in the offense, and Byron Leftwich and and everybody adjusted to an amazing degree, to the point that he became the best or most productive passer in the league on what they call quick passes, which are ones that are get out of the hand in two point five seconds or less from the snap. He has that graphic showed he led the league in completions, yards,

and touchdowns on such passes. So there it is again when the Buccaneers, when defense has started play Tom Brady and his deep ball differently than the Bucks, and Tom Brady adjusted and you can see how efficient they were at it. And a lot of that had to do with such great receivers like Chris Godwin, who was great

in this type of game. I do believe, because of the uncertainty on the offensive line and the fact that I think those defenses are going to continue to play the Bucks a lot the way they did last year, that the Bucks are gonna have to do that a lot again. But they got a lot of guys that canna do that, and they added Russell Gage, who is also very good out of the slot and with the ball in his hands. They might make more use of

guys like Jalen Darden get in the ball quickly. I think if you compare, the Bucks offense is going to look more like last year's, but it always has to adjust, and fortunately Tom Brady has proven that he can pretty much adjust to any system that the Buccaneers wanted to do. And then we'll close out with this. I know that one other thing in the roster cuts that we learned was who won the kicking battle, So we now know

that Ryan suck Up will again be the kicker. What do you think went into that decision in him winning that spot and what that means for maybe even some of their strategy this year. Well, that's a good question.

I don't think it's completely answered yet because what you what you had in this kicker battle in the battle, and the reason why there was a kicker battle is that while Ryan suck Up over the past two years has as he has been throughout his career, very reliable, especially from forty yards in, He's only missed one kick from warty yards in since he got here, which is awesome, right, that's what you need first, um, and look by the numbers, he's the most accurate field goal kicker in team history,

so that's good. But last year he only attempted one kick of over fifty yards. He didn't make it. I believe his longest one was forty nine, and it got to the point where the Bucklers really were not sending him out there to try lung field goals. That's why jose Borgas had a shot. Clearly has a big leg if he can give you some fifty two and fifty. He had a fifty six yarder in the preseason, but then he missed a fifty two yarder and he missed

the forty nine yarder that could have won the first game. Um, before you coaches have to decide. I think that before you can have the luxury of a guy who can give you a fifty five yard or you have to make sure he can make the gimmes. And I think they just decided in the end, Ryan suck Up is the better choice. It's the guy that you know can do it. Maybe Jose could have done it. Honestly, I think he's going to get on somewhere in the league. Maybe Jose could be that guy, but they weren't sure.

With Ryan suck Up here a lot more sure. I think, and then he made a fifty two yard in the field goals, so you know it could have been physically choose. It could be that Ryan Sucker is back to not only being automatic from forty in, but also you can send them out their forty five or fifty two and maybe that's what they're thinking. Okay, well that's going to do it for us on this edition of Buck's Insider Live.

Thank you so much for joining us, and we'll be back here next week to take your final questions leading up to that regular season opener. We'll see then