Protecting Tom Brady & Expectations for the 2020 Bucs | Bucs Insider

in the comments section under our live video. While people do that with We're gonna go ahead and start off. There's there's been some stuff happening this week. It's so exciting. There were coaches back in the building. It's it's crazy, what a big step that feels like after after the last few months here. So coaches went back into the building on Monday. And I know that offensive coordinator Byron Left,

which spoke to the media yesterday via zoom. Uh so I want to hear what were some of your thoughts on anything that he said or what you might have gotten out of that. Yeah, I'm not even in town and I still get all this news. Uh of all this of the it's a it's a good feeling because it sort of feels like we're progressing back towards football. Uh. And Byron talking yesterday, I believe, was another example of that.

And he did a good twenty five minutes on a bunch of questions about what's gonna happen with this offense because everybody by now would have normally, we normally had all those O T A s. And I think the rookie minicamp, I mean, and even the regular full mandatory mini camp would be over by now, and we'd have a lot of data so to speak, of what the Bucks offense looks like on the field. Um, we don't

have that obviously. So and you saw a little bit or you heard a little bit of that in Byron's answers, you know, asked about, for instance, the running backs and if there's a pass catching running back in that group, there is there something who can really fill that role

more so than last year. Because that's one thing Bruce arians has talked about several times during this offseason as he wants that in his offense, and certainly Tom Brady has made great use of that in former Patriots offenses like James White for example, And and he said he thinks we have a couple candidates, you know, keys on Von being one of them. Ray Calais being another one, and but he doesn't really know yet. We have to get him on the field and get our hands on him,

as he said, and find out. Um. So it's just another example of the uncertainty and and all the ground that has to be caught up on when these guys get back on the field. You know, maybe training camp starts a little bit earlier this year, maybe it's a little bit longer. I don't think it's finalized yet or heading in that direction, and it's gonna be it's gonna be a real jam packed, intense, uh period of weeks,

you know, to get this team. But the thing is, and this is another thing that Byron said during that time during his talk, it's the same for everybody. So it's not a disadvantage for the Buccaneers. I guess you could say any team that's trying to incorporate a new quarterback in their offense has a little bit more of a hurdle to clear, but everybody's pretty much on a level field. Yeah, that's a good point, and I do

think it's interesting. I've heard a few people talk about the potential advantage for teams who didn't change coaches, didn't change systems. That was something that Byron left which I thought mentioned that you know, everybody, for the most part on the team is gonna be in their second year. Of course, Brookies are all always new for everybody, so that's gonna be challenging across the board for all teams.

But there is a bit of an advantage there. But then, of course Brady is sort of new to the system. So where do you feel like we stand compared to other teams on the challenge you have ahead of you of making sure that everybody's on the same page. Yeah, even before Byron talked about that defensive Cordne or Todd bowl Is a week or two ago said the same thing, but a little more emphatically. Definitely the continuity and the

coaching staff, and definitely the continuity in the defense. Uh In that basically the entire starting defense is back and a lot of those guys are very young players who really hit the stride in the second half of last year. He says, that's gonna help an awful lot now. He also caution that you're still back starting at square one

every year. You can't assume any of your gains from the past year are automatically, automatically gonna roll over, but he did acknowledge that that continuity will be helpful and because the guys are starting where they are now, he's gonna be able to do a lot more, you know, the the thing that he can do to make defense even more complicated, and it's a comple It's a complicated defense for opponent opponents, and it always has been because he does a lot these multiple as they say, and

he's one of the more aggressive coordinators in the league. But what they can do more and more and more of is disguising. So you know, there's only so many different ways you're gonna come at the opponent on defense, but you can make it look like a lot of different things. So Sean Murphy Bunny was talking about that too. How the more they know not just what their job is, but what the offense is trying to do to them, and they get that through more and more film study,

which they can still do during this strange offseason. H the more they can anticipate but also disguise what they're doing and give the defensive look that they think is what's going to happen. But they're really planning on doing something else. So I think that is a big advantage in terms of the continuity. And then, as we said, the flip side of that is integrating a new quarterback

makes it diff more difficult than some other teams. We had a question from Michael, and I thought, this is interesting. This is someone we haven't talked about a ton as far as the effect of them leaving that. Michael lasked, I'm curious if the loss of Karl Nassi will have

a major impact on the defense. Well, it could. I would say the impact is that there isn't a lot of depth there and we're so so happy to be able to get Shack Barrett and Jpp back, and uh that's a real dynamic duo at the outside linebacker position. But after that, you don't really have a single experienced player.

I mean, I think they hope that Anthony Nelson, the fourth round pick from last year, steps up, but all the other guys are basically late drawn round draft picks or undrafted free agents from a year ago and this year who haven't really played any NFL regular season games yet. And so there's a lot of guys there that have intriguing talent and somebody or several somebody's could emerge from that. But you look at the depth chart right now, and it's that really stands out as one of the positions

where after the front line. Uh, you don't have much experience, You don't have much that you know for sure is gonna work out, which is why uh, you know, Bruce arians was talking about how there are still three or four spots open on the roster right now. Usually you run at your full ninety max during the off season and training camp without practice, it wasn't that big of

a deal. And they have purpose left some positions, some spots on the roster open for what they consider possible veteran additions, and uh, the guys would kind of be able to come in and hit the ground running and know what they're doing. And he mentioned some positions that they might do that at and that included, uh, linebacker, but also defensive line, and that includes really in our situation, the outside linebackers. So wouldn't be surprised to see a

veteran addition there if it was a value signing. But I would say the loss and Carl massive means you don't you're a little scary at depth at the moment and hard. I mean getting all the guys back that we got on defense. Losing just Carl Nassa is not too hard to smile considering everybody else be able to bring back, right, Yeah, um Jay asked, is there too much hype on the bus and if so, do you

think the experience of Tom Brady could help quell that hype? So, in other words, how is there too much hype in the way that it might affect the way the team handles themselves goes forward. What's kind of the pressure. I'd probably say qualified yes to the first and the yes

to the second one. I mean, yeah, there's there's probably too much hype, just because it's impossible not for it not to build when you add the greatest quarterback of all time and then you also get his favorite target of all time, Rob Gronkowski, and the way the defense finished, and it's easy for an analyst, not just us, but you see it from national analysts to look on paper and say, there's really not a lot of weaknesses on

this team. This team by adding Tom Brady and and you know, maybe hopefully probably fixing the turnover problem that was the main cause of us, uh, you know, not being able to go be over five last year. It's easy to connect the dots, but every single coach in this situation will tell you hype is fine, and we we welcome all the uh, we welcome all the expectations, but it doesn't mean much until we get on the field.

So that's what I would say, probably qualified yes to that first one, and yes absolutely to the second part of that question. With Tom Brady being the one that can guide a team through that, I think that's absolutely something's gonna be doing. And when all the way back when we first signed Tom Brady, Jason Light said, yes, we were signing him because not because of what he's done before, but what we think he can still do

the next two years. But also he fast emphasized over and over again the value of his leadership in the locker room and on the field. And I don't think there's any doubt that's gonna happen. Yeah, that's a good point, um, Revn. I think is how you say the name. I feel like I might have butchered that. He's watching from Denmark and he you would appreciate this, he said, I love Scott's offseason. Beard Oh great. I didn't know if anybody had noticed. It's kind of the off season scruff coming in.

And he also said, Casey, I loved your show with Alian Donovan. Are we gonna get something similar this season? And no, the Alan Donna show was just kind of a one year fun thing. Um, but then last year and then again this year, we're gonna have the Bruce arians show, which is which was great and I think everybody loves getting to hear from coach and um, so yes, I appreciate, appreciate the fandom, appreciate you know you're gonna

grow in off season Beard, Casey. You know I'm working on It's just not really coming in the way that I wanted. I was hoping we threw up. Now not so much. I think that we're gonna leave to the year year territka Um sorry, uh, Dennis asked, And I feel like we get this question a lot, and I'm sure you still don't have too much of an answer

for it. But Dennis asked, what's going on with Justin Evans. Yeah, that's yet another thing that we would have a lot more information on if this team was on the field. I think they had been targeting him coming back somewhere in the O t A sh so we know by now whether that had happened or not. And honestly, we've got nothing. I mean, um, he's still very much an unknown quantity going into training camp, and uh the good The flip side of that is, I don't know how

much we're we're necessarily counting on. I mean, you draft Antoine Winfield in the second round, you're probably hoping he can step in right away, and you've got a number of other candidates at safety, so it would be a bonus. I guess if Justin Evans comes back and plays like he did as a rookie and at the beginning of his second season, Um, you know, there was a lot

of promise there. There were some ups and downs before he got hurt, and obviously he's been unfortunate in that regard ever since for about a year and a half. But I guess I would look at that, is the answer. The question is, no, we don't really have any new information,

but it could just be a bonus when we had. Yeah, I have to imagine that outside of rookies, he might be someone at this time is the least ideal for you know that the way this offseason is going because he hadn't hurt so much and that he needed a chance to prove that he was healthy and hadn't lost his stuff. That he probably more than anyone other than rookies,

is bummed about the way that this offseason has gone. Yeah, and he hasn't even got to do that with this coaching staff at all because he didn't get on the field last year, So the Bruce Arians coaching staff doesn't know much about him really beyond what they've been able to watch on tape. Yeah, that's a good point. Um Jarvis asked what undrafted free agent do you like to make the team, and he said he likes the L

s U linebacker. And I'm sure that normally you'd have a bit more of an opinion on this because again we would have gotten to watch them do things on a football field. But this might be a tough question for you right now. Well, Michael Vivinity would be a good call. I thought he was a guy that could possibly get drafted. Um, he finished his college career is pretty strong there when he got to play in the

last game. Um, I think the quarterback um uh as read stint it has a shot just simply because the team definitely wants a developmental quarterback. And you know, Bruce arians did mention the other day that the idea of a quarantine quarterback, you know, keeping a quarterback that can nose the system um away from the rest of them. Uh, maybe you even keep forward, you know that that would be kind of extreme. Uh. You could also possibly keep read stand it on the practice squad, so that'd be

another way of making it so to speak. Um. I like also, uh, some of these some of these young receivers, they're all from small schools, like Travis Johnson. Uh, but they all did. They all put up really big numbers and small programs, and I think there's room for competition at the bottom of the receiver depth chart, especially if you end up keeping six of them instead of five. So those are all decent choices, but it's a much

harder question to answer. I know by this point every year I always have a favorite or two among those undrafted free agents, just from seeing what they've done on the field. So this is basically just you know, pulling a rabbit out of a hat. At this point, it's hard to see. Yeah, it's it's gonna make us definitely have to pay a lot more attention to a lot

more things than people at training camp to learn. Yeah, well, the good news is we'll have a lot more to talk about that will be fresh when a training camp this time. Right there, Um Tracy asked how can we improve our running game to help Brady out to have a record setting year? So, Um, basically I would love to hear from you, especially is it going to be more about the running backs? Are more about the old

line in your mind? Well, it's all together, and uh, we already hopefully have helped by um by drafting Tristan Worfs, who is a powerful runback blocker, and by adding Rob Gronkowski, who's one of the best blocking tight ends in the league. You put Rob next to Tristan Worse, and you know you might have a lot more power over there. Even even in his best days, the bar Dotson was probably a better pass blocker than a run blocker, and he was good at both, and he was a great player

for US for ten years. But now you got Tristan Worse and whenever Rob Gronkowski's line up were over there, And I also think, uh, we might see more twelve personnel this year with two tight ends, so you'd have a blocker on each side of the line, and we can throw out of that as well. That's why we can run a lot of that. There's a lot we can do out of twelve personnel. But whenever you have twelve personnel in the field, you should be able to run the ball well. And that's something we really were

not good at at all last year. Surprisingly. I went through the stats a little bit before he went on vacation and for a story, and I think we average about two point eight guards per carry while in twelve personnel, and that that simply shouldn't be that that that group should be better at running the ball, and I think you can expect some regression to the means simply the results should be better regardless. But also that's another year

in the system for all those guys too. You have four out of your five offensive lineman returning uh Ali marpet got better, Diamond Smith got Petter, Bryan Jensen has best year, Alex Kappa uh the coaches were saying they're really happy with what he did in his first year. You can probably expect him to get better, um and then we'll see what the addition to Keyshawn Vonda is in one more year for Ronald Jones. But it's kind of you can't really say it's just the offensive line

or just the running backs that kind of all works together. Um, there's a lot of a room for improvement, especially on a per Carrey basis. So I would suspect it will be better this year. If it if it's a lot better, that's gonna mean very good things for our offense. But we'll see. Yeah. And Sean Asia asked what are your expectations for Sean Murphy Bunteen. Well, I mean we all saw how Sean and Jamal Dean and Carlton Davis played

down the stretch last year. Um, they all were really getting their hands on the football at which was a big change for us, you know, even the first half of that year, but also the last couple of years. We just haven't had that kind of playmaking in the secondary. Now. Todd Bowles was saying the other day that we need to start catching those balls past his defense are great,

but we need more than to become interceptions. Uh So all those guys, But the question was about Seawn so Um, for one thing, he's very very confident after that, and he already was confident, but he was very confident after that, and you could tell when he did one of these interviews earlier in the spring that that was the case. And they all feel like that extensive film study has

really helped the a lot. And as I was saying earlier, they feel like they're going to come into this just this season with a better idea of not just what they're supposed to do, but what the offense is trying to do to them, and that will help them a lot. You know, he's still just a second year player, so I don't want to shoot for the moon here, but he he had three interceptions last year and came on strong at the end, So he could be our first five or six in reception guy we've had in a while.

I don't know, we haven't had a lot of that since I guess if you believe we've had, our leaders have usually been around three or four. So of the three guys that I just talked about, he was the one who was best at converting his chances at the football into interceptions. So I would say my expectations would be that he would leave the team in interceptions, particularly if he ends up playing that hybrid role where he starts on the outside and base and then goes into

the nickel, which is where they're gonna start. There'll just be competition after that. Okay, well that's gonna do it for us on this edition of Buccaneers Inside a Live presented by Miller Life. Thanks to all of you guys for the awesome question, Scott, Thanks to you for joining us on your vacation, and we will see you guys next time. Pffer fool, Saffy suffer m MF