Running Back Competition, NFL Player Awards | Bucs Insider

question underneath our live video in the comments section. While we give people a chance to do that, I mean, there are polenty of things for us to talk about with that game that was. That was a ride that that was a heck of a ride. So uh and we also, of course had an award this morning. Seems like that's just gonna be our pattern here, So why don't you take us through who won an award and

some of some of the reasons why from that game. Yeah, it's rare for a player to win one of the UH Players the Week awards in a game that they lost. So as long as we keep having these news hits of news every Wednesday, were in good shape. Mike Edwards is the NFC Defensive Player of the Week, the first time he's won that award, and when you do something that nobody's done in almost thirty years, that being two pick sixes and one quarter one fourth quarter, you're probably

gonna win an award. So, um, you know, it was more of an offensive day as was Week one, but there at the end the Buccaneers turned it up a notch and Mike Edwards was playing a pretty interesting role in that. With Sean Murphy bunting out, Buccaneers needed different answer in the in the slot and it was Ross Cockroll for a good person in the game, and then

they turned to Mike Edwards. So he's a safety by trade, but he was playing nickel corner for much of that game, or much of the second half, and he that was where he was on his first pick when, according to Bruce Arians, he sort of bated um Uh the quarterback into throwing Matt Ryan of course into throwing that pass

and then jumped it. And then the second one was was a double corner blitz where Carlton Davis came off one side the left of the um and then um Mike Edwards came off the other side and Carlton tipped it up and Mike, of course, the football just lines Mike. It's apparently it's magnetic and it's attracted to him because the amount of times that he touches the ball, uh, in the amount of snaps that he gets, it's pretty incredible. So then of course a lot of people are asking

should he get more snaps? Right that we've talked about how every time he gets snaps he seems to find the ball. So looking at now, of course with the fact that Sean Murphy Bunting is out and uh, we talked a little bit last week about how there's there's sort of this musical chairs idea of what they're having to do with the dvs to fill in for everybody. What is that going to mean for Mike Edwards and

what he's asked to do? Um and then overall, now we've seen Jordan Whitehead came back for the first time, what you think about our secondary situation, who's going to be in what role and what that could mean? Well, I think he will get more snaps because Sean Murphy Bunting is out, and because they like to bring Mike Edwards in to place Jordan Whitehead sometimes in obvious passing downs because you know, Jordan, whyde is such a physical player, really brings a nice presence up around the line of

scrimmage a lot of the time. Um, and Mike Edwards is more of a ball hawking safety type, you know, free safety type. So um, they were already going to do that anyway. Now if he proves to be our best option, or at least one of the best options in the nickel, then he'll be getting on field that that way too. And Bruce Arian said the other day that he's earned more playing time, So I think it's

pretty clear they're gonna be using him. And if if he can prove to be a good option in the nickel, that will really help to ease the you know, the problems with Sean Murphy punting being out okay, and uh, speaking of all the dB situation, of course, Bruce has asked about this either yesterday the day before, I believe, and uh, Dusty asked, what are the chances of Richard

Sherman joining the team? Well, there's chances it is a chance, I mean, uh, And I say that because he confirmed that Jason Light has reached out to Richard Sherman and they've discussed the possibility. So um. He also said that Richard Sherman has some other options so that it's not necessarily just if the Bucks won him, they got him. It has to be a two way street there, and I'd imagine that someone that has to do with what

is the conversation going to be? You know, they have to come to a number that both sides like if they want to do that. So and then also does Richard Sherman If they lay out the role that they want for Richard Sherman, is he satisfied with that or does he find something better somewhere else. It doesn't seem likely to me that he'll be without a job for too much longer because injuries happened in the NFL, and

this is obviously a quality cornerback. He's he's a proven guy. Um. Maybe not at the absolute height of his powers as he was earlier in his career, but still obviously a proven NFL cornerback. And as we've talked about many times, those aren't easy to find. So um, I guess all I could say is it's possible because they're they're talking

about it. Okay. Our next one was from Rafael. He asked, does playoff liney take the majority of the snaps going forward do you think, Well, it really is gonna have to do with how Ronald Joe responds too. You know, I'm sure he's getting some some hard coaching this week because Bruce Arians clearly wasn't happy with a couple of his plays. He's running the ball well, there's no question

about that. Um, it's just you can't miss block, you can't miss assignments in the blocking scheme and get your quarterback hit and uh, you know he's going to have to clean up that part of the game. That's basically what Bruce Arian says. He is he just has to play better, but he can. Um. If he doesn't, then yeah, obviously Leonard Fournett is going to get more of the carries and he's running pretty well too. It's just that I don't think they want to give up on ron

Jones having a significant part in this stuff. It's just yet because when he has the ball in his hands, he has looked good as a runner. Okay, And how overall have you seen the running back corps being used compared to maybe you know, we talked a lot about this before the season, that this was one of the most intriguing position groups when there was so much consistency of how much was it gonna be Rojo, how much was it gonna be for net then you added Geo

Bernard into the mix. Um, how have you seen that effect um, the way they've used everybody and overall just the expectations maybe for that room and what it could look like. Well, I think it's been pretty obviously a time share up to now. We'll see if that stays the same going forward. I mean every game going back to the preseason, and they've been playing game two of the preseason, so we're talking about four games and they

have gone. They alternated starts, and then in this last game they were essentially alternating drives throughout almost the entire game. It was Ronald Jones first and then learn Fournett was on the second drive, Jones the third drive, Learnt was on the fourth drive. It was clearly just a split right down the middle. And the only way that changes if is if somebody grabs the reins and you know,

gets the hot hand and they stay with him. Right now, both guys were running with about the same amount of effectiveness. Of course, as we just said, Leonard Fournette has done a better job of blocking and probably a little bit better job in the passing game. And the GEO Vonnie

Bernard thing. Bruce arians said again that he's their third down in two minute back, but I think we have seen there have been plenty of third downs when they've had Leonard Fournette on the field, So you know, I would say Geo Vannie Bernard's role has been a little smaller than I expected. That certainly could change as well, but otherwise they clearly wanted to do as split right down the middle. We'll see if that lasts though. Okay, And we also had a question from Jermaine asking do

you think Scotty Miller gets more involved moving forward. It's just hard, basically, it's it's hard to figure out how, um, you just you don't offer, We don't. We did do a little bit of four wide in that game a little bit, and Scotty got on the field a little bit in those cases, um, and he got in the field a couple of snaps. I think for Antonio Brown, I just you just don't want to take Mike Evans

and Chris Godwin and Antonio Brown off the field. You know, It's just unless one of them is hard or tired needs it needs a rest or something. Why do you want to take any of those guys off the field, And that's not necessarily a fun situation for Scotty. And then you have to Tyler Johnson, who if they want to give Chris god when a US like on running plays and not making block on every single running play,

they bringing Tyler Johnson. So it's just hard to find snaps because we're talking about three and four wise, but we also have to utilize these tight ends and the two tight inset was very effective in the last game. So where are we finding these snaps? I think what it is? It's it's not how can we change what we're doing now, it's these guys will have to wait their term maybe a little bit, and you hardly ever make it through a season without getting some injuries that

cost a guy a week er two. And it will be very valuable to have Scotty Miller and Tyler Johnson to possibly fill in bigger roles when they're needed. And looking at this Rams team got some new editions since the last time we played them, even know it feels like we've played them so many times over the last however many years. To be a team that isn't in our division. It just feels like we have played them

over and over and over. But some aspects of the same Aaron Donald, that is forever the thing that we will start talking about. Now you've got Matthew Stafford, you got Jalen Ramsey, I mean you have Raheem Morris is very familiar with the Buccaneers and what they like to do on the coaching side. So what are the aspects of who the Rams are now that maybe worry you the most or you think the Bucks want to focus on the most. Well, the Rams are sort of like

a supergroup. You know, they had they got all of the members of the band, but they wanted a new front man and so they got rid of Jared Goff and they put Matthew Stafford up there at the mic. And that's obviously the biggest difference and the the scariest part of it all. On paper, it looked like a

fantastic idea. He drops right into an offense that has a great group of past catchers that you saw what they did was last year with with Robert Woods and Cooper Cup having about twenty five catches and I'm not exaggerating between them for close to three yards and uh and now they have Tyler Higbee is a great tight end. They got de Sean Jackson, they drafted Van Jefferson, and

you have Stafford backed up by a fantastic defense. On paper, looks like a great idea, and then in action over the first two weeks, it looks like a great idea. I mean, they looked really good. I personally, I think we answered some questions in the offseason about what I thought was the most challenging team game on our schedule when the schedule came out and I said, I thought it was this one. Now that they got Matthew Stafford and I haven't changed my mind, and they look really

really good. If you look at the power I don't know if you're into power rankings or not. They're fun reads. They will mean a lot, but the power rankings this week, most of the places that I look have the Bucks one in the rams too, So it's a it's an incredible challenge on the road. First time we've been in so Fi Stadium. Um, I think it's gonna be a lot of fun. But that Matthew just Stafford really changes

everything for them. And then we'll close up this one Nick had asked, do you think we'll play more pressed man this week against the Rams? Cooper Cup has been killing teams with the short passing game. Well, I mean I always think they answer this question is Todd Bowl, will mix it up? Will we play more pressed man? It does seem like a good idea, especially because you've got a couple of guys that are good at that,

particularly Carlton davis Um. But yeah, last year the Rams beat us with a lot of you know, they're they're good at scheming guys open in the short and intermediate range and letting them run with the ball, and they could still do that. But the difference this year is they're throwing the ball downfield. I mean really, they're they're throws on passes. Their their success on passes that travel more than twenty yards in the air downfield has been

really good for the first two games. Bathing Stafford is something like a one forty nine passer writing on those types of throws. That wasn't something they had in their game last year and two years ago when we faced them, and they still racked up tons of yards and points on us. So it's a huge challenge. Will we play more pressed man, that seems like im possibly a good idea. I don't know. We'll have to wait to see though, But overall, I think Todd Bowls will mix it up

and try to keep him guessing. All right, well, that's gonna do it for us on this edition of Buccaneers Insider Live presented by Miller Lyte. Thanks for those amazing questions. We'll be back here next week, so we'll see you then