Good morning everybody. It is time for Buccaneers Insider Live, presented by Miller. Like Casey Phillips, here was senior writer and editor Scott Smith. And we have a lot to talk about, which also probably means you have a lot to ask us about. We've had a preseason game, we've had roster cuts, so much going on here, and it is our final week before a game that actually counts on the schedule, which is crazy to realize. In a week, in a day we will be playing our real game.
So there's a lot going on here. And if you have a question for us, you can leave it underneath our live video on Facebook. That's where we will get our questions from. For now, let's go ahead and start with the preseason game and some of the takeaways from that. Sure, well, I mean, obviously the most important part was how the first team offense and defense fired. You know, we've only seen those crews for about six plays in the first two games, and the first two preseason games were, to
be honest, pretty tough to watch. You know, they were basically for evaluation purposes for the coaches. But this was the one real tuneup for Tom Brady and company and that hardly could have gone any better. I mean, the first drive with it wasn't good with the penalty right away and backed up in a three and out. But after that two straight drives of more than ninety yards. The first one was just Tom Brady using his top
three receivers with surgical precision. It's just gonna be hard to stop Brady, Evans, Godwin, him Brown when they're all in sync, and it just sliced down the field. They ran a no huddle because they want to do a little bit more of that this year now that Brady has a better control of the whole offense, maybe can even call some of his own plays at the line. And then the second drive was notable because it mixed
in some nice running from Ronald Jones. He ran like three times for twenty seven yards, So that was more of the balanced type of attack that they want to see at other times. So both of those were very encouraging. And then you know, the defense it bent a little bit, but it didn't break and didn't give up any points. Um, So it was it was a good showing overall, and I think it made everybody feel a little bit better about the season. Like you said, being right around the corner. Yeah. Absolutely.
And then, of course what we were paying attention to all preseason where those potential roster cuts that when we did bring back so many starters, it was not going to be about our typical starting battle discussions. It was all about those bottom of the roster moves back up positions. Who was going to win those and not. And so
now we we have some answers for those. We don't necessarily have all the answers yet, but for now, let's talk about some of those notable cuts, some guys who didn't make the team, names people might realize, and just what you learned from what maybe their their goals are with this roster based on some of those cuts. Yeah, I think notable is a good word. I don't think you would call any of these cuts surprising. I think
you could have predicted pretty much all of them. Probably the one that was toughest to predict was who was going to come out of that cornerback battle because there was about four guys fighting for the fifth spot and it ended up being Antonio Hamilton's being cut, which was a guy that when we signed him in the spring, I thought he had a really good shot at making it.
As we'll talk about in a minute, Um, he just was beaten out by some other guys, or one other guy in particular, um, Ryan Griffin, who has been with the Bucks since two thousand and fifteen, which is hard to believe. I mean, his tenure as a quarterback on this team is as long as anybody's has ever been. I think he matched his Trent Doper. So if he had made it one more year, he would have been
the longest tenured quarterback in team history. But he's only thrown about four passes, and with Kyle Trast being drafted, it seemed pretty obvious that was gonna be Brady playing, Gabbert and Kyle Trask as the three you keep. Bryan Griffin could come back on the practice squad off both he and the team want that. We'll find out in the next day or so. But um, you know, otherwise, the only the only UH draft pick that was cut was seventh round quarterback Chris Willcox, who you know has
battled some injuries. It really hasn't had a chance to show himself very much. But I don't think you'd find too much of its surprising. Bull Tanner, Hudston and Cody McElroy were cut, which which makes it seem like the Bucks didn't think either of them offered enough as a blocker or a special teams player to justify keeping a fourth tight end. So they're gonna run with three right now. Probably put either one or both those guys on the practice squad if they're up for it, and go a
little deeper at some other spot like the offensive line. Yeah, and and related to that, Rawl had asked what your thoughts were on them deciding to only keep three tight ends on the active roster, So what what you think about what this means for for the offense and even you know, the practice squad, all those things of why they made that decision, of that being a position to carry less. Yeah, and when we started training camp, I would have expected that they would keep four. That's what
they did all of last year. That's how Tanner Hudson actually became our fourth tight end. Anton Claire got hurt for a little while and came back, but Oj Howard got hurt, so Tanner came up and was the fourth tight end the rest of the way. I think target numbers. Probably starting camp they were thinking four tight ends, but you don't keep a four tight end just to keep a fourth tight end, and that guy, if he's gonna have any value for you, probably needs to play someone
special teams. And he also has to be a guy that you know, we have three other guys that can just the ball very well, Rob Gronkowski, Um Cam Braid, o J. Howard. So you really probably need your fourth guy to be able to block somewhat, and they just didn't show enough I guess as a blocker. So you can keep those guys on the practice squad and if you have injury issues, you can bring one up. You can practice squad elevatim on game day, or you can
sign them to the practice squad. I just think it felt like maybe the ninth offensive lineman was more valuable to them than the fourth tied end. Is basically when it comes down to, if you look at it, before o J got hurt last year, Cam Braid really wasn't playing very much at all. Your third tight end was barely getting on the field. So what's your fourth tight
en't gotta do? Yeah, yeah, that's a great point. And so I know that we we've talked about some of these notable cuts, but uh, it can be a little misleading when we say that you know, you've got to get down to that fifty three, and it sounds like that's just it, like this is your fifty three and it's a final thing. But it's it's never really as final as that makes it sound, and especially in a year like this, So explain a little bit about why there may still be some moves to be made in
the next week. Yeah, it's always been a misnomer to call these final cut scene. That's what we always call them, because the roster is always in motion, and in normal years, the issue is you're gonna pour through the waiver wire of hundreds and hundreds of guys are being cut around
the league, and you're always looking upgrade. And so if you think you see a sixth receiver or a fifth outside linebacker that you feel is better than what you have right now, then you oftentimes you'll see what I think, um Mark Dominican Company, excuse me, I used to call it the bee round of the draft. So it's it's a chance you maybe you've liked together, maybe you wanted to draft this guy and he gets cut and you've always liked them, So there you'll you'll claim some guys
and you'll move some other guys off the roster. But this year there's a very there's a totally different elemented play here, and that's that the Buccaneers went through these cuts with four guys that are currently on the COVID reserve COVID nineteen list, and since it's a reserve list, those guys don't count against the active roster as long as they're on the list. So the Bucks only really had to cut from seventy six down to fifty three
yesterday instead of e d down to fifty three. But you're probably bringing back at least three of those guys and Dominquan, Sue Ryan stuck Up, and Nick Leverett, and there's also Earl Watford who I think probably less likely he's on the fifty three man roster, but you never know. So when you bring those guys back, you're gonna let somebody else go. So what it did, and it probably what the Bucks probably weren't the only team in this situation,
but it gave you a little extra roster flexibility. Like as an example, last year, the Buccaneers had signed a Q Shipley during training camp and they wanted to keep them as their backup center. But they also wanted to keep a guy and I can't think of who it is right now, maybe John Moulshawn that they wanted to keep him long enough to get him on the fifty three man roster and then put him on I R. Because you have to get him through the fifty three if you want to put them on I R where
they can come back from it. If you do it beforehand, they're out for the season. So we had some extra spots where we could do that yesterday and carry a few guys through and then maybe put some guys in I R and that creates spots for the other ones to come back from COVID. Yeah, a lot of talking there,
but the point is extra for flexibility at the perfect time. Yeah, and I think you were right about it being Mulchion, which is initially so in speaking of guys like him, What are some of the notable keeps we talked about some of the notable cuts. What were some of the guys that ended up making the roster that stood out to you or were interesting to you. Yeah, that's the
flip side of the story here. And coaches always talk about how this is the hardest time in the year because they hate telling guys that they you know, their dreams are, if not over, at least deferred a little bit. But the other side is the exciting guys that maybe you didn't see coming that made the roster at the end. I think the first thing to point out, and this, I don't think I've ever seen this before, there are
only three new veteran players on this rosters. Three. I mean, I know that's a product of how incredible Jason light was able to keep the whole Super Bowl game together, but three guys from that weren't on the team before other than the draft picks. That's incredible. And it's Geogny Bernard who we thought would make it, and Chris Cooper and deed Delaney. And Cooper and de Laney are the two kind of success stories from the preseason. They both
played great on special teams. You saw Chris Cooper make that play in Houston where he jumped into the end zone and got us the ball like the one you know, allowed us to down the ball to the one yard line. De Delaney had two picks in that game and played well on special teams throughout the preseason. So those are probably the two most surprising guys that made it. Uh, you know, we'll see if Nick Leverett also has kept on the fifty three after he comes off COVID. He
had a great camp. So if that's true, those are probably the three that were would have been the most surprising when camp started. But it's a great story for all of them. Okay, And then I thought this is interesting to talk about Al had asked. He said he was surprised by the Leadbetter cut. So let's talk a little bit about the the D line depth and what we learned about that positions and the guys that were kept and cut. You know, I we have been talked
about this throughout camp. We must have talked about it four or five times. How that defensive land position was just so incredibly deep, just loaded with guys that we know the Bucks like because they've like with Leadbetter. They've had him on the practice squad for several years, they've promoted him several times. You know, he's done well when he's got a shot. It's just such a deep group.
I know that obviously you got your starting three and Sue and Vey and and Will Galston, um uh Rakie Nunez, Roches and Nacho played so great in relief of Vita Vea last year. Um, and you've got Patrick O'Connor, who's an awesome special teams player, and they love Steve McClendon, who they traded for midway through last season, and just a great locker room presence and a big body, the type of player that Todd Bowls likes at nose tackle.
And then you still have Khalil Davis, who was a six round draft pick who offers you some different kind of abilities with his pass rush from the interior. And that's seven guys. I've already counted seven guys. That's probably one more than the target was for that spot, but it was just so deep. And I just think Jeremiah Leadbetter, who's a good player, just got ast out by the numbers. I would be shocked if he's not on a practice
squad unless he's claimed by another team. Okay, and then, speaking of practice squad, I thought it was good for us to kind of go over this again. Richard had asked how many players can be signed to the practice squad this year, So let's go over that, because again that's another part where we say the final roster cuts. But you know, hopefully a lot of these guys are back on the practice squad, so that's another thing to keep watching here as a continual story in terms of
who's a part of this organization. And we have seen guys come off the practice squad and have to contribute. So these are still guys you want to pay attention to, and especially in a year where COVID is still a thing where you don't know who all could end up missing game time, who they have to call up. So tell us a little bit about some of those practice
squad rules this year. Okay, Well, actually what they did was they kept the same rules from last year, which some of them were designed I'll give you more roster flexibility to deal with the pandemic. The biggest one being that they expanded them from it was ten and two. I remember back in the nineties when the practice call was like five players, so ten seemed like a bonanza in recent years, and now it's sixteen, which is a lot.
But um, it allows you to keep depth at just about every position on the depth chart, even kicker, which we did it all last year and we might do again this year. But um, and also you have ter you have I think six veteran exceptions, so you can. I mean, we had Earl Watford on the practice squad for a while last year. You can keep virtually anybody you want on the practice squad as long as they
don't get another opportunity they want somewhere else. Um. And you also still have those two game day elevation options, so you can elevate guys to help you out of positions that are they're thin because of injuries, which happened all the time last year. Nine of the sixteen guys that were on the first week one practice squad at some point got into a game for US last year, So that tells you that those guys aren't just afterthoughts.
And Bruce arians has said several times the last couple of weeks how important those practice squads spots are, and that's even more so because they also kept the rule that you can basically have unlimited elevations if you are replacing guys that are on the COVID list, And as we're seeing with this delta virant variant, you can get it even though you're vaccinated, and even though you're probably not gonna have any bad symptoms, you're still gonna out
for ten days, so your team is missing you, so that practice squad becomes even more important than ever. I mean if in Dominican Sue and Nick Leverett and the other guys Ryan suck Up had gotten their COVID one or two weeks later, they'd be missing games. Yeah, how important the practice squad is now, and it's sixteen players, so that's huge, okay. And Richard had also asked, what were your thoughts on Javon Hagen being cut and does that make Ross Cockerell the fourth safety? I was well, no,
Chris Cooper was kept at least for now. Let's it makes some more changes. Like we said, some more changes are coming. But the Buccaneers have four safeties in Whitehead, Edwards, Winfield and Chris Cooper. Now, I think Chris Cooper is probably on a roster mostly because of his special teams abilities, but he is your fourth safety. But in practice, actually I don't remember you said the name of the questioner,
but he's probably right. The fourth safety that would go into the game would try to be Ross Cockerell for sure. I think that's a good point. Basically Ross cross training and doing well at safety during training camp. As the bucket has allowed the Buccaneers to keep nine players in the secondary, and it's essentially four point five corners and
four point five safety, so it's really well balanced. Yes, the way he has a bout Javon Hagan, I'll admit, I'll admit that was probably the cut that surprised me the most. I thought he was gonna make it, and I'm pretty sure unless he has claimed that he'll be on the practice squad, and I bet you we see something from him before the season is over. Yeah, I think that's a that's a good bet. And then we'll close with this. Rawl had said he was surprised that
both Britt and Steward made the cut. So in that inside linebacker position, what did you think about how many they chose to keep in who they chose to keep? Yeah, that's I think that's a good point. And I think a couple of weeks ago, I think it's been pretty clear for a while that KG Brett was going to make the team. He certainly seemed like our fourth inside linebacker. He seems like he has a future on defense and
not just special teams. I think Grant Stewart won his spot probably by special teams and it was down to him and Joe Jones, you know, and I think they were maybe a similar value in terms of maybe you didn't expect them to do much on defense anytime soon, but they can help you right away on special teams. And if you're choosing between those two guys of basically equal value, you know, why not keep the young guy that you just drafted over, you know, over the guy
that's a few years older. So um, I think the next question with Grant Stewart is will he have a
helmet on game days? Will you do enough on special teams to have the Bucks keep up five inside linebackers amongst their forty eight active But I do think that it was the reason the Buccaneers drafted both of those guys is that they wanted to get a little deeper at that spot after running really thin last year basically behind Lavante David and Devin White, you basically only had Kevin Mentor and the fourth guy was not a guy
who really counted on on defense. So I think it was a concerted effort by the Bucks to get deeper there and they did, so, Okay, well that's gonna do it for us. On this edition of Buccaneers Insider Live presented by Miller Lighte. Thanks as always for being with us and for those amazing questions, and we'll be back here next week for our final one before the regulars Sason kicks off, so we'll see you guys then. Um fourth overa