Training Camp Storylines, Ring Ceremony | Bucs Insider

Riding training camp is starting this week, So if you have questions for us, head on over to the Buccaneers Facebook page and you can ask them there. And before we start getting to some of those, give people chance to submit some of them. Of course, there was the White House visit yesterday and I know you got to be one of the lucky people to go, so tell us a little bit about what that was like and what happened and just getting to witness such a big

event in buccaneer history. Yeah, I definitely feel felt privileged to be along for that ride because it is it is a big moment. As most people know, the Buccaneers didn't get to go to the White House when they won Super Bowl thirty seven due to basically world events and um. And then recently, you know, teams haven't been going for for a variety of reasons, you know, including the virus. So this is the first team to go since two first NFL team to go since two thousand

and seventeen. UM. So it was. Yeah, it was a big moment, and I think everybody treated it as such. And I can tell you one thing. It was very, very hot. I'm sure that fans saw all those players and the coaches sweating behind President Biden. But that was

it was well worth it. And I'll tell you one big takeaway from me is I'm really People in Foxboro will probably already know this, have known for years, but it's becoming increasingly obvious that Tom Brady make sure he is well prepared for any big moment, whether it be a football game or in this case, a speech on the South Bone at the White House. Because he he

was nailing it. I mean, he had the jokes and they were well timed, and they hit the mark, and uh, he did a really nice job and a very brief little he packed a lot into a pretty brief little speech, and uh, you know, you could tell he was prepared and he enjoyed himself. Yeah, That's what I love about him is it's not even just ball, it's anything like

you see that same preparation and work ethics. So I think if he was that well prepared for that speech, I don't think anybody has to worry about his preparation for the season as well. He's gonna be doing just as well with that. Um okay. Our first question is from Daniel who asked, how good on paper is our special teams compared to last year and what is its potential? Well, yeah, I would say in some cases it's the same on paper.

You know that you would expect Ryan stuck Up to be good again after he basically solved that problem that the Bucks had at the kicker spot for about a decade. It was very much the reliable kicker, especially from four yards in that that coach wanted the team has been trying to get for a long time. Bradley, opinion, is still a very good directional and and uh in situational punter,

and he also is great on touchbacks. I don't think any of that will change the questions therefore, are will the Bucks be better in coverage and will be better in return. The return game was okay last year. We're not really a lot of big plays until the very end. And uh, the coverage by rankings at least wasn't very good.

You know, you don't get a lot of kickoff returns, So don't read too much in the fact that the Bucks were last in coverage, because one big return can pretty much kill your average when you only have maybe twelve or thirteen of them, then the cover all year.

But the coverage needs to be better, and the Buccaneers paid attention to that in the draft, and they drafted guys that maybe could you know, have defensive our offensive roles in the future, but really are expected to help out right away and on special teams, including the linebackers kJ Brett and Grant Steward, and they both know that they both are well aware that they're being counted on. And if those guys are core special teamers, then maybe

it will get a little bit better. And maybe Jalen Darden will you know, win the return job and provide a spark there. So there's definitely a chance on paper that the Bucks will be better, uh in those in those two areas, of special teams, but obviously we have a long way to go to find out that out for sure. Yes, very true. Um Christopher asked who's going

to back up Shack and JPP? So overall, I feel like it'd be good to just talk about that position and not only starter verse backup, but just kind of the number of reps you see certain guys getting, because that's definitely position where starter verse backup doesn't always um

mean the same thing depending on who those guys are. Yeah, if you were asking who the who the backup was to, like, say, the inside linebackers, it would be a different question because barring injury, that guy is not going to play at all because Lavante and Devon never come off the field. But when you're talking about the outside linebackers and the edge rushers, you're talking about a rotation because those guys

never play a hundred percent of the snaps. Now, Barrett and and JPP are very much up there in terms of how many snaps they do play. They both take, especially JPP. They both want to be on the field a lot, but you do want to have a rotation, and maybe even a little bit deeper of one this year, just to keep those two guys fresh for one thing, Um, you saw what can happen when that pass rushes at

its best in the last two games of the postseason. Um. Obviously, last year, Anthony Nelson was your third guy and he played about the defensive snaps and really other than that, there wasn't much. I mean, Quentin Bell got here and there got a upple snaps, but it was basically just those two guys and then Anython Nelson in the rotation. And now you have those three guys plus Joe try On, and I know they want him to be in the rotation right away and think that he can make a

mark right away. So I think you got a little bit deeper there than you have in the past. And you you're you're in a situation assuming that Joe Tryon, can you know, play well enough as the Bucks expect him to to be comfortable with him on the field, you you might be able to give Shack and JPP a little bit more of a breather this year. So I actually think, barring injury, the rotation there is pretty good. And I don't want to get you know, forget Quentin

Bell either. Um his coach Um has already said, he's you know, Larry Foote, He's already, He's already. Um, what's what I'm looking for. He's lobbying to keep five guys at that position this year. So whether it be Quentin Bell or Cam cam Gill is actually what I meant to be talking about. Um, whether it be one of those two guys is the fifth guy, so you have a shot to have a deeper rotation there than in

the past. I'm sor, are you telling me a position coach is lobbying for more guys at his position that that's brand new, that's never happened before. It just needs more work for him. I guess yeah. I always love that. They're always like, no, my position needs to be one the one with the extra players. Like, but you're not biased at all. I think receivers coaches are usually like that. Oh yeah, they're like, actually, if we could have fifty three,

that'd be great. Um, okay, our next one, Richard asked how big is the ring ceremony ceremony going to be and will it be live? It will not be broadcast live, but we will have tons of coverage from it going on to our website or social media. All of that stuff, So make sure you stay tuned tomorrow night for all that they're gonna be showing the rings, showing guys getting the rings, and yeah, believe me, there's there's gonna be plenty of stuff up there. It's just not something that

will be broadcast live per se um. I think part of that is even just the abilities to and they've you know, a lot of the planning of events in COVID times has been a little less minute and having to move things around. So yeah, it's it's not going to be live, but you will get to see plenty from it. And in terms of how big, I don't know if he means how many people or how much production is going into it, but I think the answer

is both. It means basically the whole bucks. Uh, you know, employees and and players, coaches, staff, all of that, and um, I get to which I'm very excited about. So yeah, I'll get a chance to introduce you know, the players that are all going to speak, ownership is gonna speak. There's gonna be some videos about the ring in the season. So yes, it's gonna be a very fun event. I think I spoke over you, so just to make sure everybody heard you're going to be in seeing the event. Yes, yes,

I am so. Yeah, I get to introduce all the people. So it's heard your voice when I was coming back in the airport the other day, right on the tune. Yes, the voice of the tram on at Tampa Airport. Just for another little bit. It was just for the month of July. Um, Yes, but it was very cool. Yeah, it was a fundraiser for a United Way and it was a very cool opportunity to receive videos from all of my friends listening to me on the drom. Um. So are We also wanted to bring up, um, the

way training camp is gonna work at. This will be our last insider for a bit like this because we are going to be having training camp lives. It made me think of it when somebody was asking about if the ring ceremonies live that training camp. We will be doing these live shows from every open practice for the

first thirty minutes of practice. Um, and we know that, you know, there's gonna be a lot of people who want to come to training camp that aren't going to get a chance to just because of all the stuff of COVID and having to restrict how many people come and even you know, some days in the indoor. So we're gonna try to give you guys as much as we possibly can as a way to watch practice and

be in there. Um. So I would definitely, um if you if you want to see what's going on in advice, tune and into that for every practice, because my understanding is we're gonna have more cameras on the field and we're gonna be able to show more of the work than just you know, sometimes in the past it's been whatever happens to be right behind us, But I think we're gonna do more to bring the action from camps

fans during that show. So definitely see that stuff. Yes, Thankfully because of of COVID rules, now we can have camera people right there on the sideline, whereas last year we had to kind of rely on a robo cam that we were that our producer was trying to operate it while also producing and directing us. So yeah, I think this year we're gonna have a lot more action

from right on the field. So we're excited about that. Uh. And Delvin asked us, since we returned all the starters, where do you see the best position battle being yeah, I like that question, and there are always battles and UM coach was basically asked something along those line if there would be competitions in camp of and the question I actually asked him for starting spots, and he said, oh, no,

probably not starting spots. And every coach will tell you that you have to you have to battle, and you have to keep your job, you know you unless I mean Tom Brady is not gonna lose his job. But you can't just roll into camp as a veteran and assume you're gonna get your job if you don't perform

better than the gap behind you. But practically speaking, the starting lineups are pretty much set, but he said there's definitely competition for other jobs and four spots on the depth chart, and and and sometimes not even whether or not they get a job, and whether or not they get at home on Sunday, but just how big their role is going to be. And the one that I

find most intriguing is the running back situation. And I honestly get asked this a lot, and I honestly have to say I don't know the answer yet, and I think it's fair to say that I don't think the coaches know for sure the entire answer in the backfield.

Yet um, you know, Ronald Jones was the starter, the guy getting basically a two to one carry of margin over the Leonard Fournett during the regular season and was productive and was going to have a thousand yard season before he missed time at the end and lost that opportunity. And then when that happened, Leonard Fournete stepped in and we all know what happened in the playoffs. And so now he's got the momentum and you've seen him be the kind of producer that made him the I think

fourth overall pick in the draft a few years ago. Uh. And so you got both of those guys that the coaches really like in coach arians called them basically thinks of both the starters. It's intriguing enough how the carries and touches are gonna be split between those two guys. But then also factor in that the Bucks now have Geo Barney Bernard, who was one of the best pass catching backs in the league and that's an area we

could probably use more of. And Keyshawn Bonn, the guy they drafted in the third round just a year ago, and I know they like him. Coach arians and said they if they have all the trust in the world as a runner, it's just how has he's a past catcher? How has he as a block on the backfield? I think, especially considering the fact that of those four guys, the only one under contract pass this year is Shaan Vonn, you gotta believe they'd like to see what they have

in him. So how did they figure out how to get the ball distributed amongst those four guys? And again, I don't think the answer is set yet. It's going to be set by how those guys doing camp in the early part of the season. So to me, that's the number one competition that that I find intriguing because I don't really know what the answer is. Yeah, Yeah, I think that's a great point sort of related to this. Alan had asked, do you think Tyler Johnson will have

a bigger role this year? So for me, that's definitely one of the position battles that I will be intrigued by. Is you know, kind of like we talked about earlier, how many wide receivers do you keep? Is it because of special teams? Is it because of their wide receiver role? And you know what those guys behind your Mike Evans, Chris Goddens that were like, okay, yes, we know their their thing. What what do you see in terms of

those last wide receiver spots and Tyler Johnson's role. That's it interesting because to start this week with camp coming at the end of the week, I put a story on buccaneers dot Com just saying six other than the obvious guys and people first time that fans have got to come to camp. You know, select groups have got to come to camp since we got Tom Brady. So yes, everybody's gonna be watching Tom Brady and everybody's gonna be

watching Devin Wide Shack Bear. But how about some other guys to keep an eye on because they have interesting stories heading into camp. Tyler Johnson was one of my six choices for that list, and that's partly because of a lot of the guys going into camp. His role is it's not obvious how he his path to two more playing time, but there is room for him to grow quite a bit in his role depending on what

happens with the rest of the receivers. Because the situation is basically the same as last year in terms of It's hard to picture how he gets the ball a lot when you are when you have Mike Evans and Chris Godwin and Antonio Brown and Scotty Miller and all those tight ends, and now you might be throwing more passes to the running backs. So where's the Where's the football for Tyler Johnson? But they found ways to get

him in. I know we only had like twelve catches last year, but there were some big ones, like the big third down catch in New Orleans in the claoffs, had a couple of touchdowns where he was about Tom Brady's fourth or fifth read, but he made sure he stayed on his route and was there where he's supposed to be when Tom got to him. I think there's promising this guy, and at some point you're gonna be needing to think about replacing And how long is Antonio

Brown gonna be here? Are the Bucks gonna be able to sign Chris Godwin long term? I hope so, but you never know. So Again, like he shan Van, they want to know what they have in this guy, and I think he's got a lot of talent and a lot of potential. I think he could blossom someone in the way that Chris Godwin did. It's it's you know, that's a lot to put on a guy, but we're talking about a Day two or Day three pick who

was produced well more than that would suggest that. I know, the Bucks felt like they got a bit of the steel when they got Tyler Johnson in the fifth round. So it's a very intriguing story. It's hard to see the path a lot of playing time, but yet I still feel like there's a chance that does get more this year. And you brought up to Chris Goden thing will close with this. Antony had asked, are there any updates on the Chris Godwin resigning situation. Well, we're past

the deadline where that can happen. He has to play this year on the the one year the tag one year contract. That doesn't mean that the Bucks and he has to stop talking. They can still start laying the groundwork for the potential of a new contract after the season over much as like what happened with Shaq Barrett. I'm sure it seems logical with the Bucks would like to keep Chris Godwin around, but you just never know.

Um and then some players when they get to the season, like to say, hey, I'm not gonna let that be a distraction for the year. Let's take all those talks till we get to the end, so you never know, there could be stuff going on in the background. But this year he will play on a one year contract. All right, Well, that is going to do it for us.

On this edition of Buccaneers Inside Our Live, presented by Miller Lyte and again, we will be going live the first thirty minutes of every open training camp practice to make sure you join us there. We'll still be taking some questions, we'll be talking about some big team topics and be trying to show you as much live footage of practice as possible. So we'll see you then, Bristo