Vita Vea Returning to Practice, NFC Championship Preview | Bucs Insider

up topics to discuss. So we want to hear what you guys want us to talk about. If you're not already watching on the Facebook page for the Buccaneers, go ahead and head on over there. Leave your questions and comments underneath our live video. So while we give people a chance to start doing some of that, there have been a lot of roster moves all of a sudden. It's just a flurry of things happening over the last couple of days, so just kind of start running through

them and the impact that they could have. It's a good thing when you're making roster moves in mid January. You know, if you have a reason to be making these roster moves. So the big one, the one that came for and was the most surprising news, the news that Vita Vea is being designated to return from injuring reserve. So he starts a twenty one day window where he could start practicing today and Uh anytime during that window if he could be activated to play in a game.

Now it's possible. There's only one opportunity, you know, the Buccaneers if they have this game coming Sunday, if they win and they're in the super Bowl. So it could be two opportunities, or there could be one. Um. I think what they're gonna do is they're gonna put him on the practice field and and see if if he's good enough to go on Sunday. Is so it's certainly possible.

And I guess before we get the comments and questions, I should preemptively eat some crow on this one, because we've been asked about Vita Vea, UH and O. J. Howard and the possibility of either coming back from their early season injuries. And I was going based on that my latest intel from mid November when Bruce arians said he didn't think that was likely at all. And obviously things have changed, and that's good news, and I'm happy to be wrong in this case. So sorry for leading

everyone astray on that one. But now it's a shot. You know, Kennyan Barner, the running back who has been on for just three weeks. He also with a groin injury. He also has been designated to return and will start practicing. UM. Kevin Minter has been activated from the reserve COVID list, day On Buchanan has been promoted from the practice squad, and unfortunately the bad luck Jack Cichy is on injured

reserve once again with his broken arms. So a lot of changes at inside linebacker, and interestingly, you get right back to where the Buccaneers started last season under Bruce Arians, with Devin White and Lavante David starting, backed up by Kevin Mintor and day On de Yeah, that's a really interesting point, and yes, I agree with you that if we were going to be wrong about something, I'm really glad that it was this direction about VI. But this is a great surprise, UM, and I think this is

a great topic. Somebody brought up basically saying, can you help us appreciate how incredible the front office has done this season in terms of free agents, draft picks and everything under the salary cap of what we have seen, you know, especially in this last week, from the draft class from last year, and just what they have been doing, what Jason Light and his department have done to get this team to a position to be in the NFC

Championship Game. Well, I can tell you who really appreciates what Jason Light has done, and that is uh Bruce Arians, who said on Monday that he thinks that Jason Light should be the executive of the Year. And listen, this

isn't like revisionist talk here. During the off season when all this was going on, everybody realized what a remarkable job that Jason Light in his office and Bruce Arians were getting done to be able to bring back Shaq Barrett and and JPP and Dominican Sue and a bunch of other players like uh, like Nacho and and Andrew Adams and uh, you know, a lot of the depth Kevin Mintor as a matter of fact, he ended up

being important down the stretch there for depth. And then also of course to sign Tom Brady, probably the most dramatic free agency signing in the history of the NFL. And then to get Rob Gronkowski to trade form after he came out of retirement, and then Leonard for Nett, you know, picking up guys, uh, Joe hag that give you good depth at positions, right, and Leonard Fournette has proved to be very important on the stretch. So I don't think you could say enough about it. It's been

a masterful job. And and as Bruce said when he was giving Jason like credit and said and also did all this without putting us in a terrible cap position. So um, yeah, it's it's hard to overstate how good of a job that Jason Lynde in his office of time. Yeah, and I think, um, you know, of course a lot of people want to talk even more about Vita v and I thought this was an interesting way of bringing it up that Anthony said, do you think Vita will

be as strong as he was before the injury? So overall there's there's obviously a debate between can he play versus what level he would play at, you know, what what we would be able to expect from him if he was able to get in, and how you kind of make some of those decisions of is he able? But is he someone that you is he had a high enough percentage that you want him out there in such an important game. Yeah, every player is different, you

know they some would come back differently than others. But I think you can probably put a blanket statement that a guy that's been out for about three months Vita Bay in this case, he's probably strength is probably not an issue. He's just as strong as it would be more like in football shape and stamina, And it would be hard to imagine a player coming directly back from um that and being exactly as good as he was

before he got injured. I mean, if you look at Antonio Brown, who didn't come back from injury, but from having not really played in the league for about a season and a half, he was productive right away, but they used him a little less than They've just kind of expanded his role and you've seen him get his legs more underneath them to the point now where he's more of a guy that can make those sharp cuts in the open field when you get him the ball,

get the ball in his hands. So it's probably a similar thing like that, although there's not as much time to um for this to develop. Right you either have one game left or two, so I would suspect if he does get activated for this game, that he would play in a reserve role and they'd have an idea of how many snaps they can get out of it. But um, there's no harm in having him up and available. And if Rickie Newonions, Roaches or Nacho continues to start, you just see what steps you can get out of

Beta VEA. My vote is just throw them in there at fullback a few times. You know that'd be good too. Yeah. Yeah, if you're only gonna get a few snaps out of him, let's let's have it be that, you know, Um all right? And I think Denny asked, how do you see the Buccaneers handling plane in the snow? Well, there's not supposed to be a ton of snow. I mean, uh, the last I look, it's intermittent showers and that's mostly early

only an inch, I think they said. And you know, for maybe for US Fluoridians an inch of US snow seems like a lot. But um, I don't think you'd really be like, you know, trudging through snow banks or anything. So you know, I don't know about you. I always found that, um, snow was a lot better than rain. You know, I'd rather play and I'd rather be outside in snow than rain. It almost seems to warm things

up a little bit. Uh, And I don't think, you know, I don't think the Bucks will have a big problem with that. Everybody earlier this week said it's just a mental thing. You have no problem staying warm on the sidelines with all the heat gadgets that they have, and once you get out on the field start running around, you don't feel cold. And I think Tom Brady has a little experience playing in the cold. I'm not positive about that, but I think he knows a thing or

two about that as well. Um, Michael asked what happened to special teams against the Saints, And of course he doesn't mean the kicking part, you know. The main thing that happened was Deantay Harris happened. And uh, Coach Areons both times we each of the last two times we played in New Orleans, Coach Areens has volunteered Deanta Harris's

name as the guy he's afraid of. Like he'll be asked about Michael Thomas and end up talking about Deanta Harris and that kid has unbelievable speed and shifting nous and you know on the first one, Uh, we got a guy down there, Jaden Mickens, and he got the hit and could have been a big play, but he just didn't get him down. And you know, when you make a missed like that, often that opens up a lane. And that's what happened. But that guy is just really,

really good. And if you look back at it, Um, we had struggles with them previously in the season too, So, um, that's what happened to it. Now, I'm sure that Keith Armstrong would to get down in a much more detailed way and say, maybe this guy got out of his gap, or this guy got out of his gap, but you're not going to run into a Deontay Harris very often fortunately, right, Yes, that that is very true. Um. Richard asked, do you think we'll get the same pressure to Rogers as we

did in Week six? Well, I sure hope so, because I think that's easily the best chance that we have in this game. Um, Aaron Rodgers, if you look at all of his games this season, that one was an anomaly. It's the only one where he didn't throw a touchdown pass. It's the only only one where he threw more than one interception. Uh, you know, he's been pretty much playing at an incredible level, in a very productive level every single week except for that one. So and we did.

We sacked him four times, got a lot of pressure on him. So obviously the Bucks are capable of doing that. It's one thing to say that's the formula and the Bucks have done it before, and it's another thing to go out and do it. So obviously, yeah, the Bucks can.

We'll see if it happens. And uh, we had another question asking do you see us playing the same kind of tight coverage that we did against the Saints against the Packers In terms of how match up wood look, it's a little bit different, and I would suspect you'd see more of a mix like we get in most weeks because the Saints and Drew Brees they were not throwing the ball downfield at all going into that game.

Drew Brees was throwing the ball his passes win an average of about five yards through the air and that was about I think maybe second lowest among all qualifying quarterbacks. So you weren't really concerned about him going deep, which is the concern obviously if you play a lot of press man coverage. Um, you know, you get beat at the line and they get right past you and can

make plays downfield. Now, Aaron Rodgers through the second most deep passes, which I think is defined his twenty yards in the air downfield, second most deep passes in the NFL this year at seventy four. He completed the most of them at thirty one, and on those plays had twelve touchdowns and no interceptions. So the Packers can very much get the ball downfield and will and we'll try to. So I don't think you can play all press all day,

all tight all day. I think Todd Bowls will do what he does well, and that's mixed things up and anticipate what's coming and try to disguise things and try to you know, get the or back thinks he think he's getting one look and then ends up getting another look. So, um, yeah, that'll be times when we played that aggressively, as is the case every week, but probably not to the extent that they did in New Orleans. And Martin had a

sort of combination question, part for me, part for you. Uh, he said, Casey, how much more fun is it for you to be covering a team winning in the postseason, and then he said, Scott, how much does this feel similar to O two and going on the road to get to the Super Bowl? So for my part, um, it is very fun, although it is also very sad because I am doing it from my couch, so of all of all the years, uh for for this to

be happening, it is. I am not nearly as involved in it as I would like to be, or I would be in normally years. But of course, yes, it is incredibly fun to get to do the interviews, watch the games, be involved when they're winning one percent, So yes, Scott, how about you? Well, yeah, that's the For me personally, it doesn't feel the same as oh too, because I got to go to that Philadelphia game. But I think he means the circumstances. Um, it's a little bit different.

It's almost like a hybrid because in O two, um, you know, we beat San Francisco in the NFC Championship game and we were, I mean in the divisional round, and we were there after a bye because we had one in Chicago in the last week and got in that first round by so we did have one home game and then we went to Philly, which was the team that we couldn't get over the hump. They knocked us out of the playoffs in two thousand, two thousand one. They beat us earlier in that Super Bowl season. That's

more like what New Orleans was to us. So in a way, the Buccaneers this time, they had to win a game on the road first, and then they went to that team that they couldn't get over the hump, but then they did, so we kind of already got that victory and now we got to play an old foe and the Packers, which was a team that we had to get over the hump against in the mid nineties.

And once we did that, then we were able to you know, then became Philly, and then we were able to make it all the way to the super Bowl. So it's almost sort of like a mixture of those two things. But yeah, there's some similarities to Howard Field. But that was eighteen years ago. Yeah, that was that was a wee bit ago. I don't tell you how old I at that point, I don't want um alright, So Tim brought up, we know it's kind of hard for a team to beat another team multiple times in

a season. How do we tweak our game plan to make sure that we're able to get both wins over the Packers. You know, that's the thing that that people say, um,

but isn't necessarily backed up by stats. I think maybe it feels like it's hard to beat the same team, but we've certainly, you know, we did it to several teams this year, Atlanta and Carolina and New Orleans did it to us, And everybody said, it's hard to beat a team three times, But in reality, um, there were thirty two instances of what happened with the Bucks this year before us, in twenty of them were born by

the team that already won the first two. So it's really not that hard to be the team multiple times in the same season. UM. I think in this case, it's just hard to beat the Packers multiple times in a season because other than our game, they lost one game by six points and one game by three in overtime, and they haven't lost in a while, don't have the Buccaneers. So both teams were playing at a really high level

right now. And the Packers have home field advantage, and they have a quarterback in Aaron Rodgers who not only is probably the m v P, but has an incredible history of winning in cold weather at lambeau Field, even against very good teams. So, um, that's what's hard to overcome, I think this week, and of course we've had several

people wanting to know how Antonio Brown is doing. We saw before halftime of that last game there was a little bit of limping, and there was reports on Monday about getting an m r I. So what what do we know and what do we not know at this point? Yeah, this is that whole Monday through Wednesday continuum about how

news comes out. So on Monday, when Bruce Arians was asked about it, he said that Antonio was getting an m r I and that at the moment he had no other information as to like what he thought, you know, the results might be. Since then, we obviously have seen reports and you know those are generally well founded reports that the m r I did not turn up anything, um, any structural damage, and that therefore Brown will probably be

considered day to day. Now it's Wednesday, and it's the morning, and in the afternoon we'll get to hear from Bruce Arians again, and I would imagine we would get an update then but certainly from what we're hearing from other sources, it's at least positive news. Kind of like the same thing that happened with Mike Evans, maybe just a little less dramatically. Yes, yeah, just didn't look quite Yeah. Sean, as you asked, what have you thought of Sean Murphy

Bunting's performance recently? Well, I think it's been great, um, And he's been making big plays. Anytime you can do a thing where it says he and Roddy Barber are the only ones who have ever done that, you know you've done something good and in that in this case, that means he had an interception and consecutive postseason games. He and Ronde are the only two Bucks to do that. And he's just he's making big plays. The corners in

general were fantastic against New Orleans. Um. You know, I did a story yesterday using next Gen stats and Jamal Dean and Carlton Davis and Sean Murphy Bunting all had incredible coverage numbers in that game. And you saw how you know, I think Drew Brees at a hundred forty

three passing yards. Michael Thomas didn't catch a pass for the first time in his entire career in the game, and Sean particular, you could tell by the way his teammates talk about him when they're asked about him, he'll tell you he's had some ups and downs this year

after finishing last year so strong. But um, his teammates know how talented he is and they love watching him stay at it, stay at a hard, stay confident and then sort of come out on the other end now and be a guy that's making big plays for the defense. So everybody's really happy for him as and I'm sure you are too. Yeah. Absolutely. Um And Richard asked do

you think Antonio Brown should return kicks? And I don't know if maybe this isn't the question for this particular game because he is maybe coming off an injury, but more of the overall big picture, why have we not been using him as much in that? That was Richard that asked that. Yeah, I think you and me, Richard are gonna be uh, we're gonna be aligned on this one, but we're not gonna get what we want. I I

do think i'd like to see Antonio Brown returning punts. Um, you know, our punt return game has been you know, solid right, but certainly no big splash plays and he's showing me do that, and you know, if you've got this guy on your roster, you know why not utilize

that option too. But I think that Bruce arians has made it pretty clear that he doesn't want to use Brown in that role unless he absolutely has to, and so I don't think we're going to see that, And I understand that side of it obviously, And like you said, it's probably a different story now that he has a knee issue. But even without knee issue, I don't think they want to um expose him to the possibility of injury on such a place. So I can understand that certainly.

But I think I'm with Richard that i'd like to see some punt returns. All right, Well, that is going to do it for us on this edition of Buccaneers in Sidur Live, presented by Miller Lyte. Thanks so much for joining us, and I know there were definitely some amazing questions we didn't get a chance to get to, but we are coming back here tomorrow morning and Friday morning at ten am, so if we didn't get to years, come back then and ask it then. And thanks as

always for joining us. We'll see you tomorrow.