Welcome to Bucks Insider, presented by Verizon. Casey Phillips here with senior writer and editor Scott Smith. And we are just so grateful to Jason Klight, Mike Greenberg, Jackie Davidson for making our shows endlessly entertaining.
What day is it this time of year? None of us know.
I can't keep track, but you know what day it is. It's the we Bring Everybody Back Day. That's what I feel like we should have made. I don't know, maybe March thirteenth is now officially run it Back Day. Yeah, Happy new league gear man, new league gear free agency frenzy. This week, so much going on, and I just feel
like the Bucks crushed it. Not like we're biased or anything, but even still, I feel like I saw tweets from people all over the league and everywhere talking about just how amazing it is what our front office has been able to achieve. And Jason Light himself had said, Hey, if we're able to bring a lot of these guys back, we deserve another boat parade, and I think he is just about there.
And then yesterday he said look at the and it was his quote was taken a little bit out of context by some of the national media. He didn't say like the greatest free agency class of all time across the league. If you if you actually read his quote, he said it was a great class, one of the best for the Buccaneers ever, and it includes some Hall of famers, which is true. I mean, Mike Emans is a lock and maybe Levante David, you know, so you
can understand his enthusiasm. We kind of figured this was the list a few weeks ago or right after the Super Bowl, when you looked at the list of free agents, like, Okay, we can see the obvious priorities there.
But can the Bucks possibly keep them all? Mm hmm. I'm not sure how they did it, but they did it.
It is funny. It feels so similar to what we said after those Super Bowl years of like when they were trying to bring everybody back and we were like, how can they There's no way.
They did it.
Okay, and they did it again, so a lot.
But yeah, And to tie that all together the way they did that in the years after the Super Bowl was doing a lot of the contracts that they hadn't done before, which put a lot of stress.
On the cap in future years.
And that's what created this situation this year where there's not a lot in last year too, where there's not a lot of wiggle room, so it makes it really hard to now do it again.
But they found a way, so it's really impressive.
So of course the news that were basically especially yesterday because the press conference, Baker Mayfield officially officially back, which is so awesome, and I just love the attitude it is press conference, the reception from the team, all of it that you can just tell everybody with this organization is so excited he's back, and Baker is incredibly excited to be back, which is cool. He talked about this at his press conference of how much Tampa has become home to him.
We call Tampa home now. It's a special place. Just seeing the passionate fans, the ones that talk about going to the old Sombrero, the ones that have been fans for a long time, that have stuck through the thick and thin. That's what makes it special. The people that are traditional fans. Obviously we always welcome new ones, but the ones that have been here for the long haul
make it really special. And so for Emily and I we started our foundation last year and just being able to, like I said earlier, boots on the ground mentality and making a difference in the community. For us, this is a great opportunity to do that. And I knew nothing about it, but it's a laid back city, but people are really really passionate about their sports, and it gives us the opportunity to truly make a difference in the long run.
I love that, love how committed he and his wife have been. You know, they started their foundation and they've really given back a lot. I'm sure that's only going to happen even more now that they know that Tampa really is their their long term.
They really embraced the community and done a lot of good things already. Like I said, I'm sure they do more in.
Addition to that.
On the flip side of it, is it cool that it's a compliment to be called ten and ten on the Prick scale?
Yeah?
I thought that was an interesting little addition there, And I loved how I saw Jason light be like should I Yeah, I'm gonna do it, and he apologized to our head of pr right after. That was very funny, but I thought that was a great way to describe It's true, he's got the moxie. That's all I would have maybe described boxy.
They just put up.
They just put up a tweet I sent out yesterday, and this is part of it. I mean, everybody loves Baker. They'd run through a brick wall for Baker. But that kind of ties it. I don't know if this is unusual or not. It just it just struck me late yesterday afternoon. I'm like, these guys that were resigning, not only are you know, the key to continuing to be successful in the football.
Field, but everybody loves these guys. True think of this locker room.
It's amazing personally, of course, like I care a lot about who the guys are in the locker room that my my job is to help fans know who they are and to showcase the off field personalities and all of that. And every single one of these signings made me personally really excited from just the who were around on a daily basis what it means for the interviews because they're all genuinely great, fun, awesome guys.
I didn't even think I included on that tweet. Chase McLaughlin, Yeah, same wonderful guy as.
Well, also includes that, So yeah, so we talked a little bit about Baker, and of course you saw in the tweet we kind of previewed all the people were talking about here that they've been able to do. Levante
is also coming back. I feel like, between especially Mike and Lavante, of just the tenure here, what they've meant to the franchise and the city for what they've done, I can't imagine a better week than for Bucks fans knowing that you get both Mike and Levante back, and just for Levonte to have another year here is incredible.
It's hard to think of a time in Bucks' history, which is almost fifty years worth, where they've had one guy on offense and one guy on defense that are like all timers in franchise history and just such beloved characters at the same maybe Derek Brooks and Mike Alstadt and Ronnie Bimber and Mike Aulstats something like Paul Gruber and I don't know, but just to have those two icons at the same time and you could have lost them and you got them both backed.
And this is what Lante's fourth contract technically right, and Mike's third. That's a lot to be able to have that many deals on guys that you homegrown talent. It's a very cool.
In reality, it's probably about Mike's fifteenth contract restructure structured.
That's very true. And so how about some of these other re signings. And of course we know that Mike, Baker and Lavonte got a lot of the attention, but there were other additions as well that were import well.
Yea a couple of the guys last year. It was obviously a very limited run in free agency, but it worked out. It was only a few guys Baker Mayfield, obviously, Greg Gaines, Chase Edmonds, Chase McLaughlin. All those were guys that we signed last year that fit into some nice roles. Obviously, Chase McLachlin had an amazing season, but even Chase Edmonds and Greg Gaines, who were obviously preserves, filled a nice little role and the Bucks like what they did and
then brought him back. So Greg Gaines played forty two snaps on defense in that rotation up front, probably helped quite a bit with the good run defense. Chase Edmunds, Nobody but Chase Edmonds took a snap as a running back other than Rashad White over the last ten games.
I mean, he was the guy.
To spell Rashad White Chase McLaughlin set records for Buccaneer Kickers.
I mean, it was pretty amazing. Then of course we brought back a guy, which is so fun.
So Jordan Whitehead is coming back, and I feel like there's been so few times in my career that you bring back someone that's left a team, and I can't think of very many people I would be more excited about coming back than Jordan Whitehead. A great guy, and man, I feel like what he can bring to this defense is so important.
So I heard a story yesterday that I think it was John Spytech went to tell Nick Rappone, the safeties coach, that they had re signed Jordan Whitehead, and like almost brought him to tears.
He was so happy, he was so happy. That's incredible.
So if that tells anything Jordan's I know, we're probably going too hard on this vibes thing, and all these guys are wonderful, but they really are. And Jordan's such a I mean again is he never smiling.
Always smiling, which I love because he just looks terrifying because he's so he's just chizzled. And yet he's just always like hi, guys, and I love the fact that he can absolutely destroy someone on the field and then walk off the field and just be the smiliest, happiest person. I'm like, that's just the dream, right is the person that you love to be around off the field and then can murder the other team on the field.
And who can forget his force fumble and Aaron Jones in the NFC Championship Game in twenty twenty is one of the biggest plays of the entire game. And I think he actually got hurt on the play, but that's he's selling.
Out, selling out, selling out for it. Well, I know, as much as we've loved being able to talk about everyone that we have kept or brought back, we did lose one very key addition to this team, which I will also be very sad about as well. Carlton Davis has been traded, So tell us the details of that.
Yeah, Carlton Davis traded to Detroit along with a sixth round pick this year which is number two one, and a sixth round pick next year, and in return, the Buccaneers get a third runner which is number ninety two. And Carlton Davis had a nice six years here, there's no doubt. So I think obviously the salary cap had something to do with this. You have to make some sacrifices somewhere if you're bringing all these guys back. And we obviously wish Carlton well unless he's playing against the
Buccaneers that one game. You know, he had some really nice stretches sometimes when he was a lockdown guy on the other team's number one and I think from nineteen to twenty he had the most passes defense in the league. So Carlton did a lot of really nice things for the Buccaneers. We wish him well. He's going to a really good team. That said, a third round draft pick is a really good asset. It's a really good asset. And I can prove that by putting up the list
of the Buccaneers since twenty seventeen. So that's what the last seven years. Look at this list that the Buccaners are taken in the third round. I mean, other than Keishan Vaughn, which obviously didn't work out out, every other guy on that list became a starter.
Yeah, I mean Kendle Beck with he just got injured. He got hurt in a car act.
Yeah, he was playing great.
Chris Godwin awesome. Kindle beckw With was a starter until he had got in a car accident. Alex Kapp a starter, got a big deal with Bengals. Jamel Dean still here, starter, Mike Edwards just won another Super Bowl ring for Kansas City. He was a starter. Robert Haines's the starter. Rashad White's starter. Yeah, Yeah, Dabbie only needed half a season to become a starter.
That's an incredible list that a third round draft pick is a really nice asset, and given that Carlton is going into the last year of his deal, it's a pretty big cap hit. It's just to me, I think that if the hard decision was made that Carlton need to be traded. I think Jason Light did a phenomenal job to get a third round pick in this in this deal yep.
And another person that the team loss that we will all be very sad to see go is Shaq Barrett. I know that this news sort of has been out there for a while, but in terms of just the officialness of how it works, when they needed to release him, all of that that it finally became official yesterday, I believe, and we'd already heard the news, of course that he's signed with Miami, and so we're very happy for him that he found a new home and Miami has gotten
a great one. And just he and his family such wonderful people, and we will very much miss him, and of course just would I don't know that we won a Super Bowl without him. So yeah, thanks to Shack for everything he did here.
Yeah, he was amazing in the NFC Championship Game and the Super Bowl. Four sacks and eight quarterback hits over those two games, which is amazing. So he obviously could turn it on when it mattered the most. And I think when you look at what he did forty five sacks, he's fifth in team history, broke the team sack record in his first year here, really took the advantage of a chance to be a starter and ran with it.
If you look at all the free agent signings the Bucks have made in their history, he's right up there, like probably top five.
So now we've talked about a lot of the guys that they have brought back, a couple of guys they've lost. Where do we stand on guys that it's still sort of pending as you might call it.
With free agents.
Well, we can put up the list of the guys that became free agents yesterday at four o'clock.
There it is.
It's about what fourteen guys. There's some there's some good players there. There's some guys that did good things for us last year. But I think if you look at that list, you can tell that the Buccaneers already hit their major priorities. Still you could see some action here. I mean, and by the way, should point out Ussell Gages on that list because the Buccaneers did not pick up his option year for this year, so he spent last year and I are obviously wish him well. But
there's you know, John Wolford knows the system. He could be a candidate to come back as a third quarterback. Does Zach Trinner come back? You have another guy that they signed after the season, Nick Leverett. I think actually he might have signed.
Somewhere Aaron and most last year Di Delaney was a massive part of that defense at different times being asked to do every daying thing.
Very good point that secondary Will Golston. We love him.
He's started more, He's played more games than any other defensive lineman team history. He's just been steady throughout his career.
So that's the word everyone uses about him, including coach Bowls that ask him about him. That's what he always says. He's just steady, Eddie, is what he always says. And he knows exactly what he's supposed.
To do when he doesn't even if Will doesn't come back this year. He played eleven seasons and he was a fourth throned draft pick and played the most games by defensive lineman.
That that was a hit of a heck of a.
Draft pick for sure. All Right, So let's get into a little bit of the NFC South this week of what are some of the key moves and trades and signings that will affect the Buccaneers defense.
A lot of stuff happened all across the league so fast. I mean, that legal tampering period began at noon on Monday and we were getting reports by like twelve to fifteen.
So amazing how that happened.
Yeah, you know, in any case, however it goes down. I think the biggest moves obviously, Kirk Cousins joins the Falcons on a giant contract, got paid again. Another one hundred million dollars guaranteed. I mean, that guy what a career in any case, he's he was really good last year before he tore his achilles. He's thirty six. The torn achilles does put a little bit of a question mark on it, but obviously the Falcons aren't particularly concerned
about that because they made a huge commitment. When you look at the offensive weapons that the Falcons have that they've added in the last three or four years, and you think about a guy who really should be able to come in and distribute the ball to them on time, that's a big deal.
Now.
And you go to the Carolina Panthers, they actually lost I mean voluntarily, but they lost a big guy. When they they had they had put the franchise tag on Brian Burns, who's their best pass rusher, and but apparently they were motivated, probably for cap reasons, to trade them away and they give him to the Giants for second and fifth round picks, which I mean.
For the Buccaneers it's good news.
It is to have him out of the division, So that that was probably the biggest thing that they did. I can't, off the top of my head think of a lot of moves that the Saints did. They again, like they do every year, after worry.
About the Cats signed Tyrone Matthew.
James Winston left left, so yeah, there's some big moves and some more sure to come. The Panthers also gave a hundred million dollars to guard Robert Hunt from the Dolphins, so they're they're making some moves to show up their offensive line and you know the Dave Canalis over there trying to make that offense work. So I think they also traded for Deontae Johnson, the receiver from the Steelers.
So there's a lot of moving parts for the Buccaneers that's mostly been keeping their own guys, but there's still a long way to go in free agency.
All right, Well, that's going to do it for us on this free agency edition of Bucks Insider. We'll see you next time.
M