Good morning, Bucks fans. How's everybody doing. We are back for a third day in a row for Buccaneers Insider Live, presented by Miller Lte, making sure you guys are all updated on everything going on before this first Buccaneers playoff game.
Casey Phillips, you're a senior writer and editor, Scott Smith, and of course we're gonna be taking all of your questions, so if you have any of those, make sure you head over to the Facebook page if that's not already where you're watching from, and submit those in the comment section underneath the live video. So, Scott, while we give people a chance to start doing that, um, I just wanted to hear some of your thoughts on what we have learned and what we still could learn today about
especially things like health of guys. Uh, the COVID stuff, you know that everything going on with all that in terms of availability, what we learned from coach yesterday and what we will be looking for today at practice. Well, I guess the biggest piece of news is that Shack Barrett was activated from the reserve COVID list, so he will be back in practice today and will be able to play on Saturday, which is great to have that
Shack and JPP Combo back again. We need that. And you know, it was not a terrible surprise because they, even though the team is not allowed to say why they put a player on the COVID list, whether as he was tested positive or had some sort of close contact with someone who did, we had kind of known all along that the latter was the case for Shock,
so we were expecting him back and that's good news. Also, Lashawn McCoy, who had been missing practice in the last game do to a non injury related situation, was back to practice as well, and Carlton Davis went from not participating to limited participations, so hopefully today we can see him get all the way too full and feel good
about his chances to play on Saturday. Mike Emma's still did not practice yesterday, but that's not a setback or really bad news because the target all along was today. So today really is the big day. It's what would normally be a Friday practice. It's the last one of the week other than a walk through on Friday. So uh, this is where we're gonna get a better field for the status of Carlton and Mike. I don't know, we had somebody asking about Devin White and no, he will
not be available. And so now knowing that, how does that change the Buccaneers defense in your mind? And what did we see from Kevin Mentor stepping into that role this last week. I don't think that they change their approach in any way. I mean, you you hate not having Devon out there because he's got a special set of skills and that was showing up in the stats. But Kevin Miner did a really nice job. And the thing about Kevin is he's got he's got a very
good grasp of this defense. I know I said that yesterday, but we're talking about the same thing. So he he he knows what he's doing and he's a pretty productive guy when he's out there on the field. He proved that last year when he played three games for Devin White.
So it's a position where you can't you know, there's look, there's certain spots on this team where you if you lose a guy, you can't hope to put in another guy that's just as good, right, I mean, if you lose Mike Evans, you don't have another Mike Evans, but you do have a guy in Kevin Mintor, who knows what he's doing and is showing that he can keep everything sort of humming along when he's in there. And then I like this, Uh, someone asked you where to go?
Daniel asked you to put your coaching hat on, and how would you attack this Washington defense? Well, I mean, I think what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna keep spreading the ball around just I think that's what works best for this offense when, um, you know when they're when they're getting the ball into the hands of all of our playmakers, as some might say. Uh. And I think Tom Brady said something along these lines of making them defend every blade of grass because we can throw
deep and we can throw underneath. And I think what Daniel is looking for me to say is something along the lines of get the ball out of Tom's hands quickly because of that pass rush. And there's a there's an element of that, I agree, But um, I also think you, at least at the beginning, until proven otherwise, you trust your offensive line to be up to this task. I mean, we are rightfully making a lot about their great defensive front, but it the Bucks have faced good
pass rushers throughout the year and they've done a good job. Again, not all the time, but against most of them. And when they have the offense is operated very very well. So you know, to me, I run my offense like I normally would until it becomes obvious that we have to switch up and and find ways to get the
ball out of Tom's hand a little quicker. And then maybe related to this, Mitchell had asked about the weather on Saturday and is there any chance in your mind that that changes anything in terms of what we try to do offensively if there is some colder weather or some sleep. Well. Uh, the last time I look the weather in terms of precipitation was supposed to not be an issue on Saturday night. I don't know if that
has changed. I didn't look yet this morning, but it could get down in the mid twenties, which is something we're not used to this year. But there's not supposed to be any rain or sleep. So you're just talking about playing in the cold. Tom Brady's thrown in the cold before. I don't see how that's an issue. I don't think it changes your approach to the game now. Uh. And we had a couple of people asking are there
going to be fans in the stands on Saturday. No. No. Who you know who said he does is not bothered by that is Ali Marpett. And he made a good point like I went to a really small high school and then I went to a really small college, Hobart, it says, I'm kind of used to not playing in front of fans, so to me, it's not really hard to bring my own energy. Yeah, it's funny. I did a I did a virtual UM event with cam Brad the other day and he said something similar that finally
this time at Harvard kind of paid off. That you know, you don't have the massive crowds of people and your I'm really glad for Kim that his time at Harvard is finally paying offering. Usually these guys who go to Harvard really find it tough when they can really struggle in the world. They really do struggle. That's a great point. Um. We had also had someone asked about if Steve McClendon
will be available for Saturday. You know, he was considered a question mark by coach when you first started talking about this week on Monday, and it didn't sound very pot do and the fact that he has not yet been activated from the reserve list. I think is a pretty clear sign that he's not gonna be available. Uh and we had somebody asked, can we afford to double team Young or what would that do to the rest of the group. Yeah, I think you can, um if
he's the one you're most worried about. Of course, Montest Sweat was actually their leading pass rusher. And here's why I would say yes, from what I could see on the the I don't know if you ever look at next Gen stats, but they have One of the things they have is a player location. It will show the of a defensive player, will show their pre snap location where they're standing on the field before the ball is snapped.
And Sweat and Young do both switch sides and rush from both sides, but more commonly Montes Sweat rushes from the left side of the defense, which was over the
right tackle and Young over the left tackle. And the right tackle for US is Tristan Worfs, who has had an unbelievable year and according to you know, a couple of versus has only allowed one sack the entire year, and it probably, I mean, it's crazy to say this about a rookie, but he's probably your He's probably playing best among all your offensive linemen, so maybe Ali mar pet So the fact that he could maybe handle mine to sweat on his own for most of the game.
If you're gonna have a tight end in the game, you certainly could afford to put him on the other side to help keep Chase Young at bay. So yeah, we could afford it. But again, as I said either yesterday day or the day before, remember that Bruce arians is not really a max protect guy. He he would always prefer to get more guys into routes. So I don't see us turtling up and and max protecting for most of the game. Yeah, I think I agree with that.
Um Liz had asked how big of a factor do you think a b will have to be in this game? That's a good one, and I think someone that depends upon how much if Mike's playing Mike Evans and how much because when Mike went out, uh, Antonio Brown became your X, which is the position that Mike plays. Instead of just being your third receiver, he was basically your starting X, which is a luxury to have when you think about it. Because this guy put up insane numbers
in that position for Pittsburgh. So, um, that you can just plug him in is pretty amazing. And you saw what he did with a Loven catches for a hundred yards and two touchdowns. And also the question that Daniel asked earlier, if we're trying to get the ball quickly into players hands, Uh, he obviously is the guy that we like to do that with the most right now. We did that repeatedly against Atlanta and UM, and so
I can see that he's starting to move. I think like he is used to moving at the peak of his game. So when you get him that short pass he's making, you know, and he gets the ball at the last scrimmage and makes seven or eight yards, or if you get him you know, he might break one and make twenty yards. So I think he could He could really be a big factor in this game. I think yes, all right, well, that is gonna do it for us on this edition of Buccaneers Insider Live presented
by Miller Lte. That is it for us this week on these Uh, the team just has a walk through tomorrow before leaving for Washington. But of course we're hoping if that Bucks win and If they win, we'll be back here doing this again next week, so we'll see you then, Pip stiff him