What Will the Bucs Record Be in 2020? | Bucs Insider

I know there's been some talk about the fourth down rules, the on site kick revisions, of of trying to think of new, potentially fun ways to to give teams more of an advantage there. So I want to hear your thoughts on some of these proposed changes and what you think they could mean. Well, I kind of like the

fourth and fifteen on site kick alternative. It's something that has been kicked around in the media and you know, behind the scenes for a couple of years now, um, and it looks like there might be on the verge of put that into play. Uh. You know, the basic idea is that made a bunch of changes to how you kick off, which has in turn made it very very difficult for an on site kick to work. It used to be about sixteen percent success rate and now

it's about four or five percent. And all those changes were made for safety reasons. So you really don't want to go You don't want to backtrack on any of those rules. I don't think anytime the NFL ever implements anything aimed at player safety does it ever go back from that um So you have to come up with another way. If you look at the numbers of third and fourth down and fifteen to go, uh, it's about sixteen. So it's pretty much right on the money, and you

do that from your own twenty five. So if you don't convert it, then obviously it's the same penalty as an onsite kick, although maybe a little bit worse, and that you're giving the other team really good field position. But you know, you can only have so much sympathy for a team that's a couple scores down and is looking for a way to get back into the game. You know, they should have to keep everybody interested. There should be a way, but it shouldn't be that easy.

The team that built that big lead, you know, just serves that big lead. And so I think it's a good compromise. And you know, from a personal standard point, I guess from a Buck standpoint, I think the Bucks would be in pretty good position one of the better teams to take advantage of this rule. Hopefully won't be down by two scores very often, but if you are, I mean, the Buccaneers led the NFL in past plays

of twenty or more yards last year. So if you have an offense with guys like Mike Evans who can make those plays down to feel I mean, think of a great fourth and fifteen or third and fifteen play, a back shoulder sideline fade to Mike Evans, I mean, he runs that play perfection, and now you got Tom Brady, you can probably put it right on the money. So you know, I like the idea, and I also think that the Buccaneers would be in good shape to take

of it. Okay, and uh, I know that we've also we've talked so much about the offense this offseason for for very understandable reasons. But the last couple of weeks we've got a chance to have media availabilities. They don't look like they used to their over zoom. Uh. You know, normally we'd be having things like O T A S and Recommennicamp and stuff like that. It's time of year and you just get a chance to hear from a bunch of guys as they come off the field. Are

some of the guys taking the podium. But they've had um a few players doing Zoom media availabilities and uh in recent weeks it's been Sean Murphy, Bunting and Devin White, and of course they're kind of saying, hey, don't don't forget about us defensive guys. You know we we were pretty good at this football thing too, So I want to hear what are some the things that you got out of those media availabilities and their attitudes and just

their optimism about the defensive side of things this year. Yeah. I think the one thing we should point out about that is the Bucks have started doing that pretty regularly at least once a week, and this week there's gonna be two of them. And you know, a fan can't get into the Zoom meeting in order to ask questions, but you can watched the stream live on buccaneers dot com. And Todd Bowles is going today too, I believe, and then Alan Mark pet tomorrow at one thirty I might

have those two times backwards. I can't remember today's one thirty tomorrows too, But anyway, come around one thirty or so two Buccaneers dot com and you can watch Todd Boles today and el Mar pet tomorrow. But I think what you were alluding to is both John Murphy Bunting and Devin White, who were both very good rookie defenders last year and are probably gonna be cornerstones for this

defense a long time. Both of them made comments along lines of, hey, we want to be the side, the unit the defense that sometimes puts his team on its back and carries. And everybody knows we have Tom Brady and all these great offensive stars, but last year the Bucks defense really came on in the second half is what was one of the better ones in the league. And they're confident they're gonna be even better this year.

So it's just good to have those young, outspoken, very confident leaders on defense who want to say, hey, this isn't all just about that star studared offense. We plan to be the reason that the Buccaneers are winning games. And I mean, if this defense does play like it was at the end of last year or even better. Bucks sure seemed like they'll be hard to beat. I completely agree. And speaking of the defensive side, Jeffrey wanted to know, do you see Shack having double digit sacks

again this year? Yeah, I think you can get to double digits. You know, I wouldn't be the first to say it. And there's no reason to expect Shack to get anything and to have sacks before. I mean, in the first forty three years of Buck's history, the highest anybody ever had with sixteen and a half, and that was by a Hall of famer warr And SAPs. So you know, Shack's nineteen and a half to lead the league last year was incredible and um and well, you know,

every part of it was earned. I'm not saying anything like that, but sacks, like interceptions, can be a fickle stat sometimes you I think Shack could be easily be just as effect of rushing the password this year, and and you know, he had seventy eight I think combined pressures, hurries and sacks, and that's a ton. It was like

third highest somewhere near the highest of the league. And and he could do that again, but not get near nineteen sacks, maybe ten twelves something like that, but certainly he's capable and absolutely mh and uh Lee wanted to know, is there any potential interest in Jamal Adams? Well, I mean Jamal Adams safety for the Jets. I don't know who would not be interested in Jamal Adams. He's a fantastic player. But first of all, there's no reason to

believe that. I know there's been some discord there, but it appears like the Jets don't want to get rid of Jamal Adams, so it's probably a mood point. And then you also have to think about, uh, what do we take if the Jets decided to trade him to somebody, It's gonna take like pretty high draft capital again him think about Jalen Ramsey needing two first round picks to go to the Rams. I think corner maybe a somewhat more premier position than safety, but it would still cost

quite a bit in draft capital, I assume. And I'm not sure if you're just drafting Antoine Winfield this year, Mike Edwards last year, Jordan Whitehead the year before that, that the Buccaneers wouldn't rather just keep that draft capital find out what they have in Winfield and and you know, build their safety position out of what's already on hand, right, Daniel lasked. He said, Tristan works has incredible speed, athleticism,

Gronk is a great blocker. How much will that improve ball control with short yardage passes, especially in the screen pass and turnovers. Yeah, well, they're both. I thought that was going to go in direction of short yards in terms running the ball better, right, I think we could do both. The run game, you can you can take at that direction too. Well. There's a lot of people that are excited about Tristan Worse and Rob Gronkowski ning up next to each other on that side of the line.

Rob Gronkowski is obviously a phenomenal blocker and always has been huge dude. Tristan Worse very athletic, as I said, And the Buccaneers didn't really run the ball particularly well last year. Um, they didn't run the ball well in the formation you would expect, which is two tight ends or twelve personnel. You don't you can run or throw out its twelve obviously, And the Buccaneers when they can put like Gronk and O J. Gronk and Cam or somebody together in the field it's gonna be tough for

defenses and know what's gonna happen. But you also should be able to run the ball relatively well out of that, at least as well as you're running the ball out of other formations. And the Buccaneers, out of two tight informations, only ran about two point yards per carry, which isn't very good. And I think that's going to be a lot better this year. Uh. And so when you start running the ball better out of that, then obviously you're short passing your screens, your play actions are going to

get better too. So you know, I think it'll all be better with those two additions. It's a great point. And I'm always amazed where you don't know these questions are coming and you can still spit out a stat like that, like, oh, you know about two yards, you know, just somewhere around there. I was writing about it yesterday, so I had the advantage. Okay, alright, Well you didn't have to tell us. We would have just thought you had all these numbers to start there, all Jack said.

And he's he said, he's watching from Hong Kong, which is very cool, he said. Devin is such a confident man. Do you think he will break out this year apart from injury. I wonder what time it is in Hong Kong right now. I don't know the difference. Idea um could be happy are uh yeah, you know Devin White barring injury, but you would say that about anybody, So there's no reason to expect him to be injured. I know he had a little misfortune with his knee early

on and that slowed down his progress. As Bruce Arian said, then you saw him really start to hit his stride in the second half of the season. So let's say that doesn't happen again, because it probably won't knock on wood. So let's say that doesn't happen again. He should be able to come into the season, you know, with a full headed momentum and just be that all over the field range e, playmaking guy. And yeah, this could definitely

be a breakout year for him. I think he sort of breakout at the end of last year, but this is the guy that could take it to the next level. And if you think about that, next to Lavonte David going strong. We always talked about how the Bucks have probably the best wide receiver duo in the league. Those two could probably make a case this year if Devin White really does break out for the best inside linebacker duo in the league, would be exciting. Yeah, completely agreeing. Um, Yeah,

Lavante is probably one of people. I'm most excited for the fact that we have gotten Brady and Grunk, but now more people, hopefully we're going to see how amazing he's been for so long that we've all known about it. Um. Robert's watching from Denmark. I wanted to know what are

our predictions on the Bucks record? You know, I did a thing the other day where I took other people's predictions media, you know, esp dot com, NFL dot com, various sites, and uh, what their win predictions were, what the power polls are actually power polls or something different, but win predictions. And just about every outlet I could find had the Bucks in double digit wins. Not everybody has this overcoming the Saints yet. And and that's that's

like the next hurdle for this Buccaneers team. Back in the nineties, the first thing the Bucks had to do is they started to rise to prominence. You know, they made it back to the playoffs in nine seven. UM made it to the NFC Championship game in ninety nine. But the team that was always in the way, uh, the hurdle that they had to clear was Green Bay and they were winning the NFC Central. They had Brett Farve,

had the great warrant set, Brett Farve battles. The Bucks finally started to overcome the Packers in like nine and ninety nine, and then you saw that they continued and then they had to beat the Eagles who they couldn't get past, and that and then got to the super Bowl. This Bucks team that was hoping to get back to the playoffs and into long drought, it's the Saints that are standing in the white. The Saints have won the

last three divisions. They were thirteen and three last year, and they can match Tom Brady Withdrew Brees, and they've got a good defense with the great off with a great pass rush. They've got a great offensive line. Um, I forgot where this question started. Griffin on the Saint

What you think the record is going to be? Yeah, yeah, So if you if if I were just to agree, because obviously people are gonna think we're gonna be homers here, So if we just agree with what the outside media is saying Bucks are in the ten to eleven win drain wind range, but that won't necessarisarily be enough to win the division, So that's gonna be interesting. But I

think double digits is the starting point for this team. Um. If you see odds makers, I think they usually put us on the over undered about nine point five wins. So ten is what I think is the baseline expectation. Obviously we're hoping for more like eleven or twelve, yes, for sure. Um. And it worked out really well that you happen to bring up the Saints because our next question is from Kenneth and he said, what's the key to stopping Breeze and Thomas this year? And he said,

we gotta take the division over again. So yeah, so the idea of how to how to how to beat Breeze and Thomas, which you know, I'm pretty sure if we knew the answer to that, a lot of people in the league would be paying us a lot of money. Yeah, Michael Thomas to me the Breeze to Michael Thomas combination, which, by the way, when you and I and Carmen were doing a roundtable week a couple of weeks ago, and one of the questions was what's the biggest challenge for

the Bucks offense defense. My answer was Drew Brees to Michael Thomas, and it's just everybody knows it's coming, and yet you can't stop it. He's very He's good at physically beating people, you know, like you know if the press or it breaks, and he's just such a good route runner. And then Drew Brees is so precise with his passes that you can know what's gonna happen, and

he still catches passes on you. And by the end of the year he's got a hundred I think he had a hundred forty five receptions, so in sixteen games. That's like in the game. So I think that probably the key is accept the fact that Drew Brees is going to complete some passes to Michael Thomas, but keep them from being a big place. And sometimes with some of the some of the best players you face on either offense or defense, you know they're gonna they're gonna

have some success against you. Just gotta try to limit it. M We also got a response from our guy watching from Hong Kong. He says it's ten pm, so he said, yes, happy hour it's been a long happy hour, Okay, right, yeah, happy hours. Cloral Dennis wanted to know what will key

Shawn Vaughan's role be. Well, if you take what the Bucks had last year, and their primary carries were split between Ronald Jones and Peyton Barber, and now Peyton Barber isn't with us anymore, He's he's with Washington now, Keyshawn Vaughn to me would easily at the baseline step in there and take those number of snaps that Peyton Barber

was getting. After the two Ronald Jones became the starter, about this eighth came in and then was the starter rest away and and then got more snaps, and he ended up with I think something like dventy two carries to pet Barber's hun forty five or something like that.

So you can probably start that as the baseline because I think from comments you hear from both Bruce Arians and Jason Light is that there just aren't many teams anymore that are just giving all their carries carries to one back, you know, They're most teams are using a variety of running backs, and I think that's what we're going to be, like, uh Keshan I think could expand his role beyond that if he proves to be a good pass catcher and not just a guy screen passes,

actually splitting out and running some routes. That's what we're gonna find out. They think he's capable of doing that. We're gonna find out if he can do that on the NFL level, And if he can, I think you could see his role expanding. But in the very least, I think he's part of the one to punch with. Ron Okay and Christopher wanted to know, do you think we'll see O. J. Howard play more than last year or will we see more Cameron Brakes? So which one of those guys you think we're going to see more

playing time from. Yeah, I don't think you're probably would expect O. J. Howard if to play more than you did last year when you've added Rob Gronkowski to the mix. So I guess the question is who's gonna play more? O J. Howard or Cam brad Um. Just based on the snaps last year, O J. Howard played significantly more than Cam in games where they were both healthy. Uh, So I wouldn't expect that to change, but I'm interested

to see how all that shakes out. You know, I think they're gonna be creative with those three guys, and I'm sure they'll have a good role for cam Bread, especially in the red zone where he's always proven to be so effective. I mean, he's twenty four touchdowns over the last four years, that's fourth among all tight ends of that span, and almost all those are plays that are snapped inside the opponent's twenty So, um, that's where

his bread and butter is. And he said that before, like his sweet spot is around the fifteen yard line, So I think he's still quite a weapon there. But if you ask me which one I think will get more snaps overall, probably Howard okay, And Cash said, do you think Scotty Miller is going to be placed in more packages? That probably depends on how how good Tyler

Johnson proves to be. I mean, last year, Breshad Kerreman was your three, and if you look at it, the snaps snap differential between Breshade and Scotty Miller when all the receivers were healthy, it was pretty wide. Breshade was taking almost all the third receiver stabs and Scotty was getting you know, maybe ten a game or something like that. And then there were two games where Brushad was out and Scotty Miller played a ton of snaps, and then he got a little bit more towards the end of

the year before he heard his hamstring. Um. So to me, if Tyler Johnson quickly grabs that third receiver role, then Scotty is probably in the same position again, getting a snaps where he can and and and getting more when some guys are out with minor injuries. But on the other hand, Scotty, I'm sure is going to come into this camp whenever it happens with his goal of winning the third receiver job. And um, you know that speed, he's got his real he might be the fastest receiver

on the team. And when you go to three ride receivers, we often put god When Chris Scott went into the slot where he was very effective last year, and and if you put Scotty on the outside where he mostly played, you've got that guy that can clear out the defense, maybe make some big plays, but at very least sort of clear out the defense to give more room for

Chris Godwin working over the middle of the field. So, uh, it's gonna come down to who really wins the primary third receiver job between those two guys and maybe Justin Watson. But um, so that's what you know. We'll see, we'll see, uh, and we'll close with this. I think the name is East. I. I hope I didn't botch that. East. I said which position group will have the biggest battle this year. That's a good one. Sounds like a good roundtable discussion. Warners,

you know, safety, Uh, that would be one. Yeah, I'd probably have to go with safety. I think at most most spots, at the first two levels on defense, the starters are probably pretty close to set um and then on offense, you you can predict the offensive line. You know who the Titans are gonna be playing quarterback receivers. Yeah, I think it's got to be safety. And uh, that's a lot of young guys, including a rookie that they're

really high on, that have to sort out. And that doesn't necessarily mean just two guys win and everybody else watches. Todd Bowles will do some stuff with free safeties and they'll have different packages. So we'll see how that goes. But I think that's probably the best battle. All Right, Well, that's gonna do it for us on this edition of

Buccaneers Inside of Live presented by Miller Light. Thanks as always to all of you guys for being with us and for those awesome questions, and we'll see you next time. U