Good morning Bucks fans. Hope everyone is doing great on this Wednesday morning, Casey Phillips. Here was senior writer and editor Scott Smith, And this is where we take all of your questions. So if you're not already watching on Facebook, head on over there, leave us a comment in the comment section. That's where we can find all of your questions as we get people a chance to do that.
We have not done one of these since last week, and it was sort of right in the middle of Mini camp where we had had a practice and then our show was actually in the middle of the second practice, and then we had one more after that. So we gave some of the initial mini camp thoughts last week, but I wanted to hear sort of now that it's wrapped up, you've heard a little bit more from the media's on another practice. What are your big picture kind
of takeaways from the mini camp. Yeah, I think that's a good way to put it, because I think it's the big picture stuff that that you should take away from something like that three days of practice. You know, not hey, Chris Godwin made a nice catch on the sideline or something like that. I mean obviously that he's going to do that. But one of the big picture
things is teams in pretty good health. I mean, there were six guys that weren't practicing when the camp for most of the camp, just six out of eighty nine, and um, Tom Brady was not one of those. He was going full speed. Uh. And then one other player, safety and Curtis Riley, got hurt during camp. But the Riley injury is a little unsure at this point. Last we heard he had an achilles thing. Coach Areas wasn't
sure if he needed surgery or not. But everybody else, um, from Jordan Whitehead being a couple of weeks away to Jalen Darden being very close to returning, all the other six guys coach said would be no problem for training camp. So the Bucks should and in training camp in really good shape. And and you know, along those same lines, you know it's kind of a disjointed offseason, right, I mean, not a lot And you know the O t s were mostly just young guys. Veterans were working out with
Tom Brady. Um, you know, we were finding out along the way what we're gonna be able to do. There was fewer O T A s than ever before, and so you could have expected, possibly when the team, the whole team for the first time since the Super Bowl, gets back on the practice field of practice, that it would be a little ragged, right, But they look pretty good. I mean, the Bucks looked, according to Bruce Arians, like they're where they need to be heading into training camp.
And you know, that probably says a lot about what teams need to do in the off season. UM. And I'm not sure coaches and players completely agree on the final answer there, but I think it's just my biggest takeaway is that the Bucks are in good health and ready to go for the start of training camp. And I feel like a lot of times we're talking about position battles that are happening in mini camp and that
we're looking forward to in training camp. Now when you return all twenty two starters, all three specialists, I don't know that that debate is quite as spicy as it has been in years past. Um, But what are some of the position battles that could still happen, Whether it is for a starting spot as slim as that might seem, or just those roster spots down there at the you know,
fifty one two three area. It's definitely the ladder um and I think it was on the last day on Thursday, coach Arians after practice said something about some pretty good battles, and I think somebody in the crowd misunderstood a little bit and asked a follow up question, like, what what starting spots are you talking about being up for competition, And Bruce said, oh, no, no no, not not starting spots. Those are pretty much set and and coaches don't say
that a lot. They like to say, hey, every spot's open for competition, but I mean we're being realistic here, so we're talking about, um, a little bit farther down the depth chart spots, but they're still important. Those are still important battles, and they're still gonna be thought pretty fiercely like um, well, for you know, for one, there's a pretty much what looks like a one on one battle for the punt return job between the veteran Jaden
Mickens and the rookie Jalen Darden. But then there's also like the fifth cornerback or will there be six cornerbacks? Um, you know, the safety position, the depth there after, Andrew Adams was one of the few guys that left, like you know, at corner they liked Herb Miller a lot. They elevated him for the practice squad several times last year, and I think he'll be battling to maybe get an actual spot on the fifty three man roster this time.
You know, you got the rookie Chris Wilcox, the six on draft pick, and then they added some veterans, including Antonio Hamilton who was on the Chiefs during the Super Bowl, and it's really played a lot of football and would help right away on special teams. So there's there's gonna
be a lot of competition there at safety. You got Raven Green from the Packers, who really did some pretty good work for Green Bay, just had a little trouble staying on the field, uh, you know, due to injuries, which is why they let him go or didn't sign him as a restricted free agent. And then, of course, as I said, uh, another one of those Curtis Riley, another one's safety has got hurt. So that kind of
muddies the picture a little bit. And then coach said Javan Hagen, last year it was it was a guy who spent the entire season on the practice squad did get to play a little bit in the NFC Championship game. Um, he said he came in had lost some weight and was in really good shape. So and the secondary, I think there's gonna be a lot of good battles to sort of round out the back end of that. Yeah. That always makes training camp fun to have some of
those storylines to watch as guy's battle it out. Um. Okay, So Richard asked UM, who has a better chance for Defensive Player of the Year, Shack Barrett or Devin White? And then I thought I'd expand it and just ask you of our whole defense, are those that two top candidates you would suggest? Or if you were to say that the person on our defense most likely to win Defensive Player of the Year, who would it be. Yeah?
I think he has done a very good job of nailing the top two candidates there, because Um, generally, most of the time, the defensive Player of the Year does go to a guy who gets a lot of sacks, and Shack Barrett is is the best bet for us to put up huge sack numbers. He also is very setting very very ambitious goals for this season. He even mentioned wanting to be Defensive Player of the Year, wanting to prove he's the best, one of the best edge
rushers in the entire league. He's definitely motivated UM And But then Devin White probably on paper, would have the best shot because he's a guy that's really going to fill up the whole stat line. So like last year nine sacks, that's pretty remarkable for an off the ball linebacker, and they tended to come and bunches for him. So
it's hard to say if he'll produce that again. But if Devin White HiT's double digit sacks somehow and has a hundred fifty tackles and maybe throws in a couple of um, a couple of turnovers, interceptions, a touchdown like when Derek Brooks wanted in two thousand and two he had five i think four in the regular season defensive touchdowns. I mean that kind of big play. Probably because of the position he plays, Devin White has the best chance to be the buck to rack up rack up those
type of place. Yeah, I'd put him at the top of the list. Yeah, that makes sense. Daniel said, who are our dark horse picks for the biggest surprise to turn heads this year? Bucks always seem to find that gym in the rough. Uh, gym in the rough, Like, are we talking about like a Adam Humphreys kind of thing or oh yeah, I think that might be who he's referencing in terms of our ability to find some
guys like a Cambrater and Adam Humphreys. But it may not need to be that level, especially because, like we said, are starting spots are are pretty locked up. Or you may not have a guy go from diamond in the rough to you know, super productive starter, but just maybe somebody that could turn heads that people have not expected
to do so quite yet. Um well, it's it's just tough because it's hard to see where guys are going to break through, like a guy I'd like to see a little bit more of his cam Gil, But the Buckner's did just draft another player at his position, uh in Joe try And who's probably gonna get first crack at at you know, breaking that rotation. But I can
still see Gil making the team. Larry Foote it says he's already lobbying to keep five outside Lineburgers when he was kept to four for most of last season, So um, Gil would probably be battling Quentin Bell for the fifth one there. Uh well, that's that's a tough question. Otherwise, UM, yeah, I was thinking maybe a Grant Steward because of the Special Teams contributions, that he's this kind of known for
being a big hitter guy. That because we lost Ryan Smith's and you know, he was kind of our Special Teams darling, that that maybe that that is one of the few spots that someone could make some big splash plays that people hadn't really heard of. I mean, when you're when your title is Mr. Irrelevant, any any big splash plays you end up making seems like you could qualify for that Diamond in the rough cat. I wasn't.
I wasn't thinking along lines of Special Teams. That does make some stance, since you know, it's it's not often that a Special Teams player becomes, you know, one of your team's most recognizable guys. But it happens like Matthew Slater in New England. I can remember the good old days of Kenny Kenny the Shark gant here in Tampa and he used to make a lot of plays with Special Teams and the crowd really loved him. So I could see a guy maybe, you know, breaking through in
that way. Yeah, I just remember Ryan Smith getting turned into a meme after that, leaning players in the ball from the end zone and yeah, so so a few of those plays like that, and all of a sudden you become more of a name for your special teams contribution. Um. I thought this was an interesting question. Mike asked, who is our next rising star on the coaching staff outside of left witch and bowls? M Hm, you you took the two obvious answers, right right, yeah, work in the list. Well,
I think my answer might be Kevin Garver. Okay, that he's a guy that's still you know, young, and I think the Athletic maybe named him to their list of the like forty under forty kind of like influencing the direction of the league and all that. And I mean, you know, he already did work with Larry Fitzgerald in Arizona that seemed to go pretty well. Although maybe Larry Fitzgerald was just already made, you know, like already prepared
to be an amazing player. But and then of course he's he's done some amazing things here with a very loaded wide receiver room. I feel like he's a guy that now has worked with so much talent that he that that could give you some some kudos around the league and maybe be a bit of a rising star. What about a guy like Casey Rodgers, the defensive line coach, who instead of thinking this is like who's the next
possible UM head coach? On this rest you go through the progression like, if Todd Bowles gets a head coaching job, could Casey Rogers be in line to potentially be the next defensive coordinator? Yeah? I think didn't. I think Casey just one UM line coach of the year, right, Yeah, he won some award for his coaching, so I think he's probably really good. Answer to that, Yeah, that's a great point. Okay. Our next one was for Mitch, and he asked, um, wait, now I've read the wrong one. Michael.
Michael asked, does Kyle Trask look capable of being a starter after Brady leaves? Well? We no, no, not yet. I mean we definitely haven't seen enough of him to know that yet. That's obviously what the team is hoping happens. And he's done some impressive things and he's looked like a rookie at times, but it's such a small sample size that, um, yeah, I don't think we can declare that. Yet you can say though, that he fits the mold of what the Buccaneers were looking for that for in
the developmental quarterback. I think they like his arm and his his style of play and his brains and and I just think he's a guy. As coach Christensen said, they're going to be bringing him along very deliberately and slowly, and that's the way he's choosing to learn right now. So it's gonna be a while. TI we can make proclamations like that, but I do think that is sort of a tentative plan for the succession and we'll see if it works out. Okay, and we'll close up this one.
Brandon asked, who is your who do you think will be the m v P of the Bucks this next year? And I'm going to add a caveat that. You can't answer Tom Brady just I would have said Tom Brady, right. So outside of that, who's here probably? I mean, I'll just circle back to what we were talking about before, Devin White. I mean, if he takes another step forward as a as a impact defender, he's going to be
one of the most impactful defenders in the NFL. And if the Buccaneers defense plays like it did in the Super Bowl, especially uh and really becomes less of a b side to this whole Tom Brady story and more of like, hey, the defense here is as responsible for the Buccaneers being Super Bowl contenders again as Tom Brady in the offense. Then there's gonna be a lot of eyes in that defense. There's gonna be people looking for, Okay,
who's the lynchpin here? And and Devin White just seems like a guy who could take it to another level throwing a lot more splash plays and at the end of the day, you're going, well, we can't pick Tom Brady, Okay, then I think it's probably deaf one. I like that. Well, that's going to do it for us. On this edition of Buccaneers Inside Our Live presented by Miller Lte, Thanks is always for being with us and for those great questions, and we'll see you next week.