Who Will The Team Captains Be This Season? | Bucs Insider

we're gonna do. So if you're not already watching on their head on over to the Facebook page and in underneath our live video you can leave your comments there, so as we give people chance to do that. M Scott, I just want to hear. I know Ronald Jones spoke to the media, and I want to hear what you gathered from that, what you've learned, what you thought about that. And because of running back has definitely been one of the positions that we've gotten, uh, probably more questions than

almost anything else about. So did you feel like we got some answers there? Yeah, we actually started to get some clarity the week before when m Bruce arians spoke on a Zoom call and was asked about the backfield. This was just after the signing of Leshawn McCoy. So Bruce said very clearly that Rojoe is our main guy. Those are the words he used, and they would carry the load and that everybody else in that running back room would be fighting for their roles. So we know

this now. The plan is to go with Ron Jones is your main guy, which isn't surprising. He was the starter for the second half of last year and Peyton Barber has departed, so it would make sense that he's the main guy, and then uh, you figure out what else, how else to fill it all in with Keyshawn vaughan, how big his role should be, how good he proves to be as a pass catcher and a pass protector. Um Leshawn McCoy is you know, what does he do

for you? Dario Goomba Wally, you know, he was basically our third down back all last year, so you know there's some confidence in him there. But Ron Jones is the guy. And then Ronald spoke, probably probably because Bruce made a point of saying that they got Ron Jones on his zoom calling. What I found interesting about it was when he was talking about the various things he's doing to be a better pass catcher, and he was

actually pretty good last year. His ten yards per catch was really good and he had thirty one catches on forty targets. He only had one drop, So there just weren't a ton of targets. And maybe with Tom Brady in town and a desire to get their running backs a little bit more involved in the passing game, the big question is how much can Rojoe do? And I think I think he's pretty confident in team is pretty confident he can catch a lot of passes. He uh,

he says he's working on. Some of the specific things he's working on is Tom Brady made a point of telling him to run your routes like you already have the ball in your hand, so um. And then he's still been working with Tom mcnairon um and other coaches on pass catching techniques, how to hold his hands like the diamond and all that, and then on recognizing defenses.

So you know, lots of times when a running back goes out into a route, the first thing he has to figure out is is it man coverage or is its own coverage? Because if it's if it's man, usually keep running just trying to beat your man, and if its zone, you look for the space to sit down in the zone. And he wants to be able to recognize that a lot quicker so that he is immediately getting in the zones if it's if it's his zone, okay.

And I also wanted to talk about the schedule for the guys that that's something we've talked about, is this training camp is a little bit different than in years past for obvious reasons. What do we know about you know, what they have been doing, and then now this next week or so, the way that things are going to

change or maybe ramp up a bit. Yeah. Today, we've been calling everything since they started going on the field for strength and conditioning work, and I think August first or something like that, we've been calling everything training camp. But today was the really the first thing that looked like a real practice. I was down there this morning. It's actually still going on, um and it's it's not

a real training camp practice yet. It's more like they're speeding through the phases of what you would have done in the off season with a few days each. And the NFL calls this a ramp up period and these practices are like what they would have been allowed to do in Phase two before the O T A S. The offense can run drills and throw passes and the defense can do the same, but they can't do it against each other. And that's the way the next two

days are. And then on Friday and Sunday it's gonna be like O T S when you can do it against each other. But of course you can't have pads on or hit each other. Can't do that until Monday, and then you and I will be out there watching what's going on. Yes, that is a perfect way to remind everybody. Shameless plug. We will be doing our training camp live show starting on Monday. We wanted to wait until there was gonna be like hitting real couple things. Yeah,

you know, that's what we're all about. So we're gonna be out there. It will look a little different than years past because of where we are allowed to be um, but we're going to do our best to try to give you live shots of what the team is doing at training camp, and then of course we will have other content, other things we're talking about. So every day of practice, which is basically every day, but Saturday's for

a bit here. It looks like we're gonna be out there at nine am to make sure you're tuning in for that each week. Um, okay, Starting with some of our fan questions, east I like this. He wanted to know who's the most intimidating defensive player east side m east side, it was the most intimate defensive player on our team. I assuming, yes, Uh, well, we got a lot of guys in our secondary who have really yoked up over the offseason. I don't know if you've seen that.

I mean, Jordan White, it looks like DK Metcalf. That do is crazy. I mean he was always like that to a degree. I think people always were kind of surprised when they would see certain photos and be like wow. But now, I mean, he just turned into the Hulk. It's insane. But I don't think I can pick a defensive back for this question. I think my answer would probably have to be in Dominican su Yeah, I think

that's fair. I think I think I'd be most scared to have to be lined up across from Vita Via because I think I would die if he came at me, destroy me. But he just he just seems like such a nice guy. All the time. That intimidating is and the first thing that comes to mind now it would be intimidated on the field. But Dominicansu is uh, you know, he's he's a little scary, Yes, I think on the field, yeah,

I think that's fair. Very nice guy, but very intimidating all the same time, Daniel, last special teams has been an area of the Buccaneers. Seemed like they can improve from last year. How do role players look for Special Teams roles in training camp? I guess how? I guess he's asking, how do coaches find role players that could have Special Teams roles in training camp? And has anybody

been standing out for a potential there? Well, this today was the first practice, the first time they're doing anything like that, so um, they stand out. They find guys

through drills like today. As soon as I walked on the field, I saw them with a bunch of guys that are Special Teams candidates and they were, uh, basically doing a drill to see how good they would be at that great that thing that Ryan Smith does so well where he gets down on the punt and gets his feet up basically on the edge of the goal line and stops the punt at the one yard line

when it's bouncing all around. They were working on that drill where the guy would run down there and the coach would be rolling the ball and they have to get around and get in the spot. So that's how you find out you do those things. And starting on Friday, I think, is when they can start doing return versus cover and there won't be any hitting, but you can still get an idea of, um, you know, how well a guy knows an assignment. Is he good at staying in the lane he's supposed to be in that sort

of thing. And then when they start, when they put on the pads, then they will have specific drills where you'll have people getting their chances getting you know, rotating through reps of trying to be the gunner, which is one of the main most important jobs, and special teams on punts. The unders are the only two guys that can leave at the snap, and those are the guys you see split out wine and opposing teams usually block

them with either one or two guys. We did see Ryan Smith get blocked by three guys once last year. We said a lot about the respect they were given him, but how can how well can you beat that, especially when it's too especially when you're trying to be two guys, How well can and how quickly can you beat that? Because if you can be a gunner that consistently beats your blockers quickly, that's the guy that's going to get a lot of tackles on punts and and you know,

maybe cost some turnovers and so on. So the answer to the question is through drills, lots and lots of drills. Okay, yas asked, do you see us getting any more depth on the O line? And so I'll just add on to that of in addition to whether or not you think we would be adding depth, how do you view our depth that we have currently? Yeah, I have said and that I thought the depth was pretty good at

at tackle. Um that's even true. It's a little less true because Brad Seaton exercised his option to opt opt out this year. So that's one tackle down that so far hasn't been replaced. UM, but you still have a four there of presumably Donovan Smith and Tristan Worth starting backed up by Joe Hay who started a bunch of games in Indianapolis. And it's very versatile, can play a lot of spots on the line, and also Josh Wells, who started a couple of games for US last year.

So it's good to have that experienced depth there. And you've got a couple of young guys too, But that's four guys I think you can feel pretty good about. The bigger question is, UM is on the interior line where you love, you're starting three, but there's not a lot of experienced depth behind that, And I think they're counting on some guys that they've liked, like Zach Bailey as an example, or a rookie they brought on named

John Mulchum or Zach Shackleford of Texas. I think they like these guys, but it's not really not realistic in the moment to say that's proven depth. So UM, I don't know if we need more depth yet on the interior line because I don't know how good those guys

are gonna be. But on paper, that would look to be where you might want to find some And remember this, we don't necessarily even if the Bucks don't add anybody to the roster right now, you're gonna get to the point, uh, whenever the final cutdown date is and I don't know if that's different, dude to everything's going on, but everybody's cutting players. And that's what they call that eighth round of the draft. Well they that's what they call something

like that. You know, it's another opportunity to pick up players of a veteran you like better than what you got is released and there's a little generally a little bit of turning at the bottom of the roster around

that time. Yeah, this could be one of those areas where you see how they were planning pre COVID and the way that COVID this offseason may affect how this works is they did have all these young, unproven guys, guys like you mentioned Zach Shackelford and um, you know John Mulchen that they thought, oh well, we'll get a lot of chances to see these guys and also a lot of chances for them to get reps to you know,

become that guy. And now you know where you felt like you had all this potential young depth, you just don't know yet you may still have it. They may still pan out, Um, but maybe you would have tried to go for potentially more proven options if you've known that none of these young guys would get it. So it's sort of an interesting way of like how you thought about building your team and the way that it

could end up coming. Yeah, there's gonna be some difficulties, and um, I guess the only thing you can say is that it's the same across the board for every team. So the Bucks aren't any worse off than anybody else. And I was just thinking about what I said about when the rosters are all cut down and the veterans

get picked up from elsewhere. Actually it may be a little bit harder to do that this year too, because you're gonna have a sixteen man practice squad, and six of those sixteen spots can be used on players with any amount of experience. Usually, practice squad guys have to have a fewer than two years of a crude NFL free agency credit. You have two, and then you have two exception spots where they can have a few more.

Now you can you put six guys any experience on there, so it'll be easier for guys for teams to keep their veteran depth. That's sixty nine guys out of eighty that you're taking a camp that you can keep, so there will be fewer guys out there on the wire now that I think about it. Yeah, that's an interesting point. Jermaine asked, with all these new veterans, who do you think will be our captains this year? I'm gonna go on the limb and think Tom Brady will be a captain?

Um in what a hot take? Allie Mark Pett was a captain last year, wasn't he? I believe so, Yeah, I could see that staying the same. I think he's a respective guy that people listened to. Um did he say just offensive captains are all? I think he said the whole team? But yeah, has been kept for some time.

I don't know why that would change. Um, you know that when you talk about new guys, we're really there talking about a huge number of new guys because a lot of the players that we signed were re signing. So Tom Brady is an obvious one. Is is Gronca captain? I don't know. I think that remains to be seen. And then otherwise we're just really talking about Joe hag And I'm forgetting two guys because there's only like five

of them, Elliot Fry a kicker and Lashawn McCoy. So I think the only guy that's obviously a captain out of the new guys is Tom Brady. Otherwise, I think you see a lot of repeats. Okay. Daniel asked what have you seen from Antoine Winfield Jr? Thus far? And maybe a better question would be when will we potentially be able to see more from him and know more

based on how practices go. I've seen him um doing strength and conditioning drills, so and then today I think I saw him feeling some punts, which coaches said they were going to give him an opportunity to do. So there's something for you. There's something, yeah, But otherwise I haven't seen him run a drill yet. I mean before they started doing any defensive drills. I came in to do this with you, Casey, because it's more important than

that obviously. And so let's ask the question again in you know, a couple of calling to our writing or question into our training camp live next week sometime and by then maybe we'll sing something. We'll have better answers for you there. Um, this is interesting. A different Daniel asked us, who do you think is our number one receiver? Mike or Chris that's such a hard question to answer that I'm gonna take a cop I'm gonna cop out a little bit here and say I don't think it

really matters. I mean, I think there're one A and one B. If you looked at it went last year. Basically, Mike has been the man for six years, and then Chris, who had already taken a big step forward in his second year but was still clearly the number two guy. In two thousand eighteen, basically, Chris just got to the point where he was just as good and just as

important as Mike. So you had one A and one B. And if you look at it, Chris was the number two and Mike was number four in the NFL and yards per game, Um, there were times last year where Mike was had the most yards and then Chris, and then Mike passed me in and Chris passed him again. By the end of the year, Chris had more, but he also had one more game. Um, I don't think

there's a one there. I really don't. I called that a cop out if you want, but I just think it's one A and one B. And you know, I think we've joked about the game. I think he was in Detroit where we went into the game, or maybe it was Tennessee. I can it was at Detroit where

or Atlanta maybe we went into the game. And um, Mike was close to get into a thousand and it would have been his six thousand yards season to start his career, which only Grandy Moss had done before, and he was like eleven yards away from getting it, and Chris was like a hundred fifty yards away. But in that game, Chris got there first because he had a bunch of huge plays right off the bat, and then Mike got there too. So that was a game where

where Chris had a huge game. But there were other games were Mike had a huge game and then every now and then, like against the Rams, they both had huge games and the Bucks scored fifty five points. So you know, again one A and one B in my mind, again a great problem to have. Richard asked, who do you think replaces m J. Stewart. Well, by the end of last year, m J. Stewart wasn't wasn't It was basically a healthy scratch. So there isn't a role in

the defense that needs to be replaced. Um, you had Carlton Davis starting on one side, and coach Areas recently claimed he thought Carlton Davis was a top ten corner in the league, which is high praise. Um, you had Sean Murphy Bunny starting on the outside and then moving into the slot in the nickel, which is actually what you played the most. So Jamal Dean was essentially an outside starter. So you've got all that back. Um, you also have Ryan Smith and Massey Wilkins, and I think

they like that kid from Oklahoma, Parnell Motley. So um, replacing m J as a corner on the roster would just come from one of those guys. Uh, there isn't really a role that has to be replaced at this moment. Okay, and we'll close it this one. Chris asked, how do they plan to use all three tight ends? Do you

think we will see three tight end sets? That's a good question, and coach Arias did say at one point we will use three tight ensets, but I don't really think you're going to see that a lot as part of your base offense. Three tighten sets are usually short yardage, um, you know, goal line stuff, and sometimes the third tight end isn't even a tight end. It's an offensive linement, So, um, you, I don't think you're gonna see a ton of that.

We we had I think I counted up. I think we had fifty four or fifty nine snaps all of last year with three tight ends on the field. So

it's just not something to use a lot. What I do think you'll see a lot of, and more than last year, is two tight ensets or what they call twelve personnel, And um, we use that twenty percent of the time last year, which actually was a little higher than the league average, so they already reutilizing that, but coaches said, we'll probably see that a little bit more. So maybe if it was I would think it was

about fifty nine percent. At the time they were in eleven personnel, which is three receivers and twenty percent of the time they were in twelve. You could see maybe the eleven come down a little bit into the low and the twelve personnel with two tight ends come to mid to high, and then you just have different packages. Gronk with O J, Gronk with CAM, o J with CAM, that kind of thing. So yeah, you'll see some three tight end, but I'd be surprised it's a big part

of the offense. Yeah, that's a great point. Okay, well that's gonna do it for us on this edition of Buccaneers and Satura Live presented by Miller White. And the exciting news is this is our last one of these for a while where we will not be out on the field with football happening behind us again. Training Camp Live starts Monday nine am and it's gonna be every day at nine am that they have practice, which is essentially every day but Saturday, So make sure you tune

in then Monday morning, nine am. We'll see you then