The weatherman told us it wouldn’t rain today at Tampa Bay Buccaneers training camp.

He lied.

Though the players, the media and the fans did experience some summer showers towards the end of practice, that didn’t stop the product on the field from being as exciting as we’ve seen in a long time. That excitement started with newly acquired free agent wide receiver, DeSean Jackson.

D-Jax Goes Deep

We’ve been telling you all offseason that bringing Jackson to Tampa Bay was more than just downfield speed. The Bucs believe that Jackson is a complete wide receiver, and can win with athleticism and smooth route running all over the field, not just from beyond 20 yards.

But, that doesn’t mean the 20-, 30- and 40-yard bombs aren’t still the main reason why he’s in red and pewter.

The play above was during a simple wide receiver drill with no coverage. But, nonetheless, it demonstrated skills and a mindset that came up big towards the end of practice. Jackson just looks so natural when he’s running and tracking the ball deep down the field. That little hop step instead of a traditional stop-and-go double move showed how savvy he is. Throw in the fact that it was a natural reaction for him to get pumped up, spin the ball and celebrate afterwards and you can see why it’s easy to fall in love with the possibilities he brings.

When the team finally got into their 11-on-11 full-field scrimmage, we saw that practice from earlier come to life.

The ball from quarterback Jameis Winston was a bit under thrown, as Jackson had to turn to bring it in and get up the sideline, but even at game-speed, Jackson was open because of a good route and soft space in coverage. Plus, there’s no way that finally defensive back would’ve contained him with that much space.

We thought the previous play was going to be the only big touchdown we’d see on Saturday, since the defense was playing so well (we’ll get to that), but contrary to what we believed, Winston and Jackson gave the media and the fans a finale of a deep ball on one of the last plays of the day.

Was that a risky throw? Yes, it was. But, Jackson is so experienced tracking passes down the field and having a knack for knowing how the ball is going to bounce that it can pay off. It did on that play, and it probably won’t be the last time we see one like it.

Defense Have A Day

The Bucs defense really took things up a notch today, which is impressive since they did so without being able to hit – no pads on.

It started off subtly like in plays such as the one above. It looked like just a short completed pass, but if you’ll notice the details, you’ll pick up how well the defense played it. The defensive end had the quarterback cornered, and the short pass to the wide receiver would have had him begging for an ice bath after the inevitable hit from the looming safety.

Good overall coverage like that led to even more plays later.

We promise you, there will come a day where Vernon Hargreaves is the feature player on one of these recaps or the MVP of a practice. It’s coming.

Hargreaves looks night and day different from last year. He’s dancing around, he’s all smiles with the fans, and he’s confident in his trial of a year last year and has learn from it. Now comes the confidence.

The play above is hard to see because it’s on the far side of the field, but Hargreaves gets his hand in there and breaks up the pass (he had a few of those). It wasn’t the only example of the “never give up on the play” attitude, either.

As the title of the tweet above suggests, it was a suffocating day by the defense.

In a 7-on-7 practice, good coverage all around leads to awkwardly long times in a pocket just to throw a short pass that gets broken up. For the most part, the defense had the offense’s number all day, and the man who emerged as the playmaker of that day was actually backup free agent safety J.J. Wilcox.

Wilcox had himself and interception off a deflection before this play, so by that time he was filled with confidence. He had no trouble staying with tight end O.J. Howard down the middle of the field, and showed good timing and athleticism to break up the pass. Throw in the fact that he also had one or two plays where, if it were a game, he might have killed the ball carrier with good anticipation and hard hit, Wilcox certainly impressed everyone – including his head coach.

From the Notepad

• Quarterback Jameis Winston was wearing a knee brace for practice today, something he wasn’t doing on Friday. Yesterday people on Twitter were saying they could notice a limp with him, and now we know that was the result of a play where Gerald McCoy bumped into him. It’s not an injury, but the Bucs don’t want it to become one, so they’re having him wear the brace as a precaution. He was still sprinting to drills just like he usually does, so there’s no need to sound an alarm.
• With defensive end, Jacquies Smith, out for at least another three weeks due to a setback in his recovery from a torn ACL, it was to be determined who would take his place on pass rushing downs. During install walk through, it appeared defensive end Ryan Russell will be taking Smith’s place in practice and during the preseason.
• As for potential kick returners, Adam Humphries, Bobo Wilson, Vernon Hargreaves, Cody Riggs, Bernard Reddy and Lavonte David were participating. It’s probably Humphries job still to lose.
• Peyton Barber had a very nice run on one of the limited carries he received. The coaching staff and front office like him a lot as a bigger back with some surprising athleticism. He might get in the way of everyone crowning rookie running back Jeremy McNichols the next big thing.
• Speaking of McNichols, we saw him get a few reps in near the end of practice on short yardage drills. However, he wasn’t much of a participant beyond that when it came to scrimmages.
• Linebacker Kendell Beckwith has emerged as the middle linebacker on the second team. There was some speculation that Beckwith may be groomed to play the starting SAM linebacker role, but right now they’re focusing on him being a viable backup middle linebacker.
• O.J. Howard had an incredible catch over the middle in the early scrimmage drills. He looked more comfortable today than he did yesterday.
• Though we didn’t feature Chris Godwin in our videos today, he still had a good day. Near the end of practice, he had two very nice catches in the pouring rain, including one that had him diving and tip-toeing on the far sideline.
• The Buccaneers’ defense hasn’t been too far outside of the box in terms of defensive front alignments in practice, but we did see from 4-3 Under looks from them today when putting Noah Spence in with William Gholston, Gerald McCoy and Chris Baker. 4-3 Under (explained here), positions your best 3-tech defensive tackle close to your best pass rusher as opposed to giving both separate space.

From the Stands: Fan Spotlight

My “From the Stands” segment today comes courtesy of the captain himself, Mr. Gerald McCoy.

Like he has done before, instead of just walking over to the fence and signing autographs that people reach for him to sign, McCoy walked over the fence and sat down with the fans in the stand to sign memorabilia and take pictures.

You can tell McCoy is tired; you can tell he just worked his butt off in the Florida heat for the last two hours. But, you can also see by what he does that he cares about the people that support him and this team. He knows what his presence, his signature or his picture in a photo mean to these people.

If you know McCoy, you know he loves super heroes. He’s always into Batman, The Hulk, Wolverine, etc. But, McCoy has powers of his own, and he knows it, too. McCoy’s power is that the smallest time in his day could bring long-term memories and joy to someone else. His presence can make people smile.

That’s why he does what he does.

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