Prior to the Coaches Breakfast on Tuesday morning from the Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix, Arizona, Bucs head coach Bruce Arians met with PewterReport.com and the Tampa Bay media members who traveled to Arizona for an exclusive Q&A. Below is what Arians had to say during the exchange.

(On where his time will be spent as he delegates more to his coaches)
“I’ve been doing a lot more personnel with Jason [Licht]. And also looking at game management situations that maybe I screwed up in these past five years. Can’t say there were many, but there were situations, because I get very angry with officials sometimes and I lose sight of some things, that’s why I hired Larry Rose – just to let me know if I’m right when I’m hollering at them or not. That part of it, continuing to go more room to room, see how things are going. Doing more individual teaching than just sitting in the quarterbacks room, putting the installation in. I’ll be in there, but I just want to take a backseat to watching another great young coach grow, but also, who’s taking notes and who’s not taking notes.”

Bucs passing game coordinator Byron Leftwich – Photo by: Getty Images

(On how confident he is that he can bite his tongue at those times)
“I won’t bite it. I’ll bite his, but he knows. I mean, there’s going to be times when you get a gut feeling during a game. And we script our gameplans so meticulously that there are only about five or six gut calls in a game. It’s time to, ‘Hey, pound it, just pound it,’ or, ‘We got ‘em, it’s time for a shot.’ It’s odd because when Byron [Leftwich] called plays for me in the preseason, we called a lot of the same plays. Harold [Goodwin] called plays, he ran the ball more. He’s an offensive line coach. We ran the ball successfully, but we aren’t going to score enough points going four [yards] at a time. We’ve got to get some chunks in there. I’ll be there in full force on the headset with input. It’ll give Byron and I a lot of time together, too. We’ll have to watch and make sure we don’t overcoach Jameis [Winston]. That’s what Clyde [Christensen] is great at, ‘Coach, that’s awesome stuff, but I think we’ve got enough – I don’t think he can handle anymore.’ Being able to sit with Byron, game plan, know what I’m looking for and what he’s looking for, I’m looking forward to that.”

(On if Byron Leftwich is ready for this situation, with it being such a crucial year for Jameis Winston)
“Just watching what he did with someone else’s offense. I think they scored, I don’t know the exact statistic, but they scored on like 80 percent of their first drives. With third-string linemen and guys injured everywhere, so I know he knows how to script it. He was the smartest quarterback, maybe, that I’ve ever coached, including Peyton [Manning] and Andrew [Luck]. Because that’s the way he had to play the game. Bugging him to get off of the golf course and into coaching, I knew how good he’d be. It was instinct. With his instinct, and rapport with Carson Palmer. They were drafted in the same class and all of a sudden this dude is like begging him for information. How did you see this, when you played how did you read this, and those sort of things, and he was able to teach it right away and that’s rare. Larry Foote was the same way on defense. He was playing linebacker and he was the linebackers coach with the same guys and the respect was instant. They were like, well we’re asking him questions anyway. You just have to be able to recognize those guys, that are going to be rising stars. And not all of them will be like that, some are made to be position coaches, and he’s exuded that his whole career.”

(On changing the mentality on the defense in the locker room)
“It might be the easiest – guys love blitzing and we blitz. We’re an aggressive group so we’re always penetrating. It might be a four-man rush, but it’s four guys from one side and we’re dropping some people. We’re not going to drop Jason [Pierre-Paul] very often just to screw them up, but he has so many exotic fronts. I remember we played Dallas and we came out with the old Steelers 6-1 defense, man on man, kick our ass and they couldn’t do it. [Todd Bowles] has a great knack of putting you in the best position to win the game. ‘Hey, I’m putting you up to this guard, this guy can’t block you in this package.’ I don’t have to tell Todd to blitz, he played for me, we were an aggressive eight-man front, blitzing team. Richie Petitbon was the same way in Washington when he played for Petitbon, so it’s in his blood. I don’t ever have to switch over and say, ‘Go get ‘em.’

(On how crucial communication will be this spring)
“It’s huge. That will be – in talking to some of the guys – it will be new. You can’t just show up at camp and expect to learn this defense. Certain guys, you need their leadership. It’s critical to have everybody. I can’t think of anybody … one spring I think, Patrick [Peterson] missed a few weeks but he pressed man to man, it wasn’t that bad.”

Bucs WR Mike Evans – Photo by: Mary Holt/PR

(On what he’s hearing the most about his team)
“How much they fear the receiving group and the quarterback. They know the talent on the defense, the speed in the secondary in that group, and I think what we’re going to be doing with them will be more advantageous to them: ‘I got you, beat my ass.’ We’re not sitting back, reading, reacting, schemes and stuff. We’ll have some of it but we’re going to get in your face, play man to man and get after you. I think that lets their personality come out.”

(On how much that means after letting two receivers – DeSean Jackson and Adam Humphries – go in free agency)
“Everybody I talk to says, ‘Oh, you got [Breshad] Perriman. He was breaking back out.’ And it was like, ‘Yeah, that was one of the best gets in free agency’ because I think Chris Godwin is going to be close to a 100-catch guy, especially because I think he can play in the slot, never come off of the field. Mike should be a … how many [catches]? The sky’s the limit. Breshad just adds that speed element but he’s also a guy that can take a short one a long way. Not every pass we make is 50 yards down the field like everybody likes to say, but it has that element and all three of those guys can go deep. It isn’t like, this guy does this, this, this. They’re all so interchangeable. Mike can get in the slot, they all three can get in the slot and take the top off of the coverage, so it’s a lot of fun dealing with that. Then you’ve got the two tight ends. It’s a group of really talented skill players and I love the running back.”

(On the team being so talented but the offensive line needing work)
“That’s the area we’ve got to improve. We’ve got to improve our run game, but that’s receivers, tight ends, offensive line. We’ve all got to be committed to the running game. I never had a problem with my receivers room here because Larry Fitzgerald was the best blocker in the league at that time. He never was before, but he bought in. These guys, when I turn on the tape, they’re all aggressive. So it’s easy, because long runs come from wide receiver’s blocking. It’s fixing some things, especially on the right side and working with that a little more.”

(On if he prefers a zone blocking scheme or a man blocking scheme in the run game)
“Both. We have to have a gap scheme and we have to have a zone scheme, I don’t think you can have just one. Some teams have a faster, lighter front. We’re going to double team and get after them and hand it off downhill. Some teams are big, two-gappers and we’re going to stretch them, so you run a little bit wider zone. It’s what they do and what we do best is what we’re going to do. If we’re a shitty zone team, we ain’t running zone. Hopefully we can find two or three things to hang our hats on – you’ve got to stop ‘this’ to beat us.”

Bucs TE OJ Howard – Photo by: Mary Holt/PR

(On OJ Howard)
“He’s a unique talent with how well can he play farther away from the ball, because he’s going to be a mismatch and Cam [Brate] is the same way. He works better inside, it looks like, but let’s see what he looks like out there. That’s the beauty of having two practices, you’re getting so many more reps. I can have a whole day planned where you’re a split receiver and the next day you’re a tight end so you’re going to get a ton of reps at both and I’ll get a ton of tape.”

(On Ryan Griffin and the decision to keep him)
“We watched every practice, he was the scout team quarterback and we really liked what we saw but the game tape isn’t there. So it was, let’s find a guy with game tape and let him compete. Blaine [Gabbert] has been in this offense. I love him. We go to a workout and he’s probably going to shine more than anyone in this draft or last year’s draft because of his talent. He won some critical games between Tennessee and Jacksonville [and Arizona]. It’s an open competition, but it’s probably not.

“Blaine was our third [in Arizona], and he was starting but we were winning. You just have to do what that kid does best to win this game. Drew Stanton was, I think, 10-6 or something as a starter for us, because we did what he does best. We didn’t do what Carson does best – we did what Drew does best. Blaine is active and he can move, so we’ll do the things he can do, and if Griff’s our guy, we’ll do what he does best. He can’t do what Jameis does, so don’t ask him to.”

(On if there is a third down back on this roster, in the Todd McNair mold)
“That’s hard to find. I think with Andre Ellington, I’ve seen him do it. Can he still do it? I’ve got to find that out. I think [Shaun] Wilson can do it. There isn’t a ton of film on him but if you go back to camp and watch him during backs on backers, they couldn’t cover him. He’s an intriguing guy.”

Bucs CB Vernon Hargreaves – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

(On the confidence of his outside corners)
“I have great confidence in Vernon [Hargreaves] and Carlton [Davis]. If we have to take Vernon and put him at nickel, then I don’t know who that is yet. So let’s find a nickel. Let’s leave Vernon outside where we know he can play and be effective and find a nickel. This is the only roster right now. I don’t know because I haven’t seen the young guys. I’ve seen them play Cover 2, Quarters – I never saw them play man-to-man.”