In a day at One Buc that was kicked off on a bright note with the organization holding their annual Women of Red event, the atmosphere within the offensive huddle by end of practice must have felt as dark and gloomy as the sky in Tampa Bay for much of Thursday.

Despite the offense coming off their best day of training camp yet, practice quickly shifted back to what the media and fans have become accustomed to seeing thus far, a completely overwhelming defensive force out of defensive coordinator Todd Bowles’ guys.

Pre-Practice Injury Update

In addition to the usual suspects, Justin Evans and Nick Fitzgerald, Thursday saw wide receivers K.J. Brent, a free agent addition made in the offseason, and DaMarkus Lodge, an undrafted free agent out of Ole Miss, held out of practice.

Defensive Backs Rule The Day

From the very first period of one-on-one’s between wide receivers and defensive backs, it was the defensive side of the ball that ran the show. The standout performance from that unit started quickly with an interception by M.J. Stewert off of Jameis Winston, a nice lockdown play by Vernon Hargreaves and more that continued for much of the day.

While it’s bittersweet for fans to see one unit outperform the other in training camp at this level, with a unit that was on pace for historic levels of under performance it’s good to see a resurgence.

After Stewart’s pick, moving on to the first period of 11-on-11’s D’Cota Dixon added another interception to his resume this training camp as Winston stepped up in the pocket to avoid pressure and fired a pass downfield that was jumped by Dixon and taken home for six. Later in the same period Ryan Smith nearly had a pick of his own, but couldn’t come down with it.

Moving on to red zone drills Carlton Davis got in on the action, jumping the route intended for Breshad Perriman and adding an interception of his own, Winston’s third thrown pick of the day.

A few plays later Jeremiah Ledbetter deflected a pass at the line and Kentrell Brice made a diving play to intercept the Blaine Gabbert attempt.

Interceptions and pass breakups were the primary story today, although as you can read in our Winston Watch, the offense was able to rebound later in the day. All in all, it was a phenomenal day from the defense as a whole.

Vea And White Shine Up Front

To continue the theme of the defensive proficiency on Thursday, 2018’s first round draft pick Vita Vea and 2019’s first round pick Devin White showed glimpses of being a remedy for the future to a defensive front seven that racked up just 22 sacks in 2017.

With Bowles’ aggressive scheme, Vea and White will be instrumental in bringing the pressure up the middle that is relied on for pressures.

White hasn’t been perfect to this point in training camp but he has shown bright spots of the incredible talent that he could bring as a rookie. He has looked great all camp when attacking gaps in the run game and has even flashed moments of brilliance when timing snaps and attacking the A-gap or edge when blitzing.

Ogunbowale Making A Case For Himself

When Dare Ogunbowale’s name was discussed after Bruce Arians took over as head coach of the Bucs, it was largely revolving around the roles that he could play as a returnman on special teams. With Ronald Jones likely being viewed as the back with the most potential by fans and the organizations, Peyton Barber’s running style repeatedly earning praise from Arians and Ellington bringing the experience of playing under Arians in Arizona, Ogunbowale seemed largely in the back seat of the conversation alongside rookie and Tampa native Bruce Anderson.

Ogunbowale may be looking to carve himself out a niche on special teams, but the way he’s been playing in camp he may be looking at carving himself out a role in the running back rotation.

Barber and Jones are likely in a two-dog race for the starting spot, but Ellington is beginning to age and has dealt with injury concerns for much of his career. Ogunbowale would save a roster spot by being a returnman and running back, and his ability that he’s shown when catching the ball out of the backfield would be useful as that’s been a noted deficiency in Jones’ game and something that Barber was primarily taken off the field for last season in favor of a familiar face in Dirk Koetter’s offense, Jacquizz Rodgers.

During practice today, Ogunbowale had a strong period during the team’s first set of 11-on-11 drills, making a nice catch and taking two solid runs to the outside and around the edge. Then in red zone drills he was able to punch in a touchdown from inside the 10-yard line. Ogunbowale will be a name to keep an eye out for as training camp continues.