Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians has a reputation for not relying much on rookies for high-impact contributions in their debut season, but could that change in 2020?

One would think that the limited opportunities that rookies have had to get on the field as a team during the offseason would minimize their chances to play even more than in a normal year, but Arians sounded pleased with the progress of the first-year players so far, especially first round pick Tristan Wirfs and second-round pick Antoine Winfield.

“Tristan [Wirfs] is what he is,” Arians said. “He’s not really a surprise, nor is Antoine [Winfield, Jr.], I think they’re both showing us exactly what we thought they were. They’re very smart players coming out of really good programs.

“Some of the other kids, Chappelle Russell showed up in great shape and ready to go. Ke’Shawn [Vaughn] was a little behind because of the COVID test, he’s catching up fast. Ray [Calais] same way, that room kind of got wiped out and missed a couple weeks. Tyler [Johnson] has been hurt the whole time, so there’s some other young kids that were undrafted that I really can’t wait to see in pads and see if they can handle the noise level.”

One of the hardest things for rookies each year is taking the information they learn in meetings and or techniques they learn in training, and applying it to the field while they are also trying to process each play and their individual assignments. When that process becomes seamless for a player, “playing fast” is the result, but often the moving pieces won’t all slow down until year two or three.

Bucs QB Tom Brady and RB Ke’Shawn Vaughn – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“That’s always the biggest thing,” Arians said. “They get overwhelmed with information and they slow down. The guys that can handle the information play fast. With this situation we’re in this year it’s extremely hard for them, they don’t have time to process it and learn from it and go play fast.”

So should we expect to see less of Wirfs and Winfield than we thought back in May? Maybe, but so far Arians sounds pleased with how the Bucs’ rookies have adapted to the Tampa Bay Way.

“It’ll be very hard for young guys to play unless they’re a step ahead,” Arians said. “We’re fortunate to have some guys that are very, very bright and came out of really high college programs that did things very similar to what we do, so they’re fitting in very well.”