Bucs head coach held his first post-practice press conference on Tuesday following the team’s first mini-camp of the new year. Below is the full transcript from what was said.

On his first practice as Bucs head coach went
“Nice, beautiful day. Really happy with the way we worked. Skeptical a little bit about the heat and all the weather and all of the issues that go with it, but couldn’t ask for a better day, and actually cut it about five plays short. Just loved the effort that we had out there and what we were getting done. I didn’t want any late pulled muscles for the last five plays that we already got on film. Really pleased with the work habits and guys are really getting in shape. Like I said, I liked what I saw.”

On the team learning a new scheme
“It’s more of a passing game. It’s just a matter of watching guys learn and how much volume they can understand quickly. We’re throwing a bunch at them. I was really pleased and I was probably the most pleased that I didn’t see one false start. Only one false start. We were doing hard counts, we were doing a lot of things so that was very pleasing to see very, very few penalties.”

On Gerald McCoy’s absence
“Gerald’s not here, he’s a vet. The other two guys called and they both have problems with pregnancies so they’re excused. It is voluntary and we’ve got about everybody on deck.”

On if Gerald McCoy can come to practice
“It’s up to him. We’ve got open arms. If he wants to be here practicing that’s great. He’s under contract and a part of the team so, yeah, that’s a players decision and that’s all I can do.”

On if he told Gerald McCoy not to attend practices
“No, I don’t know who the hell said that,” (On Gerald being asked not to be at practice)

On if he feels prepared for the draft
“Totally. If you would have asked me three weeks ago I would have told you we were ready,” Arians said. “We’ve been going over and over and over it. Jason and I have massaged that thing so many it’s got fingerprints all over it. We’re more than ready.”

On the type of player he would like to select
“You can’t draft for need,” Arians said. “If you draft for need you get fired. You draft the best players, if you’ve got two of them you can only draft one of them, just take the best players that are available for you. Now, if you’ve got four players right there together and one of them is a need, that’s the home run.”

On the quarterbacks working with new receivers
“I knew we had a good receiving corps and adding Breshad Perriman to it just helps,” Arians said. “Jameis and Blaine both had really good days. I’m anxious to go up and watch the film. I think we hit our first nine or 10 in a row, and they were also playing off. We weren’t jamming guys. I was really pleased with where the quarterbacks and receivers are. It was just about what I thought. You know it was a very good offensive team last year that scored a lot of points, and we added some pieces to it. Defensively, we’ve got pieces – but we need more.”

Bucs QB Jameis Winston – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

On Vita Vea
“He can play three positions for sure,” Arians said. “He can play five (technique defensive end), he can play three (technique defensive tackle) and he can play nose. For him I had to say, ‘Whoa!’ I hate saying, ‘Sic ‘em!’ I like saying, ‘Whoa!’ For him it was saying, ‘Slow down a little bit. I don’t need you knocking guys back into the quarterback today.’ He’s a very, very talented young man that can do a lot of things.”

On what player Vita Vea reminds him of
“Haloti Ngata comes to mind with all of the wars we had with Baltimore,” Arians said. “He was a guy that was always in our backfield, knocking people down and punching quarterbacks in the nose – doing all those good things. That’s the one guy that comes to mind.”

On how much better he feels of knowing how versatile players will fit in on defense
“I’ll know better by Thursday,” Arians said. “Getting them on film and seeing who can play nickel, who can’t, who can play safety and who’s not. The front I think we’re really good, we’re fine, but just that back end, who’s going to play nickel, who’s going to play dime, all those things, guys are competing and we’ll find out.”

On how he used to have Chandler Jones, and how having an outside edge rusher can’t be understated
“No, it can’t,” Arians said. “And you need two because they can game plan for one. Chandler was one of those guys that you can move around and you’d like to have two. I think JPP is that type of guy and Vita could be some pressure in the middle, and we’ve got a couple of young guys that I think have the ability to play the opposite and be disruptive. I know our linebackers are going to be blitzing up the middle a lot, so they’re going to chase them out to them a lot of the time, so you want guys that not only beat the tackles but also run down these new type of quarterbacks.”

On his reaction to the Bucs schedule
“Play them when they’re scheduled.” Arians said. “Am I happy about it? Hell no. I think it’s ridiculous and I voiced my opinion to the people in New York, and anytime they come out with a re-do, it is what is is. We got to play them, thank god we have a good sports science program to help me on travel and practice times in gaging how tired is our football team before we go to Seattle. So those things are going to be very, very important in that stretch.”

On if it bothered him more when hearing that the schedule maker said he’d also like a do-over
“No, he’s just admitting a bad mistake.”

Bucs head coach Bruce Arians – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

On if he’s gotten any word about Kendell Beckwith
“No, just keep your fingers crossed,” Arians said. “He’s a heck of a kid, a heck of a player, you hope that he can come back.”

On what it was like being out there for the first practice in a while
“I was excited,” Arians said. “I sat in the golf cart for a while and then I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to start talking to guys, it was a lot of fun, very exciting.”

On what he sees from Ronald Jones and if he feels he can count on him to be a bigger player
“Talent wise, no question,” Arians said. “Growth as a player, that’s what I’m looking for, a quick pop of your fingers, ‘oh, my bad,’ we got to get rid of that part because the talent is not an issue.”

On how quickly Jameis Winston has been picking up the offense
“It’s amazing,” Arians said. “He was getting the third and fourth reads quickly today. He was off his first read, and that was not the easiest secondary to read from corners to single high, to man. I was extremely pleased with that part of it. I don’t think the defense got their hands on any of his balls, or Blaine’s balls.

On if any of the players that sat out today will have lingering injuries over to OTA’s
“I hope not,” Arians said. “Evans, hopefully not, Godwin just had a tooth thing and couldn’t put his helmet on. Evans is the one that we’re just hoping we can get something out of them in OTA’s. All of them should be in OTA’s except for Evans.”

On if it helped seeing these players before the draft
“Oh heck yeah,” Arians said.”You think you got something, but you’re not really sure to you go out there. And again, you’ve been in the classroom, you’re watching trash cans move around, it ain’t the same as wide receivers going and coming off and then you see these guys, ‘Oh, he can learn.’ His knock might be on him that he’s a slow runner, but he can learn. That’s what we’re looking for.”

On how concerned he is by the lack of experience in the secondary
“No,” Arians said. “These guys, a three-year guy’s a vet now. We got guys that are talented, and position flexibility is what we’re looking for and I think we have some of those. If we add it, Todd keeps it simple, he’s a great teacher, so that’s not going to be an issue.”

On how much of his previous relationship with Jason Licht will help in this year’s draft
“Oh, a ton,” Arians said. “This whole process has been very easy for both of us because we’ve done it together before. The respect factor’s mutual so it’s easy.”

Bucs head coach Bruce Arians and GM Jason Licht – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

On Jameis Winston’s practice today picking up the new offense
“Knock on wood,” Arians said. Yeah, it was unbelievable, like I said some of the reads he was making, that last throw was the fifth read of that play and he was on it so fast, and he can tell me why. It’s one thing to throw a completion, but it’s another to tell me why you did it. It’s nice.”

On starting the season at home and the going to Carolina for a Thursday game week two
“They didn’t do us any favors,” Arians said. “Make it a chip on your shoulder and say ‘Hey, this is what it is, this is when you’re scheduled, we’ll show up and we’ll play.’ That’s all we can do.”

On what he learned from playing in London two years ago that he can use this year
“Protect your quarterback better,” Arians said. “It was totally different, we went on Monday, and I would never do that again. We’ll go on Thursday and make it a shorter, faster, week and get back. That’ll be the biggest thing.”

On how far back in a trade would he be comfortable still getting the player he wants in the draft
“That’s hard to say,” Arians said. “They’d have to be some hellacious picks because there are five guys on the board that I love. You’d have to throw the bank and open a vault and Jason would have to move back. I’m not saying that we wouldn’t, but just looking at the guys that are there, really six guys that are once in a generational type players. I feel great about this draft.”

On if he thinks Kyler Murray will go first overall to the Cardinals
“I’m never convinced of anything about the draft,” Arians said. “That’s the best thing about it. Everybody lies so good, here’s the best thing, if you start telling the truth everybody goes ‘Oh, he’s lying!’”

Bucs O.C. Byron Leftwich – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

On the how the relationship of Jameis Winston and Byron Leftwich has grown
“Really quick,” Arians said. “They’ve spent this time together and it’s really going to continue to grow. Clyde on his mechanics, Byron in the classroom, it’s a great combination of teachers.”

If he would be surprised if a 5’9”, 5’10” quarterback goes first in the draft, or has the game changed that much
“Nothing’s changed much,” Arians said. “Nothing’s surprised me anymore. His tape is great, the only thing I would say is the negatives is that he’s a one year player. One year players have scared me in the past, but he is dynamic and I really don’t want to chase him around.