The Headline From Camp Today: Tryon Continues To Terrorize

So, you may have heard us speak about the great camp that Joe Tryon is having over the past two weeks, and that feeling was only exacerbated on Tuesday. It didn’t take long for Tryon to make his presence felt, getting several stops in the run game early on. Tryon also posted multiple successful pass rushes, including a few eye-popping moves.

Offensive lineman Nick Leverett is enjoying an excellent camp, but in the opening 11-on-11 drills, Tryon put a hurting on him. As Leverett lined up at left tackle, Tryon won in several different ways. He relied on his speed and power for some, but also was using a rip move to evade Leverett’s initial punch and bend the edge. Tryon had at least a sack-and-a-half to begin the first half-hour of practice.

If Tryon wasn’t getting to the quarterback, he was at least pushing the pocket for others to get a sack. Tryon has quickly shown balanced variety to his game in stopping the run and the pass. He was billed as a complete player coming out of Washington, and aims to prove just that on game days.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” Tryon said after practice. “Getting after the quarterback, that’s what I’m here for. Coach Bowles does a good job with scheming blitz packages, all of that. We’re going to have to get after the quarterback on Sunday.”

And on Saturday. That’s when Tryon will take the field for the first time in almost two years after opting out of the 2020 season in Washington. With Pierre-Paul and Barrett already established, expect to see plenty of Tryon on Saturday night against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Bucs Players Out Of Practice

Center Robert Hainsey missed another practice on Tuesday, his sixth in a row. Fellow center Donnell Stanley was also out of practice today, which mean the Bucs were thin at center. John Molchon moved over to center and worked with the second team and had to bad snaps during the day.

The Bucs were also a bit light at safety with Jordan Whitehead and Raven Greene out. Whitehead left practice early yesterday and did not participate today. When Bruce Arians was asked about the extent of Whitehead’s injury, Arians said nothing more than “we’ll see.” Wide receiver Cyril Grayson and DT Sam Renner were out as well.

Right after getting off of the PUP list, tight end Cam Brate was practicing with his Bucs teammates. His reps were limited, but he did make one catch on the day. The Bucs will most likely ease him in slowly as they did with O.J. Howard, Antonio Brown and Chris Wilcox.

Bucs Practice Notes

• Starting with a run period of 11-on-11s, the defense was pretty dialed into what the offense was doing. Multiple stops were made by Devin White, Khalil Davis and Tryon. With that said, Giovani Bernard had a solid run to the outside, getting to the second level. Donovan Smith and Ali Marpet led the way as Smith sealed off the edge while Marpet pulled and led the convoy for Bernard. When the Bucs ran three play-action passes during the drill, and Tom Brady hit a wide open Mike Evans once and Chris Godwin twice as the defense fell for the fakes. It won’t be the last defense to get beat on a play like that.

Moving to a more balanced 11-on-11 drill saw the pass rush break out. Tryon’s dominance, combined with Davis and O’Connor, made life miserable for Blaine Gabbert. O’Connor wound up having a pass breakup at the line of scrimmage later on in practice to build on an impressive day.

• Antonio Brown looks better and better each practice. Early on he caught a screen pass from Gabbert and turned upfield for a huge gain. When the Bucs moved from 11-on-11s to red zone drills, Brown caught a terrific play-action pass from Brady in the end zone, and then proceeded to scream in celebration as Chris Godwin joined him. Brown’s highlight play, though, came when he hauled in a one-handed catch on a 20-yard pass from Brady in the back corner of the end zone.

• Another highlight reel play during red zone drills came from Kyle Trask and Tanner Hudson. Hudson ran a fade route to the back corner of the end zone, elevating over Chris Cooper to pull down the contested touchdown catch. Hudson has done well as a receiver, but Arians lit him up after practice, saying Hudson has “regressed” as a blocker.

“Block somebody,” Arians said. “Anybody. Anybody. Alright? I know he can catch. He’s always been able to catch. But he just has to be consistent.”

• Mike Evans also had an impressive sliding catch in the end zone with rookie Chris Wilcox trying to cover him. Brady and Evans connected several times for touchdowns during the red zone period, bouncing back after a couple misses in Monday’s practice.

• The secondary may have lost some reps, but they came up big in other moments. Carlton Davis nearly had a pick on Ryan Griffin as he sprinted into the flats on a pass targeted for Jaelon Darden, but Davis knocked the ball away and hit into Darden at the same time. Everyone was alright. Davis also had a leaping pass breakup to swat away Brady’s desperation heave for Fournette down the sideline.

For the backups, the big day came from cornerback Nate Brooks. First, he intercepted Tom Brady during seven-on-seven drills, blanketing Chris Godwin on the play. Second, he forced a fumble on Travis Jonsen after a short catch. Right after that came up another pass breakup on the next play. It hasn’t been a great camp for Brooks, but he played well today.

• The pass breakups didn’t just come from the secondary though, as the defensive line had a block party themselves. Jason Pierre-Paul tallied two batted passes on the day, while O’Connor registered one of his own. What made Pierre-Paul’s play so exhilarating was he performed a kip-up while on the ground after the play before, then knocked a pass down on the next play.

• Pierre-Paul brought a lot of energy to today’s practice, especially in one-on-ones. He beat Alex Cappa twice as an interior rusher, than push-pulled Donovan Smith off-balance for a huge win. “Don’t lean on me!” Pierre-Paul screamed at the tackle after the play.

But the session did not end favorably for Pierre-Paul. Nick Leverett pancaked Pierre-Paul in the penultimate one-on-one, then leaned over him and talked trash while the defensive end was on the ground. Pierre-Paul demanded to run it back, and Leverett caught his cross-face move with a strong inside hand and tossed Pierre-Paul to the ground. The offensive line went nuts.

Bucs DT Rakeem Nunez-Roches – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

• The biggest one-on-one battle of the day came between Rakeem Nunez-Roches and Aaron Stinnie. On the first rep, Nunez-Roches hit a jumping cross-chop to knock down Stinnie’s hands and win cleanly. Nacho went nuts, screaming, “Did you get that sh*t on tape?” to the Bucs video team.

Stinnie immediately asked to run it back and stone-walled Nunez-Roches, gripping him up and not giving an inch. Leverett jumped into the mix and got in Nunez-Roches face, screaming, “We got that on tape! We got that on tape!”. The coaches quickly decided a Round 3 was needed to decide a winner.

In Round 3 Nunez-Roches knocked Stinnie back a little more than the last rep, but couldn’t get loose. Leverett, Hutcherson and the entire offensive line started barking trash-talk back at Nunez-Roches as he made his way back to the defensive line group. No one talks more trash than Nacho, so Stinnie’s comeback was a huge mark of pride for the OL.

• We haven’t really talked about Ali Marpet much during camp, largely because there isn’t much to tell. He’s been utterly dominant in pass protection, in team and one-on-one sessions. Marpet hasn’t even come remotely close to losing a one-on-one rep. During Tuesday’s practice, he manhandled Will Gholston and Shaq Barrett on back-to-back reps.

Marpet is the best trench player on the Bucs. Pretty simple.

• Another backup that stood out on the offensive side of the ball was running back Troymaine Pope. He’s shown some juice in this camp and had a good run to the outside today. Later on he had a great rep picking up a blitzing Joe Jones while in red zone drills. Pope showed some fortitude to step in against a big linebacker in Jones, although he did get knocked over on the play.

•In 7-on-7, the top play came from Leonard Fournette beating Elijah Ponder on a wheel route down the field. Brady hit him right on target for a big gain. Griffin was also solid at quarterback here, connecting on passes to Jaydon Mickens and Hudson.

• The last drill of the day was the offense and defense going against each other in an actual game situation starting around the 40. The first team offense scored on Brown’s one-handed touchdown grab from Brady. But the second team defense got a stop, as Dee Delaney broke up a slant pass for Darden, which led to a 51-yard field goal made by Ryan Succop. The Bucs’ starting kicker went 8-for-8 on kicks earlier in practice, and nailed the 51-yard boot as well.

• Asked specifically about the offense after he described yesterday as the “worst offensive practice in three years”, Arians was more pleased on Tuesday.

“Solid practice,” Arians said. “This was more of what we’re used to seeing on both sides of the ball, great competition.

“Hell of a lot better [than Monday]. You had 12 mental errors, five turnovers and nine dropped passes, so it had to be better. Couldn’t be any worse.”

The Bucs return to practice on Wednesday for what will be their second to last session before their first preseason game this Saturday.