The Bucs took the practice fields at the AdventHealth Training Center on Wednesday morning for the final time before Friday night’s preseason opener against the Steelers at Raymond James Stadium. It was yet another hot morning with very little wind, though there was some occasional cloud coverage.

Tampa Bay was in shells again as it got its final bit of practice work in before Pittsburgh comes to town in a couple of days.

Bucs Not Practicing Today

DT Calijah Kancey

Unsurprisingly, Kancey was a spectator at Wednesday morning’s practice as he continues to work his way back from the calf injury he suffered earlier on July 30. The timeline was reported as about four weeks for the Bucs’ first-round pick, so it’s been expected that he’ll miss the preseason. However, there is hope that he’ll be good to go for Week 1 when Tampa Bay travels to Minnesota. After Wednesday’s practice, head coach Todd Bowles said “so far, so good” with Kancey’s recovery.

LB Lavonte David

Bucs ILB Lavonte David – Photo By: Cliff Welch P/R

It looked like a veteran day off for David, who spoke with the media after Tuesday’s practice. Rookie SirVocea Dennis stepped into a starting role with the Buccaneer legend watching on from the sideline.

C Ryan Jensen

After getting his first taste of one-on-one drills on Tuesday, Jensen did not practice on Wednesday. He was absent for much of practice before making his way out to the field in a hoodie and his jersey later in the morning.

DT Greg Gaines

Gaines was out of practice for the fourth straight day and while Bowles said it isn’t anything serious, that likely keeps the newcomer out of the lineup for Friday’s exhibition opener against Pittsburgh.

Bucs QBs Avoid Interception Problems After Tuesday’s Poor Practice

Bucs QBs Kyle Trask, Baker Mayfield and John Wolford Photo By: Cliff Welch P/R

The big story of Tuesday morning was Baker Mayfield and Kyle Trask combining for five interceptions in practice, with Devin White, Zyon McCollum, Keenan Isaac, Jamel Dean and Nolan Turner each grabbing one. But the Tampa Bay quarterback room showed that it could collectively have a short memory, coming out of Wednesday without throwing any interceptions.

The closest came on a throw from Trask that went right to Joe Tryon-Shoyinka, but the play seemed to be halted before the throw. There was some confusion as players on both the offense and defense stopped moving, while some continued to walk through the play. At the end of it, Trask half-heartedly side-armed the ball directly to Tryon-Shoyinka, who was even half-hearted in catching it. So with all of that, it doesn’t go down as an official interception.

Tampa Bay’s quarterbacks took care of the ball better overall, outside of a couple snap exchange problems. It was largely a productive day, with Trask getting the start with the first team and making some impressive plays. He completed passes to Mike Evans, Trey Palmer and Russell Gage before a couple of red zone connections with Cade Otton to close practice. Baker Mayfield showed a strong connection with Gage himself before goal line touchdowns to Evans and Dominique Dafney.

John Wolford had the biggest play of the day, launching a deep ball to Kade Warner for a touchdown during 11-on-11s.

Tight Ends Make Their Presence Felt In Red Zone Work

Bucs TE Cade Otton – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

The Bucs have one of the youngest tight end rooms in the NFL. Cade Otton and Ko Kieft are second-year players and Payne Durham is a rookie. The older guys in the room are actually David Wells (28) and Dominique Dafney (26). But whatever their ages are and however unproven some of these guys are, they’re showing up in a big way for Tampa Bay in the early weeks of camp. On Wednesday, it was goal line work that saw them make the biggest impact.

After going through some individual drills with the quarterbacks early in practice, the big play from a tight end in 11-on-11s came via Wells, who caught a nice deep ball from Baker Mayfield. Then, when the team got into 11-on-11s at the goal line to close practice, the tight end room dominated the period. Kyle Trask opened things up with back-to-back touchdown passes to Otton, marking a strong end to the day for both guys.

In Mayfield’s goal line period, he first completed a touchdown to Mike Evans before turning to his tight ends. The second throw went off the hands of Wells, but Dafney picked him up on the next play with a nice touchdown catch to bring an end to the morning.

Bucs Practice Observations

• Deven Thompkins, David Moore, Trey Palmer, Kaylon Geiger and Taye Barber were all back returning punts on Wednesday morning.

• The mobility aspect of Dave Canales’ offense was on full display Wednesday, with Mayfield making a couple of nice throws on the run throughout practice. On one play, he rolled to his left before spinning and throwing back to the right side, finding Russell Gage. Later in red zone work, he rolled to his right and connected with Kade Warner near the goal line, though Carlton Davis was right there to make the play.

• There were a couple of center-quarterback exchange problems for the Bucs on Wednesday, with Nick Leverett and Mayfield falling victim first as K.J. Britt scooped up the loose ball. Later in practice, Robert Hainsey had a bad snap to Trask.

• Starting in place of Lavonte David (rest day), rookie SirVocea Dennis had a would-be sack early in 11-on-11 work.

• Zyon McCollum had a near-interception close to the sideline, but he settled for a diving pass breakup on the last play before the team’s kicking period.

• In the kicking period, both Chase McLaughlin and Rodrigo Blankenship were perfect. Both guys went 4-of-4, with longs of 53 yards.

• After practice, Todd Bowles confirmed what Pewter Report’s J.C. Allen reported Monday, saying that Baker Mayfield will start Friday’s preseason opener against the Steelers and Kyle Trask will then start next Saturday night against the Jets.