Bucs CB Benjamin Morrison – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

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Pewter Report’s Scott Reynolds answers your questions from the @PewterReport X account this week in the Bucs Mailbag. Submit your question to SR each week via X using the hashtag #PRMailbag.  Here are the Bucs questions we chose to answer for this week’s edition.

QUESTION: What’s been most disappointing about training camp and preseason?

ANSWER: I think without question the biggest disappointing aspect of Tampa Bay’s training camp and preseason was the hamstring injury suffered by rookie cornerback Benjamin Morrison. The Notre Dame product was supposed to take part in the team’s biggest training camp battle, which was the starting cornerback position opposite Zyon McCollum.

Morrison was going to battle incumbent starter Jamel Dean, a seven-year veteran, for the right to start but that battle never materialized. The team’s second-round pick missed all three preseason games and four weeks of practice, which puts him behind entering the season. Morrison missed so many valuable game and practice reps in August due to his unfortunate injury.

Bucs CB Benjamin Morrison and WR Tez Johnson – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Let me be clear. I’m not suggesting that Morrison was a disappointment. I’m saying his injury was a disappointment. And it’s the second time a hamstring injury has caused him to miss some time. Morrison also missed the tail end of the team’s mandatory mini-camp in June due to a hamstring injury. Let’s hope he’s not injury prone like Dean has shown to be in recent years. That’s the last thing the Bucs need – another injury-prone cornerback.

Bucs head coach Todd Bowles has noted that Morrison is smart and he’s been paying attention in the classroom and taking mental reps at practice from the sidelines. But all rookies have to go through a trial by fire in game situations and make their share of rookie mistakes. It’s so much better to get some of those out of the way in the preseason when the games don’t count. Unfortunately, all of Morrison’s rookie mistakes will come in games that matter due to his hamstring injury. Let’s hope he doesn’t make too many.

QUESTION: Are the Bucs looking at any available veteran edge rusher or safeties?

ANSWER: I hope so, especially an edge rusher. I’m not sold on Tampa Bay’s current depth behind starting outside linebackers Haason Reddick and Yaya Diaby. Chris Braswell had a disappointing preseason in terms of pass rush production. After a lackluster showing in the preseason opener, Braswell had a sack in Pittsburgh and played better. But then on Saturday night in the preseason finale, he failed to record a tackle, a QB hit or sack.

Ideally, Anthony Nelson is okay as OLB4 or OLB5, but he’s not a big pass rush threat. And neither is Braswell, although it’s too early to throw the towel in on the second-round pick. He needs more time to development after he was a late bloomer at Alabama. But with the Super Bowl window open in Tampa Bay, the Bucs need more immediate help.

Bucs OLB Chris Braswell – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

I expect general manager Jason Licht and assistant general manager Rob McCartney to scour the waiver wire for some pass rush help. Licht was able to claim Jacquies Smith off the waiver wire in 2014 for edge rush help, and did the same thing in 2018 with Carl Nassib right before the start of the season. I’d also be kicking the tires on some veteran edge rushers like Jadevon Clowney, who had 5.5 sacks last year in Carolina and Za’Darius Smith, who had 9.5 sacks with Detroit – although there are some reports that suggest he may re-sign with the Lions.

As for the safety position, I think the Bucs like their guys. Antoine Winfield Jr. and Tykee Smith are the starters and Christian Izien is a versatile reserve who had a fantastic training camp. Kaevon Merriweather is an experienced veteran in his third season and Rashaad Wisdom has the versatility to also play nickelback and might be back on the practice squad.

QUESTION: I’m of the opinion that the Bucs are more fun to watch with Baker Mayfield at QB than Tom Brady. Thoughts?

ANSWER: It’s funny you say this because I told Baker Mayfield recently that in my 30 years of covering the Bucs,he was the most fun quarterback to watch. So great minds think alike. Mayfield and Tom Brady are two completely different quarterbacks with completely different playing styles. What they have in common is a drive to be the best, an inner intensity that can spread throughout a team, a high football I.Q., and really good accuracy.

Where Mayfield and Brady different is twofold. First, Mayfield is just over 6-foot, whereas Brady is 6-foot-5. Brady won from the pocket due to his lack of mobility. Where he was elite was being able to accurately read defenses pre-snap, find the mismatch and know where the ball was going before it was snapped. Mayfield is good at that, but not on Brady’s level.

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield – Photo by: USA Today

Mayfield is more mobile and can scramble for yards and buy time to throw with his legs. He is more frenetic in the pocket and will take some unnecessary sacks, but can also extend plays and make big-time throws down the field. Think of the first down throw to Rachaad White last year while Mayfield was stiff-arming Nick Bosa against San Francisco.

Mayfield has a bit of cockiness and swagger that he plays with. Liam Coen called him an “igniter” and I think that’s a great term to describe him. Brady would fire the team up in a different – yet just as effective – way, whereas Mayfield’s is more visceral. He’s the heartbeat of the Bucs offense and he just has a very entertaining playing style about him. That’s not to say that Brady didn’t during his time in Tampa Bay. Winning Super Bowl LV and 13 games in 2021 was the definition of fun.

It’s just that Mayfield’s blue collar playing style fits the Tampa Bay area better. Brady always felt like a hired gun who was known as a Patriot first and a Buccaneer second. With Mayfield, he’s had more success in Tampa Bay than he did in Cleveland, so he feels more like a Buccaneer than a Brown at this stage of his career, and I think that certainly resonates with Bucs fans.

QUESTION: Any news on the Bucs uniform schedule?

ANSWER: Nothing official from the team for the entire season. In past years, the Bucs have released the uniform schedule, but more recently the team has announced their uniforms on social media a few days before each game.

There are a couple of games we already do know what uniforms Tampa Bay will be wearing. In Weeks 3 and 5, the Bucs will be wearing the all-white 1976 throwback uniforms at home against the Jets and on the road at Seattle, as the Seahawks will also be wearing their 1976 throwback uniforms, too. We also know that the Bucs will be wearing their creamsicle orange jerseys and white pants in Week 17 against Atlanta at home.

Bucs 1976 throwback uniforms – Photo by: Tampa Bay Buccaneers

We know the Bucs will be wearing white jerseys for their Week 4 game against the Eagles at home. That was the hottest game of the year last year temperature-wise – that game was also in Week 4 – and Tampa Bay wore white jerseys and pewter pants. The team might go white-on-white for this year’s game against Philadelphia.

Home games against San Francisco (October 12) and New England (Nov. 9) figure to be white jerseys with pewter pants. Tampa Bay usually breaks out the red jerseys and pewter pants for the late-season games. So home games against Arizona on November 30,  New Orleans (December 7) and Carolina (January TBD) figure to be games with that uniform combination. So that’s nine out of the 17 games that we can guess what uniforms the Bucs will be wearing.

As Pewter Report has previously reported, the Bucs won’t be wearing their all-pewter uniforms for a second straight season. It’s a shame too because they are unique looking with pewter being a color that is distinctly exclusive to the Buccaneers. If the Bucs couldn’t find a game in which to play in all pewter, Saturday night’s preseason finale would’ve been an ideal circumstance. Chalk it up to a missed opportunity to get all of Tampa Bay’s uniforms in for at least one game during the 50th season of Bucs football.