The PR Bucs Monday Mailbag is where PewterReport.com’s Mark Cook answers your questions from our Twitter account. You can submit your question each week via Twitter using the hashtag #PRMailbag.

Below are the questions we chose for this week’s edition of the PR Bucs Monday Mailbag.

Question: What are the 1-2 top differences that you have noticed between Tom Brady and Jameis Winston?

Answer: The two biggest things I have seen that is different is the way the team responds to Tom Brady, and then Brady’s ability to process what he sees and what he wants to do with the ball prior to it even being snapped.

Bucs QB Tom Brady – Photo by: Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Brady has brought an instant credibility and respect to the Buccaneers organization. Jameis Winston was extremely well liked by 99 percent of his teammates. But Winston obviously didn’t have the resumé that Brady brought to the team when he signed in March. A 20-year veteran, nine-Super Bowl appearing, six-time Super Bowl winning, three-time league MVPs just doesn’t walk into NFL buildings often. In fact, never has a more accomplished player switched teams in their career outside of Joe Montana, Brady’s idol, from San Francisco to Kansas City.

Most of these current Bucs players are fans of the game and appreciate the history. They knew all about Brady. But if you follow football in any capacity, who doesn’t know about the aura that Brady brings? They knew all about the “Patriots Way” and knew Brady was a big part of that. No player wants to be the one to let Brady down.

The next thing is just how quick things happen in Brady’s mind long before the snap. Scott Reynolds and I were sitting in the end zone of the indoor facility last Wednesday and watched Brady get to his fourth read for a touchdown pass. We both looked at each other and thought the same thing – Brady knew the pass was going to Cyril Grayson before the ball was ever snapped. In the time it took to break the huddle and to the snap of the ball, Brady had read the coverage, knew what the defense would be doing and knew that Grayson had the most favorable match-up. Sure, he looked Mike Evans way first, then to Chris Godwin and O.J. Howard, but there was little doubt before the snap where Brady planned to go with the ball. It is really difficult to explain in person, but just trust us.

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

Neither of these observations are knocks against Winston at all. You can’t have a legendary reputation until you build one first. And the ability to process and read defensive tendencies isn’t something you learn overnight or even in five seasons as in Winston’s case with the Buccaneers.

Does this mean the Bucs are locks to win the Super Bowl? Of course not. If it were just based on quarterback talent Brady would have played in even more than the nine Super Bowls he played in, and players like New Orleans’ Drew Brees would have more than one Super Bowl ring. A lot will need to go right for the Bucs to even get to the Super Bowl, but if they don’t, it wont be because of No. 12 not doing his part.

Question: Which player has improved the most from last year?

Answer: It is hard to pick just one player, as a number have impressed over the first week of camp. Offensively, wide receivers Justin Watson and Scotty Miller have both looked night and day compared to this time last season. Of course having Brady as your quarterback can do that. But it is more than just better quarterback play, and both, Miller in particular, are playing much more confidently. Last year, Miller just seemed overwhelmed by everything. Add in an early in camp hamstring injury and I am sure he wasn’t worried about playing times as much as just making the team. Miller gets my nod, offensively.

Bucs WR Justin Watson – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Defensively, players like nose tackle Rakeem Nunez-Roches, cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting and safety Mike Edwards have really seen the proverbial light bulb come on. Nunez-Roches got a taste of what expectations would be last season and came into camp, bigger, stronger and much more focused. Same with Murphy-Bunting.

But of all the defensive players, Edwards to me is the most improved. He has been flying all over the field and as he told me last last week in a Zoom interview, he isn’t thinking this year, he’s just playing. Learning Todd Bowles’ system, combined with the speed of the game can be overwhelming at times, and Edwards suffered in 2019, but has come in with a renewed confidence and focus and is in the thick of things in the battle to be a starter.

Question: Week 1 at New Orleans – what does the secondary look like?

Answer: If there are no major injuries through the rest of camp, if will look similar to how last season ended with cornerbacks Carlton Davis and Jamel Dean starters at the outside corner position and Murphy-Bunting the nod on the inside when the team is in nickel. Nothing is set in stone and we’ve seen various lineups at corner, including Murphy-Bunting getting reps on the outside opposite of Davis. But I think when the dust settles it is Dean, Davis and Murphy-Bunting. If the Bucs are in base, look for Davis and Murphy-Bunting to be the cornerbacks.

Bucs CB Sean Murphy-Bunting – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Things are a lot more up in the air at safety. Last season, Andrew Adams and Jordan Whitehead were the two primary safeties and played adequately, but the team wants more than two interceptions from the position this year. The Bucs drafted Antoine Winfield, Jr. to be the ball-hawk safety that can helped generate turnovers on the deep end.

Add in an improved Edwards, and second-year safety D’Cota Dixon, and this has already been a fun battle to watch. Right now if the Buccaneers were lining up against the Saints today, you would think the safe starters would be Adams and Whitehead, especially since they would be facing Drew Brees, Michael Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders, as those two have the most experience in Bowles scheme. But there are two more weeks of camp left so no one is penciled in as of now. Edwards and Winfield would also see playing time in a rotational basis in New Orleans.

Question: With T.J. Logan and John Franklin now out with injuries and their seemingly wanting to get a multi-faceted weapon on the offense, have they thought of Quentin Flowers?

Bucs RB/return specialist T.J. Logan – Photo by: Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Answer: You are on to something with your thoughts on the Bucs maybe wanting that occasional surprise element on offense. Was T.J. Logan or Jonathan Franklin going be that person? We won’t ever know – this year at least. And there are things we just aren’t allowed to report along those lines, but you are barking up the right tree. Remember that Franklin had an 11-yard run out of a Wildcat formation last year in the season finale against Atlanta.

As far as Quentin Flowers, that’s not happening. I had a chance to work with the XFL last spring until they folded, and Flowers is a very talented football player, but has never really been able to settle in with any team since his time starring at USF. And with it being this far into training camp, the odds Flowers could come in and learn the offense – then impress enough to make the roster – are slim to none.