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

Question: With a quarter of the season completed, how would you grade the play of our first two picks – Tristan Wirfs and Antoine Winfield, Jr. Are they playing above or below your expectations?

Answer: Through four games I would certainly give Tristan Wirfs an “A,” at least on the rookie grading scale – and perhaps even on the veteran scale. As I wrote in the Most Impressive story from Sunday, Wirfs is now, 4-for-4, meaning he’s played in four games and has come away without giving up a single sack. It isn’t like he hasn’t faced good competition either. In fact, just the opposite.

It is safe to say he’s faced a tougher group of pass rushers on the right side than Donovan Smith has from the left. So far, Wirfs has gotten the best of the likes of New Orleans’ Cameron Jordan, Carolina’s Brian Burns, Denver’s Bradley Chubb and Los Angeles’ Joey Bosa, winning most of those downs.

Bucs RT Tristan Wirfs – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Winfield has been almost as good as Wirfs through four games. I will admit when the Bucs started Winfield in their first game I was a little concerned. Rookies almost always feel they are ready to start, but even if they have had a good camp and preseason, the speed of that first game is usually still an eye-opener.

As for Antoine Winfield, Jr., who was the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Month for September, he didn’t even get a chance to go up again any receivers other than his teammates. But so far the game hasn’t been too big for him.

Both earn an “A” in my book, and both have exceeded my expectations by quite a bit, especially Wirfs, who looks to be a fixture along Tampa Bay’s offensive line for the next decade.

Question: Do you think with Chris Godwin, O.J. Howard, Leonard Fournette and LeSean McCoy all possibly out, and Mike Evans playing on one leg, is it “Gronk see throw” and “Gronk catch ball” on Thursday Night Football?

Answer: It might have to be. A team loaded with weapons to start the season is a wounded bunch heading into Chicago on Thursday night. Offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich is going to have to get creative against a really good Bears defense. But that’s why the Bucs have built depth at the tight end position, and Rob Gronkowski is one of those depth pieces the Tampa Bay front office added this offseason – even at a position most thought was already fine.

No team is going to be two-deep at every position, and teams just hope that that the units that get hit with injuries is one that they have some depth at. Fortunately for Tampa Bay, tight end might have been their deepest position heading into this year.

Bucs TE Rob Gronkowski – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Gronkowski may not be the same dynamic pass-catching tight end he was earlier in his career with nine catches for 88 yards, at least his production through four games tells us that. However, the role he is playing this season is a lot different than he was asked to do in New England, where a lack of weapons in some seasons forced the Patriots to utilize Gronkowski as essentially another wide receiver.

I don’t expect Gronkowski to become a 10-catch-a-game tight end all of a sudden, but we could see him with numbers similar to what Howard was able to put up before his injury on Sunday. Howard was averaging 2.75 receptions per game and 37 yards in his first four games. I could definitely see Gronkowski matching that production moving forward.

Question: So with O.J. Howard likely tearing his Achilles, do they bring him back next year on the fifth-year option? This next draft looks stacked at TE. 

Answer: The Buccaneers exercised the fifth-year option on Howard earlier this year, and that salary cap number jumps his salary up from a $3.5 million cap hit this year to just over $6 million in 2021.

Bucs TE O.J. Howard – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Tampa Bay was excited to have a full season of Howard in this offense with Tom Brady, and we were starting to see Howard’s value on Sunday as he had three catches for 50 yards and a 28-yard touchdown before his injury. Like the entire offense, it was a work-in-progress as Brady was learning about Howard, and Leftwich was figuring out ways to utilize Howard more with the number of other weapons on offense.

Howard will most likely be back in 2021, as the team feels his ceiling hasn’t been reached, and they liked what they saw this year with he and Brady starting to develop a solid chemistry.

Question: Is the lack of crowd noise leading to the high outputs of offenses so far this season?

Raymond James Stadium – Photo by: Getty Images

Answer: That is something I haven’t thought about, but it makes some sense. Obviously without the large crowds, offenses are able to hear and communicate easier, particularly on the road. Yet the lack of crowd noise didn’t help the Bucs in Week 1 against the Saints.

Generally your point makes sense, as we have seen a sizable jump in scoring this season. Something else that has been record setting is the amount of games where teams are able to overcome big deficits. So far through four weeks, six teams have come back from 14 or more points behind to win, including Tampa Bay on Sunday when they rallied from 17 points down to defeat the Los Angeles Chargers, 38-31.