Attended the morning practice at One Buc today. Conditions were cloudy but dry and the fields looked to be in a good overall condition.Sat with Mark Cook for half the practice and had Pat Yasinskas and Roy Cummings nearby in the stands. Later Joel Glazer came by and sat next to me (talked to fans on the other side). Also got to sit with Dory from 'What the Buc?' and Hate. So we had plenty of good Buc insights during the practice. Also somewhere out there was the NFL filming the practice as well as Peter King.I got there at 8:30am and the Bucs were already on the field warming up. It was really classy to see McCoy keep running over and offering to sign autographs whenever he had a couple of minutes.Practice started with players working in position groups. Then broke up and did some special teams drills. I was in front of the group working on gunners releasing from the line and attempting to get downfield for a play. I notice that the Bucs had Robert Herron working as a gunner, but IMO, they were just seeing if he could be a factor there. Herron didn't do well and honestly didn't notice him making any plays in practice. The only player I noticed here was Al-Hajj Shabazz. He broke through the double teams on several occasions and looked the best on the times I looked over there.In front of me, the quarterbacks were throwing to the Wide Receivers and I saw Jackson make a great 1-handed catch which was the best catch of the morning practice. The quarterbacks looked mostly sharp in this drill, but basically they were playing catch. However, Winston did have a couple of throws that he'd probably would rather have back, one of which was high over the receivers head.The the next area that I remember watching was basically the punting practice. The Bucs lined up in punt formation and practiced protecting the punter while the punter either punted downfield or attempted a sideline kick. On the punts that could be fielded, I noticed Clay, Dye and Humphries taking the returns. All seemed to do a decent job of fielding the kicks, but none faced any pressure while doing so. Clay however, did seem to me to put himself in the best position on each punt, but since it wasn't live action, take that with a grain of salt.In the 7-on-7's and 11-on-11's, Winston again threw 2 picks in his first 3 throws and in several of the 11's, appeared to be in danger of being sacked because of penetration allowed by the offensive line. The #1 line was Dotson, Edwards, Smith, Mankins and Smith for most of practice and it seemed that the Bucs were again blitzing Winston and forcing him to make quick decisions with the ball. Winston did make some good throws throughout the day, but it's obvious to me that he still hasn't gotten used to the speed of the defensive backs and their ability to close quickly on a ball. I'm not certain if they are being tipped off by his eyes or if he's just attempting to throw into coverage, but I'm hoping that it's mostly because he's just not allowing for the NFL speed that he's seeing for the first time.Doug Martin impressed me today with his running. Doug looks more elusive and more decisive running the ball than I remember from last season. To me, he easily looked better than the other running backs. Sims did make a couple good runs, but also dropped one or possibly two passes - not good for a guy that was touted to have soft hands.Of the wide receivers, Jackson seemed to catch everything, not sure if he dropped anything. Same with Evans. But my standout receiver was Rannell Hall. Hall seems to be exactly what we were hoping Herron would be last year. He just gets open and catches the ball. Donteea Dye was another receiver that I thought had a nice day. Even Kaelin Clay had a couple of catches that I noticed. Of the Tight end group, ASJ is hard to miss, but at the same time, I saw him drop on pass that I feel he should have caught. When you hear that Koetter says that ASJ can be as good as he wants to be, reading between the lines, it's that ASJ may not be working as hard as he should. The guy has a lot of talent, but he really needs to get someone to light a fire under him. Noticed Stocker make some nice blocks, but also dropped a pass he should have had.On the defensive line, McCoy was very quick and disruptive. The line seemed to be pressuring the quaterbacks in the 11-on-11 often and I thought they could have had several sacks if they were allowed to finish. McDonald completely blew up one running play and I even saw Bowers fight through a block and create some pressure. However, other than McDonald and McCoy, I honestly didn't notice anyone else really standing out.Offensive line, I really still don't like Evan Smith at center. He doesn't get down on the line, snaps too many balls in the shotgun low and looks out of shape to me. I really hope we can find a replacement. Mankins seemed to play very solid and Dotson once again looked very consistent. Couldn't tell a lot about the RG position. Edwards started, Marpit was on the second line and I did see Gilkey in there and he honestly DID look good on the one play I was watching him. Still, overall, I don't think the offensive line did a very good job in pass protection although they did seem to run block better than they did last season.Finally, quarterback play. I thought Winston was overall inconsistent. He basically still looked like a rookie out there, talented he may be. Glennon was possibly the most consistent of the 3, but Glennon is still plagued by indecision. Too many times, he seemed to wait, pat the ball and wait until finally finding a open guy to throw to. But in a real game, he'd been long ago sacked. While Winston is making interceptions, he is pulling the trigger on passes and learning what his limits are. In Mike's case, he's not even willing to take that chance. Winston needs perhaps a little less gunslinger, while Glennon needs a lot more. So those are my observations. Overall, it was a okay practice I think with not a lot of 'Wow' moments. The quarterbacks seemed to be working on short and later intermediate passes - I think I only saw one pass that I would consider a long pass all morning.
ForumVisual Realm2023-04-26T12:12:17-04:00
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Posted : Aug. 4, 2015 1:28 pm