On Sunday, the Bucs broke out their full pads for the first time this training camp, and on a day where the defense had a lot of positives to talk about, the top takeaway surely has to be that first round pick defensive tackle Vita Vea was carted off the field with a lower body injury.

After practice head coach Dirk Koetter said he was not sure exactly what the diagnosis was for Vea, citing it as a “lower body injury”. As Vea sat on the bench, it appeared his entire calf was heavily wrapped, likely with ice on it.

We’ll keep you updated as soon as we know more on the injury.

On a positive note, linebacker Kwon Alexander was certainly happy to have his pads back on and be given the green light to get a little physical. On his first hit of the day, he popped the ball loose from running back Ronald Jones, something that fueled the defense’s fire for the rest of the day.

Earlier this week Koetter talked about defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul’s run stopping ability as the most underrated trait of his.

On Sunday, in full pads, we saw that on display, as Pierre-Paul was a force when stopping the run at the line of scrimmage.

Next to Gerald McCoy and Beau Allen, Pierre-Paul often saw one-on-one blocking assignments in the run game, and he got the better of left tackle Donovan Smith on more than one occasion.

The goal for the Bucs’ defensive line is to be able to use a multitude of fronts and player combinations due to the fact that they don’t have limitations with each player.

So far there are no limitations for Pierre-Paul.

The defensive backs have been up and down, but there have been some splash plays here and there.

One of the more eye-popping defensive plays on Sunday the day came from cornerback Javien Elliott, who exploded off a nickel cornerback blitz for what would have been a sack.

Elliott was an undrafted signing of the Buccaneers following the 2016 draft class. He’s been on and off the practice squad for the last two years, and with the team drafting Carlton Davis and M.J. Stewart, Elliott needs a good camp to stick around.

Plays like that are steps in the right direction.

And speaking of rookies, cornerback M.J. Stewart isn’t the only rookie making plays out there.

On Sunday, safety Jordan Whitehead, who has been running with the second team, got his first interception of training camp by putting himself in the right place to capitalize on an overthrow by quarterback Ryan Griffin.

Though the first team defensive backs have been bested by the first team offense, the second teamers seem to be stepping up.