On Saturday, the Bucs had plenty of fans in the crowd due to the practice being open to the public, and even though crowd noise is suppose to aid the defense, the offense seemed as focused as they’ve ever been in the red zone drill early on.
#Bucs start practice off with some red zone practice. First team scores here with a pass from Fitzpatrick to Howard: pic.twitter.com/T8kLcTilsn
— PewterReport (@PewterReport) August 4, 2018
On the second play from scrimmage in the red zone, quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick hit tight end O.J. Howard over the middle for a score, the first red zone score in a while for the first team.
#Bucs RB Ronald Jones getting some work in with the first team in the red zone drill. He punches it in here: pic.twitter.com/M7nMzV6Xit
— PewterReport (@PewterReport) August 4, 2018
Usually we only see one or two successful red zone trips per practice, as the defense has gotten the better of the offense to this point of camp. But today the offense took the momentum of their first touchdown and just kept scoring. Their second score came from the feet of Ronald Jones, who was getting some reps in with the first team.
On the last red zone play from the second-team offense, QB Ryan Griffin hits WR Justin Watson for a touchdown: pic.twitter.com/QJAx3yotAq
— PewterReport (@PewterReport) August 4, 2018
And finally, quarterback Ryan Griffin hit wide receiver Justin Watson on a nice slant pass for six points. Watson had a couple of touchdowns on the day, the one shown above being his first. He’s putting on quite the performance in camp thus far. How he performs in the preseason games could give this coaching staff a serious debate of which wide receiver to keep for the fifth spot.
Beautiful deep throw by Jameis Winston. Splits the two defenders and puts it right in Reedy’s hand. #Bucs pic.twitter.com/vCBI6M3Vz3
— Evan Wanish (@EvanNFL) August 4, 2018
When the Bucs got into their indoor facility, the quarterbacks were letting the ball fly.
Quarterback Jameis Winston was working with the third team in the clip shown above, but that was a first-team throw.
On Friday, head coach Dirk Koetter said that Winston’s mechanics and the health of his arm/shoulder have never been better. You can certainly see it on throws like the one above.
Two words:
Rod. God. pic.twitter.com/yUkbw0Spin
— PewterReport (@PewterReport) August 4, 2018
And to end practice on a good note, Fitzpatrick and the first-team offense loaded up a deep bomb pass to wide receiver Chris Godwin who, like he always does, delivered with a touchdown.
The defense had their big plays, too, but the offense finally pushed back on Saturday.