FAB 5. SR’s Buc Shots

• In last week’s SR’s Fab 5, I featured highlight clips of Mississippi State quarterback Nick Fitzgerald, who the Bucs will be trying out in an “athlete role,” much the way the New Orleans Saints are using the versatile Taysom Hill on offense and on special teams. I also featured the highlight reel of North Dakota State running back Bruce Anderson, who is big between-the-tackles runner that has good hands and can catch the ball out of the backfield.

Bucs RB Bruce Anderson – Photo courtesy of NDSU

Anderson has a shot at making the team because there are quite a few unheralded runners in Tampa Bay this year outside of starter Peyton Barber and running back Ronald Jones II, last year’s second-round pick. Anderson will be vying for a roster spot against the likes of former Cardinals running backs Andre Ellington and Kerwynn Williams, who was just signed this week, Shaun Wilson and Dare Ogunbowale, and he has a chance to stick around if he can prove himself on special teams. Special teams coordinator Keith Armstrong is impressed with the film he’s seen of Ogunbowale, who is the leader in the clubhouse at kick returner right now.

The other player we were told to watch during the rookie mini-camp is South Carolina guard Zack Bailey, who started 46 games for the Gamecocks. Of course without any contact it’s difficult to evaluate offensive linemen in the offseason outside of movement skills in run blocking and hand placement and footwork in pass protection.

Bailey lined up at tackle as a redshirt freshman due to injuries at the position, but started at guard during his sophomore and senior season. The versatile Bailey also saw time at center during his junior campaign. Bailey attended the NFL Scouting Combine where he had 24 reps of 225 pounds, but didn’t run due to the fact that he was coming off a broken leg that he suffered in the season finale against Akron.

• There isn’t anything new to report on the Jason Pierre-Paul front with regards to his neck injury, or the status of defensive tackle Gerald McCoy, whose future in Tampa Bay is still unknown. The Bucs are having several specialists take a look at Pierre-Paul’s neck to see if he will require surgery. Head coach Bruce Arians could be providing an update after Friday’s rookie mini-camp.

Bucs DT Gerald McCoy and DE Jason Pierre-Paul – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

As for McCoy, he continues to work out independently with offseason trainer Todd Durkin. It will be interesting to see if McCoy shows up for the team’s mandatory mini-camp the first week of June. You can read my column this week on how McCoy might come to the rescue this year if he remains in Tampa Bay and JPP is unable to play due to his neck injury.

• Buccaneers legendary cornerback Ronde Barber had 14 regular season non-offensive touchdowns in his illustrious 16-year career, which was a Tampa Bay record. That ranks fourth all-time in NFL history behind Rod Woodson (18), Deion Sanders (19) and Devin Hester (20). Barber added another touchdown in the postseason in 2002 in the NFC Championship Game at Philadelphia with a 92-yard interception return for a touchdown to send the Bucs to Super Bowl XXXVII.

Did you know that Barber’s first touchdown didn’t come on a pick-six or a fumble return for a touchdown? It was actually on a 23-yard punt return against Chicago in 1998. The Bucs partially blocked a punt, but it crossed the line of scrimmage, so it officially counts as a punt return touchdown. See that play, as well as all of Barber’s other touchdowns – and a few close calls – in the highlight video below.

• WE ARE SO CLOSE TO 32,000! Bucs rookie mini-camp is Friday and Saturday, May 10-11, followed by Tampa Bay’s OTAs. Make sure you follow PewterReport.com on Twitter for all of our great coverage. The @PewterReport Twitter account continues to grow in popularity and is a dozen followers away from 32,000. Join the masses and stay plugged in to PewterReport.com’s mini-camp coverage.

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• The Bucs scouting department was very pleased with how Bruce Arians, Todd Bowles and the other assistant coaches articulated exactly what they were looking for in players and how those players would be used in their schemes when it came to scouting for this year’s draft. That was a problem under the previous regime, especially on the defensive side of the ball, which had certain ideas in the offseason when talking to scouts and then didn’t follow through with those ideas from an implementation standpoint once the season rolled around.

That’s how the Bucs wound up with two press cornerbacks early in the draft in Vernon Hargreaves III, a first-rounder in 2016, and Carlton Davis, a second-rounder last year, yet defensive coordinator Mike Smith didn’t play press-man coverage and reverted back to his comfort zone, which was Quarters coverage (Cover 4) and off-man coverage. Hargreaves and Davis have the chance at new life in their young careers in Bowles’ press-man coverage scheme, which should fit their talent like a glove.

Bucs FS Justin Evans – Photo by: Mary Holt/PR

The divide between personnel department and the coaching staff peaked last year when the personnel staff started calling the team’s safeties “strikers” in meetings with the coaches to emphasize the point that Tampa Bay’s safeties, particularly free safety Justin Evans, needed to be in position to make more plays against the run and the pass and were playing too far off the line of scrimmage.

When Bowles and safeties coach Nick Rapone arrived they had to rely on All-22 tape at times when evaluating Evans because in some close-up video cut-ups Evans was lined up so deep that he wasn’t even on the screen for them to see. The Bucs aren’t using the term “strikers” anymore with Bowles at One Buccaneer Place because the safeties will be strikers and playmakers in his defense. That’s a given.

The new coaching staff is high on Evans, especially watching his rookie tape where he was tied for the team lead in interceptions with three. If he can revert back to his aggressive playing style that he had at Texas A&M and at times in his rookie season, and not the “safe” approach he was forced to play over the last two years, he could thrive in Bowles’ defense as a single-high safety and lead the team in interceptions.

Evans has missed the offseason workouts with a sprain, but sources tell me that it’s not turf toe and that it’s not related to last year’s injury, which is good news. The Bucs are hopeful that Evans can return to the field in time for the team’s mini-camp the first week of June if not sooner.

• NEW PODCAST COMING ON FRIDAY! There will be a new Pewter Nation Podcast on Friday afternoon following the first day of Bucs rookie mini-camp. The PR team will offer up our initial thoughts on Tampa Bay’s draft picks and undrafted free agents along with our analysis of the new coaching staff and other practice tidbits.

In our latest podcast, the Pewter Reporters assembled following two days of interviews from literally dozens of new Bucs assistant coaches for the latest Pewter Nation Podcast, which is presented by Chris Garrido of Westshore Financial, to recap the Bucs draft and discuss what the assistants had to say to the media. Listen as myself, Mark Cook, Taylor Jenkins and producer Matt Matera break down all of the Bucs news and offer up our unique insight. This was a an hour-long podcast for a reason – it’s good. So listen to it this weekend if you missed it.

Click here to listen to Pewter Nation Podcast Episode 119: Assistant Coach Marathon

There is no better time to listen to a new Pewter Nation Podcast than on your drive home from work on Friday or running around doing errands or at the gym on Saturday. The next Pewter Nation Podcast will be taped next Tuesday following the team’s OTA practice.

The popularity of the Pewter Nation Podcast continues to grow. In addition to listening to the Pewter Nation Podcasts on PewterReport.com you can also subscribe to the free podcasts at PodBean by clicking here and on SoundCloud by clicking here. And of course the Pewter Nation Podcast is also available on iTunes. Make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss a single episode.

• One of the biggest changes under Bruce Arians is the emphasis he is putting on special teams. Arians has a special teams coordinator in Keith Armstrong and an assistant special teams coach in Amos Jones, and then went out with the approval of general manager Jason Licht and hired a specialist coach in former NFL kicker Chris Boniol, who will work with kickers Cairo Santos and Matt Gay, the team’s fifth-round pick, and punter Bradley Pinion.

Bucs specialist coach Chris Boniol – Photo by: PewterReport.com

The Bucs were thrilled to land the strong-legged Pinion, who will also handle kickoffs, which will allow whoever wins the kicking duties to concentrate solely on field goals and extra points. Santos has the immediate advantage due to his NFL experience, but Gay, who won the Lou Groza Award last year, offers versatility because he has a strong leg and can also handle kickoffs in case something happens to Pinion.

The kicking battle during training camp and the preseason will be fascinating to watch and should be good due to the coaching of Boniol. Bad field goal kicking has plagued Licht and the Bucs franchise over the past five years and the hope is that Boniol can help either Santos or Gay become the steady kicker Tampa Bay desperately needs.

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