FAB 5. SR’s Buc Shots

• Former Bucs defensive tackle Gerald McCoy is now a Carolina Panther, and Tampa Bay will be seeing him twice a year now that he’s an NFC South rival. McCoy will square off against his former team in Week 2 in Carolina on Thursday Night Football, but won’t have a homecoming game in Tampa as the Bucs vs. Panthers home game will take place in London in October.

Former Bucs DT Gerald McCoy – Photo by: Mary Holt/PR

What I want to know is where did those 10 teams that showed initial interest go? Tampa Bay Times Bucs beat writer Rick Stroud reported that, along with the fact that teams had offered as much as $11 million on May 23. I don’t doubt Stroud’s reporting – only the information he received, likely from McCoy’s agent, Ben Dogra, or McCoy himself.

The truth is that there really weren’t 10 teams that showed significant interest in McCoy, otherwise McCoy would have had more than three visits. It looks like that was an inflated figure used by the agent to drive up interest around the league and McCoy’s price tag, and the results of such overinflated hype proved appear to be negligible.

Cleveland, Baltimore and Carolina were the only teams that really showed interest, and the Panthers offered the most money, which was a one-year, $8 million deal with incentives that could push the total up to $10.25 million, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

The full breakdown of Gerald McCoy’s deal with the #Panthers: 1 year, $4M to sign, $3M base, $500K camp roster bonus, $500K in 45-man per game bonus. Plus, 6.5 sacks for $500k, 8 sacks gets him $1.5M. 250K for Pro Bowl, $250K for playoffs. Just $4M guaranteed. Total: Up $10.25M.

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) June 3, 2019

The Browns offered McCoy just $6 million per year, and it’s safe to assume that McCoy was offered less than $8 million per year by the Ravens. In the end, McCoy got less money than new Bucs defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh received, which is $9 million in 2019 with incentives that could push the deal to $10 million. McCoy, who has never made the playoffs, chose to sign with the Panthers, who were 7-9 last year and missed the postseason, rather than the Ravens, who won the AFC North last year, or the Browns, who are considered to be the favorite to win the division this year.

McCoy took the most money and the chance for revenge against the Bucs, as well as being Cam Newton’s sidekick in Carolina, and good for him. McCoy has always revered Newton and now Batman has a chance to play with Superman on the Panthers.

As for the Bucs, they better fix their right guard spot because there is a decent chance that McCoy will tear up Alex Cappa twice this year if they don’t.

• The Athletic’s Greg Auman had a great tweet this week pointing out why the Bucs defense needed to get fixed this offseason by new defensive coordinator Todd Bowles.

Why fixing the Bucs defense is crucial: In Arizona, Bruce Arians was 31-1 when his team scored 25+ points. The Bucs, under Dirk Koetter last three years, were 12-10 when doing so. On Tampa Bay’s young new secondary: https://t.co/7zPqtAog99

— Greg Auman (@gregauman) June 6, 2019

Tampa Bay was 12-10 when scoring 25 points per more under Dirk Koetter over the last three years, while Bruce Arians was 31-1 when hitting the 25-point mark. That’s quite an impressive record, and with the firepower on the Bucs offense, it’s safe to assume that Tampa Bay will be scoring 25 points or more with great regularity in 2019.

Bucs head coach Bruce Arians and PR’s Mark Cook – Photo by: PewterReport.com

• BRUCE IS LOOSE ON THE NEW PEWTER NATION PODCAST! The Bucs wrapped up their 2019 mini-camp this week and we recorded TWO NEW Pewter Nation Podcast episodes – one on Tuesday (Episode 124) and one on Thursday (Episode 125) where we were joined by special guest Bucs head coach Bruce Arians, who dished out some interesting info about his team as it looks ahead to training camp in late July.

But there was also some drama (and hilarity) regarding a suspension (or was it a suspension?) of Pewter Reporter Mark Cook, also known as Captain Interruption, that dates back to Episode 123. To fully understand the context of the three latest Pewter Nation Podcasts, start there before listening to the three most recent episodes – all of which are packed with Bucs analysis and insight from OTAs and mini-camp, as well as the news of the arrival of defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh and the departure of Gerald McCoy to NFC South rival Carolina.

Pewter Nation Podcast Episode 123: OTAs AND Suh

Pewter Nation Podcast Episode 124: A Boy Named Suh

Pewter Nation Podcast Episode 125: REVENGE Of Captain Interruption

Pewter Nation Podcast Episode 126: Bruce Arians

There is no better time to listen to a new Pewter Nation Podcast, which is presented by Chris Garrido of Westshore Financial, 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 Thursday, and we’ll answer some of your questions. Submit them via our @PewterReport Twitter account by using the hashtag #PewterNation

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.

• New Bucs defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh has made a few trips to the postseason, including an appearance in the Super Bowl last year with the Los Angeles Rams. He’s intent on helping Tampa Bay change its losing culture and ending the team’s decade-long playoff drought. In order to do that, Suh said the Bucs need to bury the past.

Bucs DT Ndamukong Suh – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“I think the important thing is to forget about the past,” Suh said. “There’s a new regime and a new understanding of none of the past stuff matters. It’s all about the future and the present, and with that Coach [Bruce Arians] is big on having ownership – yes, he is the head coach, yes, he has to set the tone – but that doesn’t mean anything if we all don’t buy in, in addition to making our own. So, you’ve got to have your own accountability. You’ve got to take care of your own business and then obviously police each other and be accountable and take ownership overall.”

Arians’ message to his players at the end of Bucs mini-camp was simple as the team departed for a summer break before reporting for training camp the last week of July.

“Be in shape when you come back, don’t start over and don’t be that guy – simple,” Arians said.

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• Bucs head coach Bruce Arians plans to have a physical training camp complete with – tackling! – this summer. After three years of not tackling during training camp and not really having much physical contact in training camps run by former head coach Dirk Koetter, Arians will change that.

Bucs head coach Bruce Arians – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“Oh yeah, you can’t learn how to tackle unless you tackle,” Arians said. “It’s just being smart [about] who you’re tackling.”

Arians plans on having training camp practices at different times of the day to help the team prepare for playing games at 1:00 p.m., 4:15 p.m. and at night.

“We’ll have practices between 8:00 a.m. in the morning and 4:00 p.m. in the afternoon to 6:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. because that’s when we kick off two games home in September, and 6:30 p.m. is as close as we can get to 8:00 p.m. kickoff – Thursday Night Football. So, we’ll mix it up.

“You don’t want to get into that dead routine and not be able to match up when your game times are. So, as much 4:00 p.m. practices so we can get ready for the first two home games.”