FAB 5. SR’s Buc Shots

• Bucs wide receiver Adam Humphries easily has the best hands on the team. That’s why he’s the starting slot receiver in Tampa Bay and will hold that spot heading into the season. Through the first week of training camp Humphries only had one drop, but to the perfectionist wide receiver it was one drop too many.

“Obviously, I try to catch everything thrown my way,” Humphries said. “But the one pass I dropped was shown in the team room on the film. Coach [Dirk] Koetter expects us to be elite and world class. So when it’s third-and-4 and the ball hits my hands, it needs to be caught and we need to convert the third down.

“I hate it because a dropped pass is something I’ll go home really thinking about. I have to catch every pass, but listening to Jim Brogan say, ‘Through the struggle is where you strengthen your mind.’ When you are facing adversity that is where you become your strongest. So it’s good to have a drop or two in training camp where I can correct those mistakes before the regular season starts.”

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• The numbers for the @PewterReport Twitter account continue to grow rapidly and we are now over 26,500 followers. Thank you! If you aren’t following us on Twitter for practice videos and live tweets from practice and press conferences in addition to live game tweets and story updates from PewterReport.com, you can join the legions of Bucs fans out there in Pewter Nation that follow @PewterReport by clicking here. And if Facebook is your social media platform of choice, you can follow us by clicking here.

• I had the good fortune to see former Buccaneers center and three-time Pro Bowler Tony Mayberry at one of Tampa Bay’s training camp practices this past week. Mayberry was astonished at how soft this year’s Bucs practice is without live tackling drills and full-contact goal line drills. Of course Mayberry played in an era with two-a-day practices in the heat and full contact under Sam Wyche and Tony Dungy, which were different times, but here is part of our conversation that was on the record.

“Back then training camp hardened you, it deadened your nerves, it fortified you,” Mayberry said. “It made it so you felt you were ready for the season because your fingers had cracked and been twisted up. You already got your little dinger. You had all the things you would have in the season all one after another. By the time the season came around and they took the gas off from training camp – you couldn’t wait for the start of the season because it got easier. You felt like you were physically and mentally ready to play. It’s tough for these guys because they are saving their bodies, but nobody cares about training camp when it’s over. These preseason games don’t count. All that matters is Week 1. That being said, with the nature of this game, it’s not something you want to jump into Week 1. I don’t want my full out contact to be the first game. I want to make sure I’ve done it and suffered a bit. Then I know I’m ready. Yet the fresh legs these guys have must be nice.

Former Bucs C Tony Mayberry

These days with just one two-and-half-hour practice featuring walk-through install periods in which the players take their helmets off, Mayberry doesn’t know how teams like the Bucs that don’t go full-contact in training camp can be fully prepared for a three-hour game at 1:00 p.m. in the Florida heat.

“We had two-a-days out in the heat,” Mayberry said. “That’s five hours out in the heat going full contact. These guys better get their Gatorade game on because they can’t be ready to play three hours in the heat these days in Week 1. But each game is really a challenge – a test – of your own mental and physical mettle. That sun is shining out there on everyone. Everyone is going to be tired. The physical nature is important because I think what would hurt you Day 1 in training camp, the same contact in Week 1 is not even noticed because your mind is hardened to the contact. For me, I had to do the one-on-ones and the goal line drills to make sure I still knew how to do it and I was ready for it.”

• PewterReport.com is excited to announce its partnership with Fanatics.com, the leader in sports apparel and fan gear. You might have seen the red Bucs Gear tab on PewterReport.com’s menu bar at the top of the website. Clicking on that link or any Fanatics.com banner on PewterReport.com, including the one to the right, will give PewterReport.com a commission on any sale you make.

Whether it’s purchasing Bucs gear or any merchandise from any team in any sport on Fanatics.com, when you buy anything through clicking the Bucs Gear tab or banner ads on this site first you’ll be supporting our efforts here at PewterReport.com. Now you know where to visit if you are looking to purchase a new DeSean Jackson or O.J. Howard Bucs jersey. And remember this when it comes to the holiday shopping season, too. Visit PewterReport.com first then click on the Bucs Gear tab.

We appreciate your support, Pewter Nation. It’s help like this that continues to fund our efforts to provide you with the best Bucs coverage on the Internet.

• PewterReport.com’s Bucs Training Camp rookie subject Antony Auclair turned some heads during rookie singing night in front of the veterans when he sung the Canadian National Anthem in French. That clip was shown on HBO’s Hard Knocks and was well received by Auclair’s American teammates.

“It went great,” Bucs cornerback Jude Adjei-Barimah said. “He was a good singer and he was singing it with the same passion that you would for our National Anthem at a game. Everybody in the room stood up and put their right hand over our hearts. We paid our respects to Canada. We had no idea what he was singing because it was in French, but we were paying our respects. It was real cool.”

Bucs TE Antony Auclair – Photo by: Mary Holt/PR

Click here to read the latest Auclair Bucs Training Camp Diary where he talks about Hard Knocks and signing the Canadian National Anthem.

• Bucs defensive tackle Clinton McDonald is enjoying the opportunity to play both nose tackle and three-technique tackle this year with the arrival of Chris Baker from Washington. He’s also enjoying the continuing battles he’s had with guard J.R. Sweezy since their days together at Seattle several years ago.

“Now he’s in Buccaneers uniform and I think he is the same J.R. Sweezy,” McDonald said. “He is going to work hard and he is going to be determined to win and to learn. J.R. was a D-lineman when he first got to Seattle. Under Tom Cable he learned to be an offensive lineman, that isn’t easy, but he’s done a great job of it. He is taking that same hard-nosed mentality and bringing it here to make the offensive line tougher and a more fearful group.”

• The popularity of the Pewter Nation Podcast continues to grow thanks to YOU, Pewter Nation! After hour-long podcasts during the offseason we are now producing two shorter podcasts (30-40 minutes) during football season – one mid-week and another one immediately after the Bucs preseason and regular season games. Here is a link to the latest Pewter Nation Podcast – Episode 22: Pregaming The Preseason.

Make sure to visit PewterReport.com Saturday morning for our post-game analysis of Tampa Bay’s preseason opener at Cincinnati in a new Pewter Podcast Podcast, which Mark Cook, Trevor Sikkema and I will record immediately following the Bucs vs. Bengals game. 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.

• PewterReport.com will be in Jacksonville next week providing coverage of the Bucs vs. Jaguars joint practices. Be sure to visit back next week for all of our insight and analysis leading up to Tampa Bay’s second preseason game. And as always, thank you for visiting PewterReport.com and for your support!