FAB 3. Bucs Lining Up Formal Combine Interviews

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be meeting with hundreds of participants at the 2019 NFL Scouting Combine, but every NFL team only gets 60 formal interviews where they will get 15 minutes to meet with draft prospects. While regional scouts and position coaches spend time meeting more than 60 players, the 60 draft prospects that get the formal interview get to meet the Bucs’ coordinators, in addition to head coach Bruce Arians and general manager Jason Licht.

The players that get the formal invites are the guys that Tampa Bay really has an interest in, but it doesn’t necessarily mean those players will end up on the team’s final radar because some of the interviews might go poorly and the Bucs might end up removing them from consideration.

Nevertheless, PewterReport.com has begun to discover some of the names that received formal invites as well as which other players have met with the Bucs’ position coaches. On Thursday, we met with the offensive linemen and running backs.

Among those offensive linemen I spoke with on Thursday, Alabama’s Jonah Williams did have a formal interview with Tampa Bay, which was no surprise, but several other high profile linemen, such as Florida’s Jawaan Taylor, Washington State’s Andre Dillard and Oklahoma’s Cody Ford and Bobby Evans did not meet with the Bucs in any capacity.

.@KStateFB RT Dalton Risner had a formal interview with the #Bucs and talks about meeting with Bruce Arians. pic.twitter.com/uMVgnrM3hs

— PewterReport (@PewterReport) February 28, 2019

Northern Illinois OT Max Scharping had a formal interview with #Bucs last night, including Bruce Arians. pic.twitter.com/bQezFD4mmI

— PewterReport (@PewterReport) February 28, 2019

In addition to Williams, Kansas State right tackle Dalton Risner and Northern Illinois left tackle Max Scharping, the Bucs also had formal interviews with Alabama State right tackle Tytus Howard, West Virginia left tackle Yodny Cajuste and Boston College guard Chris Lindstrom. USC offensive tackle Chuma Udoba and Elon right tackle Oli Udoh met with run game coordinator Harold Goodwin and offensive line coach Joe Gilbert.

Florida Atlantic running back Devin Singletary, Kansas State running back Alex Barnes and Florida running back Jordan Scarlett confirmed that they had informal interviews with the Buccaneers, meeting with running backs coach Todd McNair. Singletary’s small hands (8.5 inches) raised some concerns among scouts as his were the smallest of any running back at the Combine. The fact that Singletary is 5-foot-7 and a half, and weighed just 203 pounds was also concerning to NFL teams.

Meanwhile, a pair of Memphis Tigers received formal interviews with Licht, Arians and the Bucs’ brass.

Memphis RB Darrell Henderson confirmed to @PewterReport that met with Bruce Arians and the #Bucs coaches and scouts in Indy. pic.twitter.com/7z3r4LrlRG

— PewterReport (@PewterReport) February 28, 2019

Versatile Memphis RB Tony Pollard had a formal interview with the #Bucs pic.twitter.com/6BFiks51Af

— PewterReport (@PewterReport) February 28, 2019

Henderson has always faced questions about his size, and he checked in at just over 5-foot-8, while listed as 5-foot-9 on the Memphis roster, but weighed 208 pounds. Pollard is just under 6-foot and weighed 210 pounds, which pleased NFL scouts.

Stay tuned to PewterReport.com’s Twitter feed @PewterReport and the website for more news about which players met with the Bucs formally and informally at the 2019 NFL Scouting Combine.