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Scott Reynolds of Pewter Report answers your questions Pewter Report This Week’s Bucs Mailbag Twitter account. Every week, submit your questions to the Bucs Mailbag via Twitter using the hashtag #PRMailbag. Here are your Bucs questions we’ll be answering in this week’s edition:
question: Baker Mayfield With him inked to a new deal and Kyle Trask’s contract expiring after this season with a very small dead cap charge ($346,000), will the Buccaneers explore other backup QB options, or does the staff feel good enough about Trask that they’ll consider giving him an extra year or two at the veteran minimum?
Buccaneers quarterbacks Kyle Trask and John Wolford – Photo: Cliff Welch/PR
answer: That’s a very good question, but I’m not sure the Buccaneers know the answer yet. Tampa Bay general manager Jason Licht has become a very patient general manager, as evidenced by his ability to work one-year contracts over the past few seasons. He’s also content to let superstars like wide receiver Mike Evans and safety Antoine Winfield Jr. play out their contracts and reward those players after great seasons. I think the same can be said about backup quarterbacks. Kyle Trask As he enters his contract year.
During a recent Pewter Report podcast, Licht told Pewter Report he likes Trask quite a bit, even though he’s only taken a handful of meaningful snaps in the regular season thanks to the excellent health of former starting quarterback Tom Brady and current starter Baker Mayfield. Trask has made strides behind the scenes, but lost the starting spot to Mayfield last August. He’s still a relative unknown, which means he likely won’t have much of a market come next March.
Richt said he wants to keep Trask on the team because the Buccaneers have spent the last three years developing Trask into a potential starter and potential successor to Mayfield. It remains to be seen whether Trask is worthy of being a starter at the NFL level. That’s why Richt won’t give up on upgrading the backup QB position. Good quarterbacks aren’t easy to find.
Tampa Bay likes third-stringer John Wolford, who has become even more valuable after playing in Liam Cohen’s offense during his time with the Los Angeles Rams. Licht also nearly drafted Tulane quarterback Michael Pratt in the seventh round, but Green Bay picked him one spot higher than Tampa Bay. So the Buccaneers are interested in keeping Trask beyond 2024, but will wait to see how things play out this season and whether Mayfield’s injury allows him to get playing time. If there’s a soft market for him in free agency, Trask could certainly sign a cheap one-year deal to stay with the Buccaneers.
Question: What is the LB situation? Lavonte David is set, but who will be the second? What are the plans for Cervosia Dennis?
Buccaneers ILB Servosia Dennis – Photo: Cliff Welch/PR
answer: Legendary linebacker Lavonte David will return to the Buccaneers for at least one more year at age 34. He is the only linebacker on the team with any defensive experience. KJ Britt is in the final year of his contract after overtaking Devin White as the team’s starting middle linebacker at the end of last season. He has received rave reviews from coaches and teammates this offseason, and with four years of experience under Todd Bowles, Britt is the favorite to win the Mike linebacker spot.
But there is competition to replace White, and Britt will have to fend off last year’s fifth-round draft pick, Servoisia Dennis, and J.J. Russell, who recorded seven tackles and one sack in his lone start last year against Carolina. Britt, known as a downhill thumper, has proven to be better than White against the run due to his ability to shake off would-be blockers and hang on to assignments. He’ll need to improve his coverage, especially his eyes and route reads, and avoid pulling the trigger too early when defending the middle of the field in a zone.
Bowles platooned White and Britt late in the season, with Britt playing the likely rundowns and White on third downs, long pass situations and other obvious pass downs because he was better in coverage. If Dennis or Russell prove to be better pass cover players than Britt, Bowles wouldn’t be opposed to doing it again. Also, don’t rule out undrafted free agent Cullen DeLoach; he has the speed and the ability to blitz, cover and tackle.
As for Dennis, if he continues to develop, he could be a future starter, either this year beating Britt at Mike linebacker, or next year at Mo linebacker if David retires. Dennis is probably better suited to the weakside money backer (Mo) position, but he has been cross-trained to be both Mike and Mo, so he could compete with Britt next to David.
question: I think the weakest position on this team is cornerback. What do you think is the weakest position?
Buccaneers G Sua Opeta – Photo courtesy of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
answer: I’ve been asked this question before, but I still think the left guard position could be a weakness if veterans Su’a Opeta and Ben Bredeson can’t outperform last year’s duo of Matt Feiler and Aaron Stinney. Opeta and Bredeson each have career starting experience but were acquired incredibly cheaply in free agency, which is not usually a sign that a team has incredible faith in their players.
Opeta is The one-year contract pays an annual salary of $1.125 million and a bonus of $250,000. Bredeson is a slightly higher-paying player on a one-year deal with a base salary of $1.66 million, a roster bonus of $1 million and a per-game bonus of $340,000. The other candidate is sixth-round pick Elijah Klein, with a base salary of $795,000 and a signing bonus of $34,000. It remains to be seen what will happen at left guard, but for now I view him as a potential weakness.
As for cornerbacks, I think the Buccaneers have some really good players at the top of their depth. I expect Jamel Dean to have a bounce-back year after being traded for his friend Carlton Davis III in the final year of his contract due to a lot of injuries and a lot of interceptions. Dean dropped five potential picks last year and didn’t record a single interception. He also missed some games due to several injuries. There’s pressure on Dean this season, but I think he’ll respond and rise to the occasion.
Zion McCollum is a tremendous athlete and played more snaps than Dean and Davis last year and made great strides. His job now is to get more aggressive in coverage and go for more interceptions instead of settling for safer pass breakdowns. Hopefully, he’ll take advantage of the OTA practice time to get more opportunities and get into the ball-winning mentality on game day.
Cornerbacks coach Kevin Ross calls Bryce Hall a starting-caliber cornerback, and I think he could fill in if Dean or McCollum get injured or Todd Bowles’ defense doesn’t stop. The weakness at the cornerback position after Hall is due to a lack of experience. Right now, Josh Hayes, who was a great gunner as a rookie, could be CB4, but he only played a few games on defense last year. Hopefully, this won’t be a position where the Bucs need to add depth this year.
question: It appears the only roster work remaining before the season begins is working on a contract extension with Tristan Wirfs and signing the remaining draft picks. Are there any other roster changes or are you ready to go for the start of the season?
Buccaneers LT Tristan Wirfs – Photo: Cliff Welch/PR
answer: Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht and his scouts are constantly scrutinizing the roster and watching film. After training camp, roster cuts will be made again. Tampa Bay has made several notable additions during that time, including acquiring defensive end Jacquies Smith off waivers in 2014, edge rusher Carl Nassib off waivers in 2018 and signing running back Leonard Fournette in 2020 after he was released by Jacksonville just before the start of the season.
But until then, I believe signing Pro Bowl left tackle Tristan Wirfs to a lucrative contract extension and acquiring the rest of the draft picks is what assistant general manager Mike Greenberg is currently focused on. That doesn’t mean Licht and head coach Todd Bowles won’t continue to make roster adjustments, such as firing Deven Thompkins last week.
But Tampa Bay’s training camp roster appears to be pretty much set, and while they’re expected to add one or two players from the outside in late August or early September once other teams cut back on their training camp personnel, that may be all for now.
Question: I I understand there is a mandatory minicamp next week. Will players be wearing pads? Can you explain the difference between the OTA period and minicamp?
answer: There really isn’t much difference between an OTA (organized team activity) and a minicamp, other than the fact that minicamp is mandatory. Players who aren’t exempt from mandatory minicamp can be fined by their team if they don’t attend. Otherwise, you just keep playing flag football, underwear football, or whatever you want to call it, for three more days. No pads needed, just helmets, cleats, jerseys and shorts.
In fact, the first three days of training camp will essentially be an addition of three OTAs. Pads won’t be used until the fourth day of “preparation” practice, where players don helmets, jerseys, shorts and cleats and focus more on conditioning. And that’s it. In the NFL, players actually spend a lot of time practicing without pads on, which is very different from how the league used to do things.
