Minicamp Day 1: Notes & Observations
June 16th, 2015
Your beloved Bucs were back on the sweltering practice fields of One Buc Palace this afternoon, opening day of the three-day mandatory minicamp before players get extended time off. Serious work was in session, and Joe’s got your need-to-know.
*Roll call. The Bucs seemed to have 100% attendance. Even Demar Dotson, who took last week off in what might have been the lamest holdout attempt in the history of NFL contracts. Fifth-round rookie WR Kenny Bell was not practicing. He was injured (presumably) last week, too.
* Today, the quarterback of the past and quarterback of the future and maybe the quarterback of the present Mike Glennon was largely working with the first team. “America’s Quarterback,” Bucs signal-caller Jameis Winston, was with the second team and, sometimes, the camp meat.
*Drop! Vincent Jackson, aka V-Drops. Not a good way to start first-team work with Glennon at the command. Next play goes right back to Jackson. Complete! A 15-yard throw in the slot.
*You cannot tackle! This is underwear football! Brandon Myers catches a nice pass from Mike Glennon coming in from the left on a slant route and was blown up by Chris Conte. You can’t do that! DeMaurice Smith won’t let you! Then, Conte nearly tackled another ballcarrier later in practice. What’s the matter with you? Not even Sabby the Goat pulled these kinds of stunts.
*Jameis Winston appears and the immortal Russell Shepard comes back to grab a pass from him.
* More Shepard: Jameis leads him too much on the right sideline and on the next play Shepard skies above defenders to haul in a Jameis offering,
*Rookie WR Donteea Dye (who?) is the first Buccaneer catching punts, per Joe’s eyeballs, followed by rookie Kaelin Clay and Bobby Rainey. No drops from the group.
*Uh, oh, Glennon is intercepted by Alterraun Verner. The pass was intended for Charles Sims in the right flat. Sims got an earful from offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter, something you don’t hear often.
*Mike Jenkins defends a pass to Rannell Hall. Sure looked like pass interference.
*Lovie Smith gets animated. Well, at least for mild-mannered Lovie. He’s giving positional coaching to rookie linebacker Kwon Alexander.
* When Jameis sets up to pass, the loud clicking from all the cameras sounds like Joe is in a shooting gallery. No such racket when Glennon drops back.
* Kaelin Clay channels his inner Robert Herron and drops an over-the-shoulder pass that was beautifully dropped in by Jameis down the right sideline.
* Glennon simply throws a pretty pass time after time. Then again, this is underwear football and there is limited defense and no pass rush. Of course, cynics would say the Bucs don’t even have a pass rush with pads.
* The world famous Cameron Brate hauls in a pass in traffic from Jameis.
* Glennon goes back to pass, scans the field, no one open but The Muscle Hamster in the right flat, who bolts upfield, biting the football all the way.
*Your first-team safeties all day were Bradley McDougald and Chris Conte.
*Jameis had some very surprising chemistry with Tim Wright today. Joe will have more on that later.
* Johnthan Banks lays out and bats a Glennon pass away from Sims. Batting down passes seemed to be a trend for the first team defense today.
*Drop! Rookie FB Joey Iosefa, the seventh-round pick.
*Glennon overthrows Clay with Verner in coverage.
* Speaking of batted balls, Danny Lansanah continues to frustrate Bucs quarterbacks of all shapes and sizes. He tips away a pass with his right hand and follows up with a pick two plays later of Glennon. Dude is the defensive star of underwear football. Does anyone receive an award for blowing up in underwear football? You know, like a bronzed pair of Hanes briefs?
*Glennon overthrows Herron deep with Leonard Johnson in coverage. Gerald McCoy trails the play and screams at Johnson, “Get the ball! Pick up the ball!” It’s a theme of the Bucs defense; attack every loose ball, even dead ones. Johnson didn’t listen to McCoy.
*Glennon comes back to Herron, who had a nice catch and flashed his speed.
* Jameis rifles the ball to Tavarres King down the right sideline. The two have a connection, you know. If not for a key King drop of a would-be first down, Jameis may not even be here.
*Nice, poised but quick pump fake by Jameis, leading to a connection with Adam Humphries for a 10-yard gain. Jameis throws a gorgeous deep ball to Humphries but it goes off his hands. Gotta catch that if you’re bubble guy, Humphries.
*Glennon tosses a couple of A+ lasers to V-Jax.
*Jameis and Hall connect. Great catch. But this would have been a sack if not for underwear football rules.
* Jameis hits Donteea Dye (who?) near the left sideline and Dye tries to shake a gaggle of defenders but instead is run out of bounds.
* In red zone offense, linebacker Josh Keyes of Boston College, who obviously played against Jameis before, may have picked up on some sort of tip off. He dove parallel to the ground and picked Jameis. Probably the defensive play of practice.
*Jameis finishes up red-zone work with TD throws to Hall and Clay.
* Music du jour? Mostly Gopsel rap (“The Truth”), and modern heavy metal later on.
June 16th, 2015 at 5:32 pm
Nice job Joe. Thanks!!!
June 16th, 2015 at 5:33 pm
Thanks again Joe. You’re the best!
June 16th, 2015 at 5:55 pm
Good stuff!
June 16th, 2015 at 6:11 pm
Nice recap of camp practice. These are always enjoyable to read.
June 16th, 2015 at 6:24 pm
Thanks for the kind words guys.
June 16th, 2015 at 6:40 pm
Thanks Joe!! Awesome recap!!
June 16th, 2015 at 7:10 pm
See tampa not all bucs (NFL) are thugs and and bad people there was gospel rap, GOSPEL RAP PEOPLE!!! and Joe you misspelled Gospel, but great reporting I don’t read it for errors
June 16th, 2015 at 7:14 pm
Thanks for the coverage Joe.
June 16th, 2015 at 7:22 pm
Charles Smith and Charles Sims the same guy?
June 16th, 2015 at 7:23 pm
Joe giving Hall some love, do my eyes deceive me?
June 16th, 2015 at 7:24 pm
No way Chris Conte will be our starting FS, this is no different than lingerie football.Bring on the real football.
June 16th, 2015 at 7:45 pm
Atta baby, Joe!
June 16th, 2015 at 8:03 pm
If Chris Conte is our starting safety then we will be in for a lot of awful defense.
Chris Conte makes Sabby Piscatelli look like John Howell
June 16th, 2015 at 8:09 pm
Can we just get rid of Leonard Johnson? His couple INTs have covered up his shoddy coverage. He’s always a step behind receivers over the middle, and it seems he just doesn’t have the intensity/confidence to play the position.
June 16th, 2015 at 9:48 pm
You don’t have to be a burner to play CB in Tampa Two. Leonard Johnson plays the run well and should be used as the extra man to stop the run like another no burner Ex Corner of ours who will one day be In the Hall of Fame. Johnson is a help on Special Teams too. We now have the luxury of a veteran from the Cowboys to cover real fast slot receivers on third down–where Leonard Johnson looks weakest, but there is still a need for him on this team.
June 16th, 2015 at 9:50 pm
Sounds like glennon will start the season off
June 16th, 2015 at 9:58 pm
Joe says:
“Of course, cynics would say the Bucs don’t even have a pass rush with pads”
“Does anyone receive an award for blowing up in underwear football? You know, like a bronzed pair of Hanes briefs?”
Joe you are killing it today! Thanks for the great notes, as always. Go Bucs!
June 16th, 2015 at 10:09 pm
Thanks for the kind words guys. Much appreciated.
June 16th, 2015 at 11:11 pm
Now all we need is for SuperSam to come in and give us some camp notes from the Titans camp. Surely he must be following his bff Mariota very closely.
June 16th, 2015 at 11:12 pm
Thank you!
June 17th, 2015 at 2:58 am
The idea behind rotating QB’s is to make sure that injuries don’t keep the team from staying competitive. I don’t have a problem with Winston and Glennon sorting through all the WR’s RB’s and TE’s on our mini-camp roster. Whomever starts at QB should be familiar with ALL the potential receivers, not just the starters. That approach is a sign of great coaching.
WR T.King is reported to get a lot of looks from Jameis and turn them into catches. That’s encouraging considering our starting WR’s are SLOW, by NFL standards. That becomes predictable when you line up with, in effect, 3-TE’s. Slants and hooks anyone? We need speed at wide out, with dependable hands and good routes.
For the most part the RS roster isn’t set in mini-camp. And, ATC, we’re still going to need a lot of bodies (cannon fodder) when TC opens. Slackers will be weeded out sooner rather than later at our TC. The Bucs have 1st pick from all the camp cuts around the league. I don’t expect the OL and DL (DE??) holes to be filled until late in the summer from the league-wide TC cut lists.
June 17th, 2015 at 6:39 am
Excellent coverage joe
June 17th, 2015 at 7:35 am
CreamsicleBananaHammock Says:
June 16th, 2015 at 8:03 pm
If Chris Conte is our starting safety then we will be in for a lot of awful defense.
Chris Conte makes Sabby Piscatelli look like John Howell
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lol that’s brutal he’s not that bad, conte has more int’s in his career than sabby has tackles
June 17th, 2015 at 9:08 am
These are my favorite Joe posts.
I love scrolling down the screen reading each update, to still see a bunch more to read. Thanks Joe.
These are the oasis posts in the desert of summer.