Highlights Of Bucs’ First Training Camp Practice Of 2021
July 25th, 2021It is still underwear football season at One Buc Palace. And Bucs Super Bowl-winning coach Bucco Bruce Arians says it will be about a week before the pads come on. A lot of things are different at training camp practice this year. Sign of the times.
The Bucs largely worked on position drills and quite a bit of running in seven-on-seven drills in a practice that was 30 minutes shorter than most in training camp. Here are highlights:
* Either Jaelon Darden is the real deal or the Bucs are trying to baptize him by fire. He got in some work with the first team offense and caught a medium-short pass from Tom Brady along the right sideline in front of Carlton Davis.
* Brady rolls left and hands off to Ronald Jones who has a nice run up the middle. CAUTION: A reminder this is underwear football. There is no hitting. So runs are misleading as defenders cannot blow up blockers and likewise, blockers cannot blast defenders. Think flag football without the flags.
* Giovani Bernard tries to run up the middle and vanishes in a sea of humanity.
* The Bucs are doing a lot of running drills in this seven-on-seven drill.
* Brady looks nimble on his surgically-repaired knee. Then again, he appeared nimble last year with his mysterious busted-up knee.
* Rob Gronkowski goes over the middle but cannot haul in a Brady pass as he gets tangled up with Devin White with both hitting the turf.
* Brady goes deep to Scotty Miller along the left sideline and Miller goes low but cannot hang onto the ball. Excellent coverage by Jamel Dean.
* Once again Brady tries to go deep to Miller along the left sideline and Dean is there again, this time tipping the ball away from Miller.
* Jason Pierre-Paul blows past Blaine Gabbert (remember, no hitting, especially on quarterbacks). If this were a game JPP likely had a sack. Like Brady, JPP also has a surgically-repaired knee and JPP looked as smooth and quick as ever.
* Gabbert next goes back to pass and waits and waits and waits and is finally flushed to his left and runs out of bounds. Joe’s gives the defense a coverage sack on that play.
* Time for Chris Godwin. He catches a pass from Brady in the right flat. Then, Brady goes deep over the middle for Godwin. The pass was a little behind Godwin but he adjusted, caught the ball on his back shoulder barely breaking stride for a big gain.
* Bernard catches a pass from Brady along the right sideline and jukes a couple of defenders to gain a few extra yards.
* Tyler Johnson had a nice little practice this morning. He caught a couple of balls from Brady and in a play with Gabbert behind center, Johnson caught a Gabbert pass for a nice gain down the left seam.
* TIP! A Gabbert pass was tipped past the line of scrimmage (Joe didn’t catch who got his hand on the ball) and the ball bounced high in the air. Davis flew in and made a dive for the pass but it hit the ground just in front of him.
* This was throwing in space: Gabbert threw a pass between three defenders and the pass appeared about to hit the ground. But immortal tight end Codey McElroy from the noted football factory of Southeastern Oklahoma State comes sliding in like an infielder catching a foul ball before he hits the wall and saves the pass from falling incomplete.
* Just an interesting scene with no context: Arians had a long chat behind the offense and to the side with offensive linemen Ali Marpet and Alex Cappa.
* Brady throws a bomb down the left sideline to Mike Evans and Evans reaches out and looks to have it but as he tumbles to the ground the ball pops free. The crowd of some 2,000 Bucs fans groan loudly in disappointment.
* Playoff Lenny barrels up the middle taking advantage of a monster hole for a big gain. Joe still thinks Playoff Lenny looks leaner (and meaner?) wearing No. 7.
* Brady rolls left, fakes a handoff and fires to Johnson in the right flat.
* Ronald Jones runs long down the right sideline and as he jogs back to the huddle right in front of the bleachers, he gets a nice hand from the fans for his hustle.
July 25th, 2021 at 1:19 pm
Playoff Lenny, aka Vax-Averse Lenny.
July 25th, 2021 at 1:27 pm
Thanks for the highlights, Joe….makes us feel like we were there….
Didn’t hear AB…..any word on him?
July 25th, 2021 at 1:30 pm
Evans can’t be dropping balls & having trouble tracking them already smh
July 25th, 2021 at 1:32 pm
I really wish they would bring back the night practice at the stadium.
July 25th, 2021 at 1:41 pm
thanks J
July 25th, 2021 at 2:16 pm
With Watson sidelined four months, Darden, and Johnson will round out the receivers. Think this is the end of Watson as a Buc.
July 25th, 2021 at 2:23 pm
Perhaps. Remember, Watson will return (scheduled to return) maybe at Thanksgiving. Arians has a history of signing guys off the street he is familar with late in the season and/or playoffs.
If there is an injury to a Bucs receiver, Watson will return if healthy.
July 25th, 2021 at 4:15 pm
Nice to finally have the season begin and Joe describing the highlights. Watson has been a team player and earned respect. He gets paid until later in the season and can be recalled if needed.
July 25th, 2021 at 4:37 pm
There are some other guys at receiver – Travis Jonsen is an interesting developmental guy – who may have passed Watson anyway. He’s probably done as a Buc. A little disappointing as he always seemed to be a big-upside guy.
July 25th, 2021 at 4:38 pm
Watson will go on IR and will have opportunity to come off in 8-10 weeks if he’s needed. This injury helps his chances.
July 25th, 2021 at 6:32 pm
As always just great stuff. It makes me think of the old days when I could pick up a PBP sheet from SID’s after games but your stuff has the cool added description instead of simple dry stats.
Given that there’s a true challenge to actually get in, your stuff is needed.
July 25th, 2021 at 6:57 pm
I follow the Goat on twitter, and he put out a frikkin AWEsome video of him throwing the ball at 10-15 yards at one of those quarterback machines (picture two small tires spinning opposite directs to grab the ball and shoot it out there) There’s like maybe 3 inches of wiggle room, and he put the ball in there EVERY time, and it shot the thing back at him. I’m fairly certain our previous QB couldn’t do that