Practice Notes From Day 1 Of Minicamp
June 7th, 2022
From left, Akiem Hicks, Ryan McCollum, Will Gholston and Logan Hall warm up before Tuesday’s first day of minicamp.
Compared to the previous underwear football practices this spring, this one seemed a lot crisper, tighter, and faster-paced. Maybe folks know Tom Brady doesn’t fool around in practice?
Joe once again must caution readers that this is underwear football. There are no pads. No blocking. No tackling. No hitting of any sort. Think flag football without the flags.
* Lots of chatter out there. Newcomer defensive tackle Akiem Hicks explained to Joe later why that was. Stay tuned.
* Blaine Gabbert drops back, slips while planting his back foot and is “sacked.” Rookie J.J. Russell and one-year veteran Benning Potoa’e were there and one of the two hollered very clearly, “I hit him! I f*cking got him!”
* Tom Brady to Cam Brate down the left seam. Smooth.
* Joe sees a lot of running in the first half hour, which seems pointless since it is underwear football.
* Brady connects with Jaelon Darden on a slant from the right side.
* Gabbert pats the ball, pats the ball, pats the ball looking left. He then pump-fakes to an open Ko Kieft in the right flat and finally settles on throwing to Deven Thompkins short on the right side. Had this been real football there is little chance Gabbert would have had that much time to throw and pass up an open receiver on his first option.
* Since there is no foot-rubbing tight end Rob Gronkowski and rookie tight end Cade Otton is still shelved, Joe noticed that Ko Kieft is getting in work with the first team.
* Brady throws to Ke’Shawn Vaughn on the left wide and Vaughn is swarmed by defenders right away.
* Brady hits Kenjon Barner in stride along the left sideline.
* Brady throws to Vaughn on a crossing pattern from the right but the ball was a little high. Vaughn skied high to pull in the pass and continue his route.
* Brady pumps and hits Codey McElroy in the numbers down the left sideline.
* While the scrubs were on the field, Donovan Smith was on one knee leaning against former Bucs Super Bowl-winning coach Bucco Bruce Arians’ red golf cart, fully hoarding the postage stamp plot of shade available. And as large of a man that Smith is, that’s saying something.
* It is a hot. Nice wind though. Not training camp hot but possibly the hottest it has been this underwear football season. Bucs center Ryan Jensen remarked later that was a good thing so the newcomers could have a taste of what to expect next month when training camp begins.
* Brady threads the needle down the left seam to Scotty Miller.
* Brady throws short over the middle for Playoff Lenny.
* Darden on a slant from the right gets past his defender and Brady hits him nicely for a touchdown toward the left corner.
* Gabbert lollipops a pass right down the middle to the backline for McElroy who rose up and grabbed the ball. The defense reacted like McElroy was out. Joe couldn’t tell from his vantage point some 130 yards away.
* Ballhawk Mike Edwards lives up to his name picking off a Brady pass aimed for Mike Evans over the middle.
* Gabbert throws toward Thompkins in the left corner. Thompkins dives and can’t come up with it.
* Gabbert throws in the end zone down the middle for Breshad Perriman but it was broken up by the defense.
* No. 4 (No. 3?) QB Ryan Griffin was on floppy hat patrol today, though this year players sidelined are not wearing floppy hats.
June 7th, 2022 at 2:03 pm
Just wait until the Sahara Dust hits.
It’s the worst I’ve ever experienced.
June 7th, 2022 at 2:06 pm
What about Trask?
June 7th, 2022 at 2:16 pm
Joe, nothing on the immortal JJ Howland?
June 7th, 2022 at 2:17 pm
We’ve got to stash Thompkins on the practice squad
June 7th, 2022 at 2:28 pm
While the scrubs were on the field, Donovan Smith……Extremely poor taste if you want to be taken seriously. Disappointing to say the least.
June 7th, 2022 at 2:42 pm
Maybe I won’t just dismiss Darden. Brady seems to trust him.
June 7th, 2022 at 2:49 pm
Trask should be taking this all in. Approach practice with intensity and a no nonsense approach. Practice with a purpose. Darden said when he was drafted Brady told him he had watched his college film, and kinda liked what he saw. Brady has taken him under his wing. I’m down on Darden. I don’t see the it factor. It seems like Brady was targeting him a lot in practice. That worries me. And Brady should stay away from those dig routes. Those are a QBs nightmare. That’s why Rodgers rarely attempts those throws.
June 7th, 2022 at 2:54 pm
Any activity at all from our CBs…..Davis, Dean, SMB?
June 7th, 2022 at 3:12 pm
Joe is fortunate enough to see who had the ball through the wall of players and coaches who stand between the media viewing area and the practice field, much less who may have been defending the receivers.
June 7th, 2022 at 3:36 pm
@Joe
What can I do for you, Joe?
June 7th, 2022 at 3:37 pm
Trask wasn’t mentioned at all. What does that say?
June 7th, 2022 at 3:45 pm
Joe, I know your policy regarding practice notes (they’ve gotta do something for you to write something, common sense) and I notice you didn’t mention Jerreth Stearns. As I didn’t see practice, I don’t know if he was in attendance or not. I’m hoping he sticks with the Bucs. He was SOOO productive in college.
June 7th, 2022 at 3:49 pm
@Joe
Oops, I thought you were asking for a bribe, that you wanted me to do something for you or the site, rather than JJ doing something to stand out.
June 7th, 2022 at 4:59 pm
“SOEbuc Says:
Trask wasn’t mentioned at all. What does that say?”
It says Trask-hater Joe doesn’t have good news for Trask-hater SOE.
June 7th, 2022 at 5:09 pm
Joe, you must love writing the word underwear. Is it really underwear football when they’re wearing shorts over their underwear? Is it underwear poker at a poker tournament if the players wear underwear under their shorts and pants? How about shorts football instead. I’m being facetious, I know you’ll stick with underwear because you seem to have a strange undergarment obsession. 😉
June 7th, 2022 at 5:17 pm
@Joe,Trask inactive?
June 7th, 2022 at 6:52 pm
NO FLOPPY HATS?!?!
Oh hell no!!!
June 7th, 2022 at 7:52 pm
Playoff Lenny needs to drop at least 30 #’s.
June 7th, 2022 at 8:52 pm
I wanna know, too. Was Trask getting any snaps or not?
June 7th, 2022 at 9:15 pm
Joe uses this reference (often) for a couple of reasons.
1) Raheem Morris was the first coach Joe heard refer to OTAs/minicamp/no-pads practices as “underwear football.” Joe liked it and kept with it. (Dirk Koetter called it “underwear football” too.)
2) Joe writes it (often) because it really isn’t football and that needs to be driven home. Joe gets asked about blocking and tackling and things like that about underwear football. Joe cannot answer those questions because there are none. This really frustrates fans Joe speaks with because they want intel and answers and there is none to offer because it would be like judging how good a hitter is in baseball strictly from batting practice. Joe could say, “Well, Luke Goedeke had good footwork on this pass play… ” But that would be fully dishonest. And Joe is of the belief Bucs fans want honest critique on the Bucs.
June 7th, 2022 at 9:18 pm
Trask did not appear in Joe’s notes. And Joe cannot recall seeing him drop back. That’s not to say he didn’t. There were plays Joe missed from looking down taking notes or the inability to see through the above-referenced wall of players and coaches blocking views from the media viewing area. There were several plays Joe had no clue who was on the field as a result of the human wall.
June 7th, 2022 at 9:21 pm
OK, Joe will take the bait. Please provide evidence where Joe “hates” Trask. Because Joe would like to see it. Joe is fairly confident however you and Joe have two fully different definitions of “hate.”
It’s *REALLY* hard to hate a guy who never played.
June 7th, 2022 at 9:28 pm
Remember that “snaps” thing Clyde Christensen talked about? And remember Brady was there today and he needed his snaps. And Gabbert was there today and he needed his snaps…
You can add up where Joe is going here.
June 7th, 2022 at 10:01 pm
Good God, Hicks is truly a monster sized Man!
June 7th, 2022 at 10:35 pm
Kenjon Barner. There’s a name that doesn’t get mentioned much. Let’s hope for upside surprises for all of the RBs.
June 8th, 2022 at 9:09 am
From your notes it looks like Gabbert stunk it up. And yet not one negative comment about Gabbert. 🤔
June 8th, 2022 at 12:47 pm
Darden looks good in underwear football but wait til the pads come on. Can’t believe he’s still on the team.