“Nobody Really Knew What He Could Do”
January 8th, 2025
Tristan Wirfs hugs rookie tight end Devin Culp.
So Joe watches Bucs training camp practices and while a lot of players are rather invisible, one guy who often looked the part of dangerous receiving tight end this summer was rookie seventh-round pick Devin Culp.
And then he never played.
Week after week, Culp was was a healthy scratch. In fact, before the Week 17 game against Carolina, Culp had three snaps under his belt on offense.
Simply put, the Bucs didn’t trust him enough to play him.
That changed, seemingly by necessity, when starting tight end Cade Otton went down last month with a knee injury.
Culp had three catches for 52 yards against the Panthers and two catches for 36 yards Sunday, including a third-down catch that Joe called as season-saver kind of grab when it happened.
Todd Bowles was candid about his soon-to-be 25 year old rookie on the Buccaneers Radio Network yesterday.
“Nobody really knew what he could do,” Bowles said of Culp. “He’s a very athletic guy, very athletic tight end, waited his turn, he studied. He goes out, he’s made plays two weeks in a row. So we’re building a lot of depth right there when Cade comes back.”
Well, now it’s a lot clearer what Culp can do. He’s fast, strong and big moments don’t seem to big for him.
Joe would not be surprised to see Culp make an impact in the playoffs.
4.47u for a tight end is no joke. 😳@_DevinCulp_ | @UW_Football
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January 8th, 2025 at 4:57 pm
Winfield FP
Dean LP
Edwards LP
January 8th, 2025 at 5:31 pm
Bucs have 4 TE’s, about time they can give Otton some rest during games. Should help Otton out.
January 8th, 2025 at 5:47 pm
Speaking of TE’s saw a documentary last week on the life of Aaron Hernandez.
He obviously turned out poorly but like many social misfits crap goes back to their childhood. Not to forgive the unforgivable but at least perhaps understand. His upbringing, not in the hood but a very nice neighborhood but a really mean ole man, beat the wife etc. I sadly can relate to that. And no I haven’t murdered anybody but perhaps I’m just lucky. And then of course there is the CTE discovered after his death.
At any rate I bring up Hernandez because he was part of BB’s master plan for the offense. The Pats drafted both Gronk and Hernandez in the same year. Two incredibly talented rookie TE’s. The plan all along was to unveil BB’s or his OC’s double TE offense with both of them on the field at the same time.
And it worked! Both Hernandez and Gronk had solid seasons and if Hernandez hadn’t self destructed who knows what kind of numbers those two could have put up with Brady throwing them the ball. Both big physical players with great hands.
Otton, Culp, and Durham are good route runners and possess good hands. They seem to be working on their blocking skills as well although admittedly a work in progress. But for blocking there’s Ko Kieft who doesn’t have bad hands but is not that fast or great at getting open, he is however an accomplished blocker.
This is one reason I’m uncertain about Coen leaving. He’d be giving up a LOT of talent at every position with which to work.
Perhaps Kieft plays more of an H back position next year.
January 8th, 2025 at 5:55 pm
I was happy with the performances of both Durham and Culp
January 8th, 2025 at 5:59 pm
I liked the sound of this guy when we drafted him. I had high hopes for the kid. Looks like he was worth the wait. Small sample size yet, but I like this kid.
January 8th, 2025 at 6:01 pm
Ko Kieft every week good for a crucial holding penalty, so theres that. Factor in their penalties while figuring who is best for the offense.
January 8th, 2025 at 6:04 pm
Actually, Yeah. Durham has been a pleasant surprise too. Still Orton is no Travis Kelsey, but he plays hard out there and gets the yards needed much of the time. He fights for yardage. Let Washington sell out on the run. We got something for them.
January 8th, 2025 at 6:04 pm
Appeared to have really good hands these last 2 games. Could be a valuable piece for Todd and Liam 👍🏼
January 8th, 2025 at 6:09 pm
take back comment on ko kieft, here is a list of penalties for each our players: https://www.footballdb.com/stats/penalties-player.html?tm=30&yr=2024
January 8th, 2025 at 6:13 pm
What may have been considered a position of weakness now looks like a position of strength. Culp looks like he could go deep and win. He’s caught everything that’s gotten near him.
spbf, agree about your thought to have Otton and Culp in there – the Bucs version of Gronk and Hernandez. Could do it with two Wr/1RB or 2RB/1 WR. And sorry to hear of such past experience.
Coen is only beginning, hopefully.
January 8th, 2025 at 7:18 pm
Culp ran a 4.47 at the combine, measuring 6’4″, 237lbs. He was fastest TE drafted. Not bad for a seventh round draft pick.
January 8th, 2025 at 7:22 pm
Seems weird that you could watch him look good in training camp and preseason, and then not play him at all and claim you didn’t know what he could do.
Is it simply b/c he’s not a good blocker? I feel like we’ve heard that about every single TE we’ve had in the last decade outside of Gronk.
January 8th, 2025 at 7:25 pm
The thing that I don’t understand- Otton had something like 98% of offensive snaps prior to his injury. Why aren’t these guys being rotated in now and then during the season? Maybe give 10% of the snaps to Durham and Culp? Maybe develop some backups?
January 8th, 2025 at 7:31 pm
stpete, I remember the Hernandez story. What a Tragedy with a capital T. We’ve got some serious talent developing on this Offense, and the TEs are part of it. Otton has very good hands, and Ko Kieft is turning into a solid blocker. It will be fun to see what Durham and Culp bring to the table. Y’know, it’s fun talking like this about the Bucs. Back in the Dark Ages, forget it!
January 8th, 2025 at 7:38 pm
This is another reason I voted “Little Confidence”.
“Nobody really knew what he could do”…Todd Bowles
I ask Joe or anybody on this board, how in the Hel! can a head coach say this about a draftee after Spring Training, Training camp and 16 games??
Is not that the job of the Head Coach? With all the blow outs wouldn’t you like to see what your guys can do. This guy is lucky he coaches the Bucs and the Bucs are in the NFC South.
Contrast that with 49rs Kyle Shanahan, who told his GM that we drafted our QB. Only he’s the guy we drafted in the 7th round and not the guy they gave the store for in the 1st round. How did he know that- -by watching and evaluating pre-season. What do you think TB would do in the same situation? Anyone?
January 8th, 2025 at 7:40 pm
Firethecannons
Great recovery! Well done. Gotta be careful here because guys do check out claims. LOL I was getting ready to google but YOU did it first and way to go!
Plus thanks for that list. Looking at it something jumps out immediately. The 4 leading most penalzed players are all on our OL. Figures, since it’s been said technically you could call offensive holding on every play. Again that bothers me in today’s game with so many over officious crews.
Unless it’s a violent personal foul if it doesnt actually effect the play as in the held player had zero chance of making a play then swallow the whistle.
NBA has similar problems in a very physical league so it’s “no harm no foul”.
Should be that way on the OL as well and I realize that the majority of the time it is, but when the officials decide it’s not and it’s at a bad time in the game its just uber frustrating.
January 8th, 2025 at 7:43 pm
Bucsfaninoregon
But doesn’t your post beg the question about the big mistake before LUCKING into Purdy. Kinda like BB lucking into Brady in the sixth round.
January 8th, 2025 at 8:50 pm
So if they put Culp on the 53 man roster thru all those games, who do they sit?
January 8th, 2025 at 8:57 pm
RB & TE we’re both deemed to be? Marks and having depth concerns at the beginning of the year. Both of them are three deep now. Fantastic to see.
A big problem right now is ILB depth
Culp 6’4” 240 with speed. If he develops into a blocker, Like Cade has after a year, that will be impressive
January 8th, 2025 at 9:01 pm
Firethecannons
The list of penalties has one thing jump out at me. Sterling Shepherd.
All the O linemen being there with 7 to 9 penalties is expected. DBs being there with 3-5 is expected.
But a WR with that many is not good. A couple of them, if I remember right, were unsportsmanlike‘s. They are totally uncalled for. He plays on the edge quite a bit.
January 8th, 2025 at 9:07 pm
Culp is fast and very strong with great hands. I expect him to develop into a premier TE based on what we saw the last two weeks.
January 8th, 2025 at 9:28 pm
BTW That video is awesome. He runs a sub 4.5 40 and makes it look EASY.
What a freaking graceful athlete at that size and he has great hands.
He looks like a gazelle!
January 8th, 2025 at 9:32 pm
St PeteBuc and David, Joe should do a article on this. I listen to PFF–Trevor and somebody he had on are ranking our O-Line tops, they did a breakdown on Goedeke and it was informative and also on Cody Mauch, listen to that if you can–on you tube–PFF “in the trenches” I noticed that about Sterling Shepherd too, damn, penalties are a real drive killer.
January 8th, 2025 at 9:33 pm
I liked Culp when we picked him late. Dude can fly and strong. He has the speed and strength to even be an H back at some point. He also has the speed to play receiver or even in the slot. A very versatile player you want to keep on the field often. I mean seriously guys, Sterling Shepherd is garbage and needs to be cut. Tailor your offense to your available weapons and Culp is your number 2-3 receiver at the moment. Big fast target. Ride that horse until it bucks you off.
January 8th, 2025 at 9:44 pm
Shepherd is good for a penalty and a drop per game
January 8th, 2025 at 11:51 pm
He has shown terrific hands the last 2 games. I was hoping they would try to target him more in the Saints game after he snagged the one across the middle. Seems like a dangerous weapon down the seam.
January 9th, 2025 at 12:01 am
Tristan Wirfs looks like a giant next to Devin Culp in that pic. Holy smokes.
January 9th, 2025 at 12:21 am
And DB’s have a hard time tackling him!
Please!
Give him a TE screen every game! He can break tackles and take it to the house!
And how about try him at HB/FB instead of Ko.
Culp reminds me of Cordarelle Patterson.
Also, why not put Culp at punt returner?
Palmer can’t break a tackle.
We need a punt returner who can break tackles. Period!
January 9th, 2025 at 1:23 am
Hey Oregon – such questions about Coach do not sit well with certain passive aggressive pink manatees. But, yes. Very fair question. Like “Why does the defense suck the whole first half but tightens it up in the second ?”
“I don’t know why.” Is coach’s answer to that. I guess it’s better than sucking the whole game like against Kirk Cousins twice. Brock Purdy, Bo Nix and Cooper Rush.
To coach’s credit, he’s a great guy. Solid citizen. You’ll probably anger the cotton candy whales from the pond, though.
January 9th, 2025 at 1:29 am
And just think when we get Chris Godwin & company all completely healthy, & back in the fold together next season with Cohen in year number TWO!!!!
January 9th, 2025 at 1:34 am
Culp has been an awesome surprise, has quick reach and good hands to pull a pass in to his basket. Hope he gets reps ever game, as big as he is he could very well become the Bucs C-Train!
Yet another 2024 rookie draft sensation, congrats to GM Licht and his top-shelf staff!
Welcome to the action young man, am looking forward to seeing you run down field and seeing how many DBs it will take to bring you down!
January 9th, 2025 at 2:16 am
Just reminds me of Tucker, they don’t play instead of inferior players because of “trust issues”…then we keep losing close games they coulda made the difference in. I like Todd but he’s the restrictor plate on this team.
January 9th, 2025 at 2:56 am
I gotta say Culp is a very pleasant surprise. He has not looked out of place at all the last two weeks. Key catch late for 20 yards impressed me.
Nothing against Otton but our TE guys may give us the option of giving Otton an extra week to recover. We did not lose too much with Durham and Culp. I am sure that Baker wants Otton back ASAP though.
Go Bucs!
January 9th, 2025 at 5:36 am
let him play fullback
January 9th, 2025 at 7:14 am
For all those fans trying to make comparisons and/or talk potential regarding our TE core and the combination of Hernandez and Gronk, you need to simply move on from that discussion. I get the excitement to see some of these guys make catches and contribute, but our guys are nowhere near to that level of play or combination of size, speed, hands, athleticism and route running to perform the way those TEs were able to perform. It’s why you draft a guy like Brock Bowsers in the first round, he’s the complete package. The more nuance TEs that Jimmy Graham introduced was the big fast WR type of TE, but who doesn’t do the dirty work of run/pass blocking very well. You need that elite ability to block, you think that would be the easiest trait to develop and frankly it’s one of the hardest. You have a slew of guys like Culp in this league. I think of guys like Evan Engram and David Njoku, really good catching TEs, but guys simply not known for the dirty work.
January 9th, 2025 at 7:42 am
Classic Bucky Irving Deja vu all over again here. Evidently it takes talent knowing who your better players are on this Bucs roster.
Why did it take 15 weeks to start Bucky Irving?
Live and learn… I suppose. Just thinking how many games the Bucs might have one if they knew how good Bucky really was from the start of the season.
If I were a gm looking for a qb in the nfl, I’d take a hard look at trading for trask, because nobody really knows what the Bucs have in trask including the Bucs.
Now this is no knock on mayfield at all. Just saying.
January 9th, 2025 at 11:07 am
I think people are getting a little hung up on our coach saying he didn’t know what he can do. I’ve read some other articles on other sites about Devon Culp, and one of the main things being said was that he came from an offence where there was no real play discussion within the huddle, but rather a hand signal for a solitary play, and because of that there was some feeling that his knowledge of the playbook and how it is called at the NFL level was lacking.
Often in our offense, there are more than one play called in the huddle and then when the quarterback is at the line of scrimmage based on the defensive formation, he may mix it up and I think Devin was not used to this and that slowed his development and ability to get on the field..
January 9th, 2025 at 11:22 am
Culp 6’4” 240 with speed, Hey Dave Imagine a RB 6’3″ 230 with speed and great hands, who could block. #32 James Wilder, was that guy. ROH needs to Add his Name.
Excited to watch Culp grow in our system. I really liked this draft choice. Watching and reading about how Coen has said how certain types of college programs do not set up players for success from high school football, they never learn to diagram and understand the play called in the huddle. A very big hurdle to overcome from college to the Pro level. Culp was in this type of program, as was McMillian. Now at seasons end they are showing what they can and are able to do in the NFL, having learned the verbiage, how to of being a NFL player.
6’4 240 on a motion seam route, could be a consistent yardage & TD maker.
GO!!!!!BUCS!!!!!
January 9th, 2025 at 1:32 pm
This guy is a threat keep feeding him and we live the speed 💯
January 9th, 2025 at 1:32 pm
Love the speed*
January 10th, 2025 at 12:09 am
If a guy comes in raw not knowing your system, show some urgency and teach it to him. Hold him accountable to learn it. Be a professional.
You know, coaching. Novel concept . I know.
Like, coaching your Edge rushers to be CBs, and your hot dog vendors to be edge rushers. It’s genius.