Saliva Day At Bucs Headquarters
January 2nd, 2025
Bucs GM Jason Licht.
Joe’s head is still spinning from listening to Dave Hamilton, the Bucs’ director of performance science.
And it has nothing to do with Hamilton’s English accent.
The Bucs trotted out Hamilton on the Buccaneers Radio Network to talk about all things performance science and there was just too much for Joe’s beer-soaked brain to comprehend.
In short, the team’s performance science department is an intricate machine and one Buccaneers Ring of Honor general manager Jason Licht pushed to establish, per Hamilton, and Licht remains a devout supporter of its work.
Wednesdays? Players all peform three jumps for the performance team, which studies every element of each jump and compares it to prior data to determine individual levels of fatigue.
Wednesday is also when the team records “subjective” wellness data from each player to study and compare.
Fridays? Hamilton says those are about spit.
“Saliva sample that will tell us about their testosterone,” he said. “That’s another indicator whether [players are] in a state of stress or recovery.”
Of course, Bucs players are wired up at every practice. Technology tracks their acceleration, deceleration, speed, distance and physical responses.
It’s all part of one giant equation to have meaningful performance conversations with players and coaches.
Hamilton had more to say but Joe is getting overloaded thinking about this topic.
For the sake of entertainment as well as performance, Joe thinks Todd Bowles (or any head coach) should be studied in similar ways during a season.
Logic says it would be valuable to know if your guy calling the gameday shots is on the brink of a breakdown, mental or physical.
And Joe certainly thinks Licht should be studied like a lab rat from April 1 through two days after the NFL Draft. Turn the findings into one of those “In The Current” features.
January 2nd, 2025 at 12:47 pm
Interesting! I would love to have that type of insight for myself.
January 2nd, 2025 at 12:58 pm
I’d to see the data before and after the 3 games the Bucs played listlessly…
Say… has anyone ever asked Bucky about his habit of running with that mouth guard dangling?
January 2nd, 2025 at 12:59 pm
Information is power.
January 2nd, 2025 at 1:04 pm
Quackery. For a bunch of young athletes, how much is testosterone going to flux? This is a modern version of “don’t have sex the night before a game” from the 1950s.
January 2nd, 2025 at 1:18 pm
Analysis paralysis ….. look for something to blame it on ….
Rocky vs Drago … Rocky won … Rocky did it the old fashioned way
January 2nd, 2025 at 1:20 pm
All this is great, but it doesn’t relate to keeping players healthy. If it would maybe more than 5 or 6 starters would have started the entire season. I’m not sure how many starters have played all season, but I’m sure you could count it on one hand.
January 2nd, 2025 at 1:21 pm
And Joe certainly thinks Licht should be studied like a lab rat from April 1 through two days after the NFL Draft.
I just resaw a clip of Licht talking to Joe (Steve?) and the media after selecting Barton. Boy did Licht look like cr*p.
January 2nd, 2025 at 1:28 pm
What’s next ? Neuralink ?
January 2nd, 2025 at 1:29 pm
I just noticed Seattle is pretty big fav over the Rams ,,, can anyone say #3 seed against Washington ?
January 2nd, 2025 at 1:35 pm
The NFL just wants more and more.
No preseason games and 12 game regular seasons with no buy week would make for much better games and competition while possibly (likely) limiting injuries. But, it certainly would cut down on profit and gambling revenue.
January 2nd, 2025 at 1:39 pm
Big of a lot of you to question the science you know literally nothing about. lol
January 2nd, 2025 at 1:42 pm
Need to hook some wires up to their hamstrings
January 2nd, 2025 at 1:47 pm
New low for joebucs fan! Seriously asking for Bowles to under go this testing. Bowles will win his 3rd division title increasing game wins every season while impaired by Brady salary cap issues. The Joes are a joke!! It is fun seeing what BS they write about next though.
January 2nd, 2025 at 1:48 pm
With this information mixed with AI we will know about Mike’s hamstring pull before it even happens.
January 2nd, 2025 at 1:52 pm
I’m not questioning the science. Teams aren’t sending astronauts into space. They are playing a game. It’s the mentality of thinking that is necessary to gain an edge. Artificial intelligence is on the verge (if not already) of reaching the singularity. When will technology applied to the game of football stop ? Probably never…. When will football become a game of machines rather than men ?
January 2nd, 2025 at 1:55 pm
I wonder if they test for nitric oxide levels?
January 2nd, 2025 at 1:55 pm
NY_Buc Says:
January 2nd, 2025 at 1:47 pm
^^^^^
You are wrong. I think this is one of the most important topics for Joe to explore.
January 2nd, 2025 at 2:00 pm
Citrus
I am sure you do. I bet you also agreed with Joe to sell off a draft pick, even though light has been nailing draft picks, for Haason Riddick and his 1/2 sack.
January 2nd, 2025 at 2:09 pm
Hopefully the joes catch-up to the new NFL soon. Edge rushers should contain the mobile QBs, stop the run, and then get a sack. By executing those directives the DL will get the sacks up the middle. Evidence is in the details of the statistics this year and overall team sacks. Please Joes spend some time to analyze. The double digit edge rushers does not = wins
Joe spends plenty of time analyzing. In fact, Joe has the luxury of doing it full-time, a football fan’s dream. There is some distortion here, as a team like Buffalo will widen the positioning of its offensive linemen to dare edge guys to rush inside so a Josh Allen can get outside. There are so many trends to watch in this area, including how the draft shakes out among position groups and salaries, of course. Philosophy shifts in this area were a big deal for Sean Payton with a shorter QB and his trade of Jimmy Graham in his prime for a center. Regardless, you’re being too simplistic. Stopping the run for edge players has never left the game and never will, but the edge sack is a special animal and is about more than just numbers.–Joe
January 2nd, 2025 at 3:32 pm
Hey Citrus Co.: I was born into a space (NASA) family. Right now, space research is taking a back seat to greed and dumb fundie religion. I just want to stick to sports rap. As in Go Bucs!!
January 2nd, 2025 at 3:40 pm
I usually find my stress levels decrease after I’ve unloaded some testosterone.
January 2nd, 2025 at 4:28 pm
Players must be stressed just to have to go through all this.
January 2nd, 2025 at 8:33 pm
orlbucfan Says:
January 2nd, 2025 at 3:32 pm….There is a very old Greek Book, been around about 3500 years. You should apply some of your linguistics talent on it. It’s highly recommended by millions around the world.
January 3rd, 2025 at 6:38 am
Joe, great article I used to coach strength and conditioning for a German high school playing American football near Ramstein AF Base. it makes a huge difference when you’re players understand what fuels their body and what makes them sluggish and warn out by half time. I have watched a few of those Steve Smith behind the scenes videos on you tube and it is pretty awesome to see how much they work with the players to keep them healthy. He promised to do one from Tampa this year if we made the playoffs last year so hopefully he does. I am sure that the real Bucs fans here would love to see more behind the scenes of One Buc Palace. Go Bucs!