Summer road trip for the Bucs again

Last summer, the Bucs had joint practices in training camp, two practice days at Jacksonville and two at home against Cleveland.

There is a new plan for 2017.

Dirk Koetter told Joe at the NFL Owners meetings today that the team plans a Week 2 of training camp joint practices on the road in August, leading up to a preseason game against.

The NFL preseason schedule will be released in April. So not everything is official, but that is the expected plan and an agreement with another team has been made and it awaits league approval.

Koetter said cutting back from joint practice sessions with two teams on back-to-back weeks was a decision that came following surveys of coaches and player feedback.

“I like joint practices a lot … we just felt like two was maybe a little bit too much,” Koetter said. The joint practices road trip, “it was just the right length, like five days,” Koetter said, adding that players liked it. “You do get a little bit of that training camp [bonding] feel, breaks up the monotony. I felt we got some good stuff out of it.”

Koetter said a Raymond James Stadium project will mean the Bucs have to open the preseason with back-to-back road games.