Grant Stuard was the very last player taken in the 2021 NFL Draft, which earned him the tongue-in-cheek title of Mr. Irrelevant (which he later spun into an Uber Eats commercial) and a ticket to Tampa. Now, seventh-round picks, and particularly very late seventh-round picks, are no guarantee to make the roster and Stuard was trying to crack the very roster that had just won the Super Bowl.
But crack that roster he did, going on to play in all 17 games and lead the team in special teams tackles. It certainly didn’t hurt that he had an impressive run through the Buccaneers’ three preseason games. In addition to his 11 tackles he recorded a sack, a team-leading three tackles for loss, a quarterback hit and two passes defensed. That’s really filling up the ol’ stat line. Stuard also tossed in a special teams stop, providing a glimpse of what he would concentrate on during the regular season.
Reasonable people can and will debate about the importance of preseason statistics (hint: ignore them if you play fantasy football), but it’s fair to say that it’s better for a rookie to show up in those games than to not show up, particularly if you’re spot on the 53-man roster isn’t necessarily secure. So let’s take a look at some Buccaneer draft picks of the past who have had strong rookie preseasons.
Here’s one name you won’t find on the list: Cadillac Williams. Head Coach Jon Gruden had no interest in putting his rookie back on the field in the preseason, giving him just 12 carries over the whole four games. It was a good strategy – Williams promptly broke an NFL record in the regular season with 434 rushing yards in his first three career games. You also won’t find anyone from the 2020 class on here because, well, they didn’t have a preseason, thanks to COVID. Here’s the guys I did find, and I limited this to the last 20 years so I wouldn’t be researching it for hours.
* WR Justin Watson, 2018: 12 receptions, 130 yards, 2 touchdowns
* LB Jack Cichy, 2018: 13 tackles, 1.0 sacks, 1 TFL, 2 QB hits, 1 pass defensed, 1 FR
* LB Kendell Beckwith, 2017: 17 tackles, 2.0 sacks, 4 TFL, 2 QB hits
* RB Mike James, 2013: 32 carries for 130 yards, 4 receptions for 18 yards
* S Keith Tandy, 2012: 22 tackles, 1 pass defensed, 2 special teams stops
* CB Anthony Gaitor, 2011: 7 tackles, 1.0 sack, 3 TFL, 1 QB hit, 5 passes defensed
* WR Mike Williams, 2010: 7 catches for 157 yards (22.4 yards per catch)
* WR Sammie Stroughter 2009: 6 catches for 71 yards and 1 touchdown, 10 kickoff returns for 281 yards, long of 75
* DE Kyle Moore, 2009: 6 tackles, 2.0 sacks, 3 TFL, 3 QB hits, 1 FF
* RB Kenneth Darby, 2007: 33 carries for 135 yards and a touchdown, 5 receptions for 36 yards
* DE Gaines Adams, 2007: 9 tackles, 2.0 sacks, 2 TFL, 3 QB hits, 2 passes defensed, 1 FF
* QB Bruce Gradkowski, 2006: 511 passing yards, 73.8% completion rate, 5 TDs, 3 INTs, 105.3 passer rating
* WR J.R. Russell, 2005: 11 receptions for 139 yards and 1 touchdown
* S Jermaine Phillips, 2002: 17 tackles, 2 TFL, 1 interception, 3 passes defensed, one FR
* RB Travis Stephens: 2002: 41 carries for 176 yards, 8 receptions for 65 yards
So what do we make of this list? It’s basically just a trip down memory lane for draftniks and Buccaneer fans with really good memories. It’s not surprising that the list includes very few of the team’s big name draftees from the last two decades. In the preseason, the later-round draft picks tend to play more and against lesser competition. There are a couple exceptions. Gaines Adams was the Bucs’ first-round pick in 2007, for instance.
Kendell Beckwith is an interesting entry, too. When the Bucs picked him in the third round in 2017 they didn’t really think he’d be ready for the start of the season thanks to a knee injury sustained the previous season at LSU. But not only was he ready by the regular season, he was full-go for the warm-up games and he made his mark. He went on to have a strong rookie campaign but a car accident the following spring derailed his career.
Anyway, the Buccaneers start up their 2022 preseason schedule on Saturday against the Dolphins. Get ready for some new top performer to emerge.
Now on to your questions.
A reminder that you can send questions to me anytime you want on Twitter (@ScottSBucs) and they’re easier to find if you include the hashtag #SSMailbagBucs. We are also now soliciting questions each week on our Instagram page; look for that story on Wednesdays. As always, if you want to get a longer question into the mailbag and would prefer to email your question, you can do so to tbbsocial@buccaneers.nfl.com.
What’s a “typical day” at training camp?
– @duinallanes (via Instagram)
Well, I usually get to the building around 7:15 to take care of a few things before practice, then print out the practice schedule and a roster. Then I…oh, wait. You probably want to know what a typical day of training camp is for a player. My day typically involves a lot of watching what those guys are doing and then writing about it or talking about it on camera.
The day starts pretty early for most players. The training room usually opens around 6:30 a.m., and that’s when breakfast service begins, too. Players can come into the building earlier than that, though. The other day Assistant Head Coach/Run Game Coordinator Harold Goodwin noted that when he gets to the building at 5:40 a.m. he usually runs into offensive linemen Nick Leverett and John Molchon already watching tape.
Oh, I should start by saying the players wake up in a room at the team hotel and either drive over to the AdventHealth Training Center in their own cars or catch a team-run shuttle.
There are three different periods during the day when the players can get their weight room work in. The first lift period also starts at 6:30 a.m. and the second one comes right after practice. That second session usually alternates from day to day between the big guys (OL, DL, etc.) and the smaller guys (WR, DB, etc.). Players can also lift in the early evening after the walk-thru.
So the first hour of the day (for those who don’t start even earlier) consists of some combination of lifting, getting treatment and eating breakfast. How injured each player is and how much they like to fuel up before a long day of physical effort dictates how much of those three elements they take part in.
After the coaches have a staff meeting at 7:30 a.m., the entire team convenes for a meeting in the large auditorium near the dining room. That’s a relatively brief gathering in which Head Coach Todd Bowles may lay out what the goals are for the day or go over some procedural things. Then practice begins, typically around 8:40 a.m., and runs anywhere from 90 minutes to two-and-a-half hours, depending upon where the team is on the ramp-up schedule dictated by the NFL.
Practice is usually divided up into somewhere between eight and 11 periods. It starts with stretching, then usually goes to a special teams period (maybe punt return one day, kickoff return the next) before progressing to drills in which each position goes to a different part of the field (three fields, actually) and works on its own with its position coach. The next step is usually install, with the offense on one field and the defense on another and both working with coaches to learn new parts of the playbook.
Not every practice goes in the exact same order, but somewhere in there you’ll have a team run period, with the receivers and defensive backs working separately in a one-on-one drill. Similarly, when the team goes into a 7-on-7 passing period the offensive and defensive linemen find another area to do their one-on-one pass-rush drill. You might have a field goal drill in there; since the Bucs are trying to decide between incumbent veteran Ryan Succop and first-year kicker Jose Borregales, they’ve had one of those drills in every practice.
Then the last hour of so in practice is made up of full-team sessions, often focusing on a specific situation such as red zone, two-minute or blitz periods. Unlike in the regular season, when the starting offense and defense work against scout teams showing their opponent’s plays, it’s usually ‘good on good’ in camp, meaning first team goes against first team.
After practice, the players go in for lunch, though a handful of them have media obligations at that time, too. The rest of the afternoon is made up of classroom meetings in which tape of the practice is broken down in great detail and players are critiqued or praised for their efforts. Around 5:00, they’ll go back out for a walk-thru, in which they go through plays at a walking pace, more for the purpose of install. Dinner follows and then players can go back to the hotel. Most of them spend some portion of their evenings getting back into their playbook studies using team-issued Surface tablets. Curfew is at 11:00 p.m. and lights must go off. Team security personnel go by every room to check on curfew compliance.
There are some daily differences here and there, such as the Bucs starting their two joint practices this week with the Dolphins at 10:00 a.m., but for the most part it’s a very repetitive schedule. The next day: Lather, rinse, repeat.
What’s the most difficult thing as a cornerback?
@irv_vvvvv (via Instagram)
I saw this question and the first thing that screamed out in my head was “everything!”
Most football people consider cornerback to be the second most difficult position to play in the game of football. The first position on that list is obviously quarterback and always will be, and those are the guys that get the biggest contracts. As of late the trend seems to be that wide receivers are getting the second-biggest contracts, and you know why? It’s because they are the best athletes on the field. And it’s a cornerback’s job to try to stop them!
As a cornerback, you have to try to match the movements of these insanely good athletes, and that requires speed, quick acceleration, nimble feet, loose hips, leaping ability and toughness. Often, you’re a 5-11 defender trying to match up with the NFL’s many 6-4 and 6-5 receivers, many of whom are also quite fast! If you play in the slot you’ve got to be able to move laterally with quickness and navigate through a bunch of traffic. If you’re playing zone you have to figure out where the offense is trying to attack you and close up that space. It helps if you’re highly intelligent and a good study, because any amount of anticipation of where the receivers are going that you can add will help you in coverage.
But I’ll I’m really giving you here is a surface look. I’m not a cornerback (unless you count flag football), so I don’t really know what the most difficult part of playing the position is. So I had a great idea: I’ll ask somebody who was an NFL cornerback. And not just any cornerback but the greatest one in franchise history and a future Hall of Famer. I am talking, of course, about Rondé Barber.
Barber basically pioneered the dual role of playing outside corner in base defense and moving into the slot in the nickel, so he’s essentially done everything that could be asked of an NFL cornerback. In addition to coverage responsibilities he’s blitzed the quarterback and provided important run support. He even played safety at the end of his career. So I asked Rondé what he felt was the single most difficult part about playing the cornerback position.
His answer was, “being patient in press coverage.”
Now, we did not have an extended conversation so I’ll have to decipher that a little bit. When a cornerback goes into press coverage he comes right up to the line of scrimmage over his man and prepares to try to slow him down significantly off his release. This is obviously a more aggressive strategy than off coverage, so it can lead to over-aggressive play by the cornerback when the ball is snapped. He may try to get his hands on his man as soon as the receiver makes his first move, but that can be a mistake. Receivers will sometimes come with combination moves as they try to release. If the corner can stay patient and initiate contact at the right time, he can let the receiver waste valuable time with these moves and still get his hands on him for the re-route. A quick lunge at the first move can lead to the cornerback getting beat cleanly off the line, and that’s bad news in press-man coverage.
With the abundance of Receivers -Do you think a few gadget plays with an extra Receiver at one of the tight ends positions would give any defense problems in coverage i e Jones Add a few wrinkles with misdirections plays for Darden/Thompkins and WOW!!!
Your thoughts – pass it on.
– Jay (via email to tbbsocial@buccaneers.nfl.com)
Jay later clarified in a second email that he meant to include Scotty Miller in that group with Jaelon Darden and Deven Thompkins.
I don’t think any of the Bucs’ receivers are going to actually line up as a tight end and assume such tight end responsibilities as in-line blocking. But the Bucs do use the letter designation to refer to both a second tight end or a third receiver so those are somewhat interchangeable positions. And I also believe the Buccaneers will turn to some of the players in their deep well of receivers to replace some of the tight end production of last year. Head Coach Todd Bowles has said as much, pointing to players such as the recently-signed Julio Jones as part of the solution to replacing Rob Gronkowski’s output.
If I have seen any specific trends towards using some of the receivers you mentioned on gadget and misdirection plays on the practice field, I wouldn’t be comfortable sharing it. Training camp practices are open to the eyes of any of the visitors in the stands, but coaching staffs would still rather have strategic information contained as much as possible. That said, using wide receivers in different ways, such as a jet sweeps or end-arounds, is prevalent throughout the NFL and the Buccaneers have certainly done that at times over the past few years. I don’t think it has been a big part of the offense because it simply hasn’t been necessary with the likes of Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Antonio Brown and Rob Gronkowski roaming all over the field. Maybe it’s something the Buccaneers could lean on a little bit more in 2022 as their offense possibly evolves into a more receiver-driven attack.
The first thing that has to be figured out is just which receivers are on the 53-man roster when the dust settles. Injuries could play a part in those decisions, and as of now it looks like Evans, Godwin and Russell Gage will be unavailable for Saturday’s preseason opener. If we assume, however, that all are ready to go for Week One (or in Godwin’s case almost ready but definitely on the 53-man roster and not I.R.), then the obvious top four are those three and Jones. The Bucs typically keep six receivers but might feel the need to bump that to seven at the start of the season, particularly if Godwin is still a couple weeks away. That leaves two or three spots to be divided among Miller, Darden, Thompkins, Breshad Perriman (also currently sidelined by injury), Tyler Johnson and Cyril Grayson, among others. The Buccaneers may not be able to find a way to keep all three of those smaller, speedy and shifty receivers – Miller, Darden and Thompkins.
I never felt like gadget plays were a high priority in Bruce Arians’ offenses, and again that probably had something to do with the team’s incredible offensive personnel. I mean, whatever the Bucs have been doing on offense the last three years, it has worked, particularly since the arrival of Tom Brady. Todd Bowles has replaced Arians as head coach but Byron Leftwich is still the offensive coordinator and play caller. Bowles will surely have some influence on all aspects of the team, including the offense, but we’ll have to wait and see if he is more fond of gadget plays. Personally, I’m a fan of them, so I hope we do see some more of that. And like I said earlier, I do believe the Buccaneers’ defense has to continue evolving this year out of necessity. So you never know! It’s going to be fun to find out.
