Bucs rookie safety Shilo Sanders fields a throw during defensive back drills Wednesday at Bucs minicamp.
How about some midnight notes on yesterday’s Day 2 of minicamp? Joe’s got you covered.
* The Bucs play music chosen by the players while they warm up for practice. This didn’t happen when Bucco Bruce Arians was around but Todd Bowles relented because at least Donovan Smith had a hissy fit about no music. The music ends when the stretching ends. So when Joe walked about for the start of practice, he heard “Enter Sandman” by Metallica being blasted over the three practice fields at One Buc Palace. Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht is a huge Metallica fan too, and caught both of the band’s shows last weekend in Tampa. So immediately, Joe thought, “Jason Licht commandeered the iTunes app.” He’s known to do this every blue moon or so. Sure enough, a minute or two later, Licht comes walking out to practice, pumping his right fist as if he’s playing air drums. (The second song was Black Sabbath, which fully confirmed to Joe that Licht was up to some high jinks.)
* Bucky Irving is up to Bucky Irving things, weaving through traffic for a big run.
* Baker Mayfield deep to Emeka Egbuka to the left side. Egbuka badly beat Jacob Parrish and once Egbuka got maybe two steps past Parrish, the Kansas State product fell down. Touchdown Bucs.
* Rachaad White is jammed at line but finally breaks through to the right.
* Mayfield to White to the right sideline.
* Kyle Trask to free agent receiver Dennis Houston, who was on a crossing pattern from the left.
* Really bad snap to Trask, which sailed over Trask’s right shoulder. Trask ran back to his right to corral the loose ball. Trask did a helluva job scooping the ball up and throwing it away over the right sideline.
* Mayfield flushed as the pocket breaks down and he’s off and running up the middle.
* Mayfield to Jalen McMillan along the right sideline and Joe isn’t sure McMillan was able to get both feet inbounds.
* Mayfield pumps right and throws over the middle to McMillan. Jamel Dean with the “tackle.”
* Cool move by Bucky. He rushed right to the inside of Cody Mauch. There is a crease, but not much of a hole. That doesn’t stop Bucky who runs sideways to squeeze through the hole for a nice gain.
* Ko Kieft hauls in a pass from Trask along the right sideline.
* Trask to Houston on another crossing pattern.
* Trask is jostled by a heavy rush as the pocket collapses. He damn near fumbled as Trask held the ball up like the Statue of Liberty holding the flame to keep the ball away from the linemen. Trask then quickly threw the ball away to the right.
* It is almost irresponsible for Joe to type the following but he has to type what he sees. All practice long Trask was hounded by a pass rush. Swing tackle Charlie Heck was working with the first team in place of Tristan Wirfs. So you can’t blame Heck. But the way the second-team offensive line has struggled to protect Trask this week, Bucs fans better work their rosaries, hoping no offensive line starter gets hurt. Yeah, it’s really, really early and there’s no hitting. But in underwear football, with training camp five or six weeks away, the second team offensive line sure looks like it needs some work.
* Trask throws a little behind Kameron Johnson to the right sideline but Johnson was still able to haul the pass in.
* Trask hits Johnson along the left sideline this time. Trask was under duress from the rush. This will be a recurring theme all morning.
* Joe is typing his note verbatim from his notebook following the Trask-to-Johnson pass:
“Second team OL doing a sh!tty job.”
* Rachaad White busts through for a run up the middle.
* Joe mentioned the big screen TV the Bucs are now using for practice to show the replays to the players. The Bucs can have all sorts of angles of practice but it appears the two popular angles are end zone angles with a feed for offense and a feed for defense in addition to an All-22-like feed. The end zone cameras are behind the goal posts and the cameras are actually higher than the goal post uprights, which are 35-feet tall (over 45 feet high if you count the distance from the ground to the crossbar). So the end zone cameras look to be no more than 50 feet in the air.
* Bucky runs up the middle inside of Ben Bredeson.
* Mayfield hits Cade Otton on a short pass to the right.
* Mayfield throws right down the right sideline and McMillan runs under it for a huge gain. Perfect.
* Trask throws quickly to the right and C.J. Brewer nearly broke it up.
* Trask to Rakim Jarrett to the right.
* Trask to Payne Durham to the left side for six along the left sideline.
* This Tez Johnson plays bigger than his size. Trask throws a short pass to the left but very high. Maybe Trask forgot Johnson is not Mike Evans. No matter. Johnson skies high, grabs the ball, slams to the ground but holds on.
* Today, Tristan Wirfs is wearing a black wrap on his right leg, not a big ugly brace. Progress, though he’s not practicing. Wirfs was just standing on the sideline watching.
* Mayfield with a screen to the left for White who gets a nice gain. Joe has stated this for years: It sure looks like White is a misplaced receiver. And a good one.
* The immortal Roman Parodie (Ohio), an UDFA, picks off Mayfield and houses the ball. Pick six and the defense hoots and hollers.
* Trask throws to Sterling Shepard to the left sideline and it appeared Shepard didn’t get inbounds. Close.
* Mayfield perfectly hits a seam pass for Cade Otton but the ball pops out of his hands, incomplete.
* Trask tries for Tanner Taula down the right sideline but Taula bobbles the ball and it falls to the ground.
* Jamel Dean had a pick-six of Mayfield! Wonder if he was drug tested? (That’s a one-liner Bucs coach Todd Bowles used last year when Dean had a pick in training camp.)
Bucs GM @jasonrlicht on beat with Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich during Day 2 of Mandatory Metallica… or minicamp pic.twitter.com/vcSf0iNQgP
— Kyle Burger (@kyle_burger) June 11, 2025