Bucs coach Todd Bowles.
It was borderline hot out at One Buc Palace Monday.
Practice began at just before 11 a.m. and when the sun came out while the Bucs were going through 7-on-7s and goal line, it was hot. Thankfully, maybe half of practice was under an overcast sky.
So far in both OTA practices open to the Fourth Estate, it didn’t take long for a big play to happen. Last week, Emeka Egbuka made a crazy one-handed catch on the first play of 11-on-11. Monday, it was the third play of practice.
As always, please remember this is underwear football. All hitting is forbidden. The players wear shirts, shorts and helmets.
(Joe found it funny that just a couple of days after KitKat-eating Bucs coach Todd Bowles’ good friend, Detroit coach Dan Campbell, said of underwear football, “I’m done hyping a pajama party in May,” Bowles, on Monday, derisively scoffed at underwear football as “flag football” and “two-hand touch” and refused to assess any player’s performance until the pads come on.
Joe’s glad to see NFL coaches openly rag on this exercise.
* On the third play of practice, Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield throws to his left as he believes Chris Godwin is open. But no! Benjamin Morrison jumps the route and houses Mayfield’s pass. The defense celebrated like Morrison just won a playoff game. Good to see the defense is into it.
* Kenneth Gainwell runs to the left. He’s quicker than Joe thought he would be.
* Backup quarterback Jake Browning tries for Tez Johnson down the right side. Johnson was open but Browning over shot Tez.
* Browning connects with Kameron Johnson over the middle.
* Mayfield hits Jalen McMillen over the middle.
* Browning and Tez link up this time, to the left. Morrison was guarding on the play.
* Tez dives on a pass to the right and catches the Browning offering.
* Bauer Sharp makes an acrobatic catch from Browning down the left seam.
* Joe has seen Sharp in two rookie minicamp practices and two OTA practices. Yeah, Joe gets it: Underwear football. But this Sharp always seems to make plays in practice.
* Shortly after practice began, Joe noticed Devin Culp walking to the building escorted by a trainer. One man’s missed opportunities are another man’s opportunities. One guy heads to the locker room while the other, who is trying to take his job, is on the field making plays. You do the math.
* Joe was screened on the play so not sure who Browning was throwing to but head-butting John Bullock appeared to break up the pass.
* Jalon Daniels has a pass deflected off a teammate’s chest and Caden Fordham (North Carolina State) got a pick.
* Joe remembers KitKat-eating Bucs coach Todd Bowles saying how Ted Hurst was struggling to adapt to the Florida weather. It seems it’s still a work in progress. He has his helmet off and is on one knee, clearly looking like he’s physically been through the ringer.
* Mayfield to Gainwell on a short pass to the right.
* Cade Otton catches a pass from Mayfield to the right and he weaves through traffic for some extra yards.
* Josh Williams catches a Mayfield pass to the left.
* Mohamed Kamara gets a “run stuff” (no hitting, remember) and the defense goes wild.
* This was beautiful: Mayfield absolutely rifles a 15- or 20-yard pass over the middle to Egbuka and you couldn’t ask for better ball placement. Mayfield threw a rope and caught Egbuka in smooth stride.
* Mayfield drops back and he’s looking to launch the ball downfield. But the downfield receivers were open so he checked down, throwing a short pass to Gainwell to the left. It’s way, way early but Joe is starting to envision a lot of short passes going to Gainwell this fall.
* Mayfield tries for Godwin to the right, no go. It seemed like the pass may have been tipped.
* Browning throws deep to Sharp for a touchdown.
* Browning throws down the left seam to Hurst for a score.
* Daniels throws to Garrett Greene to the right. Greene had to dive for the ball but he got it.
* Mayfield throws but not sure who the intended target was as the ball falls incomplete. Rakeem Nunez-Roches (“Nacho”) may have got a mitt on the ball.
* This has been a spirited practice, mostly from the defense. At one point, Joe heard someone holler from the defensive sideline, “WE OWN THAT MOTHER—–R!” Later, in goal line practice, it appeared a defender may have been offsides and the offensive line erupted and were pointing at some defender with one of the offensive linemen yelling, “Down at the one!” Joe doesn’t remember too many OTA practices with this much juice, specifically from the defense.
* Mayfield gets the shotgun snap, looks, pumps once, pumps twice, the checkdowns to Jalen McMillan who runs the ball in to the left for six.
* Tez looking like he had a touchdown from Browning but Josh Hayes punched the ball out of Tez’s hands near the right sideline. Hayes is entering his fourth season with the Bucs and that may be just the second play Joe has ever seen Hayes make.
* Dangerous: Browning is chased out of the pocket and rolls right. When he gets past the hashmarks, he tries to force a pass throwing across his body to Tez. The little man from Oregon skied high and got a hand on the ball but couldn’t quite haul it in. It looked like Tez was going up for a rebound.
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