Defensive tackle Calijah Kancey.
Calijah Kancey, the Bucs’ first-round pick in 2024, may look different to a lot of Bucs fans when he makes his preseason debut tonight.
First, they’ll see Kancey at 100 percent. He was quite there when he returned for the season finale last year after a 3 1/2 months on shelf with a mending torn pectoral muscle.
Second, they’ll see a leaner Kancey. He was slightly undersized but still ferocious and effective when healthy in previous years. Now, Kancey definitely looks slightly smaller.
It was all by design and done the right way. “Everything is the right state,” Kancey told Joe in a 1-on-1 chat this week. He says his body feels in prime shape.
That doesn’t mean he came back too soon in January, when the Bucs beat the Panthers to close the season.
> “I was probably like 90 percent healthy physically, mentally 110 percent,” Kancey said. “I don’t feel like a rushed the process. I did everything in my will to make sure I was ready to go out there and play for my brothers and not put anybody in jeopardy, or put the team in jeopardy of losing.”
Kancey said there’s a celebratory mood among the team, especially the defensive linemen, after Vita Vea got a raise and a contract extension on Wednesday.
> “We’re all happy about Vita,” Kancey said of Vea. “That something that we really wanted to see happen. A staple guy in this organization, a pillar. Vita does everything the right way, on and off the field. That’s a guy that we wanted to see rewarded, and we want it the same way and are rooting for Baker \[Mayfield,\] as well.”
Another player, who wasn’t speaking on the record, also talked to Joe about rooting for Mayfield getting a contract extension this summer. It seems players think timing is important.
Kancey added that the Vea contract squabble was not stressful because everyone knew the team wanted Vea and Vea wanted to be here.
“It’s just the business part of it,” he said.