Joe chuckled when he heard Todd Bowles say the following.
Bowles, after practice yesterday, gave rookie corner Benjamin Morrison a shout out for moving well considering he’s returning from hip surgery.
Either Bowles missed a segment of practice with other responsibilities or Bowles didn’t hear one of his defensive assistants hollering.
Bucs defensive backs were in a tackling drill (even though tackling is verboten in underwear football). The drill has a fellow defensive back catch a pass along a sideline.
The defender, also sets up along the sideline, then runs to the ballcarrier, stopping or jumping out of the way just before they touch each other. Sort of the way women on Clearwater Beach approach Joe before they get close enough to smell him.
Now Joe didn’t catch who the defensive backs coach was but on one of these drills, Morrison got an earful. Apparently the coach did not like Morrison’s tackling approach or technique.
Morrison got scolded.
“Don’t stop moving your feet!” Joe heard the coach bellow.
So when Joe heard later Bowles compliment Morrison on movement, Joe wondered if Bowles saw/heard this? Right about the same time, Joe noticed Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht and Bowles in a conversation.
Seemed friendly. Licht, as you can imagine, was a little demonstrative. Bowles, as you can imagine, was stoic and listening intently.
Look, Bowles cannot see everything. That’s why he has assistants. And with players spread out over three fields at times, no way Bowles can monitor every player’s move until he watches film of practice.
Joe just thought it was funny hearing Bowles compliment Morrison for moving, yet Morrison got chewed out by an assistant, maybe an hour earlier, for not moving enough.
It happens.
Kyle Trask Still Up and Down
Kyle Trask enters his fifth season with the Bucs and there are two things that he is pretty consistent about: Too many of his deep passes are lollipops and he has practices where he is really up and down. Some good plays and some real headscratchers.
Yesterday was just such a day.
Trask had too many lollipop passes deep for Joe’s liking. But one was both pretty and pretty good. On a play-action, he faked a handoff and launched a rainbow deep for Tez Johnson down the left sideline.
Johnson hauled the ball in and housed it which ignited a lot of hoots and hollers from players along the sidelines. Fun play if you’re not on defense.
Later, Trask had a real brainfart. In seven-on-seven drills, Trask dropped back. And waited. And waited. And waited. And waited some more.
Good grief man, unload the ball! If this were a game or hitting were allowed, Trask would have been splashed.
Several thoughts crossed Joe’s mind. You telling Joe in flag football (which is what seven-on-seven really is) someone cannot get open? Maybe the Bucs secondary has improved?
Or, what was going on with the receivers that they weren’t getting open? Or was Trask too locked in on one receiver and as a result, missing others? No matter how you slice it, the play was ugly.
Zyon McCollum. pic.twitter.com/LFDJ42DiFA
— JoeBucsFan (@JoeBucsFan) June 3, 2025