Mike Evans deserved a drink Thursday.
OK, Joe has mentioned this before. These notes are going to be, well, very different.
Joe was in the Steelers’ house. Joe was a guest. So part of the media protocol of the Steelers is that descriptions of plays cannot be reported unless a play is part of an otherwise bigger story, with quotes about the play in question from players or a coach.
And since Joe’s notes contain like 40 plays or more, it’s borderline impossible to get quotes about 40+ plays.
But the keyword here is “specific.” So Joe will try to describe each play in a very vague manner. And to help smooth any potential feathers, Joe will not mention any Steelers players. So if you want to know how Mike Evans or Emeka Egbuka did against Jalen Ramsey or Joey Porter, Jr., Joe can’t help you other than to say Evans went bananas yesterday and Egbuka was no slouch either.
So Joe is going to type up plays with unspecific information, but you’ll have to use your imagination and savvy eyes to connect dots to understand what happened.
The first note is taken out of sequence, but you will understand what Joe is trying to do. Joe apologizes for the inconvenience.
\* You may have heard that last week was the 80th anniversary of the first atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Baker Mayfield and Emeka Egbuka were not there that day. That doesn’t mean the bomb didn’t work.
\* This Joe can be specific with: Bucs outside linebackers coach Larry Foote has his position players run around a dummy and try to pick up a towel on the ground while getting to the “quarterback.” This is to help teach edge rushers to bend.
\* Anthony Nelson is wearing shorts and a jersey, but no helmet.
\* The music the Steelers play at the Crib that Antonio Brown Built is much better than what is often played at Bucs practices. It appeared Kyle Trask liked the music as well as Joe saw him dancing in place. A moment later, a ball was seen bouncing past the goalposts.
\* A Bucs player was seen celebrating just past the goal line. Joe saw Teddy Bridgewater on the field.
**One-on-One**
\* Joe saw Jalen McMillan with a football in his hands. Bridgewater was still standing on the field.
\* Joe saw Egbuka dance like a ballerina in mid-air in the corner of the end zone. He, too, had a ball in his hands.
\* On back-to-back plays, Joe noticed Rakim Jarrett and McMillan were very pleased about something. Kyle Trask was on the field.
\* Tez Johnson did a skit pretending he had but one arm. It almost worked but there was a defender who Joe thought tried to play Pat-A-Cake a little too roughly with Johnson.
\* Garrett Greene was very happy as Joe learned Greene’s insurance points improved by six.
\* Who knew Emeka Egbuka was a schoolteacher?
\* Who knew Trask was in the rifle corps? And Jarrett monitored the target?
\* Sterling Shepard was a schoolteacher, too?
\* Cade Otton apparently was a wrestler once. And when he won his last wrestling match, he kept a piece of leather.
\* As a waiter once, Greene dropped the dishes.
\* Devin Culp noticed before he left for Pittsburgh that the oil pressure in his rig dropped.
\* Egbuka walked through an orange grove recently and had to reach high for the fruit and he got a juicy one.
\* Mayfield and Shepard wrote a very pretty song together.
\* If Jaden Smith was a betting line, he’d get six points.
\* Tanner Taula was picking fruit too, in the middle of the orchard. Looks like Bridgewater is working for UPS as he delivered a package.
\* Cade Otton tried to stretch out the leather over an important line, but there was a Mons Venus issue.
\* Shepard did something very crazy, but in a good way. So crazy that Mike Evans and Jalen McMillan raced onto the field to celebrate with him, hooting and hollering.
**11-11**
\* The music is so good that a mosh pit developed. And in the middle of it, Zyon McCollum was barking like a mean dog at a lot of strangers.
\* Josh Williams did quite a bit of yacking, but he wasn’t one bit sick. Joe noticed Trask was on the field.
\* Owen Wright apparently likes hockey as he had a double-hattrick. He apparently leans left as well.
\* Bridgewater dealt Wright a hand of poker and the first two cards of the hand were a four of hearts and a two of spades. Crap dealing but those two cards add up to something.
\* Bucky flew first class while sitting in the far left seat. Baker Mayfield served drinks.
\* Sean Tucker also had some air travel and he too sat on the left side of the plane. His trip resulted in airline points.
\* Tucker likes to change things up on flights and moved to the right side of the aisle.
\* Trask felt his blood pressure rising and then watched Smith try to grab an orange off the tree, but someone else picked it first.
\* Culp had a job as a nurse practitioner and he made a house call.
\* “Teddy Bridgewater, you are the one who just got that ball all dirty.”
\* “Teddy, there was no need to run away from those dogs and then fall to the ground like a sack of potatoes.”
\* Baker Mayfield told Bucky Irving to run through that left-handed screen door.
\* Sterling Shepard likes to travel in the middle lane when Baker Mayfield is driving. Likes it so much he did it twice.
\* Trask had Shepard sit in the far right seat on the plane.
\* While Jacob Harris was driving in the left lane as so many Floridians are wont to do so often, he saw a jet with a No. 2 on the wings fly way, way over his head.
\* Tez Johnson was once a crossing guard who carried a leather briefcase.
\* Cade Otton was in the middle of a cow pasture and Baker Mayfield noticed him.
**7-on-7**
\* Jalen McMillan was in the middle lane. Mayfield was driving a rig and noticed him.
\* After Egbuka cut the inside of a finger on his right hand, Mayfield served him a steak that was as tough as shoe leather.
\* Mike Evans did a [Mike Evans thing](https://www.joebucsfan.com/2025/08/mike-evans-was-him-today/).
\* Don’t see this very often: Emeka Egbuka went shopping. While he was in the canned foods aisle, he got his hands on a can of corn, and he dropped it.
\* Evans danced down the sidewalk on the left side of the road and a rude man jostled Evans so much that an escaped prisoner threw a hankie.
\* Baker Mayfield was pumping gas when he saw Evans all by himself across the parking lot.
Joe is still waiting for next week’s media schedule to be released but Joe is fairly certain Thursday may have been the last open practice the Bucs will have this summer. If so, it’s been real. Thanks for riding with Joe through underwear football and through training camp!