Benjamin Morrison: Living in the Moment | Salty Dogs

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Speaker 1: What do you call two guys that were there when this happened?
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Speaker 2: Back to return at Spurlock. Michael Spurlock at the 10. He's to the 20. He's to the 25.
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Speaker 1: Spurlock 30 to the 40-yard line.
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Speaker 3: We could see history.
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Speaker 1: 50, 40 to the 30-yard line.
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Speaker 3: Run, Michael. Run, Michael.
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Speaker 1: Run, Michael.
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Speaker 4: Run.
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Speaker 1: Touchdown, Tampa Bay.
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Speaker 3: There you go.
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Speaker 2: And that shotgun set. Three receivers left. Here's the snap and the blitzer is picked up. Brady underneath.
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Speaker 3: Caught by Evans.
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Speaker 2: He has the record at the 11-yard line.
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Speaker 4: Mike Evans becomes the first NFL player in league history to record 1,000 yards or more in his first seven seasons.
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Speaker 3: And won a throw by Brady. Congratulations, Mike Evans.
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Speaker 2: Who can forget?
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Speaker 1: Looking down, looking down.
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Speaker 3: Throws up the middle.
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Speaker 1: That's an assignment. And they're 30.
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Speaker 3: Derrick Brooks, 30. Touchdown, Tampa Bay.
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Speaker 1: Derrick Brooks, the most.
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Speaker 3: Valuable player in the National Football League. There it is. The dagger's in. We're going to win the Super Bowl.
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Speaker 1: Here's the snap.
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Speaker 2: Mahomes running to his right. Look out. He may run. Mahomes directly.
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Speaker 3: Oh, it's on the end zone. Intercepted.
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Speaker 1: Picked off at the end zone. Bucs are going to beat the Chiefs.
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Speaker 2: We're the champions of the world, and we still have a minute 33 to go.
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Speaker 3: That's it for KC. Bucs are the Super Bowl champs.
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Speaker 2: They can't stop the clock.
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Speaker 3: We call them the Salty Dogs. Hello and welcome everyone to the Salty Dogs podcast. I am Scott Smith.
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Speaker 2: I am Jeff Ryan.
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Speaker 3: And we are the Salty Dogs. We are. And we are a podcast that mostly talks about Buccaneers football.
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Speaker 2: Exactly.
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Speaker 3: So if you came here for some other reason, stick around. Maybe you'll like it.
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Speaker 2: Well, stick around because we do go on tangents and there's nothing wrong with that. So where we're going.
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Speaker 3: I have no idea. Here, I'll go on one right now.
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Speaker 2: Okay, what is it?
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Speaker 3: I don't know if I'm right to be annoyed about this, but apparently... Okay, so there was a game in Australia to start last week. It's been a week since then, so this seems like ancient news.
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Speaker 2: Yes.
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Speaker 3: But the game was in the town of what my whole life I've called Melbourne. Right. Apparently the locals pronounce it Melbourne.
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Speaker 2: Correct.
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Speaker 3: And every single NFL person who went on any kind of air or broadcast this week, this past week, insisted on saying Melbourne.
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Speaker 2: And I agree with that.
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Speaker 3: After a while, I found it so freaking annoying.
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Speaker 2: But that is the name of the city in Australia. And so if you are there, you should respect that. And they were there.
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Speaker 3: I'm talking about people that weren't there.
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Speaker 2: Well, the game is in Melbourne. The game wasn't in Melbourne, Florida.
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Speaker 3: I said I don't know if I'm right to be annoyed by this, but I'm just telling you the truth. I found it annoying that somebody in Kansas City was saying Melbourne, and they just kept saying it. And there's probably a hundred cities around the world where the locals pronounce it differently than what we thought it was. Sure.
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Speaker 2: But, you know.
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Speaker 3: But now everybody in the entire media community decided in the same week that we're going to pronounce it Melbourne.
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Speaker 2: It's funny you say that because when people were talking about Australia and I'll say, oh, I've been there and it's really very cool.
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Speaker 3: I would want to go there so bad.
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Speaker 2: And they say, oh, where did you go? And I say, Sydney, Melbourne, Melbourne. And then I say, we call it Melbourne, but they call it Melbourne.
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Speaker 3: Yeah.
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Speaker 2: So it's just a respect factor of that.
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Speaker 3: Is it though?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, it is. Yeah.
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Speaker 3: I don't know. I don't think I would feel disrespected if somebody from Turkey thought that my hometown was called St.
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Speaker 2: Louis. I was just going to say that. I can't believe you said that. I was going to go.
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Speaker 3: I wouldn't be disrespected.
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Speaker 2: I'll meet you in St.
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Speaker 3: Louis.
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Speaker 2: Yeah. Okay. All right. Fair enough. But. That's what they did, and that's how they pronounce it.
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Speaker 3: As long as we're talking about the– there's more to talk about. I know this is about Buccaneers football.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll get there.
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Speaker 3: Before we get there, and I did just come directly from the practice field, so I have updates. But on the Rams-49ers game, which the 49ers won handily.
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Speaker 2: Yes.
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Speaker 3: Which there's a reason we're going to be talking about that in a second. But the first thing I wanted to get to was I was watching that game my wife Giselle, which is to say that she was in the room looking at her phone. Actually, she really likes the 49ers. She has her whole life. She was invested in it. And she loves the Bucs too, don't get me wrong. There was the first time they got to the five-yard line or one-yard line and everyone was like, why did they just take Mike Evans off the field? Then, in the third quarter, they were down there again. It was third and goal from the one. I see the formation and Mike Evans is split out wide to the left with single coverage. And I said to Giselle, I guarantee you this is four down territory. So if they don't get it on third down, they're going to go for it on fourth down. And what they're going to call in third down is a fade pass to Mike Evans.
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Speaker 2: Right.
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Speaker 3: And even as I said that, I'm like, I'm acting like I'm some genius here. I bet everybody I know is saying the same.
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Speaker 2: I was watching the same thing. And I, and I went, but that's exactly what they did. Of course, because it works.
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Speaker 3: It's not even like a complicated route. It's not like he runs straight up and then an out. He just kind of, drifts over to the sideline and has his body towards the quarterback and the defender never gets a chance to turn around.
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Speaker 1: Right.
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Speaker 2: And in fairness to the defender, he knows it's coming to, he just can't defend.
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Speaker 3: I assumed I, the only way to defend this, I think other than hope that the pass isn't very good, which it really wasn't that great. It was a little low. He could have thrown it higher, almost hit the defender's helmet. But, um, Is to bracket him with a safety. Because otherwise, it's probably an option route where he looks at the quarterback. And if you're the corner and you want to take away the fade, then you line him on his outside shoulder, right?
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Speaker 2: Correct.
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Speaker 3: And you don't let him get between you and the sideline. But then they can just throw a quick slant. So that's the problem. If there's not enough safety over there, then it's either a fade or a slant. And the corner has no hope. I think he lined up directly over him, hoping he could react quickly enough to whichever route might go in.
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Speaker 2: But it's Mike Evans, so you know he's going to out-hype you.
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Speaker 3: What else do we have to talk about the Rams 49ers game?
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Speaker 2: That it's best to travel early and stay, which I was really happy about.
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Speaker 3: The 49ers were winners in that game, but so were all of us.
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Speaker 2: Right, because had the Rams won that game with that super quick turnaround, they weren't even there 18 hours before they played the game. If that would have been the case, then, you know, we'd be flying into games on, you know, late Saturday night.
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Speaker 3: We didn't want them to start a trip.
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Speaker 2: Correct.
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Speaker 3: If we ever are lucky enough to get the Australia game, we're hoping to go there for at least four or five days.
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Speaker 2: Oh, you have to. You have to. I mean, yeah.
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Speaker 3: For the sake of the team.
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Speaker 2: Well, yes. I want them well rested to play.
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Speaker 3: I want to see some. I think they have some really good waterfalls in Australia. Oh, they do. I want to see some of those.
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Speaker 2: I will say they have beautiful beaches, too.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I've heard that.
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Speaker 2: I want to say... Good surfing, right? Great surfing. I wanted to say that every travel person in the NFL was rooting for the 49ers travel-wise. Nothing else, but just travel-wise. Selfish reasons.
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Speaker 3: I don't know. Was that harder for the travel person? It was probably easier.
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Speaker 2: No, it was easier, but I'm just saying it's just so you could go. I mean, can you.
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Speaker 2: Just to hold travel parties.
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Speaker 3: They apparently had multiple staffers over the last year or two going over there.
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Speaker 2: Well, that is their territory, so to speak.
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Speaker 3: Yeah. But there's a difference between being that and being a player who has to come off of that long flight and play 18 hours later a football game.
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Speaker 2: That's a long flight.
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Speaker 3: Which is a very strenuous event.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a long flight, and you're breathing. You're on an airplane.
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Speaker 3: Apparently, every player had a lay-down seat, though.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's nice. That's the only way to go.
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Speaker 3: I had that one time, and it was awesome.
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Speaker 2: That's the only way to go.
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Speaker 3: Coming back from London one year was so great.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, you do that one time any long trip.
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Speaker 3: You paid for it.
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Speaker 2: Yes, you do pay for it.
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Speaker 3: You told me last week you paid for it. You paid money for it.
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Speaker 2: Yes, yes.
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Speaker 3: Okay, so.
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Speaker 2: But money well spent when you have a bad back.
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Speaker 3: So, Buccaneers football. Yo. I just came in for the practice field.
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Speaker 2: You did?
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Speaker 3: This is Wednesday, late morning. They started practice at 1110. The media gets to watch the first 20 minutes, which is warm-ups and then indie drills. Yep. And that's all you can report on. But from what we see there, we had nobody out of practice.
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Speaker 2: Right.
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Speaker 3: There could be some limited guys. We'll find out later. But Jacob Parrish was out there. I was a little surprised by that. You know, he got taken out of the game with a back injury. Now, Todd Bowles told us on Monday, MRIs and x-rays came back negative. There was no structural damage to his back. But you saw the replay probably. He got bent and it looked painful. But he was out there warming up. So that's a good sign. Although, we have to say, Benjamin Morrison did a nice job.
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Speaker 2: Very much so.
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Speaker 3: That was very encouraging. In fact, the play of our corners was one of the most encouraging parts of that game. I agree. Zion played well.
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Speaker 2: Because that was everybody was talking about. That was the weak link.
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Speaker 3: I specifically, on this show last week, said that was the concern.
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Speaker 2: Right.
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Speaker 3: Our corners against probably the biggest test you could possibly have from a pair of outside receivers in the NFL.
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Speaker 2: And did very, very well.
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Speaker 3: They did a great job. That was not the problem.
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Speaker 2: We'll get to the problems.
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Speaker 3: We'll get to the problems. That was not the problem. But Benjamin Morrison.
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Speaker 2: Not the problem. Problems with an S. There were several problems.
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Speaker 3: Benjamin Morrison was a highlight because it's good to see him looking like the type of corner that everybody thought he was coming out of Notre Dame.
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Speaker 2: Right.
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Speaker 3: You know, he was a guy that had not been for his hip injury in his final year at Notre Dame, would almost certainly have been a first-round pick. And actually, early in the draft process last season, I remember, like in February, he was showing up in first rounds, but he tended to drop just because of the injury concern. And then in his rookie season, he did run into some multiple injury concerns. So you get worried about availability, right?
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Speaker 2: No question.
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Speaker 3: But he's good to go right now, and he looked great.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, that was very, very encouraging.
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Speaker 3: Because we need that cornerback, Deb. We saw it already. We needed it week one.
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Speaker 4: Yes.
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Speaker 2: Yes. And that's the part you can't plan on. You just don't know if someone's going to get nicked up, dinged up, whatever. Andrew's part of the game. Got to have something. And it's next man up. And I thought Benjamin did an awesome job. And I think it was great that he got to get in there, though. Because it gave him the confidence back.
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Speaker 3: Hopefully that's true. And, you know, so you got this situation now with Jacob Parrish. And we just said he's out there practicing, which is great. But if he can't quite make it back for another game, you still feel pretty good about.
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Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. You're not.
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Speaker 3: And then you probably keep Aiden Garns active. He was inactive.
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Speaker 2: Inactive this game.
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Speaker 1: Right.
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Speaker 3: Because the Buccaneers kept Kevin Knowles active.
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Speaker 2: Right.
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Speaker 3: The cornerback that they claimed off waivers in that first week from Kansas City. And the reason they did that was primarily special teams.
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Speaker 2: Yeah.
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Speaker 3: Because he in his rookie year was a really good gunner. And we are without Josh Hayes, one of our usual gunners. He's an injured reserve right now. So and indeed, Kevin Knowles came in and immediately had two special teams tackles in his first game. So that worked. And he was they were right to have him active. But it was Aiden Garns, who was the odd man out. But we'll need him at some point this season. would be my point. And if Jacob Parrish can't go, then I'm sure he would be active for this game against Cleveland.
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Speaker 2: Yeah.
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Speaker 3: Um, anyway, uh, uh, let's see who else, uh, Jalen McMillan was warming up. Sean Tucker was warming up. Um, my understanding is that we didn't expect to have any complete did not.
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Speaker 2: Practices today, which is nice.
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Speaker 3: You know, we were without the guys that didn't play last week because of injuries were, uh, McMillan and Tucker and then Justin School, the tackle. But he seems close.
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Speaker 2: Okay.
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Speaker 3: And they're all practicing to some extent. We'll find out if they're limited, but they're all to some extent practicing.
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Speaker 2: So that's actually a bonus round, so to speak. That's a good thing.
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Speaker 3: I just came off the practice field, as I said, and we were getting the– if you're not one of our listeners from Florida, then you might not know the experience of sunny rainstorms. It was completely sunny, and then all of a sudden we're like, we're getting rained on. Yeah. Like, we couldn't see any clouds. I guess they were probably over the building. Mm-hmm. But there was rain. That is, to me, that's a very Florida thing to have happen.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, one side of the fence rain.
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Speaker 3: It's probably the only place in the world, but.
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Speaker 2: One side of the fence rain, one side of the fence it's not raining. That's typical Florida weather.
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Speaker 3: I always think it's cool when you can actually see the rain coming. Like, you can be standing in a parking lot.
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Speaker 2: Yeah.
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Speaker 3: In our parking lot out here.
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Speaker 2: And then you start running.
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Speaker 3: And you see that half of the parking lot is getting rained on and it's coming towards you.
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Speaker 2: You make a break. You find out where your 40 speed is at that time.
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Speaker 3: That's not how it rains in St. Louis.
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Speaker 2: In St.
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Speaker 3: Louis, it's just raining everywhere at the same time.
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Speaker 2: It just rains. Well, when we were in Cincinnati, we got off the plane and it was raining. It was cloudy and then we had rain in the evening and thinking, oh, wow, what's that weather going to be like? But it was actually very hot.
00:13:00
Speaker 3: It was very hot. It was like 89 degrees. Yeah, it was not pleasant.
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Speaker 2: According to the box score. Yeah, not pleasant.
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Speaker 3: Which probably meant it felt even hotter than that because it is turf.
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Speaker 2: Yeah.
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Speaker 3: Which tends to make things a little hotter. According to the play-by-play, it was 85 degrees with 29% humidity.
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Speaker 2: Well, the humidity wasn't bad then. No.
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Speaker 3: So it probably didn't feel much worse than 85. But still. The turf apparently was a teeny bit slick.
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Speaker 2: Yeah.
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Speaker 3: I mean, that's not that unusual.
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Speaker 2: No, it did look, it did look like it was. And, and I don't, I'm not sure how you.
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Speaker 3: It's the same for both sides. It's not any kind of.
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Speaker 2: No, no, but you know, I don't know. Do you wear cleats? Do you wear rubber cleats or do you wear suction cups? I don't know.
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Speaker 3: Uh, yeah, there are different types of cleats. Uh, you can choose. I don't know what's better for what turf is longer or shorter or whatever.
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Speaker 2: Right. I, I think at the end of the day, um, I think as bad as that game was with turnovers, it's still pretty amazing to me that you were a touchdown, still a touchdown to win. And, and what I say by that is usually when you're, when you're turning the ball over four times, you don't have a prayer.
00:14:13
Speaker 3: Well, what happened? And part of it was we matched their defensive touchdown. True. Cause the defensive touchdown, there you go. The catalyst towards us getting down by 18 points. Right. Um, Yeah, we fumbled four times. We lost all four fumbles.
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Speaker 2: Right.
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Speaker 3: There was an interesting note from the Buffalo-Houston game, which you saw that was just a great game between two really good teams that went down to the wire, right? There were four fumbles in that game. Right. Two by each team. Right. Buffalo recovered all of them. Right. They recovered their own.
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Speaker 2: That certainly helps the situation.
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Speaker 3: We had four fumbles, and we didn't recover any of them.
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Speaker 2: No. And you know what's so frustrating is that I don't know. It's easy to say you got to know when to fall down or whatever. But it was always like it was a great play and then took one more step that you didn't need to take and you take it. And then that seems to be the issue. You know, like like like Bucky and Bucky. He was there.
00:15:14
Speaker 3: Fighting for his third and 14. He was fighting for the sticks. He was.
00:15:18
Speaker 2: He was. But sometimes I wonder, well, I don't know if you can adjust to that. I can see more doing that when you're in the fourth quarter and your clock's running out, that type of thing. But in the first quarter.
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Speaker 3: I don't know. You can't tell a guy not to fight for you.
00:15:31
Speaker 2: Well, that's what I was just going to say.
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Speaker 3: You just have to be.
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Speaker 2: You can't adjust.
00:15:34
Speaker 3: You have to be. Like Baker, when he's fighting for the end zone there, he did it successfully later. And nobody was upset that he kept making moves and kept trying to get to the end zone. Very true. He just has to be. more secure with the football when he's approaching the defenders. He knows that. Yeah. But in the, in the moment, you know, stuff happens in the moment.
00:15:54
Speaker 2: Football's hard is what you're talking about.
00:15:55
Speaker 3: It's, it's, it's not good in there. They, they, they messed up those plays. So I'm not making excuses, but fumbles are a little fluky in my mind. This was only the 12th game in 51 seasons that the Buccaneers have lost four fumbles in one game. So while things need to be cleaned up and they, they deserve criticism for fumbling four times, uh, It's not probably going to happen again this week.
00:16:18
Speaker 2: Right.
00:16:18
Speaker 3: And 12 games, we've had that. How many games, how many of those 12 games do you think the Bucs won? 10. Of the times they fumbled a ball away four times? Zero. I would have guessed zero is actually one. We did manage to win one of those games.
00:16:33
Speaker 1: Who was that?
00:16:33
Speaker 3: I don't remember which one it was. It was like a 17-14 win in the 90s or something. Oh, okay. Yeah. It's not important which game it was. It's just that it just is. 11 of 12 times when you fumble, lose four fumbles.
00:16:45
Speaker 2: You're going to lose. I think, too, the first week of the NFL is just kind of crazy anyways because a lot of these guys haven't really played or been hit since the last game they played in the 25 season. So I think that makes a difference. And, you know, you're just getting popped when you haven't been popped in a while.
00:17:05
Speaker 3: Well, I guess that's true. I hadn't thought about that.
00:17:07
Speaker 2: Dave brought that up. And it's like you said, you know.
00:17:10
Speaker 3: I was wondering how you had some good insight. It wasn't actually you.
00:17:13
Speaker 2: Well, no, I listened, you know.
00:17:14
Speaker 3: You stole it from Dave.
00:17:15
Speaker 2: Well, I could have just pretended. But it makes sense when you hear a former player say that's, you know, you can practice all you want, but until you're getting hit, there's a difference.
00:17:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, he would know.
00:17:27
Speaker 2: If he says so, he would know.
00:17:31
Speaker 3: And they played a lot more in the preseason back in his day.
00:17:33
Speaker 2: Well, and that's the other thing, too. Sometimes when I hear that, I think it's the old school guy going, you know, we used to do three a day. Which there's some merit to it, though.
00:17:43
Speaker 3: Well, we had Daryl Johnston as our color guy this week for our game. I didn't hear the broadcast, but I'm sure. I don't think he goes through any game without at some point saying, back in my day. He's a classic back in my day guy.
00:17:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a hard go. You know, that's a hard.
00:17:59
Speaker 3: But I didn't have to hear it. No. I, speaking of broadcasts, I hear that our new look, Tony, Tony, and then Jay down on the sidelines.
00:18:07
Speaker 2: Jay. Yes. Yeah. You know, it's funny. We used the preseason like players use the preseason. And I will say the broadcast team did not fumble. I'm just going to put it out there.
00:18:20
Speaker 3: They did.
00:18:22
Speaker 2: I was really very happy that it took a step that I was hoping it would take.
00:18:27
Speaker 3: Okay.
00:18:27
Speaker 2: And so up to another level. Not that it's bad. There's just, you know.
00:18:31
Speaker 3: Well, no. And I would think it would take a little time.
00:18:34
Speaker 2: It does.
00:18:34
Speaker 3: For Tony and Dave to develop rapport.
00:18:36
Speaker 2: And that is coming together really quick. That came together really quick. And so.
00:18:40
Speaker 3: Well, we have some emails that we'll read at the end.
00:18:44
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:18:45
Speaker 3: And I think some of them mentioned that they like the broadcast.
00:18:48
Speaker 2: Okay, great. Good early rejection.
00:18:50
Speaker 3: That's what we like to hear. By the way, send us emails at. At saltydogsatbuccaneers.nfl.com. We read almost all of them, sometimes all of them. We even read one last week that was critical, and we discussed it anyway.
00:19:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, we did. And a lot of people talked about it afterwards, which I didn't really give much of a thought when I did.
00:19:11
Speaker 3: You got aggregated.
00:19:12
Speaker 2: But then after that, I was like, oh, okay.
00:19:14
Speaker 3: You got aggregated for our TJ talk.
00:19:16
Speaker 2: But I will say this, though. I will say that out of our finalists, two ended up being uh getting nfl jobs oh who's the other one uh jp shattuck was was also part of us and he ended up getting um the arizona cardinals where was he before he was he was he was actually in jacksonville but not doing play-by-play he was doing pre-game and stuff and he did some national radio or compass in sports usa jp shattuck uh-huh and um.
00:19:46
Speaker 3: So then you were you had two out of.
00:19:47
Speaker 2: Three and tj is going to be doing some ESPN Plus TV. So everybody found their niche, so to speak. Yeah. I'm very happy for everyone.
00:19:59
Speaker 3: Good. So, okay.
00:20:01
Speaker 2: The problems. The issues.
00:20:03
Speaker 3: We already mentioned the fumbles. That is clearly the number one thing. As you said, We lost four fumbles. They scored 24 points off of it, and we only lost by six points. And after we scored a pull within six, there was 319 left on the clock, and we had three timeouts left. It was legitimately an opportunity. We just had to get a stop, and we didn't get the stop. I thought our defense played decently. As Baker said after the game, they were put in bad situations a lot. They gave up 27 points, but they were put in bad situations a lot. There were some things to like. However, if we go beyond... The fumbles, there were two problems. We did not play as well in the trenches as I thought we would on either side.
00:20:46
Speaker 2: I agree.
00:20:46
Speaker 3: And we missed too many tackles.
00:20:48
Speaker 2: Yes. Which I thought was very interesting in the postgame. Todd said he was really looking forward to seeing.
00:20:55
Speaker 3: I'd like to know how many missed tackles we got. Yeah, there's the words that he said. That didn't help, especially right there at the end when we're trying to get off the field. Right. So.
00:21:08
Speaker 3: What I mean by the trenches is we gave up the four sacks, two of which led to those fumbles.
00:21:13
Speaker 2: Right.
00:21:14
Speaker 3: And there was a decent amount of pressure on Baker all day. Now, they did a good job in the running game, which was good to see, but there was a little too much pressure, and I didn't expect that because I expect our offensive line to be the strength of this offense. And I think they still will be. They just didn't have their best game out of the gate. I would assume they would say the same thing. And then our new look pass rush. We said it, you asked me this question, I think, last week, unless it was on the Insider, but I think it was here. I would be very, very, I was very, it was the number one thing I wanted to see was our new look pass rush come out of the gates hot. I said, if that happened, I would be really, really encouraged for the season. I said, if it didn't happen in week one, that doesn't mean all hope is lost. I still think it's going to happen, but it was unfortunate that it didn't happen in week one. We had one sack, and it was by a blitzing linebacker, Josiah Trotter. We did not get much out of our edge rushers at all. And that's supposedly our most improved position. And I fully expect the story to be different this week. But to me, the Bengals beat us in the trenches. Yes. So in addition to the turnovers, that was the problem. And then the missed tackles. But I think the stuff in the trenches. I don't think that will continue. Right. Because I think those are both going to be strengths for this team. Correct. One guy, however, who... And I'll give our communications department credit for these notes.
00:22:41
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:22:42
Speaker 3: Apparently, Khalid Jekansi is fully back.
00:22:46
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:22:46
Speaker 3: These numbers from NextGenStats, he generated pressure on 18.5% of his pass rush snaps, which was the second highest rate among all defensive tackles or interior defensive linemen in the NFL in week one. Right. That had at least 25 pass rush snaps. Mm-hmm. So... That's good. I mean, we need them to be sacks, but he is getting back there. This one's even better. His average get-off rate, that's how quickly after the ball is snapped is he off out of his stance and moving forward. 0.69 seconds. That was his average get-off, which I've looked at those numbers. You look at the best pass rushers in the NFL on NGS, and they're generally like in the 0.85 range. And that's a really good get off.
00:23:31
Speaker 2: Right.
00:23:32
Speaker 3: 0.69. And he's an interior defensive lineman and he's closer to the quarterback. That was the best for any interior defensive lineman in the entire NFL and the fourth amongst all players. So including your Aiden Hutchinson's and so on, it's fourth among all players. That is extremely encouraging. We need obviously Elijah to stay healthy as his goal for 17 games. But I said it before, I think I said it last week, but maybe it was on insider and not here. that I think he's the X factor for our defense this year.
00:23:58
Speaker 2: You're right.
00:23:58
Speaker 3: Now, it didn't come to fruition in week one, but he looked good.
00:24:02
Speaker 2: Right.
00:24:02
Speaker 3: And that's very encouraging.
00:24:03
Speaker 2: So if you're looking for things to be encouraged about, yeah. I think there's a lot to be optimistic about. It just didn't come to fruition in that particular game.
00:24:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, we just talked about why. Yeah.
00:24:15
Speaker 2: And then you also, you know, also I just, I'll let you continue.
00:24:19
Speaker 3: No, no.
00:24:20
Speaker 2: Well, just, you know, there was a lot of discussion about Reuben Baines.
00:24:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was his first game, and he didn't really show up with a great game.
00:24:30
Speaker 2: And it's called Welcome to the NFL. But a lot of people are making the, oh, well, that's why you don't draft a guy like that.
00:24:35
Speaker 3: Oh, are they going to blame it on his arm length?
00:24:37
Speaker 2: Yes, it already started. And I was like, really? Let's revisit that at the end of the year.
00:24:43
Speaker 3: Or even six or seven weeks from now.
00:24:45
Speaker 2: Let's have a body of work before we make up. But that's not the world we live in now. What else?
00:24:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, I will say. So I just laid out that the defensive struggles for the Buccaneers, to me, were on the defensive front and then the missed tackles.
00:25:05
Speaker 1: Right.
00:25:06
Speaker 3: And on my way into work today, I heard an analysis of the Broncos got their butts kicked by Kansas City. Yes, they did. And the Broncos had one of the best defenses in the NFL last year. They're right up there with Houston. Right. As the best defenses in the NFL. And there's no reason... They lost one pass rusher, I think. There's an interior pass rusher. I can't think of his name. It's like three names. They have most of the same crew back. They have the same coaches. There's no reason to believe that the Broncos aren't going to be a good defense. But in week one, they had the exact same problems we did. Are we ready to write off the Broncos' defense right now? No. So don't write off the Bucs.
00:25:45
Speaker 2: The thing about the Broncos, though, the other storyline there is Sean Payton wasn't calling plays. He passed it off, and so– Yeah, I mean, I liked his halftime interview. He goes, ask me that. They said, how's the offensive play going? Ask me after the game's over with. So it'll be interesting to see if he takes it over. I kind of hope not.
00:26:03
Speaker 3: Everybody thinks he will.
00:26:05
Speaker 2: I'm hoping he doesn't because the reason why they gave it, I don't know.
00:26:08
Speaker 3: To keep him from leaving to be an OC somewhere else.
00:26:10
Speaker 2: Right. Exactly. So if you have faith, maybe you've got to coach him up a little bit.
00:26:16
Speaker 3: It's so weird how many of these, we're talking about Davis Webb, right? Yes. How many of these guys that were like second and third string quarterbacks just a few years ago are now OCs? Davis Webb, Sean Mannion in Washington. No, Sean Mannion in Philadelphia. David Blau, I think is pronounced in Washington.
00:26:36
Speaker 2: I have a theory behind that.
00:26:37
Speaker 3: Okay.
00:26:38
Speaker 2: You're the backup, right? Or you're trying to get to number one. The only way to get to number one is to study film. I guess.
00:26:46
Speaker 3: Right?
00:26:47
Speaker 2: Because that.
00:26:48
Speaker 3: Well, for all these guys, they come from systems. People want the system.
00:26:53
Speaker 2: System guys.
00:26:53
Speaker 3: Everybody wants the Sean McVay protégés, right? I believe Mannion is from the Ben Johnson system.
00:27:01
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:27:01
Speaker 3: So all these guys were quarterbacks just a few years ago. They've only been coaching for like two or three years each.
00:27:06
Speaker 2: Right.
00:27:07
Speaker 3: They all became OCs like last year. And I mean, they all became position coaches just a couple of years ago. And then they're already OCs. And some of it's going to work. And you'll look like a genius for hiring Sean Manning. And then maybe David Blau doesn't work. You know, some of it will work and some.
00:27:22
Speaker 2: Of it won't work. But again.
00:27:24
Speaker 3: I mean, who knew that Liam Cohen was going to work so well for us? It was his first play calling game in the NFL.
00:27:29
Speaker 2: Right.
00:27:30
Speaker 3: And obviously he's shown that he's.
00:27:33
Speaker 2: Capable.
00:27:33
Speaker 3: A good play caller. Here and in Jacksonville.
00:27:35
Speaker 2: Now, the knock on him always is he doesn't stay very long. So he's in year two in Jacksonville.
00:27:40
Speaker 3: I think he's probably a place he's going to stay for a while now.
00:27:42
Speaker 2: The kind of money you're getting, yes.
00:27:44
Speaker 3: And the success he's having. Yeah.
00:27:46
Speaker 2: They're having.
00:27:47
Speaker 3: He's got a quarterback now that finally, Trevor Lawrence, looks good.
00:27:52
Speaker 2: Matured.
00:27:52
Speaker 3: They kicked the living brains out of the Browns, which hopefully.
00:27:56
Speaker 2: We can, too. Yeah, we're eight and a.
00:27:58
Speaker 3: Half points favorites, and I don't like that.
00:28:00
Speaker 2: I was just going to say, that's wild.
00:28:02
Speaker 3: I don't know if it's... We've lost eight of our last ten games.
00:28:05
Speaker 2: Well, you figure you get three points because you're home, so they're only giving us five.
00:28:09
Speaker 3: That's a lot, though. Yeah. Eight and a half points.
00:28:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know.
00:28:13
Speaker 3: But, I mean, I could see us just blowing them out of the water.
00:28:15
Speaker 2: Well, wouldn't that be nice? Make a fast, quick.
00:28:18
Speaker 3: We didn't... I'd like to... Coach... I hadn't noticed this, but Coach Bowles pointed out, and we're talking about the turnovers in Cincinnati... Post-game interview, he brought this up. He goes, and he says, every possession we had either ended in points or a fumble.
00:28:32
Speaker 2: No punts.
00:28:33
Speaker 3: We had no punts. We did have, technically, there was a one-play kneel down to end the first half, but we don't have to count that. All the real possessions either ended in a score or a fumble.
00:28:42
Speaker 2: Right.
00:28:43
Speaker 3: No punts for only the eighth time in a game in team history. Really? First time we ever lost a game where we didn't punt. Because generally when you don't punt.
00:28:50
Speaker 2: Well, you're not turning the ball over.
00:28:52
Speaker 3: I'll give you a good example. A few years ago, do you remember the game against Carolina where we just blew them out of the water in Charlotte 46-23? I think that was the game where Ronald Jones had the 98-yard touchdown. We scored on a team record eight straight drives in that game. We didn't punt, and we won handily. That's what a no-punt game usually looks like. This was not that kind of no-punt game.
00:29:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're not punting because you're turning the ball over. I would say destroy that film and move on. That is not something to hang on to.
00:29:19
Speaker 3: All right. Other things that we liked, obviously, Josiah Trotter.
00:29:22
Speaker 2: Oh, goodness.
00:29:23
Speaker 3: You've probably by now heard all the notes. First player in NFL history to have a pick six and a sack in his NFL debut.
00:29:30
Speaker 2: You want to hear some really, a really very cool interview um the players table with casey and donovan smith yeah yeah had had drawn right and he he was excellent and there's some really good insight about you know as a child he's seven years old and his dad would practice media sessions with them and he talks about that and he talks about how you know um on the way to a game, like right now, if he's going to play in the NFL, what does he listen to or what does he do to get himself prepared for the game? He watches highlights of his dad and him and his brother when they were little kids playing in all through. So it's a great interview. Good insight stuff. What a, what a wonderful guy.
00:30:21
Speaker 3: Good. It was funny. It was Zion McComb was asked about him and he said, he's, very talkative on the field, which you usually think means trash talk, which I think there's some of that. Right. But Zion said he's also just like really happy out there. He's like giddy. Yeah.
00:30:34
Speaker 2: He talks about that too. So it's a great interview. It's a great interview. It's about 50 minutes worth. It's a lot of stuff.
00:30:43
Speaker 3: Cool. Have a listen.
00:30:45
Speaker 2: Yeah. It's on Buccaneers.com or you can also get it on the Sirius XM app. Just type in Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and it'll show up. And that's where you can hear the salty.
00:30:57
Speaker 3: Dogs, too. And if you want to learn how that pick six came about, you can read an article from Brianna Dix that she put up yesterday. She's starting a new series where each week she's going to have coaches help her break down one big moment from every game. So you can learn why he was in the position to make that play, how that happened in practice, how they prepared for it in practice, and he didn't, as Coach mentioned... He didn't do it right in practice.
00:31:24
Speaker 1: Nope.
00:31:24
Speaker 3: But he learned quick, right?
00:31:26
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:31:26
Speaker 3: That's what you want.
00:31:27
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:31:27
Speaker 3: And Bree will give you the details after talking to Coach Mike Caldwell, so you can learn a little bit, like, exactly how that play ended.
00:31:35
Speaker 2: I love it.
00:31:36
Speaker 3: It's a good feature to look forward to this season. Trotter also had the sack, which showed his– it was our only sack, but it showed he had been– the scouting report from him said he was a good blitzer at just kind of weaving his way through, like, the A-gap. Uh-huh. And he did a great job on that blitz. It was our only sack. It came on the third down, so that was big.
00:31:56
Speaker 2: Big.
00:31:59
Speaker 3: So that was good. And he also– he even had a kickoff return tackle.
00:32:03
Speaker 1: Right.
00:32:04
Speaker 3: Not sure after the first game how much I want to see him on kickoff coverage. Uh-huh. But he did his job and had a kickoff return tackle. He had a team high 10 tackles. He's the– him and T.J. Watt, who, by the way, has been to like eight Pro Bowls. Yes. Yes. Was a former NFL Defensive Player of the Year– He and those two guys were the only two in the last 10 years to have a pick, not even a pick, but not even a pick six, but a pick, a sack, and at least five tackles in their NFL debut. So it's a nice start for Mr. Trotter. Mr. Trotter.
00:32:36
Speaker 2: Very nice.
00:32:37
Speaker 3: Mr. Trotter. Yeah.
00:32:38
Speaker 2: Where do you go from here?
00:32:39
Speaker 3: Mr. Cotta.
00:32:40
Speaker 2: And that's another thing, too, he talks about.
00:32:42
Speaker 3: Do you get the reference?
00:32:43
Speaker 2: I got it. Welcome back, Cotta. I wonder how many of our listeners, you know.
00:32:47
Speaker 3: Welcome back.
00:32:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, remember that?
00:32:49
Speaker 3: Uh-huh. Vinny Barberini?
00:32:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, Vinny Barberini.
00:32:51
Speaker 3: Who launched the career of one John Travolta. Mr. Trotter.
00:32:57
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:32:57
Speaker 3: What were you saying?
00:33:01
Speaker 2: You sidetracked me. Sorry about that. Oh, Mr. Trotter made the comment about how, yeah, it was a great game, but like his dad said, what are you going to do for the next game? So what, you know, how do you, how do you play better?
00:33:16
Speaker 3: And so, yeah, I mean, it's going to be hard to top a big six and sacks and we don't need that every week.
00:33:21
Speaker 2: And he said, if not that, then, you know, Pressures or whatever.
00:33:24
Speaker 3: Somebody else will make the big plays this next week. Or maybe he'll do it again.
00:33:27
Speaker 2: Or maybe, you know, he could be that guy.
00:33:29
Speaker 3: He could be the first guy since Santana Dotson for the Buccaneers to have a sack in each of his first two games.
00:33:34
Speaker 2: Wouldn't that be awesome? You remember Santana Dotson?
00:33:36
Speaker 3: I do.
00:33:36
Speaker 2: He was with us, and then he went to Green Bay.
00:33:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, he was with us for four years, and then he got in on that early wave of free agency, which started in 93. So he was able to go to Green Bay and win a Super Bowl. Had a really nice long career, but he famously– was like a fourth-round draft pick out of Baylor, and he was mad because he thought he was going to go a lot higher than that. He had 10 sacks as a rookie, which is still a Bucs record. And he had like five sacks in the first three games.
00:34:01
Speaker 2: Crazy.
00:34:03
Speaker 3: So he got off to a great start. That was my first season, 92. So I remember that draft class well. We also drafted Mark Wheeler that year. Sure. I don't think we had a first-round draft pick.
00:34:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, 92, that's when Dave came.
00:34:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, he came. He started that year as a rookie with Miami, and then late in the season got cut, and we picked him up.
00:34:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, crazy.
00:34:23
Speaker 3: Dave Moores, who's talking about Buccaneers radio book. What do you think? All right. You sound like we're wrapping up.
00:34:28
Speaker 2: No, on to the next chapter.
00:34:30
Speaker 3: Well, we were talking about things we liked.
00:34:31
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:34:32
Speaker 3: Bucky Irving looked like 2024 Bucky Irving.
00:34:35
Speaker 2: Yes, very much so.
00:34:38
Speaker 3: I liked this blocking style that we had where we had a lot of our guys, they're blocking in tandem. Mm-hmm. all together in one direction and Bucky's following that, but he's got a cutback lane and he did that multiple times to great effect. Like his first two runs were both nine yard carries from both of them where he's, they're all moving to the left and he's moving left with them. And if there was a scene that way, he would have gone, but instead there's a cutback lane because the defense is over pursuing, trying to keep up with the blockers, assuming that that's where the play is going. He finds the cutback lane and does a great job. Average 5.6 yards per carry in that game.
00:35:12
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:35:12
Speaker 3: Which is great. And the touchdown run, um, The key on that play, apparently, as Rondé Barber was explaining to me yesterday, is they went to man-to-man coverage on that. It was first and goal at the 10. Which, I said this at the time, I was sitting next to Andrew in our communications department, I'm like, I hate when you get first and goal at the 10. We had, somebody was, Kate Otten caught a pass on first down from about the 20, and managed to get all the way to the sticks there. and get us a first and goal at the 10. And I was thinking, man, I wish he'd have gone out of bounds at the 11 and you have second and goal, second and one from the 11. And you can get like a five or six yard play and that first goal at the five instead of at the 10, which is the worst kind of first and goal unless you have penalties. But then we score on the very next place. I'm like, okay, nevermind.
00:35:58
Speaker 2: Nevermind. Throw that theory out.
00:36:00
Speaker 3: So what happened on that play was we, we used motion very well to our effect in that play. I think first Chris and then somebody else went in motion and it, The first motion seemed to indicate that they were in man coverage, and the second motion confirmed it. So we knew they were in man coverage, and so both defensive backs on that side of the field followed the receivers the other way, and that's why it was so wide open for Bucky to just waltz in around the left end.
00:36:26
Speaker 2: You brought up Chris, and I have to say I love the stiff arms.
00:36:30
Speaker 3: I mean, that was a wild play on the sideline.
00:36:32
Speaker 2: My gosh.
00:36:33
Speaker 3: He stiff arms that guy into oblivion. And then that guy comes back and suplexes him into the ground. Right.
00:36:39
Speaker 2: And not a fly.
00:36:40
Speaker 3: I don't know how that wasn't.
00:36:40
Speaker 2: I don't know either. Well, it's their first game.
00:36:43
Speaker 3: Who knows?
00:36:44
Speaker 2: But that is, you know, when you get hit with a stiff arm like that.
00:36:48
Speaker 3: We're not allowed to criticize officials. I wasn't. I know. I'm just saying I'm not criticizing official. I'll just I'm saying the name of the referee in that game was John Hussey. Right.
00:36:58
Speaker 2: Was that his call?
00:36:59
Speaker 3: I don't know. I'm just stating the fact. His name is John Hussey. That was our ref for that game.
00:37:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, but Chris is back. Chris is Chris.
00:37:10
Speaker 3: Okay, so we didn't talk about Bucky for very long, but I think we can all agree he looked like his old self. He did. He had 73 yards after the catch on his catches, which is interesting because he finished with 48 total yards. But, you know, when you catch the ball six yards back in the backfield, you get a yak before you even get any positive yardage. Um, so he looked good. I thought, so we played, um, 52 snaps that counted. There was like 57. If you count snaps that were like false starts and stuff on those 52 snaps, we were in 11 personnel for 43 of them. Do you know what 11 personnel is? No, that's, um, that means three receivers and one running back and one tight end.
00:37:53
Speaker 2: Thank you.
00:37:53
Speaker 3: The way to, if anybody else out there is confused by, always hearing the words 11, 12, and 21 personnel.
00:38:00
Speaker 2: You know I said no, so you would explain.
00:38:01
Speaker 3: The outside numbers are in 11, 12, and 21. Those are how many tight ends. The first number is how many running backs, and the second number is how many tight ends. And you know you have five eligibles on any play because you have five ineligible linemen and the quarterbacks. You've got five eligible receivers on any play, and they can be any combination of running backs, wide receivers, tight ends. So 11 means one running back. One tight end, which means the other three have to be receivers. 12 personnel means one running back, two tight ends, which means there's only two spots for receivers, and 21 means two running backs, which we did do for four plays. I didn't really notice them during the game because that would mean Bucky and Kenny were on the field at the same time. I didn't really notice that, but it happened. And two running backs and one tight end, which means two receivers. We wondered, after seeing that Zach Robinson in Atlanta had one of the highest usage rates of 12 personnel last year double the amount that we did, were we going to see a lot of 12 personnel? My theory was he's going to look at our personnel.
00:39:03
Speaker 2: Right.
00:39:03
Speaker 3: We have deeper receivers than the Falcons had last year. And he's going to think we need to get these guys in the field.
00:39:10
Speaker 2: Right.
00:39:11
Speaker 3: And sure enough, now it could be totally different this week. Every game plan is not the same.
00:39:15
Speaker 2: A good play caller adjusts to his personnel rather than making his personnel.
00:39:19
Speaker 3: Adjust to the play. So almost the whole game, 82% of our snaps in 11 personnel, and that was without Jalen McMillan. And obviously Mike Evans is gone.
00:39:27
Speaker 2: Right.
00:39:27
Speaker 3: But it still worked pretty well. because a Mecca. It did what you expected him to do. He had a good game. He filled his role. Well, Chris, I mean, the numbers were now the, off the charts, four for 40, but he did his, he's moving the chains like he always does.
00:39:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, like you talk about Emeka, the big long throw in the beginning, you know.
00:39:45
Speaker 3: That could have been.
00:39:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was so close.
00:39:47
Speaker 3: That would have been a 63-yard touchdown.
00:39:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a great, the problem was just a little underthrown. And it hit, The shoulder.
00:39:55
Speaker 3: Of the defender.
00:39:56
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:39:57
Speaker 3: He had two steps on that defender when the ball was thrown. And that's not an easy play to get exactly right.
00:40:02
Speaker 2: No, no.
00:40:02
Speaker 3: Baker underthrew it a little bit on that one. He'll get the next one.
00:40:05
Speaker 2: But it did look sweet.
00:40:06
Speaker 3: But yes, Emeka was targeted on each of Baker's first three passes. And the other two were complete. So he looked good in his role. Chris did what he does. And even though the numbers weren't huge, he looked right to me. And Coach Bowles said afterwards that he played winning football. Right. Said obviously not everybody on offense did or would have won the game. Right. But he played winning football. And then Ted Hurst, he had all three of his catches on that same last drive, but he was on the field for 43 snaps.
00:40:35
Speaker 2: Right.
00:40:36
Speaker 3: So most of the game.
00:40:37
Speaker 1: Right.
00:40:37
Speaker 3: And he was doing what he was supposed to do. The ball just didn't find him.
00:40:39
Speaker 2: It was funny. He made the comment, when are they going to throw to Ted Hurst? And then three times in a row it happens.
00:40:45
Speaker 3: And they were really good plays, especially the one on the sideline. So if Ted Hurst... can play like that, I would think we'd continue to see a lot of 11 personnel, especially if Jalen's back, and now you've got another guy you can mix in. I think Jalen McMillan is going to play well when he's healthy.
00:41:01
Speaker 2: And ready to play. Yes, and that's, again, it all boils down to let's get everybody healthy and get everybody out there at the same time. We've been struggling with that.
00:41:09
Speaker 3: And then you've still got a pass-catching tight end option with K-Dot, and he got a number of targets.
00:41:14
Speaker 2: He did have that one drop.
00:41:15
Speaker 3: He had a drop, but he also had a couple catches.
00:41:17
Speaker 2: Right.
00:41:17
Speaker 3: A couple first downs.
00:41:18
Speaker 2: Right.
00:41:19
Speaker 3: And then we didn't get Kenny Gamel involved much in the game, and I don't think that was on purpose. It's just kind of what happened. I think the plan is to have him more involved. The snap count between him and Bucky was close to even, but the touches were not.
00:41:36
Speaker 2: I do like the combination of those two, though.
00:41:39
Speaker 3: Well, I think there'll be games where they both do more. Or there'll probably be some games where Kenny does more than Bucky, which makes it tough on fantasy football players, but you obviously don't.
00:41:46
Speaker 2: Care about that.
00:41:49
Speaker 3: So.
00:41:49
Speaker 2: I'm waiting for the other. I'm marking off things I don't know. Okay, I see.
00:41:55
Speaker 3: Now we have the Browns next.
00:41:58
Speaker 2: We do.
00:41:59
Speaker 3: Interesting.
00:42:00
Speaker 2: Before we get into the Browns.
00:42:01
Speaker 1: Okay.
00:42:02
Speaker 2: Special teams.
00:42:03
Speaker 3: There's some good stuff.
00:42:05
Speaker 2: I was just going to say, I have to say that definitely a mark improvement in special teams.
00:42:11
Speaker 3: Well, except we had the lowest punt total we've had. We averaged zero yards per punt. Right.
00:42:20
Speaker 4: Geez.
00:42:21
Speaker 3: No, we didn't punt.
00:42:22
Speaker 2: We didn't punt.
00:42:24
Speaker 3: No, we had some nice returns.
00:42:25
Speaker 2: We had some good coverage. When we needed a big return, we did get it. That set up our last punt. Right onto the 50-yard line. And almost, almost there. Yeah.
00:42:36
Speaker 3: We have not had a punt or kickoff return touched on since 2010.
00:42:40
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:42:41
Speaker 3: That is the longest current drought for any team in the NFL, and it takes us back to the old days.
00:42:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're getting one this year. You'll see. You will see.
00:42:48
Speaker 3: And Danny Smith, you trust, obviously.
00:42:50
Speaker 2: I trust Danny explicitly.
00:42:53
Speaker 3: Fourth straight year we've had a rookie score a touchdown in week one. Can you name them? So Josiah Trotter last year was pretty easy. This one should be easy.
00:43:02
Speaker 2: Bucky? No. Wide receiver?
00:43:05
Speaker 3: Bucky wasn't a rookie last year. Oh. 2025. Who was our big rookie last year?
00:43:12
Speaker 2: I'm drawing a blank.
00:43:13
Speaker 3: Emeka Abuka.
00:43:14
Speaker 2: Oh, Jesus.
00:43:14
Speaker 3: He had the two touchdowns in Atlanta.
00:43:16
Speaker 2: Jesus. How do you miss that one?
00:43:18
Speaker 3: They're going to get progressively harder.
00:43:21
Speaker 2: Apparently not, because I couldn't remember Ibuka.
00:43:24
Speaker 3: I trust you would have remembered Josiah Trotter for this year.
00:43:27
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:43:28
Speaker 3: Your hands are covering your face. You're in such shame.
00:43:31
Speaker 2: I am so embarrassed. So embarrassed.
00:43:33
Speaker 3: How about 2024? It was not Bucky.
00:43:36
Speaker 2: A rookie that scored the first touchdown.
00:43:39
Speaker 3: No, scored a touchdown in the first game.
00:43:41
Speaker 2: In the first game. I'm drawing blanks.
00:43:43
Speaker 3: He's still on the team.
00:43:44
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:43:45
Speaker 3: Wide receiver. Remember who he drafted in 2024? There's listeners right now that are screaming at.
00:43:51
Speaker 2: Well, somebody needs to scream at me. I'm drawing a blank. Honestly, Scott.
00:43:55
Speaker 3: Jalen McMillan.
00:43:56
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:43:56
Speaker 3: Jalen McMillan scored in his first game. All right. And then this one's the hardest one.
00:44:00
Speaker 2: Hardest one.
00:44:01
Speaker 3: In 2022.
00:44:02
Speaker 2: 2022.
00:44:04
Speaker 3: We had a rookie receiver score touchdown in week one. He is no longer with us.
00:44:09
Speaker 2: That would be. Trey Palmer.
00:44:11
Speaker 3: Correct. You got the hardest one. I mean, I gave you some hints, but still. No, no.
00:44:17
Speaker 2: I had to think about it. Trey Palmer, number 10.
00:44:20
Speaker 3: There's a walk-down trivia line. Yeah, there you go.
00:44:22
Speaker 2: Wow. Okay, so I redeemed myself. I got the hard one.
00:44:24
Speaker 3: You got the hardest one.
00:44:25
Speaker 2: I got the hard one.
00:44:26
Speaker 3: We're grading on a scale here.
00:44:27
Speaker 2: Yes, it's on a curve, and boy, did that one take a big curve. That's a U-turn if I've.
00:44:32
Speaker 3: Ever seen that. So the Cleveland Browns, are we good?
00:44:35
Speaker 2: I'm good. Cleveland Browns.
00:44:36
Speaker 3: We don't really need to go much longer before we go to our guest.
00:44:39
Speaker 2: No, we're good.
00:44:41
Speaker 3: And we got questions to read in the last segment. The Cleveland Browns, I think Todd Munkin coming back to town.
00:44:47
Speaker 2: Interesting.
00:44:47
Speaker 3: Our OC from 16 to 18 under Dirk Cutter. Yep. Was it under? Yeah.
00:44:54
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:44:54
Speaker 3: Dirk Cutter was our OC in 2015 in James' rookie year. And then he got promoted to head coach. And we brought in Todd Munkin as the offensive coordinator.
00:45:03
Speaker 2: Right.
00:45:05
Speaker 3: And we had some pretty prolific passing attacks. We did. In that stretch. And obviously Todd's done some great things elsewhere, too, like with Baltimore. That's what got him the job. At the age of 60, his first NFL head coaching job.
00:45:17
Speaker 2: Good for him.
00:45:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, and we really like Todd. Well, I do. I shouldn't put words in your mouth.
00:45:21
Speaker 2: I do. No, I do like him. In fact, what I like about him is his press conferences because he really talks a lot.
00:45:27
Speaker 3: He does a lot of rhetorical questions.
00:45:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, gives you a lot.
00:45:30
Speaker 3: Should we have gone for it there on 4th down?
00:45:31
Speaker 2: You could say maybe.
00:45:33
Speaker 3: He's a king of the rhetorical question.
00:45:36
Speaker 2: Well, it's a possibility. Yeah, good guy.
00:45:40
Speaker 3: I think, if I remember correctly, I also like him because he's a St. Louis Cardinals fan.
00:45:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's hard. You wait until you're 60 years old to get a head coaching job, and it's in Cleveland. I mean, that's a stretch.
00:45:50
Speaker 3: Come on, man. No, I'm just— You've got bulletin board material here.
00:45:54
Speaker 2: No, but I mean, in all honesty, we're not saying anything that it's not the head coaches. They just keep changing stuff.
00:46:03
Speaker 3: Well, they had Stefanski for at least six or seven years, and he won two Coach of the Year awards.
00:46:07
Speaker 2: Right. And then they fired him.
00:46:09
Speaker 3: Yeah. You know, we've said this before, unless you're a guy like Sean Payton, who you've, you know, you made your reputation in New Orleans, you're out for a year and then you want to come back to coaching. You can pick and choose your job opportunities.
00:46:23
Speaker 2: That's very, very true.
00:46:24
Speaker 3: If you're a guy who's never been a head coach in the league, and usually we're talking about young guys when we say that, but in Todd's case, you know, at the age of 60, He got his shot. He got his shot. You don't care that it's in Cleveland or Buffalo or Green Bay or wherever it is.
00:46:37
Speaker 2: I like him, so I want him to have some success, not on Sunday.
00:46:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, after this week, then let's see the Browns turn it around. You know, what he didn't get was a team. He didn't get to come straight to a team with a great quarterback situation. It appears to this point.
00:46:52
Speaker 2: Well, they think they had a great quarterback, and they did, and they let him go, and we now have them. So that's a whole.
00:47:00
Speaker 3: They did not realize they had a great quarterback.
00:47:03
Speaker 2: You know what I would love? I would love for the PA announcer to have Baker at this game be the last guy announced and say the number one draft pick from the 2018 season, Baker Mayfield.
00:47:21
Speaker 3: That would be so awesome. I would have to assume we're announcing offense this year.
00:47:25
Speaker 2: I don't know.
00:47:26
Speaker 3: It has to be. And he would go last.
00:47:28
Speaker 2: Yeah. But I, I mean, I won't, if it is.
00:47:30
Speaker 3: The announcer probably won't say that.
00:47:32
Speaker 2: I want that. Now I would add to it from the first round draft pick of the Cleveland Browns.
00:47:39
Speaker 3: You're just stirring up crap here, Joe.
00:47:42
Speaker 2: You think I am waiting until Baker gets on the podium.
00:47:45
Speaker 3: If, if, if, if, If he was asked multiple questions about Cleveland in the Cincy postgame.
00:47:51
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:47:51
Speaker 3: And he did not. No. Give them anything. He said it's the next game.
00:47:55
Speaker 2: Yep.
00:47:55
Speaker 3: I mean, obviously there's history there. I don't think I'm waiting to see that today. He goes to the podium today. I would be willing to bet there's nothing. He does not say anything that we will consider taunting or negative. He's going to say the same sort of thing. He's going to say it's obviously have a history with them.
00:48:11
Speaker 4: Right.
00:48:12
Speaker 3: But this is the next game and it's important. We need to win.
00:48:15
Speaker 2: Yeah. And you don't talk about the next game after you had a loss like and he didn't have Baker did not have a great game.
00:48:21
Speaker 3: Well, he passed pretty well. He was 23 of 28. He had a 98.8 passer. Yeah. He ran a touchdown in. It's just the fumbles.
00:48:28
Speaker 2: Right. Right.
00:48:30
Speaker 3: Did you realize how many former Buccaneer staffers that Todd Munkin has on his staff?
00:48:35
Speaker 2: You know what? I haven't not got into the Browns.
00:48:37
Speaker 3: Do you remember Byron Storer?
00:48:38
Speaker 2: I do. Yes. He was a tight end here.
00:48:41
Speaker 3: No, he's a fullback. He's their special teams coordinator. He had been working under Mike Passaccia. Rich Passaccia in Green Bay. They have Mike Pajakian as their quarterbacks coach. They have Danny Breyer. Do you remember him? I do. He's their pass game coordinator. They have....
00:49:02
Speaker 2: One of our favorite West Virginia guys.
00:49:04
Speaker 3: They have Keith Tandy. Yes. Look at you.
00:49:06
Speaker 2: There you go.
00:49:08
Speaker 3: He's a great dude. He's a good dude. They have George Warhop. He used to work here as an offensive line coach. These are all coaches.
00:49:13
Speaker 2: That we know.
00:49:14
Speaker 3: For the Browns. That used to be coaches here.
00:49:17
Speaker 2: Well, you know, it becomes that.
00:49:18
Speaker 3: And in Byron's case. a player as well.
00:49:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's his tree, so to speak.
00:49:23
Speaker 3: He's worked with them and he likes them.
00:49:25
Speaker 2: And guys that know what he wants to do and they can implement it and teach it very quickly. It's hard to teach a coach something new and then try to teach the player.
00:49:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think his offensive coordinator is Travis Switzer, which I'm pretty sure he brought with him from Baltimore.
00:49:38
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:49:39
Speaker 3: I wonder if that's Barry Switzer's kid. I mean, I think it is.
00:49:43
Speaker 2: I do believe it is for some reason.
00:49:45
Speaker 3: There's a lot of, there's a lot of neptism in coaching.
00:49:48
Speaker 2: Well, yeah. Um, you know, I, I, someone was telling me that Dirk Cutter's son was on the, um, Cincinnati.
00:49:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, he was.
00:49:58
Speaker 2: Yeah. It's, but, but yeah, I mean, good for them. You know, you got a shot at it, you know?
00:50:02
Speaker 3: Okay. So you were talking about us introducing Baker Mayfield as our starting quarterback against, um, Against the Cleveland Browns.
00:50:14
Speaker 2: On Sunday.
00:50:15
Speaker 3: When we play the Browns, it'll be the 12th time we have played the Browns in the regular season. Baker Mayfield will be the 12th different starting quarterback for the Buccaneers in those games.
00:50:26
Speaker 2: That's wild.
00:50:26
Speaker 3: Every single game we played against them has been a different starting quarterback.
00:50:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, we didn't... I mean, seriously, when was the last time we played them? Like, 22? 2022.
00:50:34
Speaker 3: Okay. And so that would have been Tom Brady.
00:50:36
Speaker 2: All right, yeah.
00:50:37
Speaker 3: And then 18, it was probably James Winston.
00:50:39
Speaker 2: Do you remember the Cleveland Brown game we did on Christmas Eve? That a number of years ago? I remember... And the reason why I think about that is every time we play the Browns, I think about the.
00:50:52
Speaker 2: I remember getting up and looking out on my hotel window, and I saw some guy in his office building. And this is like 7 o'clock in the morning on Christmas Eve, and I'm thinking to myself, why are you in your office on Christmas Eve? That's ridiculous. And then I realized, oh, shoot, I'm on the road. I'm not even home myself. And I'm like, okay.
00:51:13
Speaker 3: Christmas Eve. Yep. That would have been... 2006. Okay. That was not a good season for us.
00:51:19
Speaker 2: No, it wasn't.
00:51:20
Speaker 3: And we did win that game, though. We did. 22-7.
00:51:23
Speaker 2: I remember the line Gene used.
00:51:24
Speaker 3: I don't really remember much about that game.
00:51:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, we were pretty much taking, we manhandled them, basically.
00:51:29
Speaker 3: And we didn't manhandle a lot of people in 2006.
00:51:32
Speaker 2: No, but I'm just saying, because a lot of the fans were leaving early, and Gene goes, they're finishing up their Christmas shopping.
00:51:41
Speaker 3: Now, we lost most recently to the Browns in 2022. But in 2018, do you remember that game? No. Here? No. 26-23. That was the game where I'm pretty sure that Chandler Catanzaro, who was for a very brief time our kicker, missed a chance to win the game at the end of regulation. I'm trying to look at the playbook.
00:52:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't remember this.
00:52:06
Speaker 3: So this game went into overtime. Catanzaro missed a 40-yard field goal in overtime. All right. I mean, on the last play of regulation. So we had to go to overtime. 40-yard field goal.
00:52:18
Speaker 1: Right.
00:52:18
Speaker 3: Should be automatic. Should. In the overtime, this is Baker Mayfield we're playing against. We get a stop. They get a stop. We get a stop. So we have the ball. Time is running down. There's 155 left. And Deshaun Jackson. Wow. We're facing third and 29 at our own 45. Deshaun Jackson gets a 14-yard completion. which is good enough to set up Catanzaro for a 59-yard field goal. Do you remember this now?
00:52:47
Speaker 2: Mm-mm.
00:52:48
Speaker 3: He missed from 40, but made it from 59.
00:52:51
Speaker 2: Wow, he redeemed himself. Yeah.
00:52:54
Speaker 3: Of course, I counted it up. Since 1999, the Browns have had, which is, I guess, when they were resurrected, the Browns have had 42 different starting quarterbacks.
00:53:05
Speaker 2: That's wild. Since they came back?
00:53:07
Speaker 1: Mm-mm.
00:53:08
Speaker 2: Wow. 42, and they... that's like 1999, isn't it? 90. Yeah. 99. Is that when the Browns?
00:53:17
Speaker 3: Yeah. That's what I said.
00:53:18
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:53:18
Speaker 3: They were, they were, they moved, uh, after the 95 season and became the Baltimore Ravens, but then they were revived, um, uh, in 99. That's, and that's why the NFL had three years of 31 teams. And that's why you had like week one buys. Cause somebody had to be on.
00:53:37
Speaker 2: Someone had to not play. Um, And some teams who played wished they had.
00:53:41
Speaker 3: So how many quarterbacks do you think, given that they've had so many, have started a game for both the Buccaneers and the Browns?
00:53:50
Speaker 2: Total?
00:53:50
Speaker 3: Even before 95. Yeah. But most of them were since 1999.
00:53:59
Speaker 2: For each team or total team?
00:54:02
Speaker 3: Starting for the Browns. These are quarterbacks that started at least one game for the Buccaneers and the Browns. There are.
00:54:10
Speaker 2: Okay, Jeff Garcia.
00:54:12
Speaker 3: Good job. Baker. There are nine of them.
00:54:18
Speaker 2: Not Gradkowski, but Bruce.
00:54:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're doing good.
00:54:25
Speaker 2: I think Trent Dilfer.
00:54:26
Speaker 3: Yes, you're doing great. You're totally redeeming yourself from the last question I asked you.
00:54:33
Speaker 2: Craig Erickson went to the Colts. I'm thinking of... Okay.
00:54:37
Speaker 3: Okay. Who else? I got four. You've got Dilfer, Garcia, Gretkowski, and Baker, right?
00:54:43
Speaker 1: Right.
00:54:44
Speaker 3: Two of the other remaining five are brothers.
00:54:49
Speaker 2: They're brothers.
00:54:49
Speaker 3: Uh-huh. It's a pair of brothers.
00:54:52
Speaker 2: It's a pair of brothers.
00:54:53
Speaker 3: They're not twins.
00:54:57
Speaker 2: I'm drawing a blank.
00:54:58
Speaker 3: The brothers McCown. Oh, Josh and Luke.
00:55:01
Speaker 2: Oh, yes.
00:55:02
Speaker 3: And this one you would have never gotten, Eric Zier. Started four games for.
00:55:07
Speaker 2: I do remember Eric Seidel.
00:55:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, but he only started one game for us, and he got hurt. It was on Halloween in Detroit. Right. He started four games for Cleveland. But the other two were former first-round draft picks by the Buccaneers.
00:55:19
Speaker 2: Vinny Testaverde.
00:55:20
Speaker 3: Uh-huh.
00:55:23
Speaker 2: I'm trying to think of who the other.
00:55:24
Speaker 3: Okay, so who have we drafted in the first round? Doug Williams.
00:55:27
Speaker 2: Yeah. Vinny Testaverde. Trent Dilfer.
00:55:29
Speaker 3: Trent Dilfer.
00:55:31
Speaker 2: Oh, Josh Freeman?
00:55:33
Speaker 1: No.
00:55:34
Speaker 3: No?
00:55:36
Speaker 2: Who else? I don't want to waste time.
00:55:39
Speaker 3: Very similar. Very recent.
00:55:43
Speaker 2: Oh, oh, Jameis Winston.
00:55:45
Speaker 3: Yes, Jameis.
00:55:45
Speaker 2: Jeez, yes.
00:55:46
Speaker 3: You keep getting the hardest ones.
00:55:47
Speaker 2: I know.
00:55:47
Speaker 3: Well, that's... Your brain's not working the right way today. Okay, that is everything I have on my list. The only other thing, and I meant to do this last week, but I realized I missed it. I thought it might be interesting to see, of all the players that we cut or released in the final cut down of 53, did any of them land anywhere?
00:56:06
Speaker 2: Of the 53 we cut?
00:56:08
Speaker 3: Of the ones we cut to get down to 53. I'll just tell you. Chris Braswell is on the Houston practice squad. Now, this was a week ago, so things could have changed. Rookie Kenny Fletcher, the tight end, is on the Indianapolis practice squad. Elijah Klein, the guard, landed on the Detroit practice squad. We know that Jack Pyburn got claimed to the active roster.
00:56:29
Speaker 2: For the Chiefs.
00:56:30
Speaker 3: I didn't know if he played yesterday. I don't know. And then some tryouts. Connor Bazeluk and... Devin Culp both had tryouts in Cleveland. I wonder if they're just pumping them for information. And Nick Jackson had a tryout in Tennessee. But that's not a lot.
00:56:44
Speaker 2: No.
00:56:45
Speaker 3: One guy on an active roster.
00:56:46
Speaker 2: I see Sterling Shepard got picked up.
00:56:48
Speaker 3: He didn't make it. He didn't?
00:56:49
Speaker 2: I thought he got picked up.
00:56:50
Speaker 3: Houston or something like that.
00:56:51
Speaker 2: No, I thought he got picked up again this week.
00:56:53
Speaker 3: Oh, I didn't see that.
00:56:55
Speaker 2: Two of our wide receivers got picked up this week.
00:56:58
Speaker 3: Like I said, this list was a week old, so there could have been some changes.
00:57:01
Speaker 4: All right.
00:57:02
Speaker 3: Okay, that's it. We're going to get our guest in, and then we will come back and read your emails.
00:57:07
Speaker 2: Okay, I just want to tell you that Salty Dogs is brought to you by Masonite. From scoring big on curb repeal to making every room feel like home field advantage, Masonite doors. Check all your X's and O's. Check out our door roster on masonite.com. Find the right interior and exterior doors for your life. The Salty Dogs.
00:57:35
Speaker 3: And we're back here on the Salty Dogs podcast. I'm Scott Smith.
00:57:37
Speaker 2: I'm Jeff Ryan.
00:57:38
Speaker 3: And now we have our guests with us. We're very excited about this. Joining us is second-year cornerback Benjamin Morrison. Benjamin, thanks for your time.
00:57:44
Speaker 1: Thank you for having me.
00:57:45
Speaker 3: I know Wednesdays are busy. Yes. In week one, you actually ended up playing much of that game. To our naked eyes, it looked like you played really well. And then Coach Bowles has said positive things. I wanted to hear how it felt. how you felt about your performance in that game.
00:58:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I felt good.
00:58:03
Speaker 4: First and foremost, I used to say it's half-hearted, but now with all the stuff you go through, the injuries and stuff, you realize who's really in your corner. And God really lifted me up through that process. So when I go out there, I give him all the praise and glory. And that was my mindset going out there. It was just like, God, you blessed me with these great talents, these gifts. God's allowed me to go out here and trust myself and go out there and just see ball, get ball and not think too much.
00:58:28
Speaker 2: I like see ball, get ball.
00:58:30
Speaker 3: Several plays that stuck out in my mind were ones where you reacted really quickly to a short pass and got up there and limited any yak, which was important against that team. Is that an indication of you're making good reads?
00:58:41
Speaker 4: It's an indication to coaching staff. I mean, film prep. I mean, they tell us what's going to happen beforehand, and you got to trust it. I mean, we go through all these walkthroughs, practice, film studies, so. I mean, at a certain point, you just got to go out there and go. Like, you can't second guess yourself because you're going to be good or bad. And I like my odds and my trigger.
00:59:01
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, your guy, Jacob, now he's going through trying to come back from the back thing. You talked about God having your back. You guys all have each other's back in the back room too. For sure.
00:59:12
Speaker 4: I mean, even when I was going through my stuff, they were all, they all, they uplifted me like Dean, Zion, Jacob, all of them. I mean, it's a physical game and we know that. So, I mean, prayer is up to him. I mean, I was, first thing I did was pray for him. I was on the ground and, helping him, um, anything he needs, I'll be there for him. Um, but he's been a, he's been a huge person in my corner. Jacob is a smart corner, elite corner. Um, I can pick his brain anytime I want. Um, and just asking why he do certain things. Um, cause he's always on the ball and making plays.
00:59:43
Speaker 3: Coach Bowles had said, and I know somebody just asked you about it in the locker room that, um, after seeing your performance in the game, he said it was the player that we saw coming out of Notre Dame. And you've, you've mentioned you had to go through a few things, um, at the end of Notre Dame. And then since you got here, do you feel the same way? Like now I'm finally, I'm that guy. I can show what I can do.
01:00:05
Speaker 2: Yeah.
01:00:05
Speaker 1: I mean, I just, I don't want to have any excuses. You know what I'm saying?
01:00:10
Speaker 4: Like, I don't want to have no excuses about my play in the past. And quite frankly, I want to forget the past. I mean, we're onto a new season. We're onto what's in front of us. But man, I'm just enjoying playing ball.
01:00:22
Speaker 1: Like, I just love football.
01:00:23
Speaker 4: Like I love, putting the cleats on the other way, cleats sound on the concrete.
01:00:29
Speaker 1: Like it's small things like that.
01:00:30
Speaker 2: I just love the concrete.
01:00:33
Speaker 1: No doubt. You just hear it like stuff like that.
01:00:35
Speaker 4: Like, and when you're start, stop, start, stop with injuries and setbacks, it gets tough to get in a rhythm. Um, and even I kind of experienced that going into camp a little bit and I was frustrated. Um, but I just, I just, I put my head down. I was just like, I know what I can do. I know what I'm capable of. Um, and I just continue to work. And I mean, yeah.
01:00:55
Speaker 3: Well, Appreciate that answer, and now we'll leave that all in the past.
01:00:58
Speaker 1: Let's do it.
01:00:58
Speaker 3: Just look forward.
01:01:00
Speaker 2: Make it great.
01:01:01
Speaker 3: That's also a thing that cornerbacks have to do, right? Yeah. And I think maybe more than any other position on the field, I don't know, maybe quarterback, that confidence is so important to your position. And you said in the locker room just a minute ago that you just have confidence, and you can tell us why.
01:01:15
Speaker 1: Yeah. Why I have confidence?
01:01:17
Speaker 3: Well, you explain where your confidence comes from.
01:01:19
Speaker 4: Yeah, where my confidence comes from, I mean, it's like I said, like I put– so much pressure on myself in the past of trying to achieve certain things or goals, but in the day, like, it's all fleeting. Like, if I go out there and just say, like, I'm going to give my best, I can live with that, and I love the results with that because, like, I'm not thinking beforehand. I'm not overthinking things. I'm just seeing what I trust, and I'm going. Like, it's a cool place to be, a mental place. Even in practice, like, I'm diagnosing it and going, and I'm enjoying it.
01:01:48
Speaker 2: When did this happen now that you're just reacting and enjoying?
01:01:52
Speaker 1: Yeah.
01:01:52
Speaker 3: It's just.
01:01:54
Speaker 2: Always been?
01:01:55
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm learning.
01:01:56
Speaker 3: I'm growing.
01:01:57
Speaker 4: I'm always trying to find ways to grow. And quite frankly, it's through all these setbacks. Because when you have these setbacks and challenges, you get to really know who you are as a person. I mean, when nobody's saying your name, when nobody's interviewing you, when nobody's talking good things about you, when everyone's kind of, quite frankly, doing the opposite.
01:02:12
Speaker 1: Right. Getting a hate DM and all this stuff.
01:02:15
Speaker 2: They forget about you real quick.
01:02:17
Speaker 4: And I understand that. So it's like, okay, when you do have some success, I'm not going to look at that. I'm not going to give into it because I know who's there for me. I know who I, why I play and who I play for. Um, and you should enjoy it with your family. I mean, this is the, like I said, the game I grew up playing. So I will say that.
01:02:33
Speaker 2: Reminds me a lot of what Tony Dungy used to say. Don't get too high. Don't get too low. Just keep going straight as a player.
01:02:39
Speaker 1: Exactly.
01:02:40
Speaker 3: How old are you, Benjamin?
01:02:41
Speaker 1: 22.
01:02:42
Speaker 3: Okay. So I'm more than twice that. And you are inspiring to me with the way you were talking about, um, your approach to life in the game. And I, you know, saying that you understand it can be fleeting but as long as you do the best that you can you're satisfied with it you can't you can't be upset with.
01:02:58
Speaker 4: That right and i think that's the biggest thing is like that's in all things that we do and i was talking to my wife about this the other day is just like you can always find things to find joy in in the future like when i get this i'm gonna be happy but it's just like no this is the dream like when i was injured that was a dream because i was the present that's all i had you know i'm saying And now where I'm at right now, like, this is the dream. Like, we're in this room talking on the podcast. Like, this is all we got.
01:03:20
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying? Like, we can't keep looking forward because, like, all we got is now.
01:03:24
Speaker 2: So you're basically saying live in the moment.
01:03:26
Speaker 3: For sure.
01:03:26
Speaker 1: It's all you can do. In the past, I wasn't doing that.
01:03:28
Speaker 2: I'm looking.
01:03:29
Speaker 1: I'm looking on to.
01:03:30
Speaker 2: Down the road.
01:03:30
Speaker 3: Exactly.
01:03:31
Speaker 2: Oh, this is going to be great.
01:03:32
Speaker 1: Exactly.
01:03:32
Speaker 3: I asked Benjamin to come in here for a podcast interview, and I feel like... No. Uplifting therapy. It's great.
01:03:38
Speaker 2: First of all, he's 22 years old, and I'm like thinking, oh, wow, this is... How long have you been married?
01:03:43
Speaker 3: Oh, I'm sorry. No, you're good.
01:03:45
Speaker 1: This past year.
01:03:46
Speaker 4: Okay.
01:03:46
Speaker 1: It's going to be a year. It's a year and about three months now.
01:03:49
Speaker 2: And you have to say your wife's name, or you're going to be in big trouble.
01:03:52
Speaker 1: Remington.
01:03:53
Speaker 3: Remington. Yes.
01:03:54
Speaker 1: Great.
01:03:54
Speaker 2: Well, congratulations.
01:03:55
Speaker 3: Appreciate it. It's awesome. Thank you.
01:03:56
Speaker 2: Thank you. Your dad... What's that?
01:03:59
Speaker 3: We only have a couple more. No, you're good.
01:04:01
Speaker 2: You're good.
01:04:01
Speaker 3: Okay.
01:04:02
Speaker 2: Your dad played.
01:04:03
Speaker 3: Yeah.
01:04:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, he played in Washington, 93, 97. I was looking. That means he played with Todd Bullitt.
01:04:09
Speaker 1: He did.
01:04:09
Speaker 2: He played with Todd Bullitt. Does Todd say, like, you look like your dad?
01:04:13
Speaker 1: I hope not.
01:04:16
Speaker 3: Wow. Don't let dad list go to the parents list.
01:04:19
Speaker 1: Wow, poor dad.
01:04:20
Speaker 3: No doubt.
01:04:20
Speaker 1: No doubt.
01:04:21
Speaker 2: That's amazing. And your dad played and now he's a pastor.
01:04:24
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah.
01:04:25
Speaker 2: So that's where your faith comes from. Yeah.
01:04:27
Speaker 1: I mean, like I say, like my dad's like he's like my hero. You know what I'm saying?
01:04:30
Speaker 4: Like for someone to have a dad like mine, like it's it's a cheat code. I mean, he's in life and in football. Like I look at him and I'm like, if I could be half a man, he is.
01:04:41
Speaker 1: I'll be a great dude.
01:04:42
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah.
01:04:43
Speaker 2: But from what I understand, though, is your mom hurts all you guys together. Really, your mom's the rock.
01:04:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, she is. She's the foundation. She's the foundation.
01:04:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, athletic family. You're the one of five children?
01:04:54
Speaker 1: One of five, yeah. All of us play sports.
01:04:55
Speaker 2: Where do you drop in on pecking order of the clan?
01:04:59
Speaker 1: I mean, I think I surpassed them all when I was about 10 years old.
01:05:02
Speaker 2: Everyone knew what it was.
01:05:04
Speaker 4: They fell in line behind me. I let them talk about second place.
01:05:07
Speaker 2: That's awesome. So you're all very tight. You still stay in?
01:05:10
Speaker 4: Yeah, those are my people. I mean, that's... I'd do anything for them. I want to give them the world one day. I mean, that's who I do it for is them. And they don't need anything from me, but I always want to take care of them. I want everyone to be in the same place as many times a year as we can.
01:05:26
Speaker 1: So I love them.
01:05:27
Speaker 2: He's got a great smile. You know, it seems like you're at a point, you've found something that most people are looking for.
01:05:32
Speaker 3: Sure.
01:05:32
Speaker 1: God.
01:05:33
Speaker 2: Well, that may be it. You seem very, very content.
01:05:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, I am. I'm happy where I'm at right now.
01:05:39
Speaker 2: I like it.
01:05:39
Speaker 3: Well, thank you. We're happy to hear you. We're here in the moment with us.
01:05:43
Speaker 2: Before you go, are you excited about Sunday's game?
01:05:46
Speaker 3: I am.
01:05:46
Speaker 2: Who isn't, right?
01:05:47
Speaker 3: I am.
01:05:48
Speaker 1: I'm really excited.
01:05:49
Speaker 4: I think it's an opportunity to go out there and put your best foot forward versus a good opponent, good team.
01:05:56
Speaker 1: It's fun. This is going to be fun. I'm excited.
01:05:58
Speaker 3: Home crowd.
01:05:59
Speaker 2: I like it, too.
01:06:00
Speaker 3: All right. Thanks, man.
01:06:01
Speaker 2: Thanks, man.
01:06:01
Speaker 1: Y'all have a good one.
01:06:04
Speaker 2: The Salty Dogs.
01:06:08
Speaker 3: And we're back here on the Salty Dogs podcast for our last segment, which is when we connect with our listeners. And you know what we don't do a lot of is, Jeff, is we need to thank our listeners. We do. Especially those that come back week after week.
01:06:20
Speaker 2: But before we thank the listeners, let's thank another sponsor, Beef O'Brady's. Beef O'Brady's, where game time meets family time meets deal time. We'll see you at Beef's.
01:06:32
Speaker 3: I like Beef O'Brady's.
01:06:33
Speaker 2: I do. I know.
01:06:35
Speaker 3: I like their wings.
01:06:36
Speaker 1: There you go.
01:06:37
Speaker 2: I haven't had them in a while. I have to check that out.
01:06:40
Speaker 3: I get the dry rub. I'm into dry rub wings nowadays because they're just so much cleaner. Yeah. You don't get as messy. I don't like getting messy when I eat.
01:06:47
Speaker 2: No, I'm with you on that.
01:06:47
Speaker 3: Hands. I can't stand it on my hands. The face is a no-go.
01:06:50
Speaker 2: I don't know. You could use something crazy like a napkin. I do.
01:06:53
Speaker 3: I use a mountain of napkins when I eat wings. But you don't have to use as many when you get dry rub.
01:06:58
Speaker 2: And so we thank the people who write to us.
01:07:01
Speaker 3: And even if you don't write to us.
01:07:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you're taking the time.
01:07:04
Speaker 3: Thanks for listening week after week. We get feedback that says, I look forward to this podcast every week, and we really appreciate that.
01:07:10
Speaker 2: You know, it's funny.
01:07:10
Speaker 3: It makes me feel good.
01:07:12
Speaker 2: I look forward to this because it's crazy. It's chaotic. We're trying to figure out when we're going to do it. But once I come in here and sit down, I love this.
01:07:20
Speaker 3: I like the fact that there's always just– there's all kinds of things we talk about around the office, but we don't find a way to get into, like, written stories or the insider with Casey or anything. There's just topics we don't necessarily find time to get to.
01:07:32
Speaker 2: Right.
01:07:33
Speaker 3: But we can just kind of sit here and– Bullshit the whole time. You're just like two guys at a bar going back and forth.
01:07:40
Speaker 2: I'm with you.
01:07:41
Speaker 3: Okay. This is from Ian McDermott, who's our West of Ireland correspondent. I'm sorry. He even told me it's pronounced Owen. It's pronounced, it's spelled E-O-I-N, but it's pronounced Owen. So my apologies for the first read there.
01:07:56
Speaker 2: We have an Owen from Ireland.
01:07:59
Speaker 3: But it's spelled O-W-E-N, right?
01:08:01
Speaker 2: I'm not sure.
01:08:03
Speaker 3: I have to look that up. We do talk about in the bar, in.
01:08:05
Speaker 2: The, uh, strategy. Yes. Yeah.
01:08:08
Speaker 3: Nice.
01:08:08
Speaker 2: Analytics.
01:08:09
Speaker 3: This, so this is Owen McDermott. That is a very Irish sound. I would say, um, from West of Ireland.
01:08:16
Speaker 2: It's awesome. I mean, just West of Ireland.
01:08:19
Speaker 3: It says West of Ireland correspondent.
01:08:21
Speaker 2: So where would West of Ireland be?
01:08:23
Speaker 3: Maybe he means the West part of Ireland.
01:08:25
Speaker 2: Oh, okay. Okay.
01:08:27
Speaker 3: I'm sure he'll write back to let us know.
01:08:28
Speaker 2: All right.
01:08:29
Speaker 3: Um, And his opening, I probably don't pronounce this right, but it looks like it's Madre, and he said that's Irish for dogs. All right. Win or lose the frustration of listening to three consecutive fumbles on my walk home, the joy of a pick six, a weird Joe Flacco cameo.
01:08:48
Speaker 2: Yeah.
01:08:49
Speaker 3: But you know what? He's counted on this play-by-play as having played.
01:08:53
Speaker 2: He didn't take a snap.
01:08:54
Speaker 3: He didn't take a snap because they took a delay penalty, so he technically didn't play a snap. But they have him listed as having played.
01:08:59
Speaker 2: I think that's a mistake.
01:09:02
Speaker 3: This is what it's all about. It doesn't always go your way, but hopefully we'll learn from it. My big regret of last season was, due to technical difficulties, not being able to listen to most of Gene's last season. That's Gene Degeroff.
01:09:16
Speaker 2: Okay.
01:09:17
Speaker 3: Our longtime Voice of the Buccaneers legend. Love Gene and wish him the best in retirement, as are we all. We do. Luckily, my radio feed has worked well so far this season for the new era. Well, that's good to hear.
01:09:28
Speaker 2: That's good to hear.
01:09:30
Speaker 3: Tony put in a solid debut.
01:09:31
Speaker 2: He did.
01:09:32
Speaker 3: Says Owen. Seems like a good dude, which he is, so I'm happy to hear him and Dave Moore gelling well. New sideline guy, that's Jay Retcher. Jay. Sounded good, too, but it is weird not hearing TJ wishing him well.
01:09:46
Speaker 2: Right.
01:09:47
Speaker 3: My brother did remark that I was channeling Gene when, while listening to the radio broadcast while everyone else watched it delayed in the red zone, I shouted, Trotter to the end zone, pick six. But yeah, all in all, despite the loss, great to be back. Thanks, Holland.
01:10:05
Speaker 2: Thank you for those kind words, but I also appreciate you taking the time to say that you were listening and You actually gave your opinion on how you felt about hearing it, and that matters.
01:10:18
Speaker 3: I told you we were going to have some nice feedback.
01:10:20
Speaker 2: No, that's solid.
01:10:21
Speaker 3: And then he immediately, Owen immediately, four minutes later, sends another email that says PPS. Never mind. Forgot to mention, does that mean there was a PS before? Oh, yeah, there was a PS. Sorry to hear about your dad, Scott.
01:10:33
Speaker 2: Oh, okay. That's nice. Now you've got to go back up to find the next one.
01:10:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, it says it's never easy, but don't be afraid to let it out. Okay.
01:10:40
Speaker 2: All right.
01:10:42
Speaker 3: So the PPS is, forgot to mention how impressed slash proud I am of the team today that he made on game day for not falling apart when there were three scores down.
01:10:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a good point.
01:10:52
Speaker 3: I think it bodes well for their season that they stuck in there after so many self-inflicted setbacks and delighted with Trot.
01:11:01
Speaker 2: I want to know why Owen is, A, an NFL fan. But more importantly, I should say be NFL fan. But how did he become a Bucs fan?
01:11:12
Speaker 3: This is not his first email to us, so it's possible he's told us before.
01:11:14
Speaker 2: But excuse us.
01:11:15
Speaker 3: As you can tell, Jeff can't remember what happened a year ago. Do you remember? Take the time now.
01:11:21
Speaker 2: Okay. Well, then Jeff and Scott can't remember.
01:11:23
Speaker 3: Well, I could remember Emeka Ibuka scoring touchdowns.
01:11:27
Speaker 1: Yeah.
01:11:27
Speaker 3: I'm just curious.
01:11:28
Speaker 2: And you don't have to. We'll figure it out.
01:11:30
Speaker 3: You should probably read this one.
01:11:31
Speaker 2: Which one? Okay. This one. All right.
01:11:34
Speaker 3: Crew. Tell you who it's from. Colton Phipps.
01:11:38
Speaker 2: Oh, Colton Phipps.
01:11:39
Speaker 3: Our guy in Idaho.
01:11:40
Speaker 2: Okay. Crew, it's strange not to see 54 out there as a leader of the defense barking out orders, but Josiah Trotter looks like he will develop into an absolute stud. Hearing Scott talk about his dad last week was heartbreaking. None of us really know you, but it feels like we do with this weirdly salty dog's family bond. My thoughts and positive vibes are sent to you and your family. Thank you, Scott, for always putting on a good show and being the brains of the operation. I know. A week with a lot... Let me put.
01:12:17
Speaker 3: You back up because you're blowing your nose.
01:12:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay. Being the brains of the operation. I'll give you credit on that. But not the technical one. A week with a Bucs loss is better than a week with no Bucs at all. Welcome back, everybody. Totally agree. Colton Phillips.
01:12:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, Jeff is the voice, but I like that you said I'm the brains.
01:12:38
Speaker 2: Yes, you are the brains. I almost changed it and said you are the brainless one, but I was going to agree.
01:12:45
Speaker 3: You had the mic, man.
01:12:47
Speaker 2: I know. I wasn't going to. All right.
01:12:49
Speaker 3: This one's from Alexander in Brazil.
01:12:51
Speaker 2: Yeah.
01:12:51
Speaker 3: Ahoy, salty ones. Hope this finds you both well. Wow, that was a game that reminded me a lot of the James Winston Bucks. Getting behind early with lots of turnovers and the team rallying to make a game but falling at the end. Well, we don't want any more of that. Right. Look, I'm not sour on the team. Don't get me wrong. It was only the impression that I had looking at the Bucs app and reading all the giveaways. Closing the app just to open it again seconds later. Football is so back. Yes.
01:13:17
Speaker 2: I'm with you.
01:13:17
Speaker 3: I guess it is too early to make any assumption, good or bad. But I really liked what I saw from Trotter and Hurst. Mr. Ryan, how... How was the experience for the new crew, I guess he means your radio crew, on a regular season game? Since you did, thanks for reading. Alexander Nascimento from Sao Paulo, Brazil. P.S. The Bucs have never won a Super Bowl when winning the week one game.
01:13:37
Speaker 2: Right.
01:13:37
Speaker 3: So there's something to be optimistic about.
01:13:39
Speaker 2: Okay.
01:13:40
Speaker 3: So how was the operation? You kind of talked about it a little bit already. The radio. The broadcast. It was good. You had a big room for once.
01:13:49
Speaker 2: Yeah. You know, it's funny. When you're doing the game, you're listening and making notes, and it takes... I like to wait a few days before I go back and listen to the tape, and I haven't really gone back. I've heard the highlights, but I haven't gone back in.
01:14:05
Speaker 3: You have more time at the end of the week.
01:14:06
Speaker 2: Yes, and it's just... The key to it, what I liked about it, was it was very comfortable. When you're starting with a new crew, and we have a whole new crew, and it's actually... I have to rethink of things that I'm doing because, you know, it's automatic when you have people with you for 20 some years and now you have new people and you have to say, okay, this, this, and, and also have to remember that that's how he does it. That's not necessarily the way we did it before. So, but I was very, very happy with the fact that that's all right, that you can wipe it off. I'll put you down.
01:14:46
Speaker 3: All right.
01:14:47
Speaker 2: I was very, very happy with, as we talked previously, how Dave and Tony meshed. And, of course, Jay will be involved more and more as the weeks go on. So we're off to a good start.
01:14:59
Speaker 3: Speaking of the Cincinnati Press Box, did you have any of this?
01:15:01
Speaker 2: No, I did not. I didn't even know what that was.
01:15:04
Speaker 3: That's chilly. I know. I'm showing Jeff a picture of one of the staples in the Cincinnati Press Box, as they always have at halftime, hot dogs. And one of the toppings is... Or they also have a tray full of spaghetti that you can put on instead. It's Skyline Chili, which I'm sure you've heard me talk about before. It's gross. I always take a picture when we go to Cincinnati. We were there for a preseason a couple years ago. I just showed it to Jeff, and I had to tell him it was chili. It's a silver tray of just brown sludge. Also, big Look at these big slicks of grease.
01:15:39
Speaker 2: All over the place. I know. I just, yeah.
01:15:41
Speaker 3: That's so gross.
01:15:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was.
01:15:43
Speaker 3: I don't know why anybody would eat that.
01:15:45
Speaker 1: Right.
01:15:45
Speaker 3: And I happen to know what it tastes like, and it's not any better.
01:15:48
Speaker 2: Right.
01:15:49
Speaker 3: Okay. Okay, thanks for that, Alexander. And our final one is from Dan. He writes us a lot from Palm Harbor. Ahoy, salty dogs. First off, Scott, my thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. Thank you. Appreciate that. I lost my dad when I was only 12, and I miss him every day. Sure. I believe that. Yeah. I'm sorry that you lost your dad when you were 12. I was much more fortunate than that. I wanted to give Josiah. Am I supposed to say Josiah?
01:16:16
Speaker 2: Why?
01:16:16
Speaker 3: Is it Josiah?
01:16:17
Speaker 2: It's Josiah.
01:16:18
Speaker 3: I hear people different takes on how hard they make that J. You're thinking of like Jesus and Jesus. Well, okay. Josiah Trotter, his flowers for a great first game in the NFL. I don't have a question this week, but I think about those in 2000. This, in 2002 and in 2020, we lost our regular season opener and won the Super Bowl this season. I'm not saying it's going to happen, but it's just a fact, Jack.
01:16:43
Speaker 2: We brought that up in the broadcast.
01:16:45
Speaker 3: Dave did, yes. Here's hoping we can bounce back against the Browns from your biggest fan. With autism and cerebral palsy in Eastlake, Florida, also known as Palm Harbor, Florida. Oh, yeah, that's right. You happen to know that he likes that.
01:16:57
Speaker 2: Oh, he likes that.
01:16:58
Speaker 3: What he likes about the sound effects is you knowing that I can't stand them and you're doing them anyway. It's such amateur hour.
01:17:06
Speaker 2: I know. It's amateur minutes.
01:17:08
Speaker 3: I'm glad it's at the very end. There's probably some people who are no longer listening.
01:17:12
Speaker 2: The key to it is that read him last.
01:17:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, if you're like me and you think the sound.
01:17:17
Speaker 2: Effects are amateurish and dumb. Nothing from Alexandra?
01:17:20
Speaker 3: He was the previous email. Okay.
01:17:23
Speaker 2: I got sidetracked.
01:17:24
Speaker 3: If you hear me starting to read an email from Dan DiMaria, that's when you can bid adieu early because you know the sound effects are coming. Dan will enjoy it.
01:17:34
Speaker 2: And he'll stay.
01:17:36
Speaker 3: I have to stay because I'm paid to do this kind of.
01:17:39
Speaker 2: Yes. And Dan, we appreciate you staying. I'm here for you.
01:17:43
Speaker 3: As I said before, we appreciate all our listeners. I don't think we take the time often enough to thank all of you. Yes.
01:17:49
Speaker 2: And we're excited about this.
01:17:50
Speaker 3: Yeah.
01:17:51
Speaker 2: We're excited about this year and bigger and better things are coming in. Let's hope next week we're talking about a victory.
01:17:56
Speaker 3: Yeah.
01:17:56
Speaker 2: All right.
01:17:57
Speaker 3: Very good.
01:17:58
Speaker 2: Since you did. Thanks for listening.