NFL coaching camps are virtually right here. The Buccaneers begin their program with rookies reporting on July 22 at AdventHealth Coaching Middle in Tampa and veterans becoming a member of a day afterward July 23.
Here is a take a look at three place battles that could possibly be essentially the most heated.
Left guard
Projected starter: N/A
Gamers to look at: Ben Bredeson, Sua Opeta, Lorenz Metz, Xavier Delgado
It is an open competitors for the beginning left guard function on Tampa Bay’s offense. On the workforce web site’s unofficial depth chart, left guard is the one offensive place with out a starter listed.
2024 free-agent additions Bredeson and Opeta headline the competitors. In late Could, Fox Sports activities NFC South reporter Greg Auman shared that Opeta started Tampa’s offseason exercises with the first-team offense.
He is detailed because the projected starter on the workforce’s Professional Soccer Focus depth chart, whereas ESPN lists Bredeson because the No. 1.
Primarily based on each’s manufacturing final season, it is apparent why the Bucs would wait to call a starter.
Bredeson was one of many worst guards in soccer final season, per PFF. Amongst 82 guards to play a minimum of 300 snaps in 2023, the previous Large was the 72nd-ranked pass-blocker and 78th in run-blocking.
PFF knowledge exhibits that Opeta was solely marginally higher with the Eagles. He allowed 25 whole pressures and three sacks in 311 pass-rush alternatives. His 57.9 pass-block grade ranked forty eighth, and he obtained an excellent worse grade (50.2) as a run-blocker, rating sixty fourth.
The Bucs added Metz through the league’s Worldwide Participant Pathway Program and Delgado as an undrafted free agent. Whereas neither has performed an NFL snap, might each be that a lot worse than Bredeson and Opeta had been? In that case, scouting is likely to be the larger problem in Tampa.
Exterior linebacker (3-4 protection)
Projected starters: Yaya Diaby, Joe Tryon-Shoyinka
Gamers to look at: Randy Gregory, Chris Braswell
Diaby had a wonderful rookie season in 2023, ending fifth in Protection Rookie of the 12 months voting after recording 7.5 sacks, forcing one fumble and recovering two. He started the season as a backup however began the ultimate 9 video games, together with the playoffs.
Tryon-Shoyinka, Tampa’s first-round choose in 2021, had a career-high 5 sacks. Nonetheless, after beginning the primary 11 video games, he was moved to the second unit and performed lower than half of the workforce’s defensive snaps the remainder of the season.
The Bucs added former Broncos and Cowboys edge-rusher Gregory in free company and drafted Braswell within the second spherical (No. 57 total) of April’s draft. Whereas Diaby’s spot needs to be secure, both one might squeeze Tryon-Shoyinka out of a beginning function.
Extensive receiver (11 personnel)
Projected starters: Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Trey Palmer
Gamers to look at: Sterling Shepard, Jalen McMillan
Evans and Godwin are entrenched as Tampa Bay’s prime two wideouts. Evans had his tenth consecutive 1,000-yard season in 2023 and is one shy of matching Jerry Rice’s all-time report for many by a large receiver in NFL historical past.
In the meantime, Godwin has 4 1,000-yard seasons since 2019, and his 5,323 yards throughout that span ranks because the league’s Thirteenth-most, per Stathead.
The battle to look at is the one figuring out who would be the third large receiver in units with one tight finish and one working again.
Palmer is the incumbent and completed final season with 39 receptions, 385 yards and three touchdowns.
The entrance workplace took a flier out on Shepard, a former school teammate of quarterback Baker Mayfield in 2015 at Oklahoma. Accidents have derailed his once-promising profession, however his rapport with Mayfield cannot be denied. Throughout their season collectively, Shepard had 86 receptions, 1,288 yards and 11 touchdowns.
Rookie McMillan, chosen within the third spherical (No. 92 total), is arguably the larger risk to Palmer’s publish. In a pre-draft evaluation, The Athletic’s Dane Brugler wrote that whereas the previous Washington Huskie should “show he can deal with the physicality of enjoying inside on the subsequent stage… he has three-level potential as a move catcher and can be an intriguing possibility for a workforce that prioritizes size and pace from the slot.”
Whereas Godwin has primarily stuffed the slot function throughout his profession, he lined up out large on 61.6 p.c of his snaps in 2023, his highest price since 2018. If the Bucs select to maintain Godwin on the surface, McMillan could possibly be their finest third possibility.
