Bucs Mailbag: Most Competitive Training Camp Battles

 

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Pewter Report’s Scott Reynolds answers your questions from the @PewterReport Twitter account this week in the Bucs Mailbag. Submit your question to the Bucs Mailbag each week via Twitter using the hashtag #PRMailbag. Here are the Bucs questions we chose to answer for this week’s edition.

QUESTION: What’s going to be the most competitive position battles in training camp for starting jobs?

ANSWER: I think the main two positions that will be the most competitive will be outside linebacker and interior offensive line. The Bucs have a ton of promising young talent at outside linebacker with YaYa Diaby, Markees Watts, Jose Ramirez and Chris Braswell, this year’s second-round pick. Also in the mix are veteran holdovers Joe Tryon-Shoyinka and Anthony Nelson and newcomer Randy Gregory. That’s seven legit competitors for five or perhaps six roster spots.

Training camp will be an absolute battle royale for spots on the roster and the depth chart, and it will be imperative for all of these edge rushers to stay healthy or risk falling behind in the competition. Diaby will most likely be one starter, but the other starting spot is up for grabs. Throw in the fact that Tryon-Shoyinka and Nelson are both in contract years, and Gregory signed a one-year, prove-it deal and the outside linebacker spot has to be the most competitive battle in training camp.

Right behind it will be the interior offensive line. Graham Barton and Robert Hainsey are battling for the starting center job, yet the loser will also be in the mix for the starting left guard spot opposite Cody Mauch. Veteran newcomers Sua Opeta and Ben Bredeson and rookie Elijah Klein, the team’s sixth-round pick, are also battling for that starting job.

Three other positions that need to be watched closely are nickelback, cornerback and WR3. Incumbent starter Christian Izien will attempt to hold off veteran free agent addition Tavierre Thomas and third-round pick Tykee Smith for the nickel cornerback role. Bucs head coach and defensive play-caller Todd Bowles is looking for a playmaker in the slot.

Zyon McCollum is penciled in as a starting outside cornerback opposite Jamel Dean and it’s his job to lose. But cornerbacks coach Kevin Ross said that Bryce Hall is a starting-caliber cornerback, and he’ll duke it out with McCollum in camp. And of course the No. 3 wide receiver battle will be hotly contested between Trey Palmer, who has made strides since his rookie season, and Jalen McMillan, one of the team’s third-round picks.

QUESTION: Now that free agency and the draft are over, are there any areas of the team you feel were not adequately addressed and have the potential to be an Achilles heel?

ANSWER: I think the Bucs will field a very good starting 22 this year. The roster seems deeper and more talented than a year ago, but a lot will depend on the players from the last two draft classes ascending with the experience they’ve gained, in addition to how many rookies are ready to contribute in the first season in Tampa Bay and play at a high level. The weakest link still could be at left guard if rookie Elijah Klein isn’t ready to start and Sua Opeta and Ben Bredeson don’t offer much of an upgrade over Matt Feiler and Aaron Stinnie last year.

But general manager Jason Licht and his personnel staff are too good at evaluating offensive linemen to make me believe that the team hasn’t found a solution at left guard this offseason. The real Achilles heel of this team – and every team in the NFL – is lack of depth at certain positions. We’ll have to see how healthy this team is and what positions truly lack enough talented depth if injuries do occur.

Last year, the Bucs were insanely healthy for the most part. Consider that Baker Mayfield, Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Trey Palmer, Cade Otton, Tristan Wirfs, Luke Goedeke, Robert Hainsey and Cody Mauch suited up for all 19 games – including the playoffs. That’s all but one starting position (left guard), and quite a remarkable feat doused in luck. Tampa Bay can’t count on that again.

It’s hard to identify where the true weakness is on this team before training camp and the preseason. So we’ll have a better idea come September about which positions may need further bolstering by Licht and the front office.

QUESTION: What are the chances that Graham Barton ends up at guard? I’ve seen a lot of analysts and film reviews that think that’s his best position. If there is a chance, they’ll obviously want to give Barton as much time at his final position as possible. When will they make the final decision?

ANSWER: If Robert Hainsey rises to the competition and winds up having an outstanding camp and preseason, the Bucs may move Graham Barton, the team’s first-round pick, to left guard. In fact, unless Sua Opeta, Ben Bredeson or rookie Elijah Klein wows the team and just dominates at left guard in training camp, I could see the best five offensive linemen this summer being Tristan Wirfs and Luke Goedeke at tackle, Cody Mauch and Barton at guard and Hainsey at center. Hainsey will be highly motivated to come in and ball out during his contract year.

In fact, the moment the Bucs drafted Barton on the night of April 26 I declared, “The Bucs just drafted their starting left guard.” So I’m a little surprised that the team is starting him off at center to begin with. A more logical move by Tampa Bay would be to have Barton compete with Opeta and Klein at left guard this year while Hainsey battles Bredeson at center. Then, the Bucs could move on from Hainsey after 2024 and transition Barton to center unless Bredeson won the job and proved to be a significant upgrade this season.

I understand why the team wants to move Barton to center because it’s a more valuable position. Center is the tip of the spear along the offensive line, and the center sets the protection for each play. Barton, who went to Duke and has a great football I.Q., can handle the rigors of the position, evidenced by him playing center for five games as a freshman.

Yet if Tampa Bay is looking to start the five best O-linemen in 2024, it’s hard to see Hainsey not being No. 5 on the list behind Wirfs, Goedeke, Barton and Mauch. We’ll see what happens in training camp when the pads come on and the battle really begins. The final decision about which players will comprise the starting lineup along the offensive line should come near the end of the preseason.

QUESTION: If you were able to add one player to either side of the ball that would impact the Bucs the most this season, who would you like to see – both being financially realistic and if money didn’t matter?

ANSWER: I’m not big on playing fantasy football, so I’ll keep this exercise as realistic as possible. I think there is a potential weakness at cornerback on this team in terms of depth if something happens to either starter – Jamel Dean or Zyon McCollum. Yes, Bryce Hall could fill in the way that McCollum did last year on a weekly basis for either Dean or Carlton Davis III – both of whom were oft-injured.

But after Hall, there is a significant drop-off in terms of experience and talent. Josh Hayes, an elite gunner as a rookie last year, is the next man up as CB4 as it stands right now. And cornerback is an incredibly important position in today’s NFL where the passing game takes center stage each week.

So the player I would consider adding to this team as an emergency cornerback – and a veteran mentor in the room – is Patrick Peterson. I know that at age 34, he’s certainly lost a step. After recording five picks and posting an 80.7 Pro Football Focus grade in 2022 with Minnesota, Peterson’s game fell off a cliff last year in Pittsburgh where he earned a 60.5 grade, including a 61.4 coverage grade. His 2022 season with the Vikings seems like an outlier at this point in his career.

Peterson, who previously played for Todd Bowles in Arizona, played 1,096 snaps last year, which is simply too much for an aging cornerback. And he was handsomely paid by the Steelers, making $7.15 million in 2023. Unless some other team signs him to be a starter, which is unlikely at this stage of his career, I think he could come to Tampa Bay much cheaper as a depth piece.

There is great value in having a future Hall of Famer in that room, much like the Bucs did in 2021 with Richard Sherman, who was signed as an emergency veteran that season. Imagine how much McCollum, Dean, Hall and Hayes could learn from a legendary cover cornerback like Peterson, who has 36 career interceptions.

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