One quote from everyone who spoke after Week 2 of OTAs
OTAs are back in session, and with them comes more quotes and observations from the team and its coaches.
After the first day of the second stint of OTAs on Tuesday, the media got to hear from Todd Bowles, Kyle Trask and Antoine Winfield Jr. as they spoke on a number of different topics. We picked out one important quote from their media availabilities and wrote a little about them and what they could mean.
Check them out below:
HC Todd Bowles
On if it’s getting harder to evaluate special teams players with the rule changes:
“No, you’ve still got to make special teams to make this club. If you’re not a starter and you’ve got a helmet on gameday – minus the backup quarterback and maybe a backup offensive lineman – you should be touching the field at some point. Whether it’s kickoff return, punt, punt return or kickoff, you should be on special teams in some way, shape, or form or you probably shouldn’t have a helmet.”
Commentary on the NFL’s new special teams rule is all the rage right now (Jamel Dean even gave his take). But Bowles’ insistence that almost every man on the 53-man roster has to have some special teams value is interesting, as the Bucs have also been known to put starters in at special teams as well. In theory, it would seem like the new rule would make evaluation harder, but this quote from Bowles seems to indicate he’s already analyzing everyone’s prowess on special teams regardless of if they plan on starting for the Bucs or not.
QB Kyle Trask
On what he likes about the new offensive scheme:
“I just think it’s really exciting for us to get the movements in the backfield going and the boots away. You see all of the success this system has had with the heavy play-action and taking shots. It gives you a lot of protection if you’re able to do the keepers off of the play-action. That’s just really exciting for a quarterback any time you can turn on film and see a play-action where you’ve got nobody within 10 yards of you. It all ties in together. They’ve been doing this for decades [with] the system they’re coming from, so they know exactly how to do it. We’ve all just really bought in and I am excited to see where this goes.”
It seems as if new OC Dave Canales is bringing in an entirely different energy to Tampa Bay. Previous OC wasn’t particularly big on play action and pre-snap motion, but Trask mentions here that Canales has dialed up some bootlegs for the QBs and allows for some movement outside the pocket. It;s hard to say if the offense will be better, but it will definitely be different.
S Antoine Winfield Jr.
On if moving back to free safety can help the secondary get more interceptions:
“Yeah, 100%, because I’m more in the middle of the field, [and] I’m able to play around and cover different things a little differently than playing in the slot over slot receivers, so definitely.”
Winfield played a lot of slot corner in 2022, and his play took a noticeable downturn as a result. He seems happy to be back to playing more of a free safety role as Todd Bowles has said in the past, and it could benefit the Bucs by getting them more interceptions this year — something the team sorely needs after the lack of turnovers last year.
