As We Inch Ever Closer To The Start Of The Season, The Bucs And The Cleveland Browns Held A Joint Practice At One Buc Place. Here Are Some Takeaways From Today’s Session
Highs
Vernon Hargreaves III- After a fantastic showing on Saturday against the Jaguars, Hargreaves has followed his performance up with a good week in practice. Vernon wasted no time getting the crowd’s attention by knocking down a Jamesis Winston pass early. With the way Hargreaves has been producing on the practice field and in the preseason, he is pleading a pretty good case to top the depth chart on September 11th.
Defensive Line- Early on the Buccaneers defensive line seemed to have zero issues getting into the Cleveland backfield early and often. One of the main emphasis on changing the defense from last year was to get more consistent pressure on the quarterback. The plan seems to be working so far.
Jamesis Winston’s Leadership- Although there have been mistakes in training camp and the preseason Winston has owned those mistakes and realises training camp and the preseason are the place to work those issues out. Jamesis said in his press conference that he realizes those mistakes are on him, knows that he is a leader on the team, and the success of the Bucs in 2016 starts with him. Very wise words for a young man.
Lows
Two Minute Drill Offense- There is definitely room for improvement here. Winston and the starting offense did move the ball, but the end result was a turnover. After facing a fourth down situation, a Jamesis Winston pass intended for Adam Humphries was intercepted by Joe Haden. After starting out productive, Mike Glennon’s drive ended on a fourth down play as well. He threw a cross body pass that was dropped by the Cleveland defense. With turnovers in his first two appearances this preseason, the Bucs need to find a way to limit the turnovers come opening day to put a W on the board.
Red Zone Defense- After a fairly decent showing by the defense in the beginning of the day, the red zone defense left much to be desired. The starting defense gave up four touchdowns to the Browns offense and as a team the Bucs gave up nine touchdowns overall in the red zone drill. Hopefully this drill serves as a wake up call as the basic point of defense is to prevent the other team from reaching the endzone. The Browns seemed to do this at will against the Buccaneers defense.
Secondary- The secondary as a whole seemed to be a touch off today. Alterraun Verner and Vernon Hargreaves made some plays, but the unit as a whole had a hard time slowing down the Browns passing attack. The checkdowns to the running back and tight ends all the way through to the long ball, the Browns offense seemed to have their way with the Buccaneer secondary for most of the day. With a plethora of talent for the Bucs in the secondary, there is no reason to worry quite yet.
