Roster projection.

The sort of final 53-man Bucs roster for 2023 won’t be known for over a month. Yet ESPN got a jump on things with pre-training camp roster projections.

Almost everyone reading this here site can pretty much guess the nearly the entire 53-man roster, barring injuries or trades. Who survives the bubble can be tricky to figure out.

Jenna Laine took a stab and she had two surprises, at least surprises to Joe.

One was at wide receiver. She had Kaylon Geiger making the roster over Cade Warner. Joe has seen Geiger drop as many passes as he caught the past two years. Last year in training camp, Geiger was downright awful catching the ball.

Quick story: The day the Bucs moved Kyle Trask to second team last summer because Tom Brady went on an 11-day Caribbean sabbatical, Trask was terrible this particular practice inside the Glazer Shed, easily his worst practice. Trask threw three picks that Joe saw.

Trask, however, was getting no help from the camp meat he was throwing to, particularly Geiger. At one point Trask, standing near midfield in a clean pocket, threw an absolute dime straight down the field hitting Geiger right on the hands at the goal line.

And Geiger dropped it.

Trask slumped and drooped his shoulders like someone told him his dog got run over. Bucs defenders felt so bad for Trask that they crossed the goal line and patted him on the back and slapped his shoulder pads offering support.

Joe isn’t quite ready to write off Warner. Granted, he hasn’t been seen in pads. That’s a big test for a rookie undrafted fre agent. In underwear football, Warner appeared to be one of those guys that just has a nose for getting open.

Warner sort of reminded Joe of another UDFA who maybe didn’t have the same skillset as other Bucs receivers, Adam Humphries.

Another interesting selection by Laine is guard Aaron Stinnie getting cut.

Joe had heard through the grapevine last year that there was a reason why Stinnie was playing in the second half of the first preseason game when he went down with a blown knee. While a hero of the 2020 postseason when he stepped in for an injured Alex Cappa at right guard, Stinnie was very much on the bubble.

One player Laine did not have on her early final-53 projection was Will Gholston, who signed back with the Bucs last night.