Bucs Training Camp Notes Day (Night) No. 6
July 29th, 2025
The Bucs were in the very steamy but air conditioned Glazer Shed for practice. It had to be 82 degrees in there. This was no Tropicana Field cool on a Tuesday night.
Plenty of action in pads and Joe’s got some of it here.
11-on-11s kicked off with Baker Mayfield throwing a play-acton pass complete 30 yards down the left seam to Mike Evans. Time to put Evans on ice for the summer. He’s Atlanta-ready.
*Rookie cornerback Benjamin Morrison picks off Baker Mayfield on the next pass. Underthrown route down the left sideline to Jalen McMillan.
*Incomplete. Possibly a drop by Payne Durham from Kyle Trask but tight coverage (second-team linebaker has jersey pulled up and Joe couldn’t see the number).
*Crossing route Trask to Tez Johnson. Short throw complete.
*Nice interior block in the run game by Sterling Shepard.
*Trask bobbles a catchable snap and throws the ball away into the crowd.
*Left tackle Charlie Heck handles Logan Hall in the run game as the Bucs run left.
*Baker sprints left and Tykee Smith breaks up a sidearm pass to Devin Culp on the left sideline.
*Mayfield scrambles for 15 yards and the invisible man punches the ball out near midfield. Fumble! Mayfield pounces on the ball. Hard to believe he just dropped it with nobody around.
*Nice run block by Elijah Klein at left guard with the second team.
*Edge rusher Anthony Nelson drops what should have been a pick from Mayfield. Nelson had dropped in coverage, of course.
*Mayfield overthrows McMillan on a go-route to the right. Looked like safety Antoine Winfield pulled up on a lbitz so the pass would not be affected.
*Mayfield throwaway. Vita Vea bringing pressure.
*Undrafted free agent right tackle Benjamin Chukwuma needs towatch the holding.
*Edge rusher José Ramirez has a clear blitz off the right edge. Pulls up on Kyle Trask. No hitting the QB, of course.
*Graham Barton likes Bucky Irving run up the gut. Fist bumps Charlie Heck.
*Mayfield fires a laser to Durham but he doesn’t hold on. Fastball on a short pass low with Smith in coverage.
Red Zone Work
*Mayfield throws right and short to Evans. Ball goes through his hands and Zyon McCollum had a shot at an interception but couldn’t get it.
*Short red zone throw, Mayfield to Rachaad White. White seemed to juke safety Kaevon Merriweather to get in the end zone, but Merriweather did his version of the official training camp pretend tackle.
*Mayfield throws a couple of red zone incompletions. Coverage has been solid but Mayfield isn’t sharp.
*Kindle Vildor blows up Bucky Irving after catching a red zone toss.
*Trask to Devin Culp. Drop! In the end zone.
*Defensive back Rashad Wisdom drops a pick in red zone that Trask fired in his gut.
*Charlie Heck holds off Haason Reddick well. Baker Mayfield sprints right and hits Evans on crossing route. Mayfield looks most comfortable firing to No. 13.
*Jacob Parrish snuffs out a run in short-yardage. On White quickly.
*ONE-HANDED interception in the right corner of the end zone by cornerback Bryce Hall!! Mayfield was throwing to Egbuka and Hall was all over him. Hall turned around and made the left-handed grab.
*Winfield meets Sean Tucker five yards into a run for one of the better collisions of the night.
*Another collision when camp meat receiver Dennis Houston gets hit by swarm near the goal line and fumbles.
*Lotta physicality in second-team work. More real tackling.
*Devin Culp jogs off like he tweaked a leg somewhere on a run play.
*Lots of second- and third-team work late in practice. A lot. And it looks like these guys got the green light to tackle to the ground. Dream opportunity for a lot of dudes who will be applying for jobs or grad school in a month.
*Interception! Josh Hayes. No. 4 QB Connor Bazelak threw it right two him over the middle.
July 29th, 2025 at 8:34 pm
Argh. It didn’t sound like there were many positives. Night game curse?
July 29th, 2025 at 8:52 pm
Mayfield looking sloppy again. That’s not a good sign. We aren’t seeing the offensive guys doing much. A little concerned
July 29th, 2025 at 8:58 pm
For some reason Baker is sloppy at night. He must be a super early bird and the stimulants start wearing off in the evening. Caffeine doesnt seem to work after 12pm for me, maybe he has a similar issue. Better to get that out now than during a game. Might need more evening practices. Sad to see Devin Culp hurt
July 29th, 2025 at 9:00 pm
Culp blowing his shot, a reason the college coaches never played him I guess
July 29th, 2025 at 9:01 pm
I’m a believer in baker, but it’s been several practices already where Mayfield has thrown picks, hopefully he sharpens up. I still think there’s plenty of time for him to get in the groove but would like to see some clean practice sessions from him soon.
July 29th, 2025 at 9:07 pm
I wonder if Baker has some kind of issue with visual processing under stadium lights?
July 29th, 2025 at 9:08 pm
Mayfield still having trouble connecting on those deep passes, now we know why Coen was relegated to call more intermediate routes. The coaching staff has to realize Bake isn’t accurate throwing it deep, maybe get a specialist in there to fine tune those mechanics.
July 29th, 2025 at 9:10 pm
Bryce Hall has been having an outstanding camp
July 29th, 2025 at 9:28 pm
Baker will be fine no Wirfs/godwin plus a new rookie starting wr needs some time to gel
July 29th, 2025 at 9:46 pm
Sounds like Hall is having a great camp so far.
July 29th, 2025 at 9:52 pm
Bryce Hall sounds like he’s been a dawg. Was hoping to see him last year, unfortunate for what happened in the preseason. I think ppl overreacting sbout Baker. It’s the beginning of the season. This the time to make mistakes and learn from them.
July 29th, 2025 at 10:00 pm
I for one don’t want to see them go away from the short game. It fits Baker. He was awful on deep throws past 2 seasons. Keep the routes to 15 yards or less and he is damn good. I’m not hating on Baker. I love him and glad he’s our qb. But stick to his strengths. Liam knew what he was doing last year with him. Don’t fix what isn’t broken Grizz.
July 29th, 2025 at 10:04 pm
Soon we’ll have our first preseason game can’t wait
July 29th, 2025 at 10:17 pm
Ufcguy32 Offense as a whole hasn’t looked spectacular, but baker will be fine, I won’t worry about him and unless he’s throwing pics left and right during the regular season. You have to think this is an upgraded defense, easily the best defense since Super Bowl year. You got Todd bowls going up against a first time play caller, offense will come around. I’m more impressed with the defense than I’m worried about the offense
July 29th, 2025 at 10:25 pm
Wow thanks Joe, not sure what to make of this mixed bag. Agree Evans needs to sit out the rest of camp. Enough–he is ready. The tight ends sound like they are a mess! Bryce Hall may end up as our best corner! Baker sounds aa bit jumpy. Charlie Heck working out ok. Still early in camp, how is Grizzard?
July 29th, 2025 at 10:26 pm
Is Devin Culp hurt as in mri hurt?
July 29th, 2025 at 10:28 pm
For godsakes Joe could you weed out the AI bots with the negative comments. WTF is real and isn’t on this site. You know I’m real cuz I’ve been bitcoin on this site since 2015
July 29th, 2025 at 10:32 pm
So relieved to learn the pass rushers are still dropping into coverage. :eyeroll: Good news about Heck. Of course with his man dropping into coverage, he has nothing to do but assist others. Sounds like Baker could use some coaching but we know that’s not gonna happen.
July 29th, 2025 at 10:38 pm
Hard to keep that caffeine high going all day and into the evening. Not sharp=jittery and crashing from too much caffeine. Need an intervention. Go Bowles!
July 29th, 2025 at 10:42 pm
Offense sounds like it’s on a roller coaster.
July 29th, 2025 at 11:26 pm
Irish Tony, good riddance to you as well
July 29th, 2025 at 11:45 pm
Maybe just maybe The defense is better this year??
July 29th, 2025 at 11:50 pm
Thank you Joseph 🤙🏾 for your practice updates.
Like I always tell my ex-wife as long as I don’t hear
about injuries. Like my man from Cali said “
Today was good day”
July 30th, 2025 at 12:28 am
Sounds like we will have two different starting CB than last year.
July 30th, 2025 at 12:48 am
TRASK STARTS BY WEEK 7
July 30th, 2025 at 12:55 am
I see that the early training camp overreactions are back in full force again this year. People worrying about early training camp Baker again, not realizing we have yet another new OC and that the offense likely just needs to tweak some things and shake off some rust. You know, the thing training camps are for
July 30th, 2025 at 2:25 am
Nooooooo! I hate it. Please stop 🛑🛑🛑
Edge rusher Anthony Nelson drops what should have been a pick from Mayfield. Nelson had dropped in coverage, of course.
July 30th, 2025 at 2:31 am
Seeing as how 80% of our games are 1 pm starts I’m not worried about Bakers night vision. I am, however, worried about how quiet Reddick has been…
July 30th, 2025 at 6:00 am
Sounds like the offense is NOT Atlanta ready! :/
July 30th, 2025 at 6:18 am
you people that complain about OLBs dropping into coverage really don’t know much about Ball, there are times where 4 rush or you blitz a corner, ILB and the short third needs a coverage person, which is an OLB’s responsibility.
July 30th, 2025 at 6:28 am
Sounds like a mixed bag last night, leaning a bit more toward the “not so great” side of things.
Nelly dropping into coverage spiked my blood pressure there for a minute, but I suppose it’s unrealistic to expect a complete 180 from last year. The best we can hope for is to see a lot less of those types of schemes this year.
Joe, if you hear anything more about Devin Culp, please let us know. He certainly made the most of his few opportunities last year, and seemed to be having a very good camp so far this year.
Graham and Charlie fist-bumping after a run play. This is good. We just need those two and Ben to be comfortable with each other for a couple of weeks during the season.
July 30th, 2025 at 6:29 am
And Bryce Hall.
I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do this year.
July 30th, 2025 at 7:11 am
Joe showed a stat some time back that showed most teams drop their edges into coverage 5-10% of the time
July 30th, 2025 at 7:34 am
It’s the end of the first week they’re probably a little sore from all the working out Baker did the same thing last year everybody needs to just relax it will come around also we’ve got a lot of them really good defensive backs right now But he will figure them out. LFG Baker!! #Bucs4life
July 30th, 2025 at 7:35 am
Drops on well thrown passes? Free juggs sesions for all after practice. Not all are the usual suspects.
Go Bucs!
July 30th, 2025 at 7:59 am
Can we correct at least ONE misconception which has completely infected many minds here. That Todd is doing something crazy and unorthdox dropping OLB’s into Coverage, or DE’s for that matter. Do you guys watch the NFL.
AI says….MOST NFL teams occasionally drop their outside linebackers (OLBs) or even some defensive ends (DEs) into pass coverage, though the frequency and exact assignments depend heavily on the defensive scheme and the specific player’s skills. Todd is not the lone ranger!!!
July 30th, 2025 at 7:59 am
@garro – yeah Evans had a drop right in his hands. Probably needs some extra jugs work.
July 30th, 2025 at 9:06 am
“That Todd is doing something crazy and unorthdox dropping OLB’s into Coverage, or DE’s for that matter. Do you guys watch the NFL.”
Same thing for the zone cushions, fans are more worried about proximity to the LOS for CBs than they are for the other more important part of their jobs like keeping the ball in front of you and not allowing passes to go over your head.
Meanwhile, you’re asking for 4th & 5th CBs to play press-man against NFL WRs consistently. Great way to get your defense smoked like a fish filet.
July 30th, 2025 at 12:53 pm
WBL
“Great way to get your defense smoked like a fish filet.”
AMEN BROTHER!! And “some” here seem to forget that the problem was exacerbated by AW’s injuries. He was the eraser to cover for guy who were getting whipped by WR’s. This now frees our CB’s to take some “gambles” and come up with pics. We saw that last night as well.
July 30th, 2025 at 1:11 pm
Sounds like Mayfield had a rough night.
Which tracks with how the Bucs typically perform at night… #PrimeTimeBucs
July 30th, 2025 at 4:21 pm
People need to understand that training camp just started a week ago and expecting nothing but perfection is corny
July 30th, 2025 at 4:26 pm
Hey Joe I know Grizz wants to get more deep shots in but I’m worried he won’t go back to what this team is really good at from last year when the Bucs really started rolling they went away from the deep ball an made things quick an easy for Baker I know it’s early just hope he doesn’t try to force the deep ball I give Liam a lot of credit for not doing that an finding something that really worked for the team Bucky Bucky Bucky lol
July 30th, 2025 at 6:15 pm
Our 32nd ranked backup QB sounds like he might a little better than 32.
I like hearing our dbs are playing well and run game is looking good.
July 31st, 2025 at 4:18 am
Thank you for the notes, Joe. Hope Culp is okay. A positive is he jogged off the field. Loving Bryce Hall! He is doing so well.