Bucs Training Camp 2026 Practice Notes Day 3
July 31st, 2026
Kameron Johnson catches a pass — not a punt — during wide receiver drills Friday. Yes, he caught a pass, not a punt.
Another day, another Bucs practice, another piece of drama.
It’s like the Summer of Affordability at Bill Currie Ford. The deals never stop there and the drama this summer isn’t stopping at One Buc Palace.
But yes, there was actually a practice to sort of focus on. It is still underwear football. No hitting of any sort. The pads come on Monday.
* Among the special guests at practice today were Bucs Super Bowl-winning quarterback Brad Johnson and Bucs Super Bowl champion Vita Vea.
* Tristan Wirfs made an appearance. He’s dealing with a tweaked hamstring and hasn’t practiced yet. He hung out with teammates on the field.
* Just before 11-on-11 drills began, rookie OL Billy Schrauth, at the end of an offensive line drill, ran a loop around the VIP section and bleachers with his arms raised and hollering to whoop up the fans. The fans obliged. Bleachers were about 90 percent full. Yesterday it was a full house.
* On the very first play of 11-on-11, defensive tackle Elijah Roberts collapsed the pocket and forced a “sack” on Baker Mayfield.
* Not a great decision from Mayfield: He threw to Emeka Egbuka near the right sideline but Egbuka was surrounded by three defenders. Egbuka got his mitts on the ball but it popped straight up into the air. As the ball came down, Bucs defenders bobbled it before it fell incomplete.
* Bucky Irving runs to the right and gets a big gain. The crowd loved it, breaking out into a “Buh-KEE!… Buh-KEE!… Buh-KEE!” chant.
* Early in 11-on-11, Mayfield let loose trying to hit Jalen McMillan deep down the right hashmark. McMillan was double-covered but the ball was overthrown. Joe isn’t sure but that may have been Mayfield’s first deep shot of training camp.
* Sean Tucker burrows his way through linemen on the right side for a gain.
* Tez Johnson is at it again. The smallish receiver, so far through the first three days of practice, has really raised his game. This time he races down the right sideline and Jake Browning hits him. Rather than run straight and get tackled, Tez cuts it inside and makes a looping path to dodge defenders and get to the end zone.
* Tucker runs right, parallel to the line of scrimmage and predictable doesn’t get much. A yard or two.
* Jake Browning throws over the middle for Bauer Sharp.
* In shotgun, bad snap to Browning. But Browning digs it up and still finds Bauer near the right sideline.
* Mayfield throws short to the left sideline for Kenneth Gainwell.
* Is there such a thing as a B-6 bomber? Mayfield airs it out deep down the left field sideline and Egbuka hauls it in and houses the ball. Good to see Zac Robinson letting Mayfield loosen up his arm. Joe didn’t the number of the defensive back who was supposed to guard Egbuka but he got smoked.
* Mayfield tries to lead Otton on a short pass up the left seam and the ball was just a hair overthrown as Otton stretched out for it. Appeared to Joe that Bucs corner Ayden Garnes may have gotten away with a hold on Otton.
* Tucker for a nice chunk of yards up the middle.
* Browning connects with Josh Williams to the left sideline.
* Williams up the middle.
* Browning to David Sills V down the right hash, who caught the ball right in front of Josh Hayes.
* Pretty play: Upon the snap, Jalen McMillan ran to the short right and appeared to be open. Joe thought Mayfield would target him. Instead, McMillan kept running his route and he drew a linebacker with him to try to cover him. The space where the linebacker vacated (Joe didn’t catch the number), Otton filled the empty space and Mayfield hit him with the pass. Nicely drawn up play by offensive coordinator Zac Robinson. Mayfield had McMillan open for perhaps a bigger gain but that play also opened it up for Otton. So Mayfield actually had two options to target, both open.
* Mayfield to Gainwell at the left sideline.
* Mayfield tests his arm again, this time going deep to Payne Durham (!) down the left sideline. The two could not connect.
* Mayfield to Chris Godwin over the middle for maybe 20 yards. Godwin is looking so smooth this summer.
* Well, hello Christian Rozeboom. Browning goes back to pass and Rozeboom comes flying in untouched. Would have been a sack if there was hitting.
* Williams up the middle.
* Browning throws over the middle to Sills.
* Snap sails over Browning’s head from shotgun. Play is blown dead.
7-7
* Payne Durham hauls in a Mayfield pass along the left sideline.
* Mayfield to Egbuka short to the right.
* Beautiful: B-6 Mayfield launches one deep to the right and Chris Godwin makes a beautiful over-the-shoulder catch. Ball dropped right in the basket.
* Dennis Houston catches back-to-back passes, both from Browning. The first at the left sideline and the second down the right seam.
11-on-11
* Gainwell dances as he tries to go up the middle.
* YaYa Diaby tries to get a backdoor sack on Mayfield but Mayfield felt the heat and dumped the ball off to Gainwell.
* Bucky runs inside of Luke Goedeke and gets a nice gain,
* Chris Godwin runs right (sorry, due to Bucs media relations protocol, Joe cannot be more descriptive).
* Browning finds Kameron Johnson down the right sideline.
* Two straight runs up the middle for Tucker.
‘
* Browning fakes a handoff and hits Ko Kieft for a short gain.
* Antoine Winfield flew into the backfield and forced Mayfield to unload the ball.
* McMillan catches maybe a 20-yard pass from Mayfield down the left seam. He then heads outside, cuts it upfield and racks up six points.
* Browning lollipops a short pass to Ted Hurst and Josh Hayes pushes Hurst to the ground. If there was hitting allowed, Hurst would have been lit up.
* Kameron Johnson makes an excellent catch from Browning down the left seam.
That’s it for the first round of Bucs training camp practices. The Bucs have the day off Saturday and resume practicing Sunday morning.








July 31st, 2026 at 5:24 pm
Zac Robinson seems to be dialing up the TE’s a lot. I think that will be a great payoff for the Bucs.
July 31st, 2026 at 5:26 pm
Trotter hasn’t been mentioned make me nervous
July 31st, 2026 at 5:29 pm
Thanks for the details on how things are going. Love the practice notes.
July 31st, 2026 at 5:33 pm
Wow! Great notes. Sounds like a really nice practice.
July 31st, 2026 at 5:43 pm
look fwd to the notes every day thanks joe!
July 31st, 2026 at 5:45 pm
That’s at least 3 bad snaps in the last 2 days. Please tell me it’s a 2nd stringer and not Barton.
July 31st, 2026 at 5:46 pm
Yesterday, Feeney was the center for Browning. It seems Feeney is struggling with his snaps.
It seems Durham is the current #2 TE. With Z-Rob running lots of 12, Payne may get more targets this year. Yesterday, Sharp looked very good working with Browning.
July 31st, 2026 at 5:47 pm
“Among the special guests at practice today were Bucs Super Bowl-winning quarterback Brad Johnson and Bucs Super Bowl champion Vita Vea.“
😂😂😂
“Chris Godwin runs right (sorry, due to Bucs media relations protocol, Joe cannot be more descriptive).”
This makes me sad, but it’s Chris so as long as he can get the handoff clean he’ll make something happen. Ended the NFC title game on a Godwin run to the right, but I’m still not a fan of running WRs in the box unless you have a Cordaralle Patterson or a Percy Harvin or a Laverneus Cole or a Santana Moss.
“The space where the linebacker vacated (Joe didn’t catch the number), Otton filled the empty space and Mayfield hit him with the pass. Nicely drawn up play by offensive coordinator Zac Robinson. Mayfield had McMillan open for perhaps a bigger gain but that play also opened it up for Otton. So Mayfield actually had two options to target, both open.”
Trail concepts, nice you can run that out a multitude of personnel combos
“Dennis Houston catches back-to-back passes, both from Browning. The first at the left sideline and the second down the right seam.“
Houston looks like he’s a big dude on screen.
“On the very first play of 11-on-11, defensive tackle Elijah Roberts collapsed the pocket and forced a “sack” on Baker Mayfield.“
Another big dude I’m looking forward to seeing this preseason.
July 31st, 2026 at 5:50 pm
Great notes btw Joe
July 31st, 2026 at 6:05 pm
Joe, is David a walker practicing?
July 31st, 2026 at 6:10 pm
Sounds like our QB’s have been *very* accurate so far…
July 31st, 2026 at 6:15 pm
Thank you for the notes, Joe.
And thank you also for the reply when I asked about David Walker. Very much appreciated!
Great to see Ko get a mention. With all the focus on the O-line last year, his absence kind of got overlooked.
Also good to see AWJ get a mention. Let’s hope he makes a little more noise during rhe season this year.
The Baker to Jalen to Cade play sounds like a winner. We were missing plays like that last year.
July 31st, 2026 at 6:19 pm
Allegedly
July 31st, 2026 at 6:32 pm
Good to see the offense opening up. Against this defense they should really be moving the ball.