Bucs TE Tanner Taula has his eye on the ball during position drills Thursday.

We are officially in the dog days of training camp. Each day feels like Groundhog Day.

Joe trudges forward. Get past this week and the days will fly by as worthless preseason games begin next week.

Joe is starting to get punchy. Actually Joe thought there’s be fights today. If Joe is in a fog, imagine what the players are going through? What day is it anyway?

Below are some practice notes/highlights from Thursday.

* Cade Otton is still sidelined with some sort of hamstring issue. Lavonte David is sore. Trey Palme is on floppy hat patrol.

* Joe has noticed a pattern that dates back to at least last year: The Bucs start 11-on-11s with a run up the middle (today it is Rachaad White). The ghost of Dave Canales is real!

* Bucky Irving up the middle.

* Baker Mayfield tries for Mike Evans down the right sideline but no. Evans nearly had a one-handed catch.

* Kyle Trask on a roll out (!) to the left (!) and he completes a short pass to the left for Jalen McMillan.

* White runs right and is met by a defensive wall of white jerseys.

* Trask completes a pass to White in the left flat.

* Trask appears to drop a snap. This has been a recent recurring issue. Not a bunch, but a couple times, maybe three times, a practice. No idea if it is the center or not.

* Sean Tucker takes a handoff from Trask out of the gun and runs right.

* Tucker runs left.

* Nice: Trask threads the needle and connects with Mike Evans over the middle as he is surrounded by defenders.

* White up the middle.

* Did a coach chew on White for some reason? He takes another handoff and runs up the middle. Only this time he explodes out of the backfield, as if he was shot out of a cannon. Big gain.

* Now it is Connor Bazelak’s turn to be part of a bad snap.

* Figures: A fan asked Joe about Baselak and Joe just shook his head and said his lack of accuracy is worrisome. Sure enough, Bazelak goes back to pass and hits Devin Culp with the best pass Joe has seen the Bowling Green product throw. Threw to the right side with the ball just outside of Culp who reached out, caught the ball and secured it with one motion. Pretty.

* Good defense by Shilo Sanders. Mayfield throws down the left seam for Emeka Egbuka and Sanders read the play and defended Egbuka is such a way that it slowed Egbuka down and he couldn’t catch up to the pass. Sanders sort of boxed out Egbuka. Incomplete. Sanders celebrates by doing the ol’ Vernon Hargreaves umpire safe sign.

* Mayfield dodges traffic and dumps the ball off to Sterling Shepard over the middle.

* On a crossing pattern from the right side Mayfield finds Tez Johnson over the middle and the little Duck turns upfield and scores.

* Trask throws for McMillan along the left sideline and the play was broken up. Joe couldn’t catch a number but it may have been Tykee Smith. Almost picked.

* Tucker catches a pass from Trask along the left sideline.

* Trask with a quick pass to Culp into the right flat.

Red zone

* Bucky Irving has back-to-back runs up the middle for no gain.

* Got away with one: Baker Mayfield throws a fade to the left far corner of the end zone and Mike Evans outbattles Jamel Dean for the touchdown. However, if there were referees, Evans very likely would have been flagged for a pushoff. He just tossed Dean away like he was putting out the trash.

* Quick-hitter pass from Mayfield to McMillan to the left and McMillan runs past defenders for the score.

* Looked like Mayfield would have been sacked by Nebraska UDFA Nash Hutmacher. Remember: Can’t touch the quarterback. Still, Mayfield gets off a pass in traffic and tries to back-shoulder the ball in the end zone to Egubuka near the right side who fell down on the play.

* Trask throws a quick-hitter to the left for Culp for six. Joe saw a lot of quick passes by Bucs quarterbacks this morning.

* Consecutive runs up the middle for nothing by Tucker.

* Trask to Rakim Jarrett in the far right corner of the end zone… almost a one-handed catch. Alas, it’s incomplete.

* Another Tucker run up the middle for no gain.

* Bucky with a catch over the middle from Mayfield.

* Shepard catches passes from Mayfield in consecutive plays. One was a short pass to the left and the second was a screen pass to the right.

* Tez Johnson was crossing left to right and then he reversed field and Trask hit him for about a 10-yard gain.

* Mayfield tries to connect with McMillan on the left side maybe 15 yards out and Jamel Dean was all over McMillan, incomplete.

* Egbuka hauls in a Mayfield pass on a crossing pattern.

* Anthony Nelson has a “sack” on Mayfield.

* Mayfield rifles a pass to Evans to the left, threading the needle as Evans was in a crowd.

* Payne Durham hauls in a pass from Mayfield on the left side.

* Evans with a 15-yard catch from Mayfield to the left side.

* Lot of folks ask about left tackle Charlie Heck, who is in line to start for Tristan Wirfs if the All-Pro tackle can’t suit up Week 1. Joe has seen nothing horrible from Heck. Joe normally cannot follow the ball and watch Heck block. However the ball was at an angle from where Joe was sitting that both Mayfield and Heck were in Joe’s field of focus. Joe watched Heck for three plays, all against YaYa Diaby. The first play YaYa went inside on Heck and Heck stood his ground. Second play, YaYa goes outside and Heck stood his ground again. Third play Mayfield rolls right and YaYa flew past Heck and chased Mayfield down for a sack.

* PICK! Trask tries to throw left and Kaevon Merriweather grabs the pass and houses it.

* Trask throws right for Shepard but both Shepard and Bryce Hall got tangled up and both hit the ground. Sure looked like incidental contact.

* Trask fires down the left seam for Dennis Houston who hauls the pass in.

* Mayfield tries to get a pass to McMillan and Zyon McCollum raced in and broke up the pass.

* Jailbreak rush on Kyle Trask who launches the ball into the bleachers.

* Houston grabs a Trask pass along the left sideline. Trask put some mustard on that throw.

* Trask pumps… pumps… pumps… dirts the ball.

Two-minute drill

* Houston catches two straight passes from Trask. One was down the right sideline and the second was over the middle.

* Shepard catches a Trask pass on the right side.

* Trask to Tucker out of the backfield and Tucker bobbles the ball and runs and juggles the ball for about five yards before finally bringing the ball in.

* Ug-uh-lee: It looked as if Trask was just throwing the ball up and it was picked by Kindle Vildor to Trask’s right.

* Trask hits Tanner Taula right in the hands and he drops it.

* Trask connects with Houston on the right side.

* Trask connects with Durham on the left side.

* Trask tries to float a ball to the far right corner of the end zone and J.J. Roberts nearly comes away with a pick.