Bucs Training Camp 2025, Day 15 Practice Notes
August 15th, 2025
Mike Evans deserved a drink Thursday.
OK, Joe has mentioned this. These notes are going to be, well, very different.
Joe was in the Steelers’ house. Joe was a guest. So part of the media protocol of the Steelers is that descriptions of plays cannot be reported unless a play is part of an otherwise bigger story, with quotes about the play in question from players or a coach.
And since Joe’s notes contain like 40 plays or more, it’s borderline impossible to get quotes about 40+ plays.
But the keyword here is “specific.” So Joe will try to describe these plays in a very vaguely. And to help smooth any potential feathers, Joe will not mention any Steelers players. So if you want to know how Mike Evans or Emeka Egbuka did against Jalen Ramsey or Joey Porter, Jr., Joe can’t help you other than to say Evans went bananas yesterday and Egbuka was no slouch either.
So Joe is going to type plays with unspecific information. You’ll have to use imagination and savvy to connect dots and understand.
* You may have heard that last week was the 80th anniversary of the first atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Baker Mayfield and Emeka Egbuka were not there that day. That doesn’t mean the bomb didn’t work.
* This Joe can be specific with: Bucs outside linebackers coach Larry Foote has his position players run around a dummy and try to pick up a towel on the ground while getting to the “quarterback.” This is to help teach edge rushers to bend.
* Anthony Nelson is wearing shorts and a jersey, but no helmet.
* The music the Steelers play at the Crib that Antonio Brown Built is much better than what is often played at Bucs practices, where little music is every played. It appeared Kyle Trask liked the music as well, as Joe saw him dancing in place. A moment later, a ball was seen bouncing past the goalposts.
* A Bucs player was seen celebrating just past the goal line. Joe saw Teddy Bridgewater on the field.
One-on-One
* Joe saw Jalen McMillan with a football in his hands. Bridgewater was still standing on the field.
* Joe saw Egbuka dance like a ballerina in mid-air in the corner of the end zone. He, too, had a ball in his hands.
* On back-to-back plays, Joe noticed Rakim Jarrett and McMillan were very pleased about something. Kyle Trask was on the field.
* Tez Johnson did a skit pretending he had but one arm. It almost worked but there was a defender who Joe thought tried to play Pat-A-Cake a little too roughly with Johnson.
* Garrett Greene was very happy as Joe learned Greene’s insurance points improved by six.
* Who knew Egbuka was a schoolteacher?
* Who knew Trask was in the rifle corps? And Jarrett monitored the target?
* Sterling Shepard was a schoolteacher, too?
* Cade Otton apparently was a wrestler once. And when he won his last wrestling match, he kept a piece of leather.
* As a waiter once, Greene dropped the dishes.
* Devin Culp noticed before he left for Pittsburgh that the oil pressure in his rig dropped.
* Egbuka walked through an orange grove recently and had to reach high for the fruit and he got a juicy one.
* Mayfield and Shepard wrote a very pretty song together.
* If Jaden Smith was a betting line, he’d get six points.
* Tight end Tanner Taula was picking fruit too, in the middle of the orchard. Looks like Bridgewater is working for UPS as he delivered a package.
* Cade Otton tried to stretch out the leather over an important line, but there was a Mons Venus issue.
* Shepard did something very crazy, but in a good way. So crazy that Mike Evans and Jalen McMillan raced onto the field to celebrate with him, hooting and hollering.
11-on-11
* The music is so good that a mosh pit developed. And in the middle of it, Zyon McCollum was barking like a mean dog at a lot of strangers.
* Josh Williams did quite a bit of yacking, but he wasn’t one bit sick. Joe noticed Trask was on the field.
* Owen Wright apparently likes hockey as he had a double-hattrick. He apparently leans left as well.
* Bridgewater dealt Wright a hand of poker and the first two cards of the hand were a four of hearts and a two of spades. Crap dealing but those two cards add up to something.
* Bucky flew first class while sitting in the far left seat. Baker Mayfield served drinks.
* Sean Tucker also had some air travel and he too sat on the left side of the plane. His trip resulted in airline points.
* Tucker likes to change things up on flights and moved to the right side of the aisle.
* Trask felt his blood pressure rising and then watched Smith try to grab an orange off the tree, but someone else picked it first.
* Culp had a job as a nurse practitioner and he made a house call.
* “Teddy Bridgewater, you are the one who just got that ball all dirty.”
* “Teddy, there was no need to run away from those dogs and then fall to the ground like a sack of potatoes.”
* Baker Mayfield told Bucky Irving to run through that left-handed screen door.
* Sterling Shepard likes to travel in the middle lane when Baker Mayfield is driving. Likes it so much he did it twice.
* Trask had Shepard sit in the far right seat on the plane.
* While Jacob Harris was driving in the left lane as so many Floridians are wont to do so often, he saw a jet with a No. 2 on the wings fly way, way over his head.
* Tez Johnson was once a crossing guard who carried a leather briefcase.
* Cade Otton was in the middle of a cow pasture and Baker Mayfield noticed him.
7-on-7
* Jalen McMillan was in the middle lane. Mayfield was driving a rig and noticed him.
* After Egbuka cut the inside of a finger on his right hand, Mayfield served him a steak that was as tough as shoe leather.
* Mike Evans did a Mike Evans thing.
* Don’t see this very often: Emeka Egbuka went shopping. While he was in the canned foods aisle, he got his hands on a can of corn, and he dropped it.
* Evans danced down the sidewalk on the left side of the road and a rude man jostled Evans so much that an escaped prisoner threw a hankie.
* Baker Mayfield was pumping gas when he saw Evans all by himself across the parking lot.
Joe is still waiting for next week’s media schedule to be released but Joe is fairly certain Thursday may have been the last open practice the Bucs will have this summer. If so, it’s been real. Thanks for riding with Joe through underwear football and through training camp!
And Joe’s got more notes coming later today — from the other Joe looking at the defense against the Steelers.
August 15th, 2025 at 12:08 am
This was meant to be clever, but it was just annoying.
August 15th, 2025 at 12:10 am
That was hilarious and wonderfully fun to read. Good job guys
August 15th, 2025 at 12:15 am
Devin Culp still dropping passes?
August 15th, 2025 at 12:21 am
This may be Joe’s best training camp report yet. At least the most entertaining.
August 15th, 2025 at 12:40 am
Very clever and creative. You were in the zone. I had to work for some of those. Thankful to have a JoeBucsfan.com and to have a certified Goat on the team. We are living the Bucs life. Go Bowles!
August 15th, 2025 at 12:56 am
Creativity points for sure lol
Good stuff Joe’s
August 15th, 2025 at 1:19 am
* Devin Culp noticed before he left for Pittsburgh that the oil pressure in his rig dropped.
===========
I think that means he crapped himself, but I could be wrong.
Joe, while I certainly wouldn’t want this to be the norm, this is very entertaining.
August 15th, 2025 at 1:27 am
I can’t decipher all this.
What kind of rules are these? Reporters can’t even report what’s happening.
August 15th, 2025 at 1:34 am
Wait, so they’re not playing Baker or Evans on Saturday. Man have they made preseason just completely worthless. Everyone played 3 of the 4 games only a few years ago, now it’s 0, and it certainly felt like there were a lot less injuries back then.
August 15th, 2025 at 1:38 am
Stop just stop
August 15th, 2025 at 1:49 am
capt kidd is not smart.
Go BUCS
August 15th, 2025 at 1:49 am
This was entertaining and hilarious. Honestly if you could do another one like this, and then translate for the non imaginative fans, I’d love it. You had me laughing a lot here, Joe.
August 15th, 2025 at 1:53 am
Neither is trey uniformed-shorinka.
August 15th, 2025 at 4:53 am
Thanks for finding creative (legal) ways to describe the joint practice to us Joseph!
This one was my favorite…
“Cade Otton tried to stretch out the leather over an important line, but there was a Mons Venus issue.”
Clever…
Except – is there really any “stripping” going on at Mons? Aren’t the ladies there fully ‘stripped’ to begin with? LOL
August 15th, 2025 at 5:42 am
Excellent work, Joe.
Thank you for the extra effort to make these notes happen. I had a good laugh at some of them.
Reading between the lines of this and your other posts about yesterday, it sounds like we had a great practice on the offensive side of the ball, at least.
August 15th, 2025 at 5:45 am
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
August 15th, 2025 at 5:49 am
Loving your witty and balanced notes! Best yet!
August 15th, 2025 at 5:57 am
Grin!
August 15th, 2025 at 6:31 am
That was a challenge. But I really enjoyed trying to figure it out. Thanks for the creativity.
August 15th, 2025 at 6:38 am
Funny!
August 15th, 2025 at 6:49 am
Joe’s! Brilliant! It makes me wonder though. When you report from bucs practice. Do you give away their plays to other teams with how well you describe your practice notes? You paint a great picture from bucs practice. Think other teams read and get tips and hints?
But these notes are F-ing brilliant 👏🏿 well done.
August 15th, 2025 at 6:51 am
Thanks Joe! This is your best report yet. I wonder if it was 1’s vs 1’s ?
August 15th, 2025 at 7:13 am
That was… different.
Good job finding a work around, Joe!
For those who are complaining, consider this: It’s better than no notes!
August 15th, 2025 at 7:23 am
The only ones I didn’t get were the schoolteacher ones?
August 15th, 2025 at 7:24 am
LOL @ escaped prisoners throwing hankies..
August 15th, 2025 at 7:34 am
Loved it! Still laughing.
August 15th, 2025 at 7:36 am
That was a nice change up, only thing I couldn’t catch onto was the “leather” comments
August 15th, 2025 at 7:53 am
It felt like Shep had a really good day against the dumb logos… I mean the Steelers… also a dumb name.
With so many teams named after blue color jobs like the Packers and Steelers, shouldn’t the Browns (yet another dumb name) be called the UPS drivers? They frequently don’t deliver the way they should. Ugly uniforms. They also have a dog pound. They can play their games in UPS stadium. Seems obvious.
August 15th, 2025 at 7:56 am
Why did I enjoy this so much? Should be a thing, one TC practice a year you write the notes like this. It will be a way to remember that the Steelers make you get a Top Secert clearance before watching practice.
August 15th, 2025 at 8:05 am
Brilliant!
August 15th, 2025 at 8:07 am
“It almost worked but there was a defender who Joe thought tried to play Pat-A-Cake a little too roughly with Johnson.”
I’ve said it before, but this is how you take Tez out of a play. Make him work his way out of the 5 yard zone off the LOS. Slow the release down you can get him off his timing.
Funny to hear Trask dancing, as by watching him play you can tell his rhythm is limited lol
August 15th, 2025 at 8:10 am
Had to do some mental work but it was worth it. Thanks!
August 15th, 2025 at 8:13 am
ATL READY!!!!
GO BUCS!!!!
August 15th, 2025 at 8:16 am
🫡 The Steel workers had a bad work meeting. The union is not bailing them out of this situation.
August 15th, 2025 at 8:19 am
I knew Trask had a weakness. WBL, leave it to your keen eye to spot that weakness. Limited rhythm, that’s it! That rhythm, it’s like speed I’m telling you. Either you have it or you don’t.
August 15th, 2025 at 8:22 am
Evo:
Bucs don’t want detailed notes. For example, formations and who is on the field,, etc. If it is a trick play, that’s off limits too.
At times it can be a little challenging to try to give fans detail without crossing the line.
August 15th, 2025 at 8:35 am
Best yet!
August 15th, 2025 at 8:36 am
Late to the party this morning…that was brilliant J’s!
August 15th, 2025 at 8:36 am
“Bucs don’t want detailed notes. For example, formations and who is on the field,, etc. If it is a trick play, that’s off limits too.”
Very cloak and cutlass
August 15th, 2025 at 9:04 am
Best camp report yet!! Thanks Joe!
August 15th, 2025 at 9:15 am
Very very creative Joe! Great stuff Joe! Mons Venus brought to practice too! It’s a beautiful thing ! Thanks Joe!!
August 15th, 2025 at 9:18 am
this might be your best work ever joe. you can’t hang em up, you’re just getting good.
August 15th, 2025 at 9:19 am
the best, hands down, is the Mons Venus one.
August 15th, 2025 at 9:23 am
Joe was very excited to see what happened in the endzone on a play with Mike Evans, Baker Mayfield, and a trailing Jalen Ramsey involved and no it wasn’t because Rachel Watson arrived?
August 15th, 2025 at 9:34 am
Just do all the practice notes this way. Genius.
August 15th, 2025 at 10:19 am
Seriously JBF? This much ambiguity, you’re speaking in codes. Saying a Bucs receiver caught one over the middle or down the sideline is giving away too much?
August 15th, 2025 at 10:34 am
Joe caught Jalen McMillan hauling in a quick slant from Bridgewater, still planted in the pocket after the throw.
Next snap, Egbuka went full toe-tap drill in the back corner of the end zone, pulling down a high fade. Ball secured.
Two plays in a row, Rakim Jarrett and McMillan were celebrating like they’d just beaten the coverage over the top. Trask was directing traffic under center.
Tez Johnson ran a misdirection, tucking one arm like he was protecting the ball, but a corner blitz came hot and nearly jarred it loose.
Garrett Greene broke into a big grin after hitting the uprights from deep — six points in the books.
Egbuka ran a precise route tree like he was coaching the drill himself.
Trask unleashed a dart from the gun, Jarrett tracking it the whole way.
Sterling Shepard looked like he was running the session, calling out coverage reads.
Cade Otton battled at the goal line like an old-school grappler, then kept the ball strapped under his arm for the walk-off.
Greene tried a hurry-up handoff and coughed it in traffic.
Before shipping off to Pittsburgh, Devin Culp read the defense, noticed the pressure dropping, and checked down.
Egbuka climbed the ladder in traffic, high-pointed the ball, and came down with a clean catch.
Mayfield and Shepard connected on a timing route that could make the highlight reel.
If Jaden Smith was a point spread, he just moved the scoreboard six.
Tanner Taula worked the seam, and Bridgewater hit him on the numbers — package delivered.
Otton tried to stretch a route to the sticks, but got caught up in some extracurricular contact.
Shepard went wild after a busted coverage, and Evans and McMillan stormed the field, helmets off, yelling like they’d won a playoff game.
11-on-11, Period 2
Crowd noise cranked — looked like a mosh pit in the red zone — and Zyon McCollum barked out cover calls loud enough to rattle strangers in the stands.
Josh Williams was chirping after sticking his man on the sideline. Trask still in command.
Owen Wright found the end zone twice on the same series, pounding the left side both times.
Bridgewater dealt Wright two short completions — not much yardage, but they added up.
Bucky Irving took a jet sweep from the far left hash, Mayfield jogging alongside.
Sean Tucker caught a wheel route on the left, racking up yards after the catch.
Next rep, Tucker flipped sides and ran the same wheel from the right.
Trask felt the pocket collapsing, dumped it toward Smith on the sideline, but the DB jumped the route.
Culp came in on a blitz pickup — house call for the quarterback.
“Teddy, you just got that ball all muddy on the scramble!”
“Teddy, no need to roll out, run from the pressure, and then flop like that.”
Mayfield set up a screen to Bucky Irving on the left, told him to hit the crease.
Shepard worked the middle crossing route twice for chain-movers.
Trask put Shepard on the right boundary for a toe-tap attempt.
Jacob Harris was cruising down the left when a deep post from a receiver wearing #2 went sailing overhead.
Tez Johnson handled the middle crossing route with a ball tucked in tight.
Otton settled in the soft spot of the zone, and Mayfield hit him in stride.
7-on-7
McMillan owned the middle seam, Mayfield finding him in stride.
After Egbuka got a scrape on his right hand, Mayfield still zipped him a bullet — caught it, but had to wrestle it in.
Mike Evans did the thing only Mike Evans does — climbing over defenders to get it.
On a rare miscue, Egbuka went to field a routine swing pass and let it slip through his hands.
Evans danced down the left sideline, took a shove from a corner, and drew a flag from the ref.
Mayfield spotted Evans alone across the lot — easy pitch and catch.
August 15th, 2025 at 10:48 am
Great job reporting news from Pitt . Enjoyed this.
August 15th, 2025 at 10:49 am
This may be my favorite JBF post ever. Thanks Joe!
August 15th, 2025 at 10:58 am
According to Steelers media protocol, yes, unless Joe had quotes from a player or coach on every play. The Bucs weren’t going to wait around for an hour so Joe could gather quotes on 40+ plays. 🤷♂️
And Joe doesn’t want his credentials pulled for violating team media protocols.
August 15th, 2025 at 11:19 am
I laughed so hard Joe that I cried.
August 15th, 2025 at 11:29 am
Joe! Maybe your best work. Priceless.
“Mayfield and Egbuka weren’t there, but it doesn’t mean the bomb didn’t work.”
ROTFLMAO
August 15th, 2025 at 11:30 am
ir8oldman Says:
August 15th, 2025 at 7:24 am
LOL @ escaped prisoners throwing hankies..
———————–
😂😂 Still laffin’. Bet EE had a field day playing with HOFamer ME13. Hammy, what hammy?
August 15th, 2025 at 11:47 am
Read all that, enjoyed it, but think I know even less about today’s practice from when I started.
August 15th, 2025 at 12:16 pm
I’ve noticed another site publishing Steelers Bucs practice notes unfiltered.
August 15th, 2025 at 12:52 pm
Very creative and funny!
August 15th, 2025 at 1:58 pm
Uh, oh.
Steelers people were very blunt to Joe about what was and wasn’t kosher. Very blunt. Joe had about a five-minute discussion with the Steelers media relations chief to be clear what Joe could and could not publish. #OhWell
August 15th, 2025 at 3:04 pm
That was awesome. Great notes! What a way to turn a crap situation into some good pre-season fun.
August 15th, 2025 at 4:00 pm
I enjoyed this
August 15th, 2025 at 4:52 pm
For what it’s worth, reading some of the Steeler reporters – and noting they’re very limited on what they can say like Joe is – but they didn’t sound nearly as dire about the Steelers performance, and made it sound like the Steelers dominated early then it was more 50/50 later in practice. Based on the additional detail Joe provides, and some other reports from as well, I think the truth is a lot more towards the pro-Bucs version of events, but it’s insane they have these nonsense rules in place to limit reporting in a joint practice. Who exactly is going to get some incredible insider info from public reports? If teams want to know something about Pittsburgh or Tampa, they’ll just call someone in the other camp and ask.
August 15th, 2025 at 5:13 pm
Clever and creative – great job Joes!
August 15th, 2025 at 5:39 pm
Thanks Joe, TG the Bucs are not this crazy!
August 15th, 2025 at 6:14 pm
That was bery creative and very fun to read, Joe’s. Great job!!!
August 15th, 2025 at 6:14 pm
LOL *very creative
August 15th, 2025 at 9:39 pm
Agree with Captain Kidd. I couldn’t get past the first couple bullet points. Just too much “creativity” in this one. I get the restriction but not EVERY line needs to be comical.
August 15th, 2025 at 10:20 pm
For those that liked this, thank you.
For those that didn’t, not sure what Joe could have done. Wasn’t allowed to play it straight. Wasn’t allowed to type facts — without 40+ quotes.
It was either sarcasm or zero notes.
August 15th, 2025 at 10:22 pm
THANK YOU Rod Munch!
As Joe always points out, Eisenhower had spies in his headquarters and somehow he pulled off D-Day, just a wee bit more complex and detailed than running a jet sweep or dropping front-seven defenders in pass coverage.
The paranoia among football coaches is both ridiculous and galling.
August 16th, 2025 at 12:38 am
These were downright funny. It’s sad you have to resort to this, as a simple generic description isn’t going to really say anything that other teams can use. The Mons Venus one is something I’m still trying to decipher as I can go various ways with that one. The Egbuka can of corn was hilarious, not to mention we seem to have a lot of schoolteachers on this team. Good stuff.
August 16th, 2025 at 3:06 am
Silly Rabbit… Tricks are for kids! Sorry Joe, these rules suck and I refuse to decipher this stuff. Nice try though. LOL
Go Bucs!