Danger for Buccaneers with news coming out of OTAs

Everyone on the planet looks good playing football without pads or an opposing player trying to kill them. Let’s treat the Buccaneers OTAs as such.

It happens every year. Fans across the NFL, including those of the Buccaneers, find a way to turn young players and draft picks into Hall of Famers based on a few reps during OTAs.

These optional workouts exist for one reason above all else; make sure the guys are ready to go by the start of training camp.

Do the players know their coaches? The schemes? Formations? Vernacular? If the answers to those things are yes, that is the only main takeaway from these practices.

The vets generally don’t even show up. Tom Brady is off making money and playing golf. Some of the returners are coming back to help smooth the transition with a new head coach, but let’s not make these into more than what they are.

Defenders are handicapped by not being able to hit. Offensive players will generally run the plays all the way through, even if they were technically tackled in the backfield. What we see from players without pads playing football is next to nothing to brag about or to use to support or challenge previous takes about a player.

No one is able to say at this point whether a Bucs rookie or newcomer is good or bad. The same can be said for every team in the league. Sure, certain things stand out, such as dropped passes and other mental lapses, but what you can see from guys during this part of the season is such a small drop in the bucket for what they can actually do when the rubber meets the road.

The Buccaneers are still finding ways to get better, but let’s not start over or under-hyping anyone just yet.

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