Bucs Camp Insider 8-12: Lavonte David Misses INTs, But Not The QB (2024)

Following a successful trip to Cincinnati where the Bucs defeated the Bengals on Saturday night, 17-14, Tampa Bay returned to the practice field on Monday, but mixed things up with an afternoon practice that began at 2:40 p.m. This was also the last practice before the Bucs head up to Jacksonville for a pair of joint practices with the Jaguars on Wednesday and Thursday.

The afternoon practice on Monday was about 89 degrees under slightly cloudy skies with a slight breeze that made it pretty good working conditions. The Bucs were in shorts, helmets and shoulder pads for this encounter. Pewter Report’s Matt Matera, Adam Slivon and Isaiah Delgado were in attendance this afternoon. Here were their observations.

Bucs Who Were Not Practicing

A majority of the same players that have been out injured for Tampa Bay remained out on Monday, but a new one added as well in reserve left tackle Justin Skule. Defensive tackles Calijah Kancey and Mike Greene did not participate and neither did wide receivers Sterling Shepard and Rakim Jarrett. Also still out were safety Jordan Whitehead, running back Chase Edmonds and inside linebacker SirVocea Dennis.

Outside linebacker Joe Tryon-Shoyinka briefly participated in outside linebacker drills but did not take part in contact drills. As soon as his teammates hit blocking sleds, he was out. Tryon-Shoyinka was not in any 7-0n-7 or 11-0n-11 drills either.

Two Bucs Wear Non-Contact Jerseys

For the first time this training camp we saw players wearing a black non-contact jersey at practice. It may have been a little alarming at first because wide receiver and rookie standout Jalen McMillan was wearing one while fellow rookie wide receiver and undrafted free agent Kameron Johnson wore the other. This is the first we have heard of an injury to McMillan, which likely happened during Saturday’s preseason opener. Johnson, on the other hand, returned and practiced in a limited capacity after missing over a week.

McMillan did participate in his usual drills. He was with the other returners to catch punts, ran with the wide receivers and was also used on offense in 11-on-11s. It was the same thing with Johnson where he also participated on offense. Although Johnson had missed some time, he still looked just as quick as when training camp began.

Following practice, Todd Bowles said that McMillan was “a little sore” and “I didn’t want nobody touching him today.” The status for Johnson was, “He did some things today – we’ll see how he progresses,” according to Bowles.

Lavonte David Had Up And Down Moments

Bucs team leader and veteran inside linebacker Lavonte David has accomplished many great things in his career. It becomes even more impressive with him extending his prime at age 34. One aspect of his game that David has struggled with over the last couple seasons is taking the ball away via interceptions.

David has had moments where he’s come close to recording an interception, but has often bobbled or dropped it, turning the play into a less inspiring pass breakup. Believe it or not, David has not picked a pass off over the last three seasons. This is only brought up because David had some chances today to make some highlight reel plays and unfortunately did not.

On a passing play where Baker Mayfield was targeting Chris Godwin, David read the play beautifully and was on the move before Mayfield even released the ball. David knew exactly where he was going and cut in front of Godwin while attempting to catch the ball in stride for what would’ve been an easy pick-six. The problem was that David could not bring the ball in, as the rest of the Bucs’ defenders looked on in shock.

Not long after, a similarly run play was called for Mayfield to hit Mike Evans at the hashes on the left side. David came close to taking the ball away, but this time Evans caught it as the two stars and captains of the Bucs nearly collided with each other. There’s a chance David could have knocked the ball loose if it were against an opponent, but Monday was not the day for a big hit on your own teammate.

The most agonizing moment came when the Bucs moved to 7-on-7s near the goal line. Playing in zone coverage, Mayfield zipped one in to a receiver just away from the diving hands of David for a touchdown. David was merely a split second away from securing the ball, but once again found himself wondering what happened.

In celebration of the score and another way to trash talk, Mayfield mimicked the popular Geico commercial that has a fisherman with a dollar on the pole while people chase after it as he told David, “You got to be quicker than that!”

David would have his redemption as practice went on, but not in the form of an interception. What David was able to do was rely on his instinctual ability and time blitzes well and get to the quarterback. David ended up with two sacks on Mayfield. The first came with the offense backed up near its own end zone as he came off the edge. The other one came right up the middle, immediately in the face of Mayfield.

Overall it was a very eventful practice from David. It would have been nice if David could have come down with an interception or two in practice, but perhaps he’s saving his next pick for the regular season.

New Bucs Coaches Get Vocal

It’s always interesting to see how new coaches interact with their players and get the most of out of them. Two coaches in particular were very vocal on Monday, and they were offensive coordinator Liam Coen and offensive line coach Kevin Carberry. To clarify, there wasn’t any kind of berating or screaming, just looking to get the message across.

The Bucs were literally going through a walk-through situation where Liam Coen stopped everything to coach up wide receiver Ryan Miller on how a particular route was supposed to get run. Coen went as far as to mimic the entire route himself, going into specific detail. There were also at least two times where Coen yelled for a timeout before the ball was snapped to call everyone back and explain what needed to be done. Coen is very detailed and meticulous in practice.

Carberry has some compelling challenges this year taking over an offensive line that has a stud player like Tristan Wirfs, a rookie starter in Graham Barton and everything else in between. Early on, Carberry didn’t love how Cody Mauch got up the field on a particular play. He yelled out “Cody, get up!” as he instructed what he wanted to see on the play.

On a screen play where the interior offensive line had to move up the field, Carberry encouraged Barton to improve on a specific technique to be quicker at the point of attack. He’s been constantly communicating with Barton throughout training camp trying to get him ready for his big role.

Observations And Highlights From Day 13 Of Bucs Camp

• Outside linebacker Anthony Nelson had a chippy day, but a good day. During 1-on-1 pass rushing drills, Nelson got into it with another offensive lineman that eventually led to a huge scrum and players getting pushed away. Everything was fine after, and Nelson made a great play in 11-on-11s stopping a screen play that only made it back to the line of scrimmage.

• Wide receiver Mike Evans made an incredible catch in the back corner of the end zone at the right pylon with Bryce Hall all over him. It looked like he was in bounds, but given he was crossing part of the end zone and running full speed, it was unbelievable how he controlled his body enough to even make the play.

• Back to the 1-on-1 offensive line vs. defensive line – outside linebacker Jose Ramirez had a nice spin move while fellow outside linebacker Markees Watts went right past rookie left tackle Lorenz Metz. Watts later faced Pro Bowl left tackle Tristan Wirfs and was shoved to the ground. Defensive tackle Logan Hall made a good swim move to get into the backfield. Defensive tackle Vita Vea pushed rookie guard Elijah Klein pretty far back on a rep, but it wasn’t the worst effort against Vea that day. Rookie center Graham Barton held up well against defensive tackle C.J. Brewer and stood his ground.

• Cornerback Keenan Isaac recorded the only interception of the day at the goal line against Baker Mayfield. The ball was a little under thrown so it was right in front of him.

• The oddest play of the day came when rookie wide receiver Jalen McMillan bobbled a pass the was over the middle. The ball bounced high into the air and was actually caught by rookie tight end Devin Culp, resulting in a huge gain.

• Safety Antoine Winfield Jr. had a tackle for loss on rookie running back Bucky Irving at the beginning of practice. After that, Irving picked up right where he left off from the preseason game. He just commits to hitting the hole and heading up field. It’s really tough to keep him down as he just keeps going.

The Bucs have Tuesday off before starting the first of two joint practices with the Jaguars starting on Wedneday. Pewter Report will be live from Jacksonville to cover both practices and the preseason game on Saturday.