1st & Goal: Rick Stroud, Tampa Bay Times Buccaneers Reporter

The NFL season is inching closer and closer. Who are the contenders and who are the pretenders? We have four downs to figure out your team's future.

It's time now for First and Goal on the Sack Guild Show. Alrighty, time to preview the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. We'll talk about this team a lot differently than the last few years because Tom Brady is no longer there as he has finally walked away from the NFL and is retired. Let's go down to Tampa though and we will talk to a man who covers the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for a long time.

You can always check him out in the Tampa Bay Times and that of course is Rick Stroud. Rick, appreciate you doing this. How are you? I'm doing well Zach, what's up?

So I appreciate you coming on doing well. Everyone's reacting to this depth chart by Todd Bowles where it's Baker Mayfield or Kyle Trask is the starter. We know Baker will start the first preseason game.

Kyle will then start the second. What do you make of the or designation on the depth chart? I mean that's you know what really Dave Canales said from the first day he got the job was you know he was going to have a quarterback competition. They did this in Seattle with Geno Smith and Drew Locke so I mean this is what he's promised and it's kind of what they're delivering and you know I give Kyle Trask a lot of credit. I think he's improved.

A lot was stacked against him. He worked in one offense for two years. They took that away, took his quarterback coach away. It's not really an offense that you know is one for a guy who's more of a pocket passer but he's improved his feet and he's being competitive but at the end of the day and I've said this even today was like okay so whoever wins this job and I think you know it's sort of the etiquette of football you have to earn it right like competition is good and all that but whoever takes that field in Minnesota will have had half the reps in training camp in preseason so if that helps you prepare to win games so be it but you know I've said all along I think it's going to be Baker Mayfield and until something changes I'm going to stick with that. Right like I would be shocked and I know Baker's stock is not in a wonderful position heck you got to compete to go get this job but I would be shocked if it's not Baker week one. Well I would too and and you really it's not so much about Kyle Trask like I said he's come a long way and in the best case scenario for the Bucks is that you know they've had a you know sort of a diamond in the rough the whole time and and you know this is what Kyle has done his whole career he didn't start in high school he sat behind Felipe Franks in college at Florida and then when he got his shot man he ripped it you know and he did really really well if that happens in the NFL that's that's the best scenario right then they got their quarterback for the future but he has been here two years and they still went and got Baker Mayfield and if they were that convinced that he he was that dude then I don't think there would be a competition necessarily but you know look Baker is somebody that Todd Bowles is familiar with he's scouted him when he came out of the draft Bowles was in with the Jets thought he may last to number three he didn't he likes him a lot this is Baker's fourth team though you know in the last calendar year since last July so he's trying to reset and you know we'll see where it goes but it's it's it's going to be interesting to start a guy that has nine snaps in the NFL over somebody that is you know that has played five years and done some good things in this league when you look at Tom Brady no longer there clearly he retired a lot of people and we've even talked about this before Rick shroud said that last year was going to be his final season in Tampa but we all assumed he'd go somewhere else when we found out that Brady retired what was that initial reaction by you you mean the second time when we found out yeah good point I don't know if there'll be a third so we'll see you know again I guess if you say it once you say it twice and and you don't come to camp anywhere you believe it now you know he has this minority ownership agreement you know with Mark Davis with the Raiders I haven't seen that accepted or even debated necessarily by NFL owners to get approval I don't know where that stands right now he's a free agent like any other quarterback that's not playing currently so where that goes I have no idea but you know look at some point during the year a contending team is going to lose their quarterback and the first guy they're going to call is Tom Brady if in fact he's still available and doesn't require ownership approval so we'll see I know he's enjoying his life he should and he's got three great kids he spends a lot of time with so it's a transition period for him but he did take a year that gap year if you will before he's supposed to start calling games I guess for Fox it seems like you're not going to say that you would be shocked if he ended up coming back at some point this season with another team well I mean look he's addicted to football and he has said that it's not because he can't play um he's choosing not to and that other things are more important um but if you got into late in the season and you needed you know the guy in San Francisco and again assuming he was still completely free and not beholding to the Raiders or any other team for ownership reasons um what would think that Tom Brady you know couldn't roll out of bed and no more than than the other guy the next Sunday in terms of preparation if it was the right offense the right system um you know I don't know uh we've seen we've seen that before uh I I'm not necessarily think that that's the way Brady would ever want to approach playing uh you know he always wants to be at his best there's always been a process he goes through um but look we you know look what happened in San Francisco a year ago um you know if that occurs to a division leader um late late in the year I just know that the phone calls are always going to come he's always going to get opportunities that even he doesn't anticipate let's get to the next down talking to Rick Stroud where's this offensive line at entering this season I know Worf's moved over the left side but how about the rest of the unit well I think they got a lot of question marks and and you know a lot of those guys are back but they're in different positions I mean if you just look at it we haven't seen Ryan Jensen take a snap even in practice yeah he was out all last year he tore three knee ligaments he had no surgery uh he did play against Dallas in the wild card game no he did not play well and since then it's been over a year since since his injury he hasn't really competed in in playing football and Todd Bowles told me the other day he doesn't know when he will um so that's daunting in and of itself uh but they've got Robert Hainsey who started last year Nick Leverett's competing there um you know you take Tristan Worf's is an all pro at right tackle you're moving the left tackle and he's talked about the mental strain of trying to maintain his standard on the other side um but that's that's a work in progress I think he'll be fine most people do um you know Cody Mock is a rookie that they're very high on he's going to start at right guard they're moving Luke Gedicke who struggled as a guard but he's always played right tackle in college now he's going to be their right tackle so you know Matt Fyler comes over from the Chargers he's a veteran player so they got they got guys I think the biggest change is going to be the scheme right um Dave Canales is going to come in here run a lot of outside zone runs uh that should seem to suit some of the personnel they have these guys can can be mobile they can move um and and you know maybe that that helps protect the quarterback a little bit with all the bootlegs and the waggles and things um but I don't I don't know what they have um they've got pieces they have not played together and uh we're just gonna have to see like a lot of things with this puck team for a while Byron Leffinch is being talked about to be an NFL head coach he gets fired uh this off season and Canales now is the new offensive coordinator I I haven't seen Leffinch land on any NFL staff is that surprising to you well it is and it's disappointing um I think the timing of it was bad um I know that that BA's intent when he when Bruce Arians retired was so that staff could remain together now it was March 30th when Todd Bowles got the job a year ago he didn't and wasn't able to hire anyone else um you know he wasn't happy made a lot of changes I think nine assistants were changed and and Byron um did not get a look and I think that's unfortunate because what happened to Byron was uh when they were successful before Tom Brady it was Bruce Arians it was the reason it was his offense even though he didn't call a play and he didn't game plan and yeah Jamis Winston threw 30 30 interceptions but he also threw 5,000 yards and they had a top offense one of the top offenses in the league then Tom Brady shows up and then it was all because Tom Brady was the quarterback when they won the Super Bowl and it was still Bruce Arians offense so Byron has been sort of the the victim of uh and the recipient of guys around him um and I I don't know you know how he interviews I know it felt like he was very close to getting the Jaguars job uh a year ago it didn't happen for whatever reason I hope he gets another opportunity if he wants it to coach because I I think he's a good communicator I know he knows football and there's not many NFL quarterbacks that have seen the game actually from the quarterback position that can go out there and and coach so um don't have an answer for you but uh it's unfortunate let's get to the next down talking to Rick Stroud what do you think the ceiling is this year for the defense well I think they can be pretty good now they're not deep but I like some of the young players that they've brought on board and I think you know he's injured right now uh with a calf injury but really that starts with Khalija Kansi I mean they're going a little different you know they've been used to putting um you know another 350 pound guy next to 360 pound beat Abeya um and and I think their defense especially the interior line was getting a little old and a little slow uh so you had a guy like Khalija Kansi who was not Aaron Donald but played at the same school and reminds people of him uh it's an unfair comparison but he's going to bring a lot of speed uh to go with the power they already have they got to have Logan Hall step up um you know Jotron Shawinka has plateaued at four and a half sacks a year he's got to get better you don't know what you're going to get uh from Shaquille Barrett who's coming off an achilles injury um but look uh they got enough guys from that Super Bowl defense that are still viable players the Devin Whites they've resigned Jamel Dean, Carlton Davis, Antoine Winfield Jr, Ryan Neil's a great addition at safety for them um I think that this is going to be is an underrated defense right now they're going to have to drive the the car a little bit here until that offense is able to to assimilate into into what you know um their their coordinator wants them to do but um I I still think they could play pretty good defense and I like Yahya Diabi I like um you know some of the guys they've added with Cervaci and Dennis and and different guys like that so I'm anxious to see how they play. Let's get to the final down on the way out with Rick Stroud for the Tampa Bay Times for Todd Bowles we know the seat's warm bare minimum what do you think he has to do this year for him to be back next season? Well you know the record wasn't good because they they were only going to win nine games at maximum but they clinched the division with eight they didn't play their starters against Atlanta um when they were in there they were leading the game so whether you want to say eight or nine wins um they still managed to win the NFC South no it wasn't a great division but that's only the seventh uh title in franchise history so you can credit him for that or or discredit him for not having a winning record which he's only done one time in five seasons as a head coach so this is a very big year for any head coach much less Todd Bowles um they're but they're trying to thread a needle here you know they're they're trying to to keep enough pieces from their Super Bowl team in a weak division and try to go back to back to back and win this division I think they'll be really competitive I think the division uh depending on what New Orleans does they would be the favorites but you might win it with nine or ten games again um we'll just have to see but um he's going to need to win uh if not the division try to get back in the playoffs have a winning record show progress those kinds of things but it's going to be awfully difficult without the goat in there trust me Rick Strad we appreciate the time as always enjoy the season thanks for doing this you bet take care