DE Louis Holmes and his fellow Buccaneer pass-rushers worked through a bags drill in tight quarters on Wednesday morning
The ground was a little firmer, the warm-up music a bit more auto-tuned (thanks to Kanye), but otherwise the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' Wednesday morning practice looked a lot like what the team did on Tuesday morning. Presumably, of course, the 78 players taking part in both workouts were a little more solid on the details on Wednesday, more comfortable by some measure in the team's new offensive and defensive schemes.
That's the purpose of these organized team activity days, or OTAs. The Bucs started their run of 14 OTAs last week and will continue them, three at a time, through the middle of the second week of June. Since virtually the entire team is in attendance for this OTA stretch, the players should be well-versed in the playbook by the time the full-team mandatory mini-camp begins on June 16.
Tampa Bay's second OTA practice of the week kicked off at 10:15 a.m. ET with the usual pat-n-go and stretching sessions, followed by individual position drills. Even with the order of drills the same as the day before, there was variety in the position drills.
The defensive line coaches, for instance, pulled their tackling dummies very close together so that when the pass-rushers ran their rapid-fire drill between them they had to concentrate on quick feet and sudden arm swipes. The linebackers took a few minutes to learn the very specific way to react to a draw play as it develops in the backfield. The cornerbacks worked on their "look and lean," a very specific method of covering deep sideline patterns that Head Coach Raheem Morris, formerly in charge of the defensive backs, has always emphasized.
Three team video cameras on lifts caught all the action from high above the field, as always. The team's video staffers have all of the footage installed in the team's internal network shortly after practice ends so that the coaches can use it to instruct their players in post-practice meetings.
On Wednesday, there was an additional camera on the field at the beginning of practice. This one belonged to an NFL Network crew, fronted by on-air analyst Brian Baldinger. Baldinger and the rest of the crow is on hand to film a Buccaneers All Access special for the Network that is likely to run on Monday.
The Buccaneers' Wednesday OTA was once again threatened by heavy gray clouds, but no rain fell on the team's work and, as mentioned, the practice fields were quite dry despite all the recent precipitation. With nothing to interrupt the schedule, the two-hour session was set to conclude at approximately 12:17 p.m. ET. Buccaneers.com will post a more detailed wrap up of the day's action later in the afternoon, as well as another exclusive Buccaneers Insider in the video section. To view images from the first half of Wednesday's practice, please click here.
