Bucs Rookie Mini-Camp Insider – Day 1

Tampa Bay kicked off the first day of its 2023 Bucs rookie mini-camp on Friday under hot and humid skies at the AdventHealth Training Center. Defensive tackle Calijah Kancey, right guard Cody Mauch, outside linebacker YaYa Diaby, tight end Payne Durham and wide receiver Kade Warner, the son of Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner, spoke to the media prior to practice.

The Bucs announced the signing of 18 undrafted free agents on Friday. Two players that were not on the list were Arkansas kickoff specialist Jake Bates, who did not pass the team physical, and Syracuse running back Sean Tucker, who has a heart condition and is not medically cleared to practice or work out yet. The Bucs have an agreement in principle with Tucker, but he can’t officially sign with the team until he passes a physical, which will likely happen later this summer as his heart condition subsides.

There were a couple of Bucs practice squad players from last year as well as some new, young signees in attendance, including cornerbacks Don Gardner and Duron Lowe, outside linebackers Charles Snowden and Hamilcar Rashed, defensive tackle Mike Greene, offensive tackles Dylan Cook and Micheal Niese, and kicker Jake Verity.

Bucs Undrafted Free Agents

Tennessee ILB Jeremy Banks #39
TCU WR Taye Barber #17
UConn OLB Brandon Bouyer-Randle #53
Shepherd RB Ronnie Brown Jr. #43
Duke LS Evan Deckers #86
Virginia Tech OT Silas Dzansi
Indiana OT Luke Haggard #72
Alabama State CB Keenan Isaac #16
Rutgers S Chris Izien #29
Maryland WR Rakim Jarrett #18
Texas State OLB Nelson Mbanasor #58
Iowa S Kaevon Merriweather #26
Furman WR Ryan Miller #81
Oklahoma G Chris Murray #56
UCLA OT Raiqwon O’Neal #76
North Carolina State CB Derrek Pitts Jr. #38
Illinois State TE Tanner Taula #84
Kansas State WR Kade Warner #85

Bucs Rookie Mini-Camp Notes – Offense

• New Bucs offensive coordinator Dave Canales was as energetic as advertised, bouncing around the position groups and working with the quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, and tight ends during the individual periods. The media got its first look at the new offense in the first Bucs rookie mini-camp practice, and it was obviously full of basic run and pass plays. But there were some of the mid-zone run plays that the coaches have talked about, in addition to a few wide-zone runs.

• New Bucs wide receivers coach Brad Idzik is a very hands-on coach and spent a lot of time working with Trey Palmer, the team’s sixth-round draft pick. Palmer, who stands 6-foot, 192 pounds, is a slightly bigger version of Russell Gage, who is 6-foot, 184 pounds. The best way to describe his running style is “smooth” in the way he glides across the field. His 4.33 speed is no joke as he covers a lot of ground in a hurry.

• Undrafted free agent Kade Warner showed great focus and hands during his initial Bucs rookie mini-camp practice. At 6-foot-1, 204 pounds, Warner looks like a bigger version of Adam Humphries, a former undrafted free agent who made the Bucs’ roster in 2015. Humphries was a chain-moving slot receiver for four years as one of Jameis Winston’s more reliable targets. Warner is smart and crafty and runs great routes out of the slot and out wide. Don’t be surprised if Warner makes the roster as WR6 due to his special teams ability.

“Coachable, very coachable, [and] fundamentally sound it looked like in individual drills,” Bucs head coach Todd Bowles said. “One day is hard to get a gauge on it so we’ll see how it progresses from there. Solid football player. He can catch the ball, he can play special teams, he can do a lot of things that we need and we’re always looking for special teams players.”

Bucs run game coordinator Harold Goodwin and G Cody Mauch – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

• Second-round pick Cody Mauch spent his first Bucs rookie mini-camp practice working exclusively with run game coordinator Harold Goodwin. Mauch, who is slated to start at right guard if he develops over the summer and grasps the offense, is a very big man at 6-foot-5, 305 pounds with a frame that could easily add another 10-15 pounds of muscle in time. But he’s not a lumbering lineman. Instead, he’s a pretty fluid mover with quick, agile feet.

“I know he’s an athlete,” Bowles said. “He played a lot of positions when he was growing up. [He’s] very smart, he’s a gritty guy. He hadn’t been down to Florida before so this is new for him, but I like the attitude and I like the football instincts of him.”

• Tight end Payne Durham didn’t have the best start to Bucs rookie mini-camp. He dropped a couple of passes in individual drills, which is uncommon for the sure-handed Purdue star. Durham has good hands and can make some spectacular catches, especially in the red zone and the end zone, and will likely use Friday’s sub-par practice for a better outing on Saturday.

Bucs Rookie Mini-Camp Notes – Defense

• First-round draft pick Calijah Kancey’s quickness stood out right off the bat in individual drills with defensive linemen. Kancey’s 6-foot-1, 286-pound frame (he’s gained two pounds since the draft) allows him to fire out of the chute in those drills easily. He definitely has some speed and explosion to his game, which was evident in his first Bucs rookie mini-camp practice.

Bucs OLBs Jose Ramirez and YaYa Diaby – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

• Outside linebacker YaYa Diaby certainly passes the eyeball test. At 6-foot-3, 263 pounds, he looks every bit like the powerful edge rusher that he is. Fellow outside linebacker Jose Ramirez looks bigger than his listed weight of 6-foot-2, 242. Diaby will obviously make the team as a rookie, and Ramirez has the chance to stick as a fifth outside linebacker if he can excel on special teams. By the way, Diaby looks awesome wearing No. 0, too.

“Obviously, his size, he grew up to about 264 [pounds] and he can still run,” Bucs head coach Todd Bowles said of Diaby. “We see him as an outside linebacker in base, he can help us in sub, he can also go inside some. So, as he gets acclimated to the system, it’s just a matter of what are the tools that he has to see if we can move him around or leave him in one spot or add anything. But he has heavy hands, he’s a load to handle and he can run so that gives us some hope.”

• Inside linebacker SirVocea Dennis made a splash in his first Bucs rookie mini-camp practice, picking off a pass and taking it back for a touchdown just moments into the 11-on-11 session. Dennis, who is known as a very cerebral player, played both the Mo (weakside linebacker) and the Mike (middle linebacker) spot at Pitt. This guy has some star power to him, and he could easily replace Lavonte David as a starter as early as next year if David doesn’t return at age 34.

“SirVocea played a lot of what we play here, he played in college,” Bowles said. “He’s very bright, he can play multiple spots, he can cover, he can blitz, he can scrape, he can do a lot of things and he’s a very heady football player. You don’t usually get that later on in the draft, so we felt good about that when we took him.”

Bucs ILB Jeremy Banks – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

• The Bucs’ other rookie inside linebacker, Jeremy Banks, was a blur at times during Friday’s practice. His 4.53 speed and athletic ability were apparent in individual drills and he covered a lot of ground quickly in the 11-on-11 session. If he can stay focused on football and avoid some of the pitfalls he had at Tennessee, he could be a steal for the Bucs as an undrafted free agent.

“Obviously, Banks was a heck of a player at Tennessee, they had a good defense, and he just knows where the ball is,” Bowles said. “On tape he found the ball and hopefully here he can do the same thing.”

• Rookie undrafted free agent safeties Kaevon Merriweather and Chris Izien both made great first impressions. Izien looks like an Antoine Winfield Jr. clone at 5-foot-8, 197 pounds. He’s short but compactly built and arrives to the football in a hurry. Merriweather is a bigger safety at 6-foot, 205, and the Bucs like the type of physical defensive backs that Iowa typically produces.

“Christian reminds me of Winfield a little bit in the way he plays,” Bowles said. “He’s not the same guy but obviously he has a burst and he’s very physical down there. Merriweather was a very good tackler in college. He’s built up pretty good – you can mistake him for a linebacker if you’re not careful. You look for those guys to learn the system and get on even footing and then kind of see where they are. But you kind of like the guys you’ve got coming in, especially if you got them in free agency – those two guys could have been drafted.”