Buccaneers
Buccaneers S Antoine Winfield missed Wednesday’s practice because of a lower leg injury. According to Ian Rapoport, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of concern that Winfield will miss Week 1 of the regular season.
Jason Licht has gone through his growing pains as the Buccaneers’ general manager, holding a record of 27-53 in 2019 that has now progressed to 89-78-1 with five playoff appearances in six years. Licht explained how his approach to drafting players has changed, saying players with character concerns, like LB Devin White in 2019, likely would’ve prevented them from taking him at No. 5 overall: “Knowing what I know now, he would have been off my board. It was too much about him.” (Dan Pompei)
Carolina brought in WR Hunter Renfrow , who is attempting to make his NFL comeback this year. Panthers OC Brad Idzik had great things to say about Renfrow’s lateral quickness and technicality when running routes.
“He’s got some freaky lateral quickness. And then when he opens up, he’s like big strides — a powerful first four steps, which simulates, ‘I’m going full-tilt vertical,’” Idzik said, via Joseph Person of The Athletic. “He simulates that every single time and then he eats up whatever leverage you give him.”
Veteran Carolina WR Adam Thielen gives Renfrow credit for his consistency in getting open, even if it’s not like most other top receivers in the league.
“He trusts it. And it’s pretty much unguardable,” Thielen said. “You see it in one-on-ones. You see it in team reps. Not a lot of times is the ball coming his way and (there’s) not a lot of separation. That’s a credit to him and his route craft, his ability to get open day in and day out. It’s not easy to do in this league.”
Saints QB Spencer Rattler completed 7 of 11 passes for 53 yards and didn’t have the outing he thought he would, as the offensive line did not hold up well for him. Meanwhile, rookie QB Tyler Shough also threw a costly interception in his first preseason start. Saints HC Kellen Moore gave his thoughts on both performances.
“I thought Spencer ( Rattler ) did some good stuff coming out of there, using his feet in some situations where he had some avoided zone areas,” Moore said, via the team’s website. “He was able to make some plays out of. Probably for us just playing some situational football, we were close on getting in the range for some points and we just weren’t able to get those things done.”
“That’s what is going to happen in this league as you go through these seasons and so I thought he did a great job,” Moore added on Shough. “We’ll learn from the interception, we’ll learn from that one, we’ll grow, but his response was really valuable.”
