By: Devin Sanguinett
Bucs Report – Special to Sports Talk Florida
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have released their first depth chart ahead of the preseason opener at Cincinnati against the Bengals.
Now, I will note here that this is an unofficial depth chart and can change before the season starts. So don’t be worried about certain players being listed as back-ups instead of other guys. This will change once the season gets closer.
I think looking at the offense, the biggest thing is the sidelining of rookies. Graham Barton is back-up to Robert Hainsey, Bucky Irving is behind Chase Edmonds, and Jalen McMillan is behind Trey Palmer. The Barton one doesn’t concern me. Everyone knows that he will be the starting center for the Bucs unless something happens to him. But the other two are interesting. Edmonds wasn’t exactly good last season, so I don’t know if having him as RB2 is the right move. Granted, Sean Tucker started as RB4, then was RB2, then was basically non-existent, so Irving will likely move up. I don’t know about Jalen McMillan though. He has been impressing in Training Camp, the coaches may want him to be behind Palmer to develop.
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Outside of the rookies, what I thought was more interesting is that John Wolford is behind Kyle Trask. As someone who was formerly aboard the Trask Train, this seems like an interesting choice. Wolford has more experience and also worked with Liam Coen in the Rams’ system. And by all accounts, Trask’s training camp performance has not been good. Again, this may change, but I just found it weird.
For defense, nothing really too shocking. Christian Izien seems like he will be the back-up safety instead of nickel CB, but this was kind of expected. He did start the year hot with picks in two games, but didn’t record another one. Weird that’s what did him in as that fit perfectly with the rest of our secondary.
But since the Tykee Smith draft pick, it was clear that he would be the favorite to replace Izien’s role. However, I was excited to see that I may have been partially correct about the Bucs’ punt and kick returners. Right now, Palmer is the designated punt returner with Tucker and Irving being the kick off specialists. I think Irving especially will be good in the role if he isn’t too small for it and can avoid injury from getting tackled.
Offense:
WR: Mike Evans
WR: Chris Godwin
LT: Tristan Wirfs
LG: Ben Bredeson
C: Robert Hainsey
RG: Cody Mauch
RT: Luke Goedeke
WR: Trey Palmer
TE: Cade Otton
QB: Baker Mayfield
RB: Rachaad White
Defense:
DL: Calijah Kancey
NT: Vita Vea
DL: Logan Hall
OLB: Yaya Diaby
ILB: K.J. Britt
ILB: Lavonte David
OLB: Joe Tryon-Shoyinka
CB: Jamel Dean
CB: Zyon McCollum
S: Antoine Winfield Jr.
S: Jordan Whitehead
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