Observations From Buccaneers' First Joint Practice With Jaguars: Bucs Offense Gets Dominated

JACKSONVILLE, FL — The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are holding their second joint practice this training camp, facing off against the Jacksonville Jaguars after doing so against the New York Jets two weeks ago.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers came out looking to put in a strong showing against the Jaguars, but that didn't end up happening — in fact, the team got beaten on both sides of the ball, but it particularly struggled on the offensive side of things.

BucsGameday was live on the scene at 1 Performance Place in Jacksonville as the Bucs took on the Jaguars for Day 1 of joint practice. Here are some observations we had from all of the action:

Injury Updates

Tampa Bay Buccaneers tackle Tristan Wirfs (78) before the start of the game against the New England Patriots | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Bucs had two key players back doing 11v11 drills.

Both Vita Vea and Tristan Wirfs participated in team drills on Tuesday. That makes the first time that both have been in team drills all year, and it goes toward them ramping up for the regular season in Week 1.

Christian Rozeboom remains absent, as does fellow linebacker SirVocea Dennis. Both Emeka Egbuka and Jalen McMillan were out on Tuesday as well. Tackle Justin Skule was a non-participant, but Ben Chukwuma was back at it Tuesday after missing camp and the preseason game against the Chiefs last Saturday.

Cade Otton returned to practice Tuesday after missing multiple days of camp and the preseason game last Saturday as well.

Bucs Offense Suffocated by Jaguars

Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles against the Kansas City Chiefs during the first half | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

There was absolutely nothing going for the Bucs offense on Tuesday — it was all Jags, all the time on defense.

The Bucs were dominated physically, and that even started during one-on-ones. Tackle Luke Goedeke lost most of his reps to Jaguars outside linebacker Josh Hines-Allen, who terrorized the rest of the line, too. Tampa Bay’s backup line didn’t look much better against Jacksonville’s No. 2s.

11-on-11s were rough. The Bucs couldn’t get the run game going at all, and the passing game also suffered. The Bucs had a ball knocked out at the catch point five different times by a Jags DB, and any positive plays were marred by penalties and drops. Devin Culp had a bad drop on a nice Jalon Daniels throw, and a Sean Tucker rushing touchdown was negated by holding.

Baker Mayfield also threw two interceptions on the day. One was a ball too high for Chris Godwin that got picked off on a tip, and the second was a ball thrown directly to safety Antonio Johnson.

Overall, the offense looked quite bad, with quarterback Mayfield doing his fair share of overthrowing the football on multiple occasions. The Bucs will have to come out strong on offense Wednesday to feel remotely good about the work they did against the Jaguars.

Defense Plays Better, But Still Gets Beat

Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback Ayden Garnes (24) looks on against the Kansas City Chiefs in the third quarter during a preseason game at Raymond James Stadium. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Bucs defense certainly did better than the offense on Tuesday, but it was still an up-and-down day for them.

On the positive side, the Bucs had quite a few pass breakups from the likes of Ayden Garnes and Zyon McCollum. A few players, like Rakeem Nunez-Roches and Yaya Diaby, got to the backfield for a sack.

The secondary still struggled, though. This was especially notable on the first play of scrimmage in 11-on-11s, when McCollum got beat badly on a fly route by Brian Thomas Jr. and surrendered a touchdown right away.

Overall, the Bucs didn’t play up to standard against Jacksonville on Tuesday, and they’ll want to rectify that fast on Wednesday.

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