Best Players Will Play

So far in camp this Bucs coaching staff has been a fresh breath of air as they are making players compete for their jobs and earn playing time. Coach Dirk Koetter has said all off-season that he wants competitors on his team and right now good competition is occurring. The best players will play and usually with good competition, the cream rises to the top something that should be very beneficial for this team. Koetter recently announced that Cam Brate is the starting tight end ahead of Austin Sefferian Jenkins and he didn't see what the big deal was when asked about it today after practice.

"It must be to you guys, because you keep talking about it a lot. I don't see what the big deal is. Every team I've always been on, the best players played," Koetter said.

This is the right approach by Koetter as best players should be on the field at all times and he elaborated on what Jenkins needs to do to get on the field.

"Right now, Cam's playing better than Austin. End of story, as far as I'm concerned. What does Austin have to do? Play better. And wouldn't you want that at every position to elevate the whole team? That's what competition does. Where a guy's picked, how much money a guy was making -- I could care less about that."

This is the mindset this team needs to have as it is a winning mindset in which best players will play and starting jobs just won't be given out due to draft status or contract. So the message is real simple from Koetter either compete and earn playing time or go find another career.

Koetter Says Good Off-Season so far

The off-season has been kind so far to the Buccaneers as they have been able to put in quality work and for the most part have been healthy for the entire workout program. Coach Koetter expects full participation from all 90 players when training camp starts at the end of July and is proud of the work the team has done so far via buccaneers.com.

“Well, what we accomplished, number one, is we put in a whole new defensive scheme [and] a whole new special teams scheme," said Koetter. "We integrated 24 rookies and five or six free agents into our system [and] we continued to develop our offensive scheme."

That is great news for this team as they get closer to the start of the season where this year's training camp will feature some intense position battles throughout the roster. The other bright spot is allowing Jameis to put more on his plate which is great for the offense as it will allow the unit to grow even more.

"Jameis can handle a lot and does handle a lot every day," said Koetter. "He can handle more than we’re giving him. Compared to last year at this time, he knows way, way more than he did a year ago at this time." 

The Bucs are about 6 weeks away from training camp and as of now they appear to be in great shape to get things back to winning ways.