Team Leaders Return, Sloppy Play In Trenches

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The Bucs had two days off in a row on Sunday and Monday and resumed practice on Tuesday morning in full pads with a big week ahead. Tampa Bay will practice three days in a row from Tuesday to Thursday with that last day being a joint training camp practice against the Titans, followed by their first preseason game on Saturday versus Tennessee.

Tuesday’s practice took place outside at the AdventHealth training facility on a sunny day with little cloud coverage, but there was slight breeze and it was not as hot as other scorching practices that have been had this year. Pewter Report’s Scott Reynolds, Matt Matera and Josh Quiepo were in attendance for it.

Still out for the Bucs were wide receivers Tez Johnson, Kameron Johnson and Trey Palmer along with tight end Cade Otton and inside linebacker Anthony Walker Jr. Wide receivers Ryan Miller and Mike Evans were back, and guard Sua Opeta participated in his first practice in about a year returning from an ACL injury. That’s a big step for him and for the depth on the offensive line.

Also returning to practice were quarterback Baker Mayfield and inside linebacker Lavonte David, whom we’ll discuss in the next section.

Baker Mayfield And Lavonte David Return To Bucs Practice

After missing two practices with a contusion on his right throwing hand, Baker Mayfield was back in his helmet and shoulder pads throwing the ball as the Bucs’ starting quarterback. The legendary Lavonte David also returned to practice after missing all of last week and appeared to have fresh legs.

Mayfield was rather calm, cool and collected during today’s practice. He hit Mike Evans for a couple of touchdowns during two separate red zone drills and commanded the offense well. He never looked erratic and was very accurate with the football. There were no turnovers thrown by any quarterback during practice and Mayfield didn’t put the ball in harm’s way, either. Besides Evans, Mayfield continued to build chemistry with rookie receiver Emeka Egbuka, hitting him for a 15-yard catch-and-run.

“He was sharp,” head coach Todd Bowles said. “He was throwing the football. He was very good on his reads as far as understanding where the blitzes were coming from and knowing where to go with the football, so I’m happy about that.”

David looked like his vintage self on Tuesday. He had previously been out with an undisclosed injury that Todd Bowles had characterized as just “sore,” but it was easy to tell that the time off really helped him.

David was flying around practice and laid out two big hits early on in practice. The initial hit was on Bucky Irving during red zone drills where the pop of the pads could be heard throughout the crowd. The next happened on a run play to the right side where David made sure his presence was felt again.

David wasn’t done either. Later on in practice David came sprinting in on a pass caught by wide receiver Ryan Miller. Right as Miller had a couple of steps up the field David smashed into him and jarred the ball loose for what was a forced fumble recovered by the defense. It was all of the plays we’ve seen David make for years.

“He’s going to make plays every time he’s in there,” Bowles said of David after practice. “He brings energy to the group so when he comes back we’re a lot stronger on defense.”

Too Many Penalties By The Offensive Line

This was also the first practice of the 2025 season where the Bucs had referees on hand to call penalties and signal whether a catch was made in bounds. We were made aware of the refs almost right away because there was plenty of laundry throughout practice with several penalties being called.

At one point Pewter Report counted at least 10 penalties on the day with a majority of them against the offensive line. Cody Mauch was penalized for a hold during the session as he tackled a defender to the ground. The defensive line certainly won the battle in the trenches pushing the pocket back and stuffing run plays. Bucky Irving and Rachaad White each broke out one big run, but they were too few and far between.

Whether it was the first or second unit, the offensive line wasn’t getting away with any holding that they may have gotten by with when there weren’t refs around. In fairness, it’s never easy going against the likes of Vita Vea and Calijah Kancey after every play, but they also have to prepare for what it’ll be like in the game.

“We haven’t tallied them yet but I did see some flags going,” Bowles said. “We tally them anyway without the referees but those are the things that can not happen so playing the game full time, assimilating one anyway in front of the referees are things that we need to see and they need to throw them now so everybody can be aware of them and we can better.”

Teddy Bridgewater In Attendance 

Big news came about even before the start of practice as the Bucs hosted veteran quarterback Teddy Bridgewater for a visit. Bridgewater could be seen walking out with assistant general manager Mike Greenberg as they watched practice, and Bridgewater was introduced to several coaches.

With Baker Mayfield just coming back from a hand injury and Michael Pratt still out, it makes sense for the Bucs to bring in Bridgewater to be their third quarterback behind Kyle Trask. It turns out that they’ve had their eye on Bridgewater for quite a while.

“We talked about this actually, it had been over a couple of weeks,” Bucs general manager Jason Licht said today. “Maybe even (earlier) over the summer, a discussion about it. Nice addition to the room. Good for Baker. Experienced guy, obviously very smart. A hell of a high school coach, a good coach in general, but a good addition just to have that wealth of experience.”

Licht also went on to say that their paths have crossed with Bridgewater several times. They brought him in during the draft process in 2014 when Bridgewater entered the draft out of Louisville. There was much consideration about him, too when the Bucs were looking for a quarterback in 2020.

Tampa Bay went with Tom Brady in free agency instead and it worked out quite well with them with a Super Bowl championship in his first season in red and pewter. Fast forward another five seasons later and Bridgewater eventually made it to Tampa Bay.

Observations & Highlights From Day 10 Of Bucs Training Camp

• Newly signed WR Jaden Smith made two one-handed catches during one-on-one drills against corners. They were each incredible receptions.
• Other one-on-one’s we saw were the inside linebackers and running backs. Bucky Irving and Rachaad White were able to get open against Lavonte David and Deion Jones, respectively, but SirVocea Dennis shut down Sean Tucker and Nick Jackson had a great rep on White with a pass breakup.
• With two more touchdowns today, Mike Evans is more than ready to go for the regular season. Just bubble wrap him until September.

• Reserve guard Elijah Klein played a more center on Tuesday as they try to increase his versatility. Klein took all of the snaps at center with the second-string offensive line.
• The Bucs had four goal line plays at the end of practice. Todd Bowles said it was tied at 2-2 for the offense and defense.
• Don’t expect to see many starters in Saturday’s preseason games, but they’ll get a lot of reps in Thursday’s joint training camp practice against the Titans, per Bowles.