Preston Williams – August 16, 2019 (Postgame)
August 16, 2019
Postgame – Tampa Bay
WR Preston Williams (Transcribed by Tampa Bay Buccaneers)
(On the pace of the offense with quarterback Josh Rosen at the helm…) – “I thought the pace was pretty smooth. Josh was ready, prepared.”
(On quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick lowering his shoulder into an opposing defender…) – “That was impressive. I didn’t know he was going to do it. I went to him when he came to the sidelines, ‘you must think you’re a running back or something.’ He was like, ‘Yup, I lowered my shoulder.’ I was like, ‘That was pretty cool Ryan.’”
(On what does it say about a veteran player like Fitzpatrick making a play like that…) – “It means a lot. He’s a tough guy. He’s one of the leaders, so you know everyone looks up to that. You see that, it gave us a lot of energy. It lit a spark on the sidelines.”
(On his approach to the rest of the preseason…) – “You could have a good day. You could have a bad day. You can bounce back. My main thing is to staying consistent – stacking days, even games. Just come in, watch the film, correct my mistakes and just come ready to play the next game.”
Christian Wilkins – August 16, 2019 (Postgame)
August 16, 2019
Postgame – Tampa Bay
DT Christian Wilkins (Transcribed by Tampa Bay Buccaneers)
(On losing in the preseason…) – “We get to play again. This is our reward. We work hard all season, all week. So it’s our time where to get to play, get that opportunity. This is just something else we can learn from too. Just having to deal with a loss now – getting back working, keeping the same intensity no matter what. From the week of practice, I feel like we had a really good week of practice and now just this game, I feel like this is a lot we can learn from and just get better from as a team.”
(On his progress of becoming a professional football player…) – “I’m becoming more and more comfortable by the day. I have good (veterans) around me that help me, encourage me to be my best and who are there for me whenever I have questions or anything. So that’s good and they have shown me how to be a pro a little bit. It’s also just getting more comfortable playing against this type of talent. These guys aren’t just talented, but also as savvy as they are, as cerebral players as they are. It’s all just good fun, good experiences.”
(On his first week of joint practices with another NFL team…) – “That was big for me. Just because I have some good plays. I have some bad plays. I don’t get too high on the good ones, I don’t get too low on the bad ones. It’s just about getting better and improving, so that was big. I really enjoyed this week of practices – going against someone else because it was like the intensity of a game, but you could make mistakes or you just knew it wasn’t as detrimental as it would be if it were a game. It was just good – that live look of live competition. Just really getting after it.”
Sam Eguavoen – August 16, 2019 (Postgame)
August 16, 2019
Postgame – Tampa Bay
LB Sam Eguavoen (Transcribed by Tampa Bay Buccaneers)
(On his forced fumble…) – “I forgot what down and distance it was. I know we needed to get off the field. I didn’t know I was going to get a forced fumble. I just had a clean shot on the running back coming into the flat, wrapped him up and he was carrying the ball poorly, so it came out and [Eric] Rowe was their to scoop it up.”
(On the key to him having success tonight…) – “Just playing fearless. That’s one thing (Head Coach Brian Flores) pointed out to me on my film. He knows I’m a good player. It’s just that I need to unleash the beast. I need to play fearless out there. I had my first NFL game ever last week, so coming into this week I just write on my walls – just play fearless. It’s football. There’s 11 people out there, so I have 10 other defenders who have my back, so I’m taking my shots.”
(On the play of the first-team defense…) – “We started fast. We started fast, we had the juice. All throughout the week with the joint practice with Tampa Bay – that was our thing. We started fast. They got into us quick on the first day, which was Tuesday. Wednesday, we started fast on them and that just gave us momentum going into the game.”
Josh Rosen – August 16, 2019 (Postgame)
August 16, 2019
Postgame – Tampa Bay
QB Josh Rosen (Transcribed by Tampa Bay Buccaneers)
(On how he would evaluate his play tonight…) – “Okay. I think I had some good and some bad, but overall I’d say a positive. But there was definitely a good amount of mistakes that I could learn from”.
(On a near interception he intended for Preston Williams…) – “It was just a bad throw”
(On what he took from his experience starting the game…) – “A good amount. I think most of the learning comes in the next 24 hours. We’re going to get back and I think a lot of [learning] comes from film. There were some good plays and some bad, but there was a lot to learn from.”
(On how important it is to establish the run game…) – “I think that is always important in football. The quarterback’s best friend is a good running game and I think that is a universal truth regardless to offense. But we all have things to work on, I think I could definitely improve throws, reads. A couple run plays I didn’t bring certain guys in to block for us so a lot of that is on me as well. The run game and pass game are on all 11 guys. It’s not like guys are taking plays off; receivers are blocking, running backs are running routes, so regardless of run or pass, all 1 guys are involved.”
(On his ability to make a play under heavy pressure…) – “Pretty good. But there were times where I did kind of shudder a little bit. I knew one of the sacks I took, I could have stepped up a little harder, and given my tackle an easier loop. I know that one to Kenny [Stills], I got a little lucky but I got the ball out in time. The pass to Durham [Smythe] I stepped up, but I don’t really think I needed to escape. I think I maybe could have sat in the pocket and if I gave him a little better ball he maybe could have run with it. Those are kind of the little things. Even if there was a positive play and a good chunk, there are always little things you can improve upon.”
(On how the week went against Tampa Bay…) – “The week overall I think went really well. Coach [Flores] also told us as a team that he thinks that the week overall we got a lot better as a team. We just have to clean up a lot of little things. We were shooting ourselves in the foot in regards to penalties and simple mental errors. I think it was an overall positive, but it’s a preseason game and we have two more dress rehearsals and then the real thing comes on.”
(On if he felt like he had to make a play in tonight’s game to strengthen his case to be a starter…) – “Nothing in particular, I know it’s a game and it’s a little more formal than practice, but each day I am just trying to execute our plays to the best I can. I’m just keeping my head down, more of a microscope perspective, as opposed to a telescope, I guess you could say. Those decisions about playing or not are above me. I’m just trying to basically show my skills.”
Ryan Fitzpatrick – August 16, 2019 (Postgame)
August 16, 2019
Postgame – Tampa Bay
QB Ryan Fitzpatrick (Transcribed by Tampa Bay Buccaneers)
(On how his shoulder is doing after hitting Buccaneers DB M.J. Stewart…) – “Good.”
(On how he felt about the hit…) – “No. I like to do that sometimes, so I just felt like I needed to get one in there.”
(On how the hit felt…) – “Good.”
(On the Buccaneers sideline’s reaction…) – “Their sideline was laughing, because they know me and kind of my style of play. So, they were giving me a hard time over there with some back and forth.”
(On if he feels he needs more opportunities…) – “I mean I’m here. Whatever Coach (Brian Flores) wants to do, whenever he wants to put me in or not put me in, I’m here and ready to play. So, whatever he wants I’m here for.”
(On what needs to happen for the team to get to the next level offensively…) – “I think we’ll game plan a little bit more. We’ll try and get some situational stuff. We really fine-tune it for the Jaguars. So, hopefully with the focus we put throughout the week in practice and everything, we’ll have a nice plan and be able to go out and execute a little bit better than we did today.”
(On how the team has done during the offseason…) – “We’ve done a decent job all off season of just being fluid with throwing to different guys all the time and working the communication with different guys up front. The way this offense is run and taught and the way that we’ve practiced, we’ve all gotten enough work with each other I think to be able to go out there and do better than we did today.”
(On how we feels the week went for him…) – “It was a good week. I think maybe personally more than on the field it was just very nice to see everybody and just a lot of special people here. So, it was fun for me to get back and talk with all of them.”
Brian Flores – August 16, 2019 (Postgame)
Friday, August 16, 2019
Postgame – Tampa Bay
Head Coach Brian Flores (Transcribed by Tampa Bay Buccaneers)
(On how QB Josh Rosen performed…) – “I thought he played well in the first half. I thought he made some smart decisions early. I’d like to see him not take those couple of sacks on that one series. He did step up in the pocket on that one. Overall, he had good command of the huddle. He did a lot of good things overall. It didn’t help when you had two dropped balls that would’ve kept those drives going a little longer. I think overall as a team there was too many penalties, too many missed tackles, too many dropped balls. Those are the things – in a close game like that, those are the difference. We’ll keep harping on those things, We did a lot of good things over the course of this week and tonight in the game. I’m encouraged by that.”
(On his decision to start Rosen in the first half…) – “We felt like we wanted to get him in early against Tampa’s first group and also get him some snaps with the center and some of those receivers in that group.”
(On the quarterback battle…) – “I mean it’s hard to say going through the film. Fitzy (Ryan Fitzpatrick) went in there and did a good job. Jake [Rudock] went in there and did a good job took us down the field at the end and scored that two-point conversion. Look, it’s always a competition, that’s the way it will always be around here.”
(On whether or not he saw enough out of Fitzpatrick to make a quarterback decision for Week 1…) – “Nah, we will probably start him next week.”
(On the play of the offensive line…) – “I think it was better. We protected inside out, kept the pocket clean. A good amount of the night there were some instances where the quarterback position was able to help those guys out and stepped up in the pocket. But again, I’ll get a better look at it tomorrow. There were some holding penalties that we didn’t like that kind of stalled some drives. Those are the things that hinder an offense more than anything. We were down in the red zone early, a holding penalty pushed us from 2nd-and-7 to 1st-and-19 – not exactly sure but it was somewhere in that realm. We’ve just got to a better job overall as a team of limiting the penalties, doing a good job of ball security, tackling, basic fundamentals. Look its an imperfect game, so I know we are going to get a holding there, a missed tackle here and there and a drop the ball there. As much as we can limit those things, that will help us.”
(On how WR Preston Williams performed…) – “He had a drop early. He’s a young kid, it was his second full game. Every experience is good for him. He had a couple punt returns. Guys in this league are fast, if you are going to go east to west, you better be extremely fast, and even then, you got those fast guys chasing you. That’s an experience for him … hopefully he’s learning from that. He’s had a good camp, he had a good week. Look he’s young he’s going to make some mistakes. We’re just going to correct them and he’s going to be good.”
(On whether this was the most successful outing of training camp for the front seven…) – “I would like to see us start faster. We made a couple first downs there, missed a tackle there, a sack, a potential sack. That’s one of the problems we’re not really attacking the quarterback very often, you know at all. We haven’t done it at all actually. It hasn’t happened at all. Jameis [Winston] is a big, strong quarterback. There are a lot of quarterbacks in this league that are that way. Defensively, we talked about right after that series, break down then accelerate, wrap up, put these guys to the ground. We made that adjustment, and again, another good experience for us.”
(On what makes LB Jerome Baker a good blitzer…) – “He’s got a good feel for it. Also, he has got good speed, good athleticism and he’s got good timing as well. He does a good job of studying cadence and he times them up pretty well.”
(On QB Ryan Fitzpatrick lowering his shoulder…) – “Fitz is tough. This isn’t the first time seeing him do that, he’s as tough as they come. You kind of cringe a little bit, you don’t want to see a quarterback doing that, but that’s a part of this game. Talk to these guys about coming loose and turning and cutting loose. I think they did that overall as a group. I saw a lot of encouragement from the guys for their teammates. You know they’re having fun out there. Should have seen the sideline light up. I’m not encouraging that, but we love his toughness and leadership. Guys want to play for a guy who can put it on the line like that.”
(On the pass interference call that was challenged and overturned…) – “No, I’m still not convinced … Those are the rules and that was the call, we’ve got to move past it, move on, move on to the next play. We know there’s going to be some adversity. We know there are going to get some bad calls, not saying it’s a bad call, but there’s going to be bumps in the road and you just have to play through it.”
(On how to judge whether or not to challenge a pass interference call…) – “I think it’s still a work in progress, that’s why I’m asking the officials all the questions I can ask. Practice setting – we had the officials there at practice in our training camp, so I ask those guys a lot of questions. I show them certain things and say, ‘Is this a good opportunity for me to challenge?’ So, it’s a work in progress. We’ve got a team of people and staff who are charged with the rules and challenges and penalties. It’s something that we need to work on. I think a lot of it is an opportunity where we feel like field position is a part of it.”
(Does Fitzpatrick’s toughness play into the evaluation process…) – “I think it’s all a part of it – the toughness, the grit, the leadership. We want to see it from all our players, specifically the quarterback position. Yeah, it plays into the evaluation, but at the end of the day it’s about production on the field. He had a good scramble, made a couple good throws. Josh [Rosen] made a couple good throws, Jake [Rudock] made some good throws and they made some not so good decisions. It’s all a part of the evaluations.”
(On how the pass protection was…) – “I thought early on it was good. The quarterbacks had a clean pocket, more space. I was disappointed we had some drops. We had space, we had time and the drops were disappointing. Overall, I thought it was good at the start, then the second quarter there were some issues. Protection-wise we had guys coming off the edge … Overall, I think it was better than last week. That’s really the goal is to try to improve on a day-to-day basis.”
Bobby McCain – August 16, 2019 (Second Half)
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Friday, August 16, 2019
S Bobby McCain (Second Half)
(Last year, you were all over the place. Now you’ve got a spot at deep safety, how do you like it?) – “You’ve just got to go get better each and every day. We have a lot of guys that can move and do a lot of different things, including myself. I may be at safety, I may be at nickel, I may be at corner, I may be at (line)backer. You never know, so it’s good to have a lot of guys that can move around and just get comfortable with the defense. Don’t get comfortable with where you are, just try to get better every day. We’ve got to try to get comfortable with the defense and understand it.”
(It looks like in that safety room, everybody’s interchangeable.) – “Yeah, for sure. Like I said, everybody can move. Everybody can be anywhere. So I may be on the edge, and I may be – you never know. That’s the good thing about this defense. You don’t know.”
(You see in that defensive front. Linebackers in different positions, different things going on. A lot of changes to this defense, and hopefully you all…) – “Yeah, hopefully. That’s what ‘Flo’ (Head Coach Brian Flores) is here for. He’s a great defensive mind, and we’re just here to take all the credit. (laughter)”
Daniel Kilgore – August 16, 2019 (Second Half)
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Friday, August 16, 2019
C Daniel Kilgore (Third Quarter)
(How are you feeling and are you excited to be back?) – “I’m very excited to be back. I’m feeling really good. The staff and everybody did a great job of getting me back, and it was a great offseason for me. (It was) really important to make sure I did come back healthy. I’m looking forward to it. I’m looking forward to getting to being the old guy in the room and really leading these young guys.”
(Speaking about the young guys, you’ve got two young guys on both sides in the guard position. You get to watch them closely. How are G Michael Deiter and G Shaq Calhoun progressing?) – “There are some growing pains, for sure. That transition from college to the league is a big jump, but they’re handling it well. I’m really impressed with how they just come in and grind every day, and they’re getting better.”
(It’s kind of hard with people coming and going on offense, but how do you like the scheme and what you put on the field?) – “I’m enjoying the scheme. It’s going to be great. I’ve been a part of a lot of offenses, but this one has been good. It’s offensive-friendly – offensive line-friendly – and we’re just looking forward to growing every day.”
