Regular season football is a ways away, but the grind never stops — and Tampa Bay’s rookies got their first taste of NFL football on Friday.
Most Tampa Bay Buccaneers veterans won’t have camp until OTAs (and even those are optional), but rookies are reporting for the first of two days at Rookie Minicamp on Friday. There are 61 players participating in rookie minicamp, and while most of them won’t make the team, everyone has a chance to show what they’re made of while getting a feel for NFL football.
As always, BucsGameday was live on-site at One Buccaneer Place, and we got a look at all the action from Day 1. Here are three of our observations as some of Tampa Bay’s draft picks and UDFAs hit the field for the first time:
Emeka Egbuka has a very high ceiling as an NFL prospect, and he’ll certainly get a feel for the NFL game. But he had a bit of a slow start at practice today — he muffed a punt in return drills, he dropped a pass during team drills (one that was a bit errantly thrown, to his credit) and he also tripped and fell on one rep that led to an interception.
Egbuka will have tomorrow to put in a better day, and he still looks smooth in his route running and showcases his competitive mentality. But while we’re on the topic of that interception…
Buccaneers third-round pick Jacob Parrish was the one who got that interception when Egbuka fell, and he did it by leaping through the air and snagging it at the catch point. He was playing both inside and outside, and Todd Bowles said after practice that he was the fastest player on the field Friday. He reiterated that Parrish is an outside corner who can play nickel — not the other way around — and while he’s expected to fall into the slot, that versatility could work really well for the Bucs in the future.
There was no solid timetable given on Benjamin Morrison when he was drafted by the Buccaneers, as he’s still recovering from a hip surgery he had last year. Good news for Bucs fans — he was out there for individual drills and getting in work, so he’s looking good in his rehab.
He didn’t participate in team drills, but the fact that he could go for rookie minicamp in this capacity is encouraging. We might not see him truly take on team drill duties until training camp, but until then, he’s trending in the right direction.
