Sunday’s training camp practice for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was the first of the year with some sort of pads on. To this point, each of the previous practices featured players in just shorts and shirts. But, this morning the players donned their shoulder pads for the first time – also known as “shells.”
When you don’t see names like Mike Evans, Jameis Winston, Gerald McCoy or Lavonte David in the headlines of a practice day, that doesn’t mean the practice was a boring one. It just mean that some of the non-household names were the ones stealing the show.
There are 90 players on this roster, and each one of them wants to call himself a Tampa Bay Buccaneer by the time September rolls around. Some are more guaranteed of that honor than others, and for those who find themselves on or near the cusp, days like today mean everything.