Buccaneers
Bucs C Graham Barton said he feels much more comfortable entering his second season with the team and is using this time to fine-tune his game and learn more nuances about the position.
“Last night, I went and watched OTA 1 practice last year – just buzzed through a few clips and just to see how much improvement there’s been for me was a good feeling. [I’m] coming out here much more comfortable in this system, got a few more tricks of the trade. Like you said, it’s optional but this time is so important for learning and getting settled in so when July hits, you’re ready to roll. There’s so much you can learn, there’s so much football to learn. OTAs are a great time to think outside the box a little, try different things, maybe tweak things from the prior season and see what you like and what you don’t like, whether it’s stance or etcetera. [I’m] just trying to take this time to just get better, fine tune some things and continue to learn,” Barton said, via the team’s website.
Barton is excited about having continuity along the offensive line with all five starters returning and feels that they can take another big leap together this season.
“It’s great, just having five guys – throw Tristan [Wirfs] and Luke [Goedeke] in there too – just having five guys who are back together, the chemistry is already there. The understanding of strengths and weaknesses is there, understanding how we communicate – that’s all already there so now it’s really just, ‘Hey, here’s where we can build.’ OTAs for a lot of teams right now are, ‘How’s our O-line going to gel? Who fits in where? What should we do? How are we going to communicate this and that?’ We’ve got a lot of that stuff down. Now it’s just improving chemistry-wise and improving football and you can focus on different things since we’ve got that groundwork down but it’s awesome. We love those guys and we all have a great time so I’m happy to be around them.”
Panthers
Panthers HC Dave Canales enters his second year with the team and wants to continue building the offense around QB Bryce Young, given his successes last season.
“Honestly, my expectations are just wide open, especially as he goes in there with command like he’s been doing this offseason and really just leading the guys,” Canales said, via the team website. “There were some great plays out there, some great timing, throws, but also just the level of comfort like we talked about with the offense, knowing the words, making different tweaks, and he’s a part of that process. These are conversations that we’ve been having with him going back to the end of last season that we want to implement and just be able to, especially in the pass game, become Bryce Young offense, become this collective thing, and get the chemistry going. I feel really confident about what I saw today, especially going against the defense, and just the speed that we were playing with.”
Saints
Saints QB Tyler Shough said he isn’t feeling the pressure in his first season, given that he is an older rookie and knows his job is to compete for the starting job before doing all that he can to lead the team to wins.
“You got brand new faces, the expectations, you got to go out there and perform, and I love it,” Shough said, via Katherine Terrell of ESPN. “It’s really, really cool to come in and operate. I feel a lot more prepared being kind of an older rookie coming in, not being as nervous to develop those relationships, but knowing that’s my whole job is to continue to earn my role and do everything I can.”
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