The combination of temperature and tempo present on the field for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers second day of voluntary minicamp can be described as “steady.”
The instructions continued to flow from coach to player but, inevitably, every member of this team is learning more and more about their teammates day by day.
Bruce Arians tells us he stresses the importance of “work habits.”
“That is probably the most pleasing thing right now,” he says. “Seeing how we work and how we are willing to work and that is the thing, when you are building culture, it is all about accountability. I hate the word chemistry. It is all about accountability and building that in the locker room.”
“I like what we are doing,” says tight end O.J. Howard. “Coach has always been a great offensive coach looking at the resume. He is bringing that here with us. I think we have the talent. The talent has never been an issue so we are excited to be out here and have an opportunity to learn the offense and it is going good so far.”
Howard refers to the offense as “tight end friendly” and Arians agrees with him. Arians is impressed with the talented play of both Howard and Cameron Brate. Brate did not practice with his teammates on either Tuesday or Wednesday. He is still recovering from a surgery to repair a torn labrum in his hip.
“Both of them can block and have really good receiving skills,” Arians says, “so they are the fourth line of receivers. If they are the mismatch, they are the game plan. It is finding mismatches. Who is the best mismatch? Both of those guys have shown they will be mismatches on linebackers and safeties.”