The early morning session for the Tampa Bay Buccaneer's is over, meaning the players are free the rest of the day, sort of. More on that later. Let's take a quick trip around the Buc's Friday morning practice.
- Buc 'Em brought you the story of Mario Urrutia being signed to the squad. Well on this first day of practice, in 2 minute drills, he caught a slant from Josh Johnson and took it to the house. He also caught passes from Leftwich over Torrie Cox and Tanard Jackson. Welcome to the team.
- An update on some injuries. Michael Clayton is still out with the hamstring injury. Antonio Bryant did make it back to practice today (more on him later). Kelly Campbell, Jeff Faine, and Angelo Crowell all missed practice, though this was expected. Some new injuries. Greg Peterson hurt his left knee again, Clifton Smith pulled up with a hammy injury, and Jeremy Trueblood hurt his back. None are expected to be major and are just part of playing the game.
- Josh Freeman and Josh Johnson did get some good reps in, but the reports are so-so. Nothing really on Johnson, which makes it seem like he's an after thought. Freeman did throw a TD pass in drills but also overthrew Stovall (all 6'5" of him) along with some other over throws. When Byron Leftwich came in to replace him in the drill, the offense started moving. Leftwich hit Bryant on some nice plays, including one where Bryant got tagged, but held on to the ball. Also made a nice one handed catch.
- McCown was again, steady but not spectacular. It's a two dog race and I'd imagine that the first game Leftwich or McCown run with the ones, and the second game they flip flop.
- The team ran a few special teams sessions, but no kickers were dressed. Just run throughs
- Raheem Morris sounded happy with how the QB's did today, and said that Freeman and Johnson were impressive. Take it for what it's worth.
- As reported yesterday, the Bucs will have Friday afternoon off. The 4:45 practice was canceled. Sounds like Morris is still planning on hitting a movie with the squad. They'll be back at it on Saturday, with two full sessions.
That will do it for Friday. The first full week of practice is in and we've escaped major injuries thus far. Keep it tuned to Buc 'Em for all your Bucs info.