Buccaneers training camp starts without Carl Nicks

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had their veterans reporting today, with Gerald McCoy looking stylish as ever. One player who wasn't there: Carl Nicks. Lovie Smith noted that he was excused for personal reasons for today, which shouldn't be that big of a deal because it mostly consisted of players reporting and checking in. Smith didn't say whether Nicks would be there tomorrow nor where he stands in his rehab, however.

JoeBucsFan claims that Nicks has been running this offseason, and Lovie Smith noted during OTAs that the offensive guard had passed his physical. Whether and to what extent Nicks can actually participate in training camp remains to be seen, but at least he hasn't been placed on the Phyiscally Unable to Perform list.

Injuries

Lovie Smith expected Mark Barron and Dashon Goldson to participate in practice on Friday, after missing basically all of the previous offseason practices. Everyone else, including Vincent Jackson and Mike Evans as well as Austin Seferian-Jenkins should be good to go as well. Lovie did not give a status update on Nicks' injury, however.

Players talk shop

Gerald McCoy was pretty bullish on Josh McCown this morning.

McCoy: "I don't know how much people really know how good Josh McCown is. I think a lot of people are about to see how good he really is."

— Greg Auman (@gregauman) July 24, 2014

Josh McCown, for his part, praised Gerald McCoy's leadership, along with Lavonte David and Mason Foster on defense in remarks made to Pewter Report.

Meanwhile, Da'Quan Bowers agreed with everyone that it's time for him to start playing some good football, via the Tampa Bay Times. General manager Jason Licht called out the defensive end on a radio interview with Steve Duemig yesterday.

"This is probably the best I've felt coming into camp over the past couple of years," he said. "It's been a consistent offseason for me. I've put in the work. I'm ready to finally reap the benefits."

You can feel the energy and excitement in the building this morning! Ready for great things this season!

— Luke Stocker (@LukeStocker88) July 24, 2014

More from Lovie Smith

Lovie Smith's press conference was filled with a few more interesting nuggets.

As always, the goal for every season is to win the Super Bowl. But Lovie Smith focused on the process more than the goals: trying to get better ever year, encouraging every player to have a career season, showing up and doing the work -- those were the common themes in his press conference. One obvious goal for training camp: finding the best 53 guys (61 including practice squad).

Lovie thinks they'll be able to get all three of their tight ends on the field. He sees Brandon Myers as a Y (in-line) tight end, Tim Wright as an H (move/receiving) tight end, while Austin Seferian-Jenkins can play both positions. Three-tight-end sets will be interesting to see.

One other point: Smith talked about making the players and the team in general accessible to the fans. Being more open and transparent has been a real theme for Lovie Smith this offseason. It'll be interesting to see how far that'll go.