The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have announced their full, 50-player roster for their rookie mini-camp this weekend. The mini-camp will run Friday through Sunday, and will feature the team's six draft picks, 14 undrafted free agents, four newly-signed 'veteran' free agents, four players already on the Bucs' roster and 22 tryout players. You can find the full roster of players at the bottom of this article.

Mini-camp rules

The Bucs' mini-camp will start on Friday, May 16 an end on Sunday, May 18. CBA rules limit what the Bucs can do with their players. Helmets will be allowed in mini-camp, but shells are not allowed. Teams are allowed to hold a total of 3.5 hours of practice every day, with each practice limited to 2.5 hours of on-field work. Two-a-day practices are allowed on two of the three days, but the second practice may only consist of walk-through instructions. 

Players may be asked to participate in club activities for a maximum of 10 hours per day. No activities (including taping and treatment) may begin before 7:00 AM local time, or end after 8:30 PM local time, and players must be given an hour for lunch and dinner each. 

Yes, offseason activity rules have been extensively lawyered. 

Each year we see a few tryout players displace a few undrafted free agents, and that group included T Jace Daniels and LB Kha'lial Glaud last year, both of whom are still on the team's roster. 

Bucs sign Brendan Bigelow

The latest real addition to the Bucs roster is California RB Brendan Bigelow. The undrafted free agent out of California played for offensive coordinator Jeff Tedford in college, producing 882 yards on 156 carries and another 300 receiving yards on 33 receptions in his three-year college career. 

Plus, Bigelow once did this:

Looking for specialists

One interesting thing is that the Buccaneers invited three punters and two placekickers to their rookie mini-camp. Kirby Van Der Kamp is probably the most high-profile player in that group, and the Tampa Bay Times has a good write-up on the rookie specialist. He went 7-for-7 on fakes in his career, but the Bucs will like his 99 career punts inside the 20-yard line and 71 50+-yard punts a lot more. 

That volume of punters and kickers probably points to the Bucs wanting to find some competition for the highly-paid Connor Barth and Michael Koenen, who combined will earn nearly $6 million this season if they play the entire season. None of that is guaranteed, which means the Bucs could save a lot of money and cap space by replacing either player. Add in the fact that Koenen has been mediocre as a punter (though excellent on kickoffs), and one of these players beating him out specifically is not out of the question.

More player notes

We also talked to a few people about these players. We talked to Good Bull Hunting about the Buccaneers' Texas A&M additions (all three undrafted free agents), and Gobbler Country's Charles Workman was kind of enough to tell me a little bit about center/guard Andrew Miller. 

I think Miller is extremely intelligent and versatile and that compensates for his lack of quickness. And since he's best on the interior line in the NFL, and would only be played at OT in the direst of circumstances, I think he manages that role well. Unfortunately the Hokie running attack was stagnant since David Wilson and our two all-time leading WRs at VT moved on to the NFL, but Miller was hardly the problem. As part of a cohesive line, you can expect him to do his job well. If the line is in trouble around him though, he won't be your savior.

I also answered a few questions about Miller's chances in Tampa for Gobbler Country.

In addition, USF's Ryne Giddins has apparently signed with a pro-active sports management, setting up a website and sending me some information and a quote from the defensive end. 

“When I saw the name Joe Collins on my phone, I knew exactly who it was and what it was about,” Giddins said. “I was so excited, honestly words can’t express how I felt. I feel satisfied and I’m happy I got picked up, but that just means it’s time to get to work now – there’s a lot to do.”

I don't know who Collins is (edit: Greg Auman pointed out to me that this is a mis-spelled Joe Cullen, the Bucs' DL coach), but that generic PR quote sure makes me happy the Bucs picked up Giddins!

Full roster of players