I got in town for joint practices Wednesday night, so I missed the practice that day. The word on the street was that the Bucs got it handed to him a little bit.

Tennessee was a much more physical team with a lot more energy. Thursday was a little bit of a different story. These joint practices, to me, are the best way for teams to evaluate. You see each other against the same guys day in and day out and training camp is monotony. It’s well documented that people like these joint practices.

Takeaways From Joint Practice

Well, this one was physical. That’s one of the testaments to a Mike Vrabel-coached football team. The physicalness—you’re going to see it. They’re physical in the run game, and they’re physical on defense up front. They have one of the better defensive lines in the AFC with Jeffrey Simmons being just a monster of a man.

There was no Derrick Henry at practice. He’s pretty much an observer other than the individual periods. We did get to see Hassan Haskins, the rookie who they drafted this year. Haskins will look to spell Henry a little bit this year. Henry will probably not get as many reps as he has in years past.

This practice in a word was…lively. Both of these teams are contenders in their respective conferences. No.1 seed for Tennessee last year, whether they’ll get back to that I’m not sure. I don’t know if Ryan Tannehill has the skill set and skill receivers around him to make them a potent offense. But one thing we do know…Malik Willis, he’s not quite ready. It’s gonna take some time. He is a heck of an athlete, but he’s yet to develop those quarterback traits that make good teams win.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers lost in the divisional round last year to the Rams, but they’re ready to repeat. Yes, Tom Brady was not there, but in these joint practices, Blaine Gabbert has gotten a lot of good reps.