Don’t Make A Scene! Jamel Dean Has A Big Day

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For the final time before Saturday’s preseason opener, the Bucs practiced on their own at the AdventHealth Training Center Wednesday morning. Of course, they will have one more practice this week before taking the field at Raymond James Stadium, but it’ll be a joint practice Thursday morning with the Tennessee Titans.

Ahead of a fully padded joint practice with the Titans, the Bucs practiced in just shorts, jerseys and helmets on Wednesday, starting up at 8:30 a.m. as usual and finishing right around 10:45 a.m.

Wednesday’s practice was open to the media only, and Pewter Report’s Matt Matera, Bailey Adams, Josh Queipo and Adam Slivon were in attendance at One Buc Place for practice as well as post-practice interviews with head coach Todd Bowles, new quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, tight end Payne Durham and cornerback Bryce Hall. Here are the Pewter Reporters’ observations and takeaways from the day.

Bucs Who Were Not Practicing On Wednesday

Many of the same Bucs who have been missing much of training camp remained sidelined on Wednesday, including wide receivers Kameron Johnson, Tez Johnson and Trey Palmer, running back Josh Williams and tight end Cade Otton. Meanwhile, veteran wide receiver Mike Evans had what looked to be a veteran day off ahead of what should be a busy Thursday practice matching up with Tennessee’s secondary.

Bucs CB Benjamin Morrison – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

But there was a troubling new addition to the list of players sidelined for Wednesday’s practice, as rookie cornerback Benjamin Morrison wasn’t participating with the team. After practice, Tampa Bay head coach Todd Bowles said Morrison is dealing with a tweaked hamstring.

That would seem to put the 2025 second-round pick out of Notre Dame at risk of missing Saturday’s preseason opener against the Titans. Of course, these joint practices and especially the preseason games are key for rookies, so an extended absence would be problematic for Morrison’s development.

Don’t Make A Scene: It’s Just Jamel Dean Having A Huge Day

When the majority of the Bucs secondary was taking turns starring in what felt like an interception compilation video earlier in training camp, there were some notable absences from the party. One of them was longtime starting cornerback Jamel Dean, who of course helped Tampa Bay win Super Bowl LV and has been a mainstay on the back end of the defense for going on seven seasons.

Of course, some would point out that it’s no surprise that Dean wasn’t part of the group racking up the interceptions, as one of the recurring criticisms he gets is his inability to take the football away. Even head coach and defensive play-caller Todd Bowles hasn’t been shy about how much he lets Dean have it when the veteran corner can’t come up with interceptions.

Though Bowles shot down the idea that Dean could talk trash back to him whenever he does get his hands on the football, even the head coach had to like what he saw on Wednesday morning.

Bucs WR Sterling Shepard and CB Jamel Dean – Photo by: Cliff Welch P/R

First, it was Dean coming through with pass breakup after pass breakup, notching at least three during the team’s 11-on-11 periods. And while there were times when he got beat down in the red zone, it was largely looking like a strong practice for the 28-year-old.

But then he ramped it up and made it a great practice, as Dean came up with two interceptions late in the morning, with one being a would-be pick-six on Connor Bazelak and the other coming against Baker Mayfield during a two-point conversion period. Dean was there to come up with the ball in the back of the end zone and create one of only a few blemishes on Mayfield’s day.

With Benjamin Morrison’s absence from Wednesday’s practice, Dean picked a good time to remind everyone why he’s remained in the Bucs’ plans for as long as he has. In fact, it was Dean who snapped what was a three-practice streak without a Buccaneer interception in training camp.

Battle For Bucs’ Final Depth Receiver Spots Starting To Heat Up

Baker Mayfield was sharp for much of Wednesday’s practice, with the early portion of 11-on-11s featuring a lot of work in the quick game, with plenty of check-downs to his running backs and tight ends, as well as a few of his depth receivers. But once the full team period opened up later on, Mayfield was dialed in. And while Jalen McMillan and Emeka Egbuka made some plays, the passing attack was largely successful through Tampa Bay’s depth receivers.

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield – Photo by: Cliff Welch P/R

With Mike Evans getting the day off, McMillan and Egbuka were the top two receivers on the field for the Bucs. But the bigger plays were often coming from Ryan Miller and Sterling Shepard, two players fighting for one of the final receiver spots on the team’s depth chart.

Miller made play after play, getting involved early in the quick game before making the biggest catch of the day, splitting the zone down the middle of the field on a deep touchdown catch from Mayfield. This was after Miller beat Christian Izien for a touchdown catch from Kyle Trask during a red zone period.

The third-year tight end-turned-receiver out of Furman was reliable when called upon last year, and he had a big day Wednesday. He missed some camp time recently, but he returned just in time to take advantage of increased reps while Kameron Johnson, Tez Johnson and Trey Palmer remained sidelined.

Shepard was another guy who was making plays all over the field on Wednesday morning, first serving as a target on a couple of rollouts by Mayfield and Trask before making a nice catch on an intermediate throw in traffic. He followed that up by making a big play on a crosser, catching the ball in stride from Mayfield and taking it for an even bigger gain. Later, he caught a deep throw down the sideline from Mayfield, which drew a lot of noise from the offensive sideline.

Bucs WR Sterling Shepard Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

As Mike Evans greeted him with a towel and some water, Shepard could be heard yelling that he knew when he woke up Wednesday morning that it would be a great day. And it was, as the 32-year-old receiver continues to stake a claim to one of those final spots.

The recently signed Jacob Harris, a UCF product, had a couple of flashy moments on Wednesday, too, with a toe-tap touchdown in the corner of the end zone over Christian Izien in the red zone period before later going down low to catch a bullet of a pass from Trask.

Evans, Chris Godwin, McMillan and Egbuka are certainly the top four receivers on the depth chart, and while Tez Johnson has a good case for one of what might be two final spots, he has been sidelined for over a week now. So right now, Miller and Shepard are positioning themselves well heading into preseason action.

No matter what, though, it’s clear the Bucs will have some serious depth at receiver stacked up on their practice squad.

Observations & Highlights From Day 11 Of Bucs Training Camp

Here are some quick-hitting observations from Tampa Bay’s 11th training camp practice of 2025:

• Jamel Dean had the only two interceptions of Wednesday’s practice, but plenty of defensive backs were getting their hands on passes. Jacob Parrish dropped two potential interceptions and broke up another pass while Tyrek Funderburk had a breakup as well. Kaevon Merriweather also tipped a pass on a blitz, leading to an incompletion.
• Speaking of tipped passes, Chris Braswell beat Ben Chukwuma on one rep with a good dip, leading to him being in position to knock the pass down.
• Connor Bazelak saw limited reps during 11-on-11s, while new quarterback Teddy Bridgewater didn’t participate during the team period. Bowles said after practice that they’ll see how fast Bridgewater picks up the offense, but it would be unfair to put him in a situation where he has to play in Saturday’s preseason opener.

Bucs QB Teddy Bridgewater – Photo by: Cliff Welch P/R

• Speaking of Bridgewater, he had a captivating introductory press conference with the local media after practice, covering his close ties with several members of the Bucs roster, coaching staff and front office as well as the multiple different times it seemed like he might become a Buc before this week.

• Antoine Winfield, J.J. Roberts, Josh Hayes and Roman Parodie all continued to excel on blitzes from Todd Bowles’ secondary.
• While the officiating crew spent much of Tuesday’s practice flagging the Buccaneer offensive line, there seemed to be more holding and pass interference penalties on Tampa Bay’s receivers during Wednesday’s practice.
• While he has had a fantastic start to his first NFL training camp, first-round pick Emeka Egbuka did have a couple of drops on Wednesday.
• Tampa Bay once again experimented with a new offensive line look that saw Graham Barton slide over to left tackle, with Ben Bredeson moving over to center and Elijah Klein stepping in at left guard. Bowles said Saturday that this is more emergency prep than anything, as they want to have some reps in with this configuration should anything happen to Charlie Heck in a game.
• Tristan Wirfs looked to be down to only one crutch on Wednesday. Any progress is good progress, isn’t it?