Bruce Arians has some choice, profane words about Bucs’ practice effort

TAMPA — While a number of spirals and stout defensive breakups elicited hearty applause from the modest AdventHealth Training Center audience Friday, Bruce Arians had other impressions of the Bucs’ fifth practice of training camp.

Unflattering — and even unfiltered — impressions at that.

“It was just a horses--t practice,” Arians said following the workout, the last one before the team holds its first full-padded session Saturday morning.

“I’m really not pleased; I thought we were really, really sluggish. We talked about it before we left (Wednesday) and took the day off (Thursday). I don’t know if our receivers caught a pass. Same thing defensively, we didn’t stop anything over third-and-9. ... Hopefully, we’ll be better in pads (Saturday).”

Arians’ comments — quite possibly a ploy to motivate his team for the inaugural padded practice — belied what appeared to be some sparkling moments.

Devin White had an interception — and would-be pick-six — of Ryan Griffin in full-team work, while safety Mike Edwards leaped to snag a Tom Brady deep ball intended for Scotty Miller in the waning stages of practice.

Offensively, Brady appeared mostly sharp, with a short scoring pass to Mike Evans during a hurry-up segment. Chris Godwin, who sat out earlier in the week, also appeared to have a solid day, and veteran Antonio Brown had a scoring reception of roughly 30 yards from Brady on a double move.

Even rookie Kyle Trask looked promising in limited full-team work, rolling out on a busted play to find wide-open receiver Travis Jonsen downfield.

Arians saw it differently, adding, “It wasn’t what our standard is.”

When asked of Brady’s effort during what he deemed a poor day, Arians said, “He’s right in there with them.”

Brady’s take on what went wrong: “Communication, execution, missing throws, missing reads,” he said. “Overall just a poor day.

“(Arians) said a good thing today. He said, ‘Soccer practice is over after today,’ which means we really haven’t played any football. There’s no pads, no tackling, no run force, no run fits, no breaking tackles, no play-action response. So things will change quite a bit (Saturday).”

Contact Joey Knight at jknight@tampabay.com. Follow @TBTimes_Bulls.

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