Tampa Bay Buccaneers Kickoff Mini-Camp; Add Gary Gibson

Published: 5^th May 12 7:21 am

by Max Luckan
NFL Columnist

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Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers kicked off their rookie mini-camp on Thursday, and this will be a great opportunity for head coach Greg Schiano and the rest of the staff to get a good look at all of the rookies and undrafted free agents that the Buccaneers have signed.

The mini-camp will take place on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, but there will be no intentional contact allowed. So it will be hard for the coaches to figure out what these rookies can really do, but it gives them somewhat of an idea about work ethic and drive for success.

The camp will, of course, feature players such as Mark Barron, Doug Martin, and Lavonte David among others. According to head coach Schiano, the Buccaneers have many objectives to accomplish, and the team wants to run many different drills to “gather information.” The Bucs have been utilizing one of the three practice fields available at One Buccaneer Place for the seven draft picks, and the other two for guys that are trying out and the undrafted free agents that were signed.

All in all, this is a good start for an almost completely new coaching staff. And soon enough, rookie mini-camp will turn into OTA’s (organized team activities), and OTA’s will turn into training camp.

The Buccaneers also added another defensive tackle, Gary Gibson. The team officially announced the signing on Thursday. The deal is a two-year contract, and the terms, of course, have not yet been disclosed. Gibson will be entering his seventh season in the NFL. He has played in 49 career games and has made 22 starts. This past season, Gibson played in all 16 games, finishing with 25 tackles and three sacks.

This was a move made by Tampa Bay to bolster up the defensive line even more. After getting pounded by the ground game last year, the Buccaneers want to make sure they have depth and skill on the defensive line.

You can follow Max Luckan on Twitter @MaxLuckan

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