TAMPA, Fla. -- The Tampa Bay Buccaneers open their preseason schedule Thursday night against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field. Here are five things to keep an eye on:
1. Mike Smith's defense: The Bucs will be unveiling a new defense under first-year defensive coordinator Mike Smith. In a nutshell, it's a 4-3, zone-based scheme. But there's a lot more flexibility involved, including shuffling of personnel up front along the defensive line, depending on situations and body types. Smith will also blitz all three linebackers, as well as his cornerbacks and safeties, and he'll disguise coverages. You might not see a whole lot of that Thursday night, though, as teams tend to keep things pretty vanilla in the preseason.
2. Jameis Winston: In his rookie preseason opener last year, he played the entire first half. It might be more reasonable to think he'll play a quarter this time, but that could also be largely dependent on how he plays. In practices, his first couple passes tend to fly by receivers' heads and it takes a few snaps before he's good to go and settles into a rhythm. Either way, the defense he has seen every day in training camp leading up to this game will likely be tougher than what he sees Thursday night, since Smith has really thrown the kitchen sink at Winston, so it wouldn't make sense to keep him out there for long. Putting together one or possibly two scoring drives and sitting him the rest of the game would be ideal.
3. Wide receivers: Veteran Vincent Jackson is, as head coach Dirk Koetter described it, a little "banged up." Jackson likely won't play, which opens the door for Mike Evans, Adam Humphries, Donteea Dye, Kenny Bell, Russell Shepard, Evan Spencer, Bernard Reedy and Andre Davis to get more looks. It would be ideal to see Evans get a few snaps since drops were such an issue last season and since he's worked hard to improve his chemistry with Winston, but the Bucs really need to see what they have after Jackson, Evans and the team's newly minted third receiver, Humphries.
Bell missed the regular season last year, and during the early portion of camp he looked good. But when the pads came on -- and this happened last year, too -- he started to fade. The opposite has happened with Dye, who struggled the first few days of camp but has gotten more consistent with each padded practice.
4. Tight ends: Koetter announced that Cameron Brate was the team's top tight end, and in watching practice there's been no disputing he deserves first-team reps because he's been that consistent, including in the red zone. But the last few practices, Austin Seferian-Jenkins has started to show some things, making a tough catch over the middle in traffic Tuesday that was one of the highlights of practice.
5. Secondary: The Bucs upgraded the cornerback position in the offseason, signing Brent Grimes and drafting Vernon Hargreaves with the 11th overall pick. Alterraun Verner also seems to be on the verge of a rebound season, after being benched by former Bucs head coach Lovie Smith and now reuniting with his old position coach in Tennessee, Brett Maxie.
Meanwhile, the team didn't devote a whole lot of attention to the safety position in the offseason, but Chris Conte had three interceptions -- and nearly a fourth -- in a four-day span during camp. Bradley McDougald has also looked good the last two padded practices, with some nice pass breakups. A third safety, Keith Tandy, has been flying downfield on deep passing plays like a corner, showing he can be the group's ultimate utility player.