{"id":720117,"date":"2026-06-22T23:53:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T23:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/720117\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T23:53:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T23:53:11","slug":"the-smoke-is-real-joebucsfan-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/720117\/","title":{"rendered":"“The Smoke Is Real” – JoeBucsFan.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\u201cThe Smoke Is Real\u201d
\nJune 22nd, 2026 <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Rookie Bucs receiver Ted Hurst.<\/p>\n

A guy with access to practice film who hears all the dirt at One Buc Palace (at least most of it) weighed in on the behind-the-scenes chatter after the Bucs wrapped up spring practices. <\/p>\n

Who was shining?<\/p>\n

Buccaneers legend Rond\u00e9 Barber had answers during the WFLA-TV<\/a> streaming show that bears his name.<\/p>\n

After gushing about how first-round draft pick Rueben Bain will be a tremendous change agent, Barber turned to third-round pick Ted Hurst, the pride of Georgia State.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe smoke is real. There is fire underneath that smoke,\u201d Barber said of the rookie receiver. \u201cHe\u2019s been impressive. I hear he\u2019s learning a couple of positions. He\u2019s not just focused on the X position. \u2026 He\u2019s got the football IQ to do both.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, Rond\u00e9, who is most likely to jump out once training camp starts?<\/p>\n

\u201cKenneth Gainwell, watch out, dude. Watch out,\u201d Barber said of the veteran free agent running back.<\/p>\n

Joe would have named Gainwell, too. He looked sharp with fresh legs and he is smooth running routes.<\/p>\n

Barber also praised veteran linebacker Alex Anzalone for standing out with his approach and how he plays, and rookie tight end Bauer Sharp, who Joe also has heard turned a lot of heads for a sixth-round pick. Remember, the Bucs traded up significantly to snag him; he\u2019a virtual lock for the roster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Smoke Is Real\u201d June 22nd, 2026 Rookie Bucs receiver Ted Hurst. A guy with access to practice…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":720118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[5961,5960,349,99,1824],"class_list":["post-720117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-bucs-message-boards","tag-bucs-news","tag-nfl","tag-sports","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=720117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/720118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=720117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=720117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=720117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}