The injuries and the recent signings have left the Bucs with a very young group of corners ready to take reps. Grimes, the most seasoned veteran in that group, did return to action on Saturday after a long absence but still didn't take any 11-on-11 snaps. That left the Bucs with six active corners and five of them were rookies. Given how well second-round picks M.J. Stewart and Carlton Davis have performed since camp began, that's not a terrible disadvantage for the first-team defense, but there were still a lot of snaps for the two new players and fellow undrafted rookie Marko Myers. Ryan Smith, in his third year, is deeply experienced by comparison.

Koetter and his staff came up with another way to ease the reps crunch at cornerback on Saturday. Second-year man Justin Evans, usually one of the two starters at safety, took over first-team reps as the slot corner. That had the added advantage of opening up some front-line work at safety for rookie Jordan Whitehead, who had a strong showing in his NFL debut on Thursday.

"You're playing nickel at least half of practice," said Koetter. "We had Justin Evans playing nickel with the first group today. You've got to keep going and the two new guys got baptism by fire. They got a lot of reps today."

The move of Evans into the slot was probably more of a temporary bandage than the start of any long-term experiment. Evans is surely more valuable to the secondary in his usual role, and at full strength the Bucs have two very promising slot options in Hargreaves and Stewart. Still, it certainly doesn't hurt to get Evans some training in a separate position, in case an emergency solution is ever needed. That's a good way for any player to increase his value to the team.

"There's a couple guys on both sides of the ball that are like that, that can play multiple positions," said Koetter. "The players always say, 'The more you can do, the more you can do.' Evan Smith. Evan Smith's that guy on the O-Line. And then we already mentioned Alan Cross. Guys like that are worth their weight in gold whether they're starters or not."

CHASED BY LIGHTNING: For the second time since training camp began, and only the first time since Day One, the Buccaneers had to make a quick move into their indoor facility when lightning threatened the area.

The first such occurrence was an immediate welcome to camp, as it happened just as the team was taking the (outdoor) field for its first practice on July 26. As it turned out, that entire session was held under the roof. On Saturday, the Buccaneers had worked through the majority of their outside work and were fairly close to moving inside anyway when the lightning alarm sounded on the back of One Buccaneer Place.

The indoor facility obviously proved its worth again as the practice was barely interrupted, but on Saturday the move inside might have been particularly serendipitous. Something about the switch changed the atmosphere of the practice in a less literal way.