2. Who will man the right side of the offensive line?

The answer for the first handful of snaps might actually be exactly what it says on the just-released depth chart: Caleb Benenoch at right guard and Demar Dotson at right tackle. Benenoch returned to practice on Thursday after missing several days due to injury and Dotson has recently been taking more 11-on-11 snaps as he eases back from his offseason knee surgery.

Or it might not. After the last practice of the week on Tuesday, Koetter said that there were still "a lot of guys up in the air" for Thursday's game, and that list could include Benenoch and Dotson. Coaches will almost always err on the side of caution when it comes to exposing injured players to action in the preseason. In addition, even if Dotson and Benenoch do start, they'll likely be on the sideline by the second quarter.

When Dotson has been held out of drills, his first-team reps have gone to Leonard Wester…or at least they did until Wester suffered a leg injury in a pileup. After he went down, second-year man Cole Gardner, who spent his rookie season on injured reserve, stepped in with the starting five until he too was sidelined. First-year player Brad Seaton appears to be the next option after those two. The Buccaneers also have Jerry Ugokwe on the depth chart at right tackle, and he surely will see some playing time Thursday.

Even before he was hurt, Benenoch was ceding some first-team reps to rookie third-rounder Alex Cappa, who appears to have turned the right guard job into a real competition. Cappa could start Thursday, and he could also see a lot of playing time.

3. Will any of the running backs stand out when they encounter live tackling for the first time?

Peyton Barber has dropped some weight and feels as if he is even quicker than he was at the end of last season, when he assumed the starting job for the last five games and did well. Ronald Jones came aboard as a high second-round draft pick and is an explosive playmaker who would like to prove he is also an every-down back.

It's difficult for either back to make that argument convincingly in practice, when there is rarely any live tackling. The first real opportunity for either Barber or Jones – or, ideally, both – to demonstrate that they should be first in line for carries is when the live action starts on Thursday night.

In reality, the results from Thursday's game and the three that follow will only be a piece of the puzzle, and probably not a critical corner piece. Jon Gruden gave first-round back Cadillac Williams all of 12 carries in the 2005 preseason, and then Williams immediately set an NFL record for most rushing yards in a player's first three (regular-season) games. Doug Martin didn't crack 100 rushing yards in the 2012 preseason but he had 1,454 by the end of that rookie campaign. Koetter says he is already confident that Jones will be able to produce as a rookie in 2018.