Mystery man Carl Nassib voted Bucs team captain

TAMPA, Fla. (FOX 13) - In front of the cameras, he tries to avoid attention, so we wanted to know, who is the real Carl Nassib? 

He's a tough guy to get to open up. What you normally get from him are a bunch of football clinches.

"You know it's the first game, we have to start off on the right foot," he would say.

His teammates just voted him team captain, so there has to be more to him than canned soundbites. 

"Carl is great, man," said Bucs cornerback Vernon Hargreaves. "I love Carl. He always has energy, every day. Energy, energy, he's always yelling. He's always getting us going."

OK, that's a start. Seeing Nassib through the eyes of his team and coaches might help us understand this mystery man; the guy who was picked up off the waiver wire a year ago and finished with the second-most sacks on the team.

"I just think he's crazy, all the time," laughed Bruce Arians. "I don't know if he has two of them, but the one I see all the time is not normal."

When we asked the coach to tell us more, he said with a grin, "He's Carl."

"He does have a little crazy in him," Bucs right tackle Demar Dotson agreed. 

Doubling-down on "crazy" seems out of place when we're talking about the new team captain. So we asked the guy with plenty of experience, at the team-level, in a leadership role.

Maybe Quarterback Jameis Winston can narrow down what it is about Nassib that keeps his teammates excited to play.

"Anytime you play on the defensive side of the ball, you've got some screws missing," said Winston. "He's definitely just a great teammate and [I'm] very excited for him."

For anyone taking notes, add "screws missing" to your resume under "leadership skills."

Defensive coordinator Todd Bowles singled Carl our early in training camp, saying Nassib was one of his favorite guys because of his personality and his tireless work ethic. It appears the feelings are mutual.

"Coach Bowles is probably my favorite coach," said Nassib. "Don't tell him this, but he's probably my favorite coach I've ever had. He's really smart and he knows football. A lot of time, you get a coach that just knows football, but he's got it all. He's an impressive person."

Adding what he appeared to believe was praise, Bowles also said Nassib had a little psycho in him.

“Extremely intelligent, always comes to practice ready to play. Always has a smile on his face," said Bowles. "Multiple personalities, all good for football, so that’s a great thing. Great sense of humor, doesn’t take himself too seriously and he just loves to play. Those are the type of guys you want to play with every day.”

With all that, Nassibl still seems like a mystery, but maybe it's a mystery better left unsolved by us on the outside.

We asked Nassib why he doesn't show "that side" of his personality to the public.

"We're not friends yet, you know what I mean? If we became friends, then we'll see," he said with a smile. 

Fair enough.