Barron Has Big Strides To Make
July 6th, 2013
One of the highest-drafted safeties in NFL history, Mark Barron showed extreme highs and lows on the field last season. One could say it was a typical rookie year.
But the Bucs didn’t draft Barron with the seventh overall pick in 2012 to be typical.
Rockstar general manager Mark Dominik and former chieftain Raheem Morris often said an NFL player makes his biggest leap in development between his first and second seasons, and Barron needs to do just that. He was drafted to cover the new-era “basketball” tight ends like Jimmy Graham, and be a punishing force in the running game.
The table is set perfectly. The Bucs scored a versatile All-Pro safety via free agency, Dashon Goldson, to play alongside Barron, and they grabbed the NFL’s best cornerback, Darrelle Revis, to shorten the field.
Now all Barron must do is live up to his draft status.
Revis has nicknamed himself “Robin” and Goldson “Batman.” While the presence of those two superheroes should be enough to make the Bucs’ secondary respectable, the Bucs can be dominant if Barron can assume more than the role of “Alfred.”
July 6th, 2013 at 9:17 am
Don’t you know? He’s the “Red Barron”.
Quote: “My dear Buccaneers! I have not gone to war to collect cheese and eggs, but to destroy anything in my path” 🙂
July 6th, 2013 at 9:35 am
I still think Kuechly would have been a better pick.
July 6th, 2013 at 9:40 am
Barron will soon make you forget about Kuech, who wasnt all that impressive last year either imo.
July 6th, 2013 at 11:23 am
David is much better than Kuechly. Of course I’m quite biased.
July 6th, 2013 at 11:38 am
I’ve said it a thousand times: if Barron isn’t Ronnie Lott, the pick was a waste. They should have gone with Maurice Claiborne.
July 6th, 2013 at 11:41 am
“They should have gone with Maurice Claiborne”
Yeah, that’s just what they needed, a prima donna Cornerback that can’t/won’t tackle, just what the doctor ordered.
July 6th, 2013 at 12:04 pm
He is more like Bane he is here to break people’s will
July 6th, 2013 at 12:32 pm
@ Adam
Claiborne was not available at #7. So your idea is moot.
If you think we should’ve stayed put at #4 and picked Claiborne, then we’d never have had the chance to have “both” Martin and David.
This is such an tired, pointless argument.
July 6th, 2013 at 3:46 pm
Didn’t Barron in fact do a pretty nice job in 2012 stopping the division’s stud TE’s? Or am I delusional??
As I have mentioned a couple times, I though Mark’s pass coverage improved overall late in the season, possibly due to getting coached up by the boss man.I expect more of this in 2013.
July 6th, 2013 at 4:17 pm
yaa yaaaa yaaaaa ohhhh ps
July 6th, 2013 at 4:54 pm
Barron has a looooong way to go. He disappeared for most of the season. He was bad in coverage, and was rarely the hitter we hoped for.
His terrible play was ignored, because Martin and David were was amazingly good.
Barron is young. But his bad play had to have been a factor in getting Goldson at all cost.
Good news is – Goldson is worth every penny- assuming leaving a Superbowl team for a team that isn’t a contender doesn’t depress him.
Barron? He’s Alfred til he does something
July 6th, 2013 at 5:51 pm
@Capt. Tim
Barron was bad because he was playing out of his natural position most of last year. Barron was better fit playing closer to the line and not as a deep safety. given the fact that our CB’s suck it gave him more responsibility than he needed at the time. He was never a ballhawk type of safety, more of a 4th LB who is good in coverage, like Donte Whitner on the 49rs.
Barron laid a hit on RGIII and was flagged and after than he stopped. I think he was more cautious, because he didn’t want to hurt the team with another penalty.
With Goldson most likely playing single high safety most of the time and with Revis locking his guy down Barron will be the guy that we drafted him to be.
July 6th, 2013 at 6:53 pm
Sneedy16 , nice point. Per PFF, Barron in fact played 813 out of 1105 snaps at FS.
But his tackling must get better if he is going to play strong.
July 6th, 2013 at 8:36 pm
Sneedy16- I agree with your comment. He isn’t a high safety, he is an In the box guy. Playing closer to the line should help him- because he showed he had a long way to go as a cover guy.
Two questions remained.
Why was he so horribly lacking in training/ Endurance. He hit the rookie wall at game 6!! That’s just unbelievable!
And with all of our Scouting/knowledge of Who Mark Barron was, why was he playing Free(high) safety?? It was a really stupid move. He sucked, it hurt the defense, and I’m sure it hurt his confidence!
Why play a rookie in a spot where he has no talent? Why let him look bad, when he could have been comfortable as an in the box safety??
Leaving him back just futher added to the leagues most horrible secondary in the league’s “Suck” factor. Moving him to spot where he could contribute could only have been a good thing. It was so bad with that secondary- it could only have been an improvement..
Still convince they didn’t really want Barron. They had Claiborne, and thought they could trade down and still get him. Dallas traded up, and got him.
The fact that they didn’t seem to know how or where to use Barron kinda reinforces that.
Hopefully- they can use him in tandem with Goldson. The kid does have some skills, if used properly!
July 6th, 2013 at 9:00 pm
Why did they play Barron out of his natural position? Because they had Ronde Barber playing in the box for the first time in his career. We all know that Ronde was always great around the line of scrimmage and it was his first year playing safety. He was too old and slow to play centerfield all game. This year is different with the addition of Goldson, Barron can move back to his best position.
July 6th, 2013 at 10:05 pm
Mark is okay not great. Imagine keackly and David playing side by side wow. This was a deep safety draft
July 6th, 2013 at 10:17 pm
The current Bucaneer defensive philosophy as originally developed by Butch Davis, Greg Schiano, and Chuck Pagano while at the University of Miami is built on an attacking style of defense where the secondary plays an important role in putting pressure on the QB. The following link explains the defensive philosophy and sheds light on why we took Mark Barron, a strong safety in the first round last year. Pay close attention to paragraphs 2 and 3. You will see that the strong safety is the key to Schiano’s defense.
http://www.rantsports.com/nfl/2012/03/19/the-tampa-bay-buccaneers-2012-defensive-philosophy/
The trade down in the 2012 draft that enabled us to trade back and take Doug Martin was no gamble gone awry. Barron was the target all along. Schiano played Barron deep out of necessity and stubbornly played his defense anyway without the personnel to make it work. It cost us some games but what happened with Talib and Wright perhaps made it unavoidable.
This year Schiano has all the parts in place to bring Barron down into the box and execute his defense as he originally intended. There may not be as much blitzing as last year, but they now have the secondary and manpower to make blitzing and the pass rush more effective. Revis, Goldson, and Banks are as advertised. This could easily be the best secondary in the NFL. It is now possible to play man-to-man, alone on an island pass defense that simply could not be done last year.
There may not be as much blitzing as last year, but expect to still see a lot of nickel and dime defense as it’s in the wheelhouse of the Schiano defensive philosophy. Barron gets better and so does everybody else on defense. I think we’re really going to like this defense this year!
July 7th, 2013 at 5:55 am
Can we all wait a season or two before passing judgement on our rookie safety? I remember a safety that was nothing special his first two to three years in the league, couldn’t earn a starting spot and was nearly cut by Herm Edwards. He eventually developed into pretty good player……..John Lynch. We all know the very similar Ronde story. Barron just looked like he was thinking too much.
July 7th, 2013 at 8:50 am
You guys have no patience. Think back to the first year lunch played, thank god none of you are running the team.
July 7th, 2013 at 10:11 am
He isn’t bad we just passed on a perennial pro bowler for a guy that won’t make any. The other thing is this was such a deep draft for safeties
July 7th, 2013 at 12:27 pm
Joc, how do you know he will never make a pro bowl? The Bucs were not the only team that had him ranked in the first round. The guy did not have a pro bowl year his rookie year, so what…let’s see how he progresses and develops. Everyone should stop wishing for some other player that we do not have, water under the bridge. To say Barron will never be a pro bowler is silly.
July 7th, 2013 at 2:32 pm
Capt Tim, the reason Barron played out of position was b/c Schiano wanted the best 11 men on the field at all times. I’m with you though. Sucks that it probably didn’t help his confidence any playing out of position that much!