Downfield Throwing
May 9th, 2014
It seems the Bucs will be throwing long passes mostly this season, based on Bucs GM Jason Licht’s words.
Last night, for a brief moment, Joe thought uber wide receiver Sammie Watkins would be falling to the Bucs. That would have been a chance Joe never would have predicted.
But it didn’t happen. Buffalo traded up and snagged him. And the Bucs got their target, Texas A&M wide receiver Mike Evans.
Bucs general manager Jason Licht explained the difference between Watkins and Evans.
“They were very similar but they were different at the same time,” Licht said. “You had one guy that’s a run-after-catch, very explosive speed guy, and you have one guy that is a down the field, throw up the ball, 50-50, and he’s going to come down with most of them – I’m talking about contested catches. His skill set we felt was perfect for us.”
Well, here is a peek at what Jeff Tedford’s offense will be: shots downfield.
Where have we heard that before, a desire to “take shots downfield?” Joe recalls the halcyon Byron Leftwich era.
May 9th, 2014 at 10:43 am
We have some real matchup problems for defenses now with Jackson, Evans & Wright…..I hope we get some speed and YAC WR for the slot.
I would love to see a 2 RB backfield with Martin & Demps….along with 3 WR set.
May 9th, 2014 at 10:51 am
Nothing wrong with shots down the field. Im not even worried about YAC. Most importantly is moving the chains and controlling the ball.
May 9th, 2014 at 11:01 am
Glennon throws a nice deep ball. He did well with Tim Wright.
Add in VJax and Evans and we have a chance.
I could see us drafting another WR in round 2.
May 9th, 2014 at 11:02 am
“Shots downfield” was Schiano. And it is an awful philosophy in today’s game. Passing shouldn’t be hope and a prayer.
“On the field what is it going to look like? Great defense, win the special teams battle, and be a physical offensive football team that takes shots down the field,” Schiano said. “Take shots down the field. It is very hard to go 12, 13, 14 play drives. If we miss on a shot we will line up and play defense again. Get the ball back and go after them again. Physical. Run the football physically and take shots down the field. That formula works. As long as you play great defense and win the kicking game that formula works.”
May 9th, 2014 at 11:03 am
Say what you want about Glennon but I think he’s(if he is playing for us)will be connecting bombs to Evans no problem. Aerial assaults are coming.
Pardon me for going off topic Joe, but are you gonna get an app or mobile version for this site? I read this website every day on my phone. There some really good mobile formats out these days.
May 9th, 2014 at 11:08 am
Maybe Lovie is really thinking Glennon to be the future QB for us. How many times did we see bad throws by Glennon to be cought by V-Jack. Evans will also keep bad throws off the ground for Glennon. Maybe Tedford and Arroyo can help him with his accuracy.
Connor Shaw is coming to Tampa
May 9th, 2014 at 11:13 am
And we still have NO speed on this offense. We drafted another slow, jump-ball receiver.
Please, shut up about this “Connor Shaw” guy. Again, “who?”
May 9th, 2014 at 11:18 am
Slow receiver and a slow QB (MG anyway). And I thought Tedford was bringing a fast offense.
Hope McCown stays healthy. he will at least not be afraid of throwing it down field.
May 9th, 2014 at 11:31 am
SteveK Says:
May 9th, 2014 at 11:01 am
Glennon throws a nice deep ball. He did well with Tim Wright.
Add in VJax and Evans and we have a chance.
I could see us drafting another WR in round 2
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Glennon rarely threw a decent deep ball. With the exception of the flea-flicker to Underwood for 80 yards, he routinely underthrew his deep balls. He’s got limited arm strength, little athleticism and little moxie.
We are not drafting another WR. L&L just proved they are about filling holes. OG/OT, Mike LB, LDE/UT, and backup QB will likely be the targets.
May 9th, 2014 at 11:32 am
Where have we heard that before, a desire to “take shots downfield?” Joe recalls the halcyon Byron Leftwich era.
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Can you give us an ETA when you’ll get over you case of “bitter butthurtitis”?
May 9th, 2014 at 11:37 am
This will be a west coast ish offense
May 9th, 2014 at 11:38 am
@eric I think Evans speed will surprise you
May 9th, 2014 at 11:38 am
Glennon throws a great ball. Do your homework before criticizing.
May 9th, 2014 at 11:40 am
I hope it works out, but I think they will eventially they will be fired for passing on a special franchise QB. While we struggle along with poor QB play.
When he dropped into the 20’s and they made no effort to go get him. Inexcusable !! The better move up in round 2 and get Carr !!
May 9th, 2014 at 11:44 am
@Eric – Evans ran a 4.53 I doubt anyone on this site could run that fast. He’s not DeSean Jackson but he’s not slow either. BTW he’s faster than Johnny ;).
May 9th, 2014 at 11:44 am
4.3 Demps, Murphy, Owusu, Dawson 6 5 Package VJax, Evans, Wright, Maneri, Streeter!! Tedford knows how to use a speed package, knows how to use the big package. He will have all three running backs in to create mismatches. All there in the mini camp notes. Please read.
May 9th, 2014 at 11:55 am
Glennon’s deep ball is terrible. He has no accuracy on deep throws at all.
May 9th, 2014 at 11:57 am
Tedford offense won’t throw deep balls. Described as “up-tempo” with lots of plays, that’s impossible to do if you are taking large chunks of yardage and getting incompletes the rest of the time.
They throw short slants. Speed is less important because there’s no time to get separation. It’s body positioning, good hands, and strength to shrug that first defender.
Elite tight end not as important either, since you are not stretching out the rest of the field to have open seams underneath.
May 9th, 2014 at 12:00 pm
And Evans game speed is above average. No, he isn’t the fastest but he’s still incredibly fast especially for such a huge guy. I don’t know where you guys come up with this crap.
May 9th, 2014 at 12:01 pm
glennon throws ducks on deep passes…no arm strength. immobile, inaccurate, no leadership…wow, lovie can pick ’em.
also, lovie and licht put us in this crap situation by trading mike williams and jeremy zuttah, which pigeonholed us…and got no value to boot.
May 9th, 2014 at 12:04 pm
Williams crapped his own bed. Evans is a big upgrade anyway. Yeah, I would have liked a qb and we had to get a receiver, but Evans was BPA there anyway.
May 9th, 2014 at 12:05 pm
Come off the ledge, Joe. I would have been excited with giving manziel a shot, but we got Evans. Having 2 6’5″ WR’s WILL be a nightmare for teams to cover AND will only open things up for Martin & co.
May 9th, 2014 at 12:08 pm
Agree that Evans is not slow. Game speed running routes is a whole lot different than combine times.
And ya, Glennons deep passes were dreadful last year. I do think he has adequate arm strength but he had no hope stepping up in the pocket and letting it fly last year.
May 9th, 2014 at 12:10 pm
Ya know what blows? All you sour grapes.
If Manziel would have been drafted, I would sucked it up and supported the guy. Ultimately, I want the Bucs to win.
Now that the L&L has made their call, it’s a shame people can’t let it go and move on.
Zero games played and you guys are bitchin and moanin. Pathetic.
May 9th, 2014 at 12:14 pm
Lurker, sounds like you’re not on the Lovie train?! I don’t agree with everything they’ve done either but you and I have no idea what this will look like come regular season. We have to hope that they know what they are doing.
Out of curiosity, why do you say “no leadership”? I can somewhat agree with his inaccuracy and immobility but leadership, the guy was a 3rd round rookie who was not expected to start.
What exactly are the expectations for 3rd round draft choices these days?
I hate to say it but you might want to start warming to the idea that the Bucs are going to field McCown, Glennon, and Kafka as regular season QBs.
May 9th, 2014 at 12:15 pm
The draft isn’t over. It isn’t settled yet. Also don’t forget some of wanted a qb but didn’t want Manziel.
May 9th, 2014 at 12:20 pm
Oil Derrick Brooks Says:
May 9th, 2014 at 12:10 pm
Ya know what blows? All you sour grapes.
If Manziel would have been drafted, I would sucked it up and supported the guy. Ultimately, I want the Bucs to win.
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Me too.
But, good thing, we took BPA. No reaching with a real rock star calling the shots.
MGM is taking new members.
May 9th, 2014 at 12:26 pm
ODB… You had to expect this. They say they dont hate but this just proves that they are liars as well as haters. LOL… Just do what I do and laugh at the stupidity. That’s all you can really do.
May 9th, 2014 at 12:32 pm
In Nov. “2” we will visit the Browns. Who is flying to Cleveland?
Connor Shaw is coming to Tampa
May 9th, 2014 at 12:36 pm
I know guys, it just sucks. Because I truly would have supported the guy.
Heck, I waited multiple SEASONS before I was off the Freeman and Dominik train. Whereas, we have armchair GMs who are bashing Licht because they don’t like his trade returns, much less the draft.
Again, the team is 0-0. Stop listening to the propaganda, at least wait for 0-1 before you bash.
Lest I remind you, Mark Dominik went 28-52, and there’s STILL people defending him. Licht and Lovie can’t even get past the first draft.
If this team turns into a major winner, don’t think we won’t remember the doubters, first one being Joesourgrapesfan.
May 9th, 2014 at 1:08 pm
I’ll take the 11 inch reach advantage that Evans has over Sammy Watkins as opposed to the 1/10 second 40 yard dash advantage that Sammy has over Evans. If Bucs fans are sour because he’s “not fast”, well than neither is Sammy Watkins when you compare him to Owusu or Demps.
May 9th, 2014 at 1:08 pm
I could care less about Manziel.
What killed me last night was the last pick. We were one pick away from having Bridgewater available for the Texans.
Thanks to the Browns trading up for their third first rounder, now there is not even a glimmer of hope that Carr falls to us. He’ll be the first pick of round 2.
That leaves only two QBs worth considering on the board, and I don’t see us taking Garapolo (sp). It’s a big gamble to hopee Murray is there in round 5.
No way the Texans will trade away their first pick tonight either. Unless we offer Glennon.
I won’t say Glennon doesn’t have potential. I wanted to keep him. But I wanted serious competition for him. Doesn’t look like that will happen.
If Lovie doesn’t address QB in the next 2 picks then he learned nothing during his year off. Right now, I feel justified in dropping my season tickets. If they don’t get a QB by round three I won’t even buy single game tickets this year.
If his “Glennon is the QB of the future” wasn’t just smoke and mirrors or an effort to drive up trade value, then all this talk of having learned from past experience is bull.
May 9th, 2014 at 1:16 pm
How about trusting the new regime?
How long did any of you give Dominik, Freeman, Rah, and Schiano?
Did you quit on any of them before a single game was played?
The current regime is 0-0. Let’s put aside our armchair GMships and support the team. I can swear I would have even if Manziel was picked. Why can’t you bashers do the same?
May 9th, 2014 at 1:21 pm
C’mon Bonzai, don’t give up yet! What if McCown is the next Gannon and Glennon continues to progress from learning under him? What about the QB class in 2015 or 2016?
Don’t be so short-sighted, we haven’t played game #1 yet. There is hope(despite the haters!). This is only year 2 for Mikey.
With the McCown signing, QB was no longer a “need” position in the draft. They chose to focus on the most glaring hole on the team instead. There’s still rounds 2-7, hang in there man!
May 9th, 2014 at 1:22 pm
BuccaneerBonzai Says:
May 9th, 2014 at 1:08 pm
I won’t say Glennon doesn’t have potential. I wanted to keep him. But I wanted serious competition for him. Doesn’t look like that will happen.
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Serious competition for what? Backup? Josh McCown is the locked in starter….Glennon is the locked in backup….I’m missing where Glennon needs competition. He’s competiting to start, not competiting against someone to backup.
May 9th, 2014 at 1:26 pm
I don’t care about trust or how long its been. I call them like I see them. Glennon sucks. The Evans pick was awesome.
May 9th, 2014 at 1:38 pm
Houston *could* take Garoppolo, leaving Carr available.
If not … get some O-line prospect and see if Brett Smith is around later?
May 9th, 2014 at 1:49 pm
Glennon is as good or better than any of the QB’s left on the board. Mike Evans was a great pick. V-Jax, Evans, Tim Wright….trouble for CB’s and LB’s. It’s like having three TE’s that have WR speed.
May 9th, 2014 at 1:49 pm
So many god damn GM’s on here know who to take and how to run a team. Stick to the madden games and let the real guys do the work!
May 9th, 2014 at 1:50 pm
Bottom line. Combination of film and the mini camp must have told L&L that Glennon is at least OK. Or judge the QB position is settled until after next season.
As for the Johnny Football fans. We may never know how good or bad is can be. He’s in Cleveland where QB’s go to die. Can he break that curse? We shall see. He looked as happy as Sapp was when he fell to the Bucs. It worked out OK for Warren.
“Glennon is the future” comment. It’s either more smoke or their legit thinking. If they don’t go QB with the #2 pick, I think it’s safe to say that comment that has people in a Tizzy is their legit view and opinion.
May 9th, 2014 at 2:00 pm
I think the Evans pick was strong but I can admit that I was a little bummed that it wasn’t Manziel, but it really wasn’t for football related reasons. With the extra two weeks before the draft, and from checking this site every single day for Bucs news, I was bombarded with Johnny Football stories. Now, I’m not one to watch ESPN unless it’s an actual sporting event (I watch the NFL draft on NFL Network). I do my best to avoid the endless hype of any particular player and while I enjoyed watching Johnny play college ball, I really had no idea if he would be a boom or bust player in the NFL. I’m confident in the new regime and would hope for the best.
In any event, with the draft approaching, I caught a bit of Johnny fever. I knew that with his unorthodox playing style, there was a good chance that he would bust, but I also knew that for the first time ever, the Bucs would be the talk of the NFL. No more cutting to commercial while the Bucs were on the clock during the draft, or always been the underdog (which to be fair isn’t always a bad thing) in any big game. Even in 2002 there were people counting out the Bucs, and finally the team would be relevant.
So, the draft comes around and the Bucs pick Mike Evans, who I was fine with as I feel he’ll be an impact player. And later on the Browns would pick Johnny and that was it. At the end of the day I realized that while it’s nice to be the center of attention, that doesn’t guarantee success (see Jets and Cowboys for some of the best examples). Teams win games and championships that are often ignored by the mainstream media. And really, at the end of the day, why was I clamoring for attention from the media who I barely give attention to of my own? So, yeah, I had the fever for a couple weeks, but I’m over it and believe in this regime and hope for the best. I doubt Glennon is the franchise QB of the future, but I think this team will start winning again and I’ll be there to see what happens.
May 9th, 2014 at 2:03 pm
schiano wanted to do the same, pound the run and then take shots off playaction. it’s a sensible idea, but when we had the run game we didn’t have the defense to keep the game close, and when we had the defense we had no RB and nobody to draw attention from our big play WR. hope it all comes together this time around
May 9th, 2014 at 4:28 pm
@Bonzai, I understand your concern, and while Carr is possible and Im ok with it, theres plenty more players to go see with your ticke.
I’d LOVE to be close enough to go to a Bucs game from here in SC. The Carolina or Atlanta games are about as close as I’ll get until I build up vacation time at work…then I’ll go and be able to experience being surrounded by other Buc fans.