Is M.D. Jennings A Wild Card?
April 3rd, 2015
The Bucs’ newest safety will compete
Now that the Bucs have released Dashon “Hawk” Goldson from his Tampa Bay perch, their safety position appears more wide open than ever.
Bradley McDougald is the top dog, but he’s a very young player (24) with only five career starts.
After that, Major Wright is a guy the Bucs cut after training camp last year. He returned to the roster and did some good things, but struggled to stay healthy. New safety Chris Conte is an injury waiting to happen, based on his career history. Fourth-year man Keith Tandy is revered by Lovie Smith as a special teams player, but not much more.
This puts a bit of spotlight on M.D. Jennings, who the Bucs quietly signed in early January. Undrafted in 2011, he started at safety for the Packers in 2012 and 2013.
A red flag is that Packers personnel yoda Ted Thompson let him walk. The Bears signed Jennings quickly in free agency last year, but he was cut in late August after an injury (undisclosed) settlement. He spent 2014 out of football.
Just 26 years old, Jennings surely will get his shot. Joe hopes he can emerge and provide depth. Odds are the Bucs will need it.
April 3rd, 2015 at 11:53 am
Never heard of this guy and we signed him back in January??? Glad we have SOME depth, but GOD only knows at this point whether it’s QUALITY depth or not…Brian Kelly subbed by Tim Wansley anyone??
April 3rd, 2015 at 11:53 am
huh?
Conte and Jennings will compete for the Free Safety. We also need to find someone in the draft to compete for that.
McDougald and Wright will compete for Strong Safety. Should be ok there.
April 3rd, 2015 at 12:00 pm
Lol Bucs are gonna suck at safety. But at least they aren’t going to be sinking $20 M into the position for a player that will not play anywhere close to his paygrade.
April 3rd, 2015 at 12:02 pm
I wonder if Licht checked BestBuy yet.
April 3rd, 2015 at 12:05 pm
Roster is a complete and utter mess. Relying on players who are injury prone or who’ve been out of football is a recipe for failure. Again, this is what happens when there is not a competent executive/president running the organization. Rudderless = lurching, reaching, hoping, guessing, failing. 2015 prediction -> 5-11. And I’ll watch all 16 of ’em, just as I’ve done since 1976. Dummie.
April 3rd, 2015 at 12:07 pm
lol I knew the M.D. Jennings signing wouldn’t get any notice until the hawk was gone. what we have now is better than anything any rookie could provide, plus lovie better not be wasting picks on safety otherwise all the spots he filled were pointless
April 3rd, 2015 at 12:07 pm
The Bucs also have S Johnson signed through 2016 at the SS position – that should scare people!
April 3rd, 2015 at 12:12 pm
Lovie Smith hanging his hat on a bad football player? Never…
April 3rd, 2015 at 12:26 pm
Bucsfan
“Roster is a complete and utter mess.”
Problem with your statement Bucsfan is that the roster is far from complete.
We still have the draft and we have first shot at EVERY player that hits the waiver wire between now and September.
Patience is a virtue although I concede very limited in today’s instant gratification society.
April 3rd, 2015 at 12:31 pm
Were wide open at a lot of positions. I’m waiting to hear mark walburg showed up for tryouts.
April 3rd, 2015 at 12:36 pm
buc4life1970 hes the guy that got that hail mary interception against seatle but the wannabe refs said it was a td
April 3rd, 2015 at 12:38 pm
BigMacAttack: LOL on the Licht BestBuy comment; dude probably thinks that Circuit City is still open as well as it seems that he seems to be really out of touch with many things: such as competent free agency acquisitions, decent trades and reality in general…..
April 3rd, 2015 at 12:38 pm
Why trade Goldson? Salary cap reasons? Who are we going to sign that requires mor cap room than we already had? No Goldson didn’t look like an all pro last year but he was a starter nonetheless. You can say he didnt do this or that but who on the roster is better? Who is going to take that position over and improve upon what Goldson did.
In hindsight we could be saying wow so and so really steped up. But now it just seems like cutting ties for the sake of. With no upgrade in sight.
April 3rd, 2015 at 12:41 pm
StPete
come on man… this is not a positive… being the first garbage collector is still first garbage collector. If a player is that good he will be retained. see cowboys and their creative cap management. I respect your patience that being said I have lost mine. Those people who feel winston is a risk what about building your entire roster based on 1 or 2 draft picks a year and a system specific garbage collection run. How is that not risky. it’s way more risky. can’t build a winner with other peoples garbage and 1 or 2 draft picks a year.
It’s scary how they are doing this. very scary… even considering a washed up guard like Connelly is stupid on their part. who cares if another washed up player in mankins is happy because he has a buddy. get him a damn dog.
Happy Easter to those who celebrate. have a peaceful weekend to those who don’t. I am off to my Lovie Smith anger management session.
April 3rd, 2015 at 12:50 pm
I have no idea why Lovie would sour on Keith Tandy. Whenever Goldson was down for suspension and Tandy came in and got a pick in both his starts, and isn’t a bad safety overall. Certainly not a proven guy, but he hasn’t done a bad job.
April 3rd, 2015 at 1:01 pm
DallasBuc Says:
April 3rd, 2015 at 12:12 pm
Lovie Smith hanging his hat on a bad football player? Never
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no your right because this is nothing at all like letting Michael Bennett walk to promote daquan bowers
this is how fans of losing teams think….people thought we were a superbowl team when we we had revis and got goldson lol there was a traffic jam in the noflyzone. Lovie has been offensively challenged but no one has ever questioned his defensive coaching ability until he came to this losing franchise so i’ll side with history and say our defense will be just fine
April 3rd, 2015 at 1:01 pm
Thanks Dominick!
Still trying to fix your broken ass roster!
April 3rd, 2015 at 1:15 pm
Interestingly enough, that’s the same amount of wins Glennon has entire Bucs career…
There, i fixed it for you.
April 3rd, 2015 at 1:25 pm
I am getting dejavue. At the end of the year last year, who was started at DE, LT, both saftey spots? With the exception of Collins, at the other 3 spots the starters have been cut or traded. Who ever gets the job will be just handed the job not having to have beat out the incumbant starter. I desperatly want Winston, but I want Glennon as the starter until at least after the 1st preseason game when we go down 17-7 at the half and Winston brings us back playing against the scrubs. L&L should have already learned this lesson. Starting spots should be earned on the field.
April 3rd, 2015 at 2:22 pm
@Licht
I hear UPS has some pretty good prospects too.
April 3rd, 2015 at 3:26 pm
He was briefly a Chicago Bear, that explains Lovie’s faith in him.
April 3rd, 2015 at 5:55 pm
i have to be honest, i was not around Tampa (away at college) when Lynch first came to town, so i can’t speak to the hype around him, but it seems to me most Cover 2\Tampa 2 safeties come into the job relatively unknown – it seems to be guys with football IQ rather than elite physical talent who thrive on the back end. that’s good news, because although we haven’t seen any exciting names signed back there, we are actually better off minus last year’s highly touted (and highly paid) starters
April 3rd, 2015 at 6:59 pm
Lynch came to Tampa with quite a bit of hype as a thunderous hitter. He played out of position and struggled for the first couple years then exploded, blowing up a lot of other players in the process.
April 3rd, 2015 at 10:40 pm
As a Wisconsin resident, I watch quite a bit of packer games. Jennings was always making plays. He has his flaws too, but he can be a play maker. Coverage is decent if I remember right.
April 4th, 2015 at 10:51 am
Safety might be the least of our problems.