Hoping For A Healthy Marpet

December 1st, 2015
His backup stinks.

His backup stinks.

One great story of the 2015 resurgence of the Bucs is the development of the offensive line. What was the weakest unit on the Bucs now could be considered its best strength.

That is, when Ali Marpet plays.

The rookie from Division-III Hobart College may be the story of the season in the NFL. In a handful of months, Marpet went from facing tackling dummies with a pulse to the best the NFL has to offer, and handled himself quite well. In fact, Joe thinks Marpet easily could have been a Pro Bowler had he not blown a wheel against the Giants.

With a bum ankle, Marpet hasn’t played in three weeks. His replacement, Evan Smith, did OK for two games but got exposed in the second half against the Colts, as Indianapolis coach Chuck Pagano brought the house to rattle America’s Quarterback, Bucs signal-caller Jameis Winston.

Andy Benoit, the Xs and Os guru of theMMQB.com, did not like Smith’s play at all.

While he wasn’t the lone Smith to struggle when Pagano brought the kitchen sink, it is clear now the Bucs miss Marpet. For a stretch run to a potential wild card berth, the Bucs could sure use a healthy Marpet.

10 Responses to “Hoping For A Healthy Marpet”

  1. chocolatecvb Says:

    I’m still just impressed that Jameis isn’t getting creamed every down every Sunday. Who woulda thought at the beginning of training camp????

  2. StPeteBucsFan Says:

    Agree Chocolate. Both Smith’s got schooled Sunday but so did #3.

    Either Koetter didn’t have him prepared or #3 is still waiting for the game to slow down, or perhaps the hot receivers ran poor routes or didn’t get open..maybe all of the above.

    One thing is certain #3 HAS to learn to get rid of the ball quicker. I admire his gamesmanship…he is always straining to extend the play..and sometimes it works…as #3 gets more experience he’ll learn when to stretch it and when to dump it. But anytime we sense the D bringing the kitchen sink it should become dink and dunk time and unload the ball….even if Ali is back in the lineup.

  3. Rrsrq Says:

    I think D. Smith maybe has him that rookie wall, he has 11 games under his belt plus preseason, most he has had to play, when Marpet returns he will benefit from the rest hopefully, but I think Smith is going to need help.

  4. Fsuking Says:

    @St.PeteBucsFan
    Wrong! Jameis had nobody open for the vast majority of the game. We also had no pass protection and no run game to take the pressure off. What we need is Ali Marpet back, Donovan Smith to get exponentially quicker, a fast WR (we don’t have anything remotely close) and a new HC who can coach away penalties, not games! Jameis has nothing to do with us losing any game but the Panthers fiasco.

  5. mike Says:

    man, I thought the ali pick was a reach. I thought he would be good in a few years but wanted aj cann. I was wrong

  6. Fsuking Says:

    Getting rid of the ball quickly, like Tom Brady, is dependent on a QBs primary and secondary receivers being open. We have two giant, physical receivers, each slower than the next. Only Mike gets open quickly without some sort of grand, Machiavellian scheme to divert defnders. If he catches it is a different story. The people who say Jameis needs to get rid of the ball quicker aren’t looking downfield. He does miss some guys, but so does Tom Brady! I also hate the notion that he has bad mechanics and a slow release. Nope. He has Jameis’s mechanics and gets the ball out quicker than many top QBs.

  7. JoninNY Says:

    “Brought the house” indeed. From where I was sitting @ Lucas Oil on Sunday (high up, full-field view) the Colts, as much as they could, sent as many guys as they could on the blitz in the second hand and, often as not, seemed to bring the CBs up the line to jam the receivers and prevent the short routes. It’s the kind of adjustment the Bucs are going to have to get used to (Ali included — huge fan, btw, for many years), and a sign of the kind of respect the Bucs are going to get as teams start taking them seriously. Great post!

  8. cmurda Says:

    The fact that the Colts continuously brought the kitchen sink, is an even bigger shock that the Bucs didn’t slow down that blitz by running Martin often in the 2nd half.

  9. BucTrooper Says:

    ASJ? Never heard of her.

  10. drdneast Says:

    That was a good post JoninNY.