“They Got Valuable Experience”
January 15th, 2013
After Mark Dominik’s comments yesterday, Joe suspects the Bucs will move quickly to bring back E.J. Biggers for his fifth season in pewter and red.
So who will the Bucs retain from their largely ineffective cornerbacks corps?
Rockstar general manager Mark Dominik hinted yesterday that postseason evaluation brought good marks for E.J. Biggers, Danny Gorrer and Leonard Johnson.
“They got valuable experience,” Dominik said of the trio during an interview on the “Booger and Rich” show on 98.7 FM. Their job against Roddy White and Julio Jones was praised specifically.
“Again, they got valuable experience,” Dominik said, saying “tons of experience” was attained, albeit under less than ideal circumstances.
The Bucs will find fresh talent at cornerback in free agency and/or the draft, Dominik said, but he also claimed another season of the New Schiano Order will have a major organic impact.
“Just experience and time back in here with the system with an offseason again is going to be really important for this football team,” Dominik said. “That’s what you’ll see. You’ll see a lot of [positive] changes going forward.”
Undrafted rookie Leonard Johnson, perhaps the only feather in the cap of jettisoned secondary coach Ron Cooper, was always a lock to return in 2013.
The case of Biggers is more interesting.
Given the Bucs’ lack of depth at the position, Joe wonders whether Dominik will move fast to lock up Biggers, who is an unrestricted free agent. Biggers is hardly a great player that inspires confidence among fans, but if he and Johnson are the fourth and fifth corners on the depth chart — and you don’t have irresponsible, me-first, pill-poppers ahead of them — that’s not too shabby.
January 15th, 2013 at 10:18 am
If thats the best Biggers can play in a contract year, i dont want him back. He cant do press coverage, gets beat deep anyway and gives up 10 yard comeback routes anytime the other teams offense wants.
January 15th, 2013 at 11:11 am
If you google ej biggers they have listed as being 37 years old lol
January 15th, 2013 at 11:14 am
Ej Biggers and Leonard Johnson are solid back ups as 3rd and 4th on the depth chart.
EJ is a solid nickle, and Leonard is a solid tackler and will continue to improve.
In the NFL, experience=evolution. These guys need snaps for their minds/eyes to adapt to the speed of the game.
Dominik made a good point about experience. I am happy all these guys got snaps.
Now we just need 3 corners who are all better than EJ, Leonard, and Danny.
January 15th, 2013 at 11:18 am
@Ian
consider it this way, Biggers forsure wont be starting next year, so for a 4th CB he’s actually done pretty well. Bring back Leonard and Biggers, but Gorrer man.. That dropped pick against the eagles still haunts me.
January 15th, 2013 at 11:22 am
Joe
We’ll disagree on this one.
Biggers… a new contract? Are you kidding? What’s the rush? You really think other teams are going to be interested in this guy? Our secondary is terrible… They came within a few yards of setting a record for allowing the most passing yardage. Aside from here, I can’t imagine any other team in the league where they would be starters. Nope.. It’s a huge mistake.. Get some quality FA’s out there and get rid of them. At this point, just about anyone would be an improvement.
And yeah, they may not have had a good secondary coach, but the players do have to display some measure of talent. Consistently being beat on plays, missing tackles, drawing countless PI penalties is a pretty good indicator they can’t perform.
January 15th, 2013 at 11:34 am
Has Gaitor been forgotten about? I think he’s better than all 3 of them. That’s not saying much though.
January 15th, 2013 at 11:46 am
Gorrer was terrible. Cut him. Johnson played like a rookie, but I’d stick with him (as depth). Biggers wasn’t very good, but is probably our best corner if we cut Wright, which isn’t saying much. I can see keeping him as long as he isn’t starting next year.
If it were me, I’d keep Biggers, Johnson, and Gaitor. I’d cut Lewis, Gorrer, and Wright. Then I’d add one starting caliber corner in free agency, and 2 in the draft (one in the first 3 rounds, one late for depth/development). Maybe next offseason we can add a shutdown corner to this group since there isn’t really one available this year.
January 15th, 2013 at 11:52 am
@ShayneGoodfellow……I’ll take Biggers as a #4 but someone may pay him #3 cash. Then put Gaitor as #3…Johnson #4 (but Gaitor & Johnson are too small to cover TE’s) *scratches head*
January 15th, 2013 at 12:25 pm
@ Ian
dude I HIGHLY doubt any team will be willing to pay Biggers #3 money, third cornerbacks are very important for every team in the league. Biggers is just not good enough.
@SilenceTheCritics
Thanks for bringing up Gaitor, I completely forgot about him, most likely because he did not play much this year because of injury. I Think you’re right that Gaitor is better then E.J and Gorrer, but not sure about Leonard. Let Leonard J and Gaitor battle it out in training camp for the #3 CB. Sign the best available guy in free agency, and I LOVE Jonathan Banks, I think hes going to be a great player in this league. I like Milliner also, but pretty sure the Titans or the Lions are going to grab him before us. I also have this gut feeling that Banks will turn out to be the better player then Milliner
January 15th, 2013 at 12:51 pm
What’s the problem here? People make all kinds of excuses for Freeman. Why not these guys. System keeps changing. Coach keeps changing. This coach was garbage but Biggers STILL played better than last year. What could he do with a great coach?? What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Want to make excuses for FREEMAN? The same apply here.
January 15th, 2013 at 12:55 pm
Resign wright to a new friendly contract. Sign one in free agency, and draft 2 one early one late.
January 15th, 2013 at 1:08 pm
The one thing I noticed about Johnson. When he drew a flag it seems to be about every time for not looking back when the ball is in the air and he made contact. That killed us a lot of times. That’s coaching. Many of the problems are. Just look at what a coach did in one year with learning how to stop the run.
January 15th, 2013 at 1:27 pm
The secondary is below poor. No depth anywhere on this team. See Rock Star.
January 15th, 2013 at 1:51 pm
Biggers was our only CB who played even decently.
No, I don’t think he’s starting material. But I’d be fine with him being our 3rd CB with two good starters.
January 15th, 2013 at 2:00 pm
Biggers actually rates fairly high per PFF: https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2013/01/01/free-agent-cornerbacks/
January 15th, 2013 at 3:01 pm
Kinda like Custer as Little Big Horn.
Need a better pass rush real bad. These top flight qb’s will rip a secondary full of all pros apart if you cant get em a little rattled.
Combine that with our QB getting rattled too often, and we got some issues to work through.
Dang tough division, with Peyton coming back, the dirty birds, and even Carolina came on strong.
Hope year five of the rock is better than the first four. Surely its time for some lasting contenderism.
January 15th, 2013 at 3:11 pm
Yeah experience getting burned repeatedly to almost historic NFL levels. Is that the kind of experience we want? To me the only salvageable members or our secondary are Johnson, Barron and Barber and maybe Rhonde isnt the answer at safety. I thought Eric Wright played decent when he was in there but if you cant count on him then get rid of him. He gets paid way to much to make bonehead decisions.
January 15th, 2013 at 3:12 pm
“They got valuable experience”
Now only if they had talent to go along with that experience.
January 15th, 2013 at 3:23 pm
They can’t clean house on everyone. They are going to need to keep a few just for depth purposes. Biggers is ok at best, Johnson was a rookie, so we can cut him some slack. He was targeted more then any corner on this team when he was out there usually with the other receiver winning.
January 15th, 2013 at 8:53 pm
Are you guys stupid or something?? Biggers is AWFUL. He gets burned constantly even if he’s right in front of the receiver!!! HE SUCKS. 14 yards from the worst pass defense ever. Enough said. Cut his ass.
January 16th, 2013 at 1:54 am
WOW!!!
I think Patrick just called the Joes stupid!