Joe applauds Mark Dominik for telling it like it is to Peter King, of Sports Illustrated.
King shared his “intrigue” in the Bucs’ draft pick today in his Tuesday column on SI.com. He called Dominik to get his take, and Dominik was candid about wide reciever talent Mike Williams, who walked out on the Syracuse football team late in the season after reportedly violating curfew with some other players.
Williams, obviously, jumps out as the 101st pick in the draft. He had academic troubles at Syracuse, broke curfew, was suspended by coach Doug Marrone and later quit the team. It’s a classic risk-reward draft choice; many teams in the league didn’t have Williams on their draft board.
But Dominik said: “He’s a starting receiver. I think he’s going to start for us at some point this year. He’s excited to play football, and we all know it’s a risk. Quitting is obviously a big hurdle to get over. That’s not good. But he’s a good kid and a passionate football player who realizes he made some mistakes. We’ve done our research and we feel comfortable with the risk. I can tell you he’s not going to be quitting football.”
Uh, oh. Wait a minute. Dominik just called Williams a quitter. But Williams just told the St. Pete Times he never quit anything.
“Oh, yeah, it bothers me a lot,” Williams said Saturday. “Because if anybody knows me, even coach Marrone would tell you I’m not a quitter. If anybody knows me, they know I don’t quit anything. If I was a quitter, when I got suspended because of my grades, I would’ve quit Syracuse then. When I got suspended for that game for my paper, I would’ve quit Syracuse then. I was never a quitter. I never, ever did that. That’s not my style. Tampa Bay will see that. They’ll see I’m going to go out there and fight hard for everything I do, everything I get. It does kind of get to me when people say I’m a quitter because that’s not a word that I even use.”
Now Joe’s all for giving Williams a clean slate. He deserves that. But Joe is concerned that Williams, based on his comments, including those on the air with Shawn King today on 1010 AM, is a blamer — that he’s not the kind of guy who will man up and take responsibility.
Hopefully, the Bucs can get him to grow up quickly.
But, as former Bucs tight ends coach and Syracuse assistant head coach Bob Casullo
told Joe in an exclusive interview, that’s a great challenge that requires veteran leadership, and coaches being on the same page in handling a young man like Williams.
Joe hopes Raheem The Dream is up to the task.
Good luck, Williams. Your new life starts Friday at rookie minicamp.
April 27th, 2010 at 5:07 pm
I am thinking the difference between first and fourth round money is rather substantial.
Perhaps that will be enough to wake the young man up.
Are they keeping Clayton in case it doesn’t?
April 27th, 2010 at 5:33 pm
Joe, why don’t you guys (Media) get off this kids fuc*ing Ass. Really man, none of you, I repeat none of you have all the facts as to what was in the kid’s mind, what was going on in class, at home or anything else. YOU said Dominick called him a quitter, he said he wasn’t, emphatically. Yea yea so what. What if Mike reads JBF, it’s as if you’re trying to stir up sh*t. C’mon Joe, say it isn’t so. I’m always behind you all the way, but this reeks of negativity and I’m quite disappointed. Why not give the kid a fuc*ing break? What’s done is done. He’s a Bucking Buc already. Why not give him a chance and quit reliving his fucking 2 mistakes, unlike the mistakes of Mr Hillbillie Boy Rapist Roethlisberger. WTF!!!
Tearing apart the Buc’s draft, and none of these rookies has played his first down yet. WTF!!!
April 27th, 2010 at 5:39 pm
Who was the Bucs fourth round selection 4 years ago? Not sure the risk is that great, but the potential reward seems high
April 27th, 2010 at 5:45 pm
@jimbuc
Didnt they say that a fourth rounder this year is like a third rounder other years?
Even a fifth rounder was too precious to trade for Holmes.
A little duplicitous isnt it?
April 27th, 2010 at 6:32 pm
LOL. One of the things about the dissent is that they are always searching for contradictions. Surprised you did not bring up the tired “they said they wanted character guys” argument. Apples to Oranges, Eric. Apples to Oranges.
April 27th, 2010 at 7:19 pm
jimbuc:
4th rounder 4 years ago was alan zemaitis. Cortland Finnegan, Elvis Dumervil, Ray Edwards, Willie Colon and Marques Colston were all taken later. So there can be risk with wasting a 4th round pick.
I sure would love to have Marques Colston over Alan Zemaitis right now.
I personally didnt hate the Williams pick and I think that he has more raw talent than Benn. My concern is that he was not allowed to play in 2 consecutive years for cheating and then curfew violations etc.
The positive side of this pick is that Rah doesnt plaace restrictions on players so the curfew wont be a problem. Williams will love the rap music blaring and dancing during practice, and he wont have to worry about getting in trouble for calling his coach by a nickname. He also wont have to worry about excessive celebration b/c his coach will chest bumping the cheerleaders when he scores in the 4th quarter to get the team within 21.
April 27th, 2010 at 7:37 pm
Joe, After reading your article, can we take it that Williams 2 coaches did “not” stand up and back his version of events that he claimed in the St. Pete article? That is huge!
April 27th, 2010 at 7:53 pm
@jimbuc
I don’t have to search very hard!
April 27th, 2010 at 8:10 pm
I’m NOT worried about Williams.
If he gets out of hand there’s alway Talib around to WHACK him into shape.
April 27th, 2010 at 8:14 pm
@BigMac
Hey there Big guy – Joe’s just doing what the media does – stir up some specultion with some facts and make it so that you WANT, no NEED to read the story.
The fact that you were motivated enough to post a comment means this: Joe did his job.
Let’s face it, if JBF posted just facts and BORING Bucs news you wouldn’t be motivated to come back, nevertheless post your opinion.
Remember the formula, take some facts, sprinkle in some opinion and season with contraversy and you get a winning mixture.
Of course sometimes Joe goes overboard – but hey even Joes needs to stir the pot once in awhile (ok one a day)!
April 27th, 2010 at 8:16 pm
My god what a bitch fest. Do any of you realize this kid was the highest rated highschool player in the country when he went to college. If any of you watched more syracuse football than just the few highlights you have seen the last couple of days, you would realize the incredible talent he has. He will be our #1 receiver by years end and I would have quit that sorry ass syracuse team too. “Really coach, our best quarterback is Duke’s point guard? See ya in the NFL asshole”
April 27th, 2010 at 8:22 pm
The kid will be good , but he will be an asshole who gets in trouble from time to time…kind of like his fellow Syracuse alumn , and 4th rounder, Tanard Jackson.
April 27th, 2010 at 8:41 pm
There are so many people appreciating Cowboys for getting Dez Bryant in the 1st when they desperately needed help at OL. And here we are curious beyond threshold about a 4th rounder.
@Thomas: You love country music, don’t you?
April 27th, 2010 at 11:03 pm
LMAO @ jake the snake…nice way to close it
jonny, nice point. we (hopefully) got our impact players early. there’s always an exception, but the odds are AGAINST the average 4th rounder becoming an impact player on a team…which could be for any number of reasons. if williams doesnt pan out, we get no return on a 4th round pick (which happens most of the time anyway). if he comes in, plays hard and makes a difference, then its just gravy.
April 27th, 2010 at 11:28 pm
“Do any of you realize this kid was the highest rated highschool player in the country when he went to college.” – jake the snake
Not only did I not realize that I learned that it is completely untrue.
I looked it up since I’m pretty familiar with college recruiting and had never heard of this kid in the HS circuit.
http://rivals.yahoo.com/floridastate/football/recruiting/player-Mike-Williams-40913;_ylt=AoA07WcNrk1PJuB6zRhlUk2Fr5B4
http://recruiting.scout.com/a.z?s=73&p=8&c=1&nid=1959524
Mike Williams was not only not a top prospect coming out of college he wasn’t even ranked beyond being a top 20 NY football player (not a football state) and given a two-star rating by the top two college recruiting sites.
His offers were to Syracuse, Buffalo, Pitt, Temple Toledo and Wisconsin.
Not saying he’s not very good today, but let’s not make things up.
April 28th, 2010 at 12:18 am
What ever happened to Jermaine Philips???!!! Is Raheem not going to re-sign him? He’s been a very good safety for us ever since our Super Bowl victory and we always had a great defense with him. The experiment he did with Philips switching to linebacker was just pure STUPID, and it resulted with him having a season ending thumb injury. And I don’t want to hear about his age. 30 is not that old. I remember not too long ago in 2008 when he had a great season, having 4 Interceptions and making lots of big plays for us!
And I do know that he got in trouble when he ” assaulted” his wife. But I really believe it wasn’t that big of a deal. He probably just had a bad argument with her. I couldn’t ever think of another time when he had been in trouble. Plus the charges against him were dropped anyway.
Joe, can you give me your opinion on every single thing I talked about above? I’ve been wanting Philips to come back all offseason.
April 28th, 2010 at 5:05 am
Quitting or being labeled as a quitter is an obstacle this guy will have to overcome. If he’s a superstar, people will forget about it. However, if he follows in the footsteps of Joe’s favorite blocking icon, this character issue will repeatedly resurface week after week.
April 28th, 2010 at 6:15 am
@Patrick
GEEZ!!! I had forgotten about Rah-Rah’s failed experiment then you have to go and bring it back!!! ARRRGGG!!!!
April 28th, 2010 at 7:53 am
It appears regarding the WIllaims kid the following is true:
1. He Quit his team.
2. Has repeatedly lied about quitting his team.
3. At the combine many NFL teams found his interview “horrible”, and took him completely off their draft board, due to his “blame others” attitude.
Sounds like a classic “reach” to fill a desperate need, which didn’t have to be one but for the “draft only” policy.
April 28th, 2010 at 8:04 am
@ Patrick
Jermaine is used goods…after he broke his forearm for about the 43rd time , the Bucs probably decided it was best to move on , and find someone who actually play more than 3 games without critically injuring themselves.
I tend to agree.
April 28th, 2010 at 8:20 am
I’m sure that all of you guys are so perfect that you never did anything in College that you might look back on today with regret.
If he quit or didn’t quit is not important to me. He didn’t commit a crime. His future shouldnt be ruined because he did something that a lot of kids his age do, made a mistake.
He has already lost out on possibly millions of dollars. I’d say thats a pretty stiff penalty so far.
What is important is what he does with his second chance. Lets not pile on the kid before he even gets here.
April 28th, 2010 at 8:28 am
Eric — if Williams is a “reach” in the 4th round then what was Dexter Jackson in the second? Most teams rated Williams as a late first rounder based on talent, but dropped him or took him off the board for “character” issues. If I recall, most teams didn’t even have DJ on their board. Maybe its time to go see someone about all your pent up Holmes anger? 🙂
April 28th, 2010 at 8:36 am
LOL… I love it. All of it. It’s that time of year… let’s project out all the draft picks for their entire career! I remember last year Joe labeling Freeman “Bust-in-waiting,” then all the kid does is work his ass off and show the promise of a franchise quarterback. WELL OK THEN. So of course now we love Josh. But Raheem and Dominik are still dumbasses who are way over their heads. Enter Mike Williams…
The guy may be Keyshawn reborn. Then again, he may learn from his mistakes and be a tremendous WR for us. He may end up somewhere in between. Who knows? Give the guy an effing chance before we treat him like Clayhands.
@Jake the Snake “Really coach, our best quarterback is Duke’s point guard? See ya in the NFL asshole” LOL! LOVE IT!
April 28th, 2010 at 8:59 am
@jimbuc
Dexter Jackson was a reach and a disaster.
Thank you for proving my point.
Im not saying Williams is a bad pick, just that it was made based upon desperate circumstances. That often leads to a bad selection but of course we won’t know until the young man plays.
April 28th, 2010 at 9:02 am
Joe here,
BigMac – Relax, man. Joe’s giving the kid a clean slate, but Joe’s not going to ignore all this stuff. What’s more fun that a talented diva, double-talking receiver anyway? Joe laid off Williams’ comments with Shaun King on 1010AM. And trust Joe, he could have gotten quite a post out of that.
Frankly, Joe can’t believe the kid quit and won’t admit it. That’s freaking bizarre. But really, it doesn’t matter now one bit, neither do his great games at Syracuse. All he’s got to do is come in and try his best every day.
April 28th, 2010 at 9:19 am
No $hit Joe. Based on the 1010, you get my point.
Thx for cleaning up my spelling for me. LOL (missed one)
Joe, this still doesn’t change the Man Crush I have for you.
Can we at least get some new hot Cheerleader Pics posted.
April 28th, 2010 at 9:32 am
Joe here,
Only clean up the spelling because many company computers flag any page with profanity on it.
April 28th, 2010 at 3:33 pm
Didn’t Dom and the Bucs come down hard on Myron Rolle for leaving Florida State to become a Rhodes Scholar? Yet, it’s not that big a deal for Mike Williams to quit his team last year for no apparent productive reason?
April 28th, 2010 at 6:49 pm
@Eric
For the record, the only aspect where they reached on Mike Williams is that they ‘might’ have gotten him in Round 5 instead of Rd 4. Of course they traded that pick to move up for Benn because they were paranoid a random team would trade ahead of them for their guy…but that’s another story for another day.
Mike Williams put up 746 yards and 6 TD’s in 7 games for 2009. The guy had Greg Paulus throwing him the ball. Greg Paulus!
It’s been said that Williams is more explosive and a better athlete than Arrelious Benn. A first round talent. How far do you think a player like that will fall?
There were teams interested in the kid. You don’t go to 10 team visits if you’re not considered a commodity.
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/ravens/blog/2010/04/ravens_look_at_mike_williams.html
April 28th, 2010 at 8:45 pm
@Tom
Well some teams had him off their board completely.
I define areach as when you have a specific glaring need to fill, and you take a chance because of that. It may apply here. Of course sometimes reaches work, and the kid may light it up.
I think maybe easing off the expectations might be in order, its tough to break through in the first year, look at Green and Anthony.
April 29th, 2010 at 9:46 am
@ Eric: LOL… Did Green and Anthony EVER break through?