Peter Schrager Talks To Joe

February 14th, 2013

peter schrager

Simply put, FoxSports.com senior NFL columnist Peter Schrager is a friend of Joe. He’s also a regular Sunday evenings on the “Fox News Weekend Report” with Harris Faulkner, and he hosts “Inside the NFL” on Showtime. Schrager has written very nice things about Joe on Twitter in the past, and Joe finally got to meet Schrager this month at Super Media Day where he and Joe talked all things Bucs.

JoeBucsFan: So, your impressions of Greg Schiano’s first season with the Bucs?

Peter Schrager: It felt good; I thought he was doing a good job and then they had that losing streak. That killed them but for a while, they were a team no one wanted to face. They were a scary team. Then they play Atlanta at home and lose and that was the game. That was it. That was the turning point.

Joe: Do you think, in a way, Mark Dominik is a trend-setter? Last year he nearly hired Chip Kelly and then got Schiano, another college coach, to sign on the dotted line. This offseason, it seemed going after college coaches was all the rage in the NFL. Prior to the Bucs hiring Schiano, it seemed hiring a college coach as a head coach was a taboo in the NFL.

Schrager: Yeah, when Dominik went after Chip Kelly, everyone was rolling their eyes, “Why are you going after Chip Kelly?” Now look. A year later, everyone wanted Chip Kelly. Mark Dominik is a good GM and he knows what he is doing. From [talking] to other people around the league, the Bucs kind of do their own thing. A lot of these GMs are all buddy-buddy but the Bucs do their own thing, they are kind of out there on their own island. And I think they are on their right path.

Joe: Gerald McCoy, first year he was healthy and he obviously showed the talent he possesses.

Schrager: Oh, yeah. Gerald McCoy is talented and you can make the argument he is better than Ndamukong Suh. Everyone, when they came out of school, said those are the two guys. And you can throw Geno Atkins of Cincinnati in there as your three tackles from that same draft class that are off to fantastic careers. McCoy, a Pro Bowl this year, a fantastic season. Again, that’s a credit to Dominik, a credit to the front office. A lot of people might say you don’t take a defensive tackle that high or that Brian Price in the second round was unnecessary. But [Dominik] was trying to beef up the interior line, and look, one is a star.

Joe: With Josh Freeman, it is kind of maddening from a Bucs perspective that at times, he looks like John Elway and other times, he looks like Todd Marinovich. If the Bucs could get more of the Elway-Freeman than the Marinovich-Freeman, it would sure help. Now Adam Schein took a lot of heat this past season when he said he trusted Christian Ponder more than Josh Freeman, and he turned out right because down the stretch, Ponder played his best and got the Vikings into the playoffs whereas Freeman, with a playoff berth in sight, vanished, he didn’t come through.

Schrager: I don’t know that Freeman hasn’t come through. There have been a lot of close losses with the Bucs in recent years. Obviously, last year was a wash but two years ago they were 10-6 and lost a heartbreaker at Atlanta. You could question the play calls at the end and going for it on the goal line and what have you. This year I think Freeman played fairly well and 12 weeks through the season, he was an All Pro, he was in the conversation. But things didn’t go well overall. I think there is enough – is he in the Top 10 group? I wouldn’t put him in that. But in the same breath, I would put him in the same group as a [Matthew] Stafford or a [Sam] Bradford.

Joe: Weren’t you big on Lavonte David prior to last year’s draft?

Schrager: Yeah, I was.

Joe: Well, you proved prophetic.

Schrager: Yeah, right, look at where I was with Russell Wilson. I didn’t think he would have an NFL career. But Lavonte David in college was so short and so small; he didn’t look like an NFL linebacker. But he was quick and he goes sideline to sideline. He is a fantastic linebacker. He may not be Derrick Brooks, but he’s pretty close.

7 Responses to “Peter Schrager Talks To Joe”

  1. 4everBucsFan Says:

    Schrager: “Lavonte David in college was so short and so small; he didn’t look like an NFL linebacker.”

    For all of you and including Joe, who are so concerned over D. Martin’s carries, take a close look at L. David. He’s an undersized sideline to sideline play every down tackling machine. At this rate, will he last 4 years? We don’t know, right? Nor does it even matter because we never think about that. After all he’s just a LB, right?

    But we’re always fascinated with the RB and how many times they get the ball. Like we’re more concerned about them because they are so fragile compared to our best LB hurling his body into players 25lb + his size.

    The funny thing is, if you ask any RB how many times they want the ball, they will say, as much as they can get it, especially behind this offensive line. …You can’t get to the HOF if you’ve only got pedestrian numbers..

    I say if Doug wants 25 carries a game, then try to get it to him. “saving his treads” takes one of our best players out of the game. You don’t see Lavonte sitting down on defensive plays.

  2. Joe Says:

    4ever:

    Not that simple. Linebackers aren’t getting beat up each play by half the team (or more). As Warrick Dunn once said, every play he’s getting hit, he’s getting the hardest hit from defenders they have, and unlike most players, when a ballcarrier touches the ball, he is getting hit from all angles, all sides, all areas of his body.

    Again, this is straight from Warrick Dunn’s lips.

    Just look at the average time served for running backs. In fact, just look at Cadillac Williams.

    Sure, Martin may be the next Walter Payton. He just as easily could be the next Cadillac. Why take such a huge gamble, expensive gamble of his candle being burned out shorter than it should/could be?

  3. PRBucFan Says:

    Dougie can handle the load, feed the beast.

    He’s pretty elusive/evasive aswell, good at preserving his body whilst in the chaos.

    DB was small for an LB and played with the same engine as LD and he lasted much longer than 4 years.

    LD is the real deal

  4. 4everBucsFan Says:

    Maybe we’ll draft GIO….

  5. Cannon Says:

    It’s easier to deliver a hit then to receive a hit.

  6. ksneil2000 Says:

    why does joe try refer to the bucs as a trendsetter for hiring schiano? The niners and the success of jim harbaugh is what started this trend

  7. Mike J Says:

    I heard an NFL offensive lineman once describe having picked up a fumble that he tried to advance. He went on & on about how unbelievable painful it was getting hit; he said he literally couldn’t conceive of how RBs do it over & over.
    That little HB from Oregon would make a great change-of- pace from Martin, & he is projected to go in the 4th or 5th round.