Can Ayers Break The Drought?
March 16th, 2016
Drought-breaker?
Yes, the contract details for new Bucs defensive end Robert Ayers were released. Joe had them and you can read all about them here.
What Joe is much more concerned with is if Ayers will continue a shameful tradition — or break the drought of double-digit sacks.
Consider the proud Buccaneers lineage of defensive ends after Simeon Rice left the club 10 years ago: names like Gaines Adams, Stylez White, sackless Kyle Moore, Da’Quan Bowers, Adrian Clayborn, Daniel Te’o Nesheim, Ghost Johnson and sackless George Johnson. (Boy, that list is enough to make you toss your Wheaties on your desk, isn’t it?)
Just read those names again and think of the following: Someone, allegedly with a sober mind, if you can imagine, concluded Michael Bennett should be allowed to walk out of the building for no good reason! Whoever that person is (Joe has an idea but cannot confirm), Team Glazer should have first drug-tested the guy and then deactivated his access card to One Buc Palace.
Ayers had his best season (by far) with 9 1/2 sacks last year. Can Ayers finally break the double-digit sack drought, or will Ayers’ name be added to the Scroll of Shame above?
March 16th, 2016 at 8:38 am
Highly doubtful. But i think he’ll be decent
March 16th, 2016 at 8:39 am
It’s hard to get sacks when your secondary allowed a 70% completion rate.
Super soft coverage, no jamming at the line, absolute predictability and an inside seam as wide as Rosie O’Donell’s lumpy ass screams incompetence.
We’ll be better this year.
March 16th, 2016 at 8:41 am
No, he isn’t a 10 sack guy. He is a very good player and should get at least 8. Throw in 8 + for Smith and 10 + for McCoy plus whatever others and the rookie can get…. They should be much better off.
March 16th, 2016 at 8:42 am
With some competent man press, we’ll see a drastic increase in coverage sacks.
QB pressures and knockdowns too.
March 16th, 2016 at 8:42 am
Per Derrick Brooks, teams don’t let good players walk away……I think the Joe(s) are putting their expectations too high for this guy.
Listen to Derrick Brooks, the Godfather knows best.
March 16th, 2016 at 8:47 am
Tom, Love DB55 but that’s an outdated and utopian view.
Cap hell is hell. Ask the Broncos, Miami and the Rams. Sometimes you just can’t afford everybody.
March 16th, 2016 at 8:55 am
It is always nice to speculate what might have been. Bennett’s best year here was 9 sacks. The rest were 1,1,and 4. Not until he got with a real defense did he start to put up high sacks on a regular basis. 8.5,7 and finally 10.
Bennett has only been double digits once. But he disrupts and is effective.
If Coach Smith can get this defense even close to Seattle, then all Ayers has to do is put up number like Bennett and be effective. Double digits are not a big deal.
March 16th, 2016 at 9:01 am
I’m with @biff barker on this one.
With an improve secondary, we should see more sacks. With a more aggressive state of mind, we should see more sacks.
So with perhaps some more addition in the draft, opponents QBs should go down a bit more often this season a close range o
March 16th, 2016 at 9:02 am
Agreed about the secondary.
Licht seems to know this also.
Don’t be surprised if the Bucs work harder to fix the secondary than they do to fix the DE position.
– Wise man has spoken
March 16th, 2016 at 9:09 am
That “someone” was your boy – Dom the “rockstar”.
Unless you want to claim he was just doing what he was told which means he was a castrated General Manager….
March 16th, 2016 at 9:14 am
If Joe thinks, or starts to expect that Ayers is going to hit double digit sacks, then Joe does not know what Ayers was signed for!! The defensive free-agents are stop gaps and 1-yearers until the soon to be drafted rookies break into the line up!!! If you think that these are solutions you will only get upset and disappointed this season!!!!!!
As far who let Micheal Bennett walk away, if Joe answer is not Mark Dominik and the Medical Staff then your answer is wrong!!!!
But at this point I would not want either of the Bennett brothers on my team!!! There is not a contract that they did not like and B!+@& about it during every offseason!!!!
March 16th, 2016 at 9:23 am
Howard, if BPA is a CB or S, the Bucs will jump. Headfirst.
Grimes and Ayers are two year players at best.
March 16th, 2016 at 9:36 am
He will dominate in the preseason but shoulder will fall apart by week 2.
March 16th, 2016 at 10:12 am
I’m less concerned about sacks than I am about QB pressures & knock-downs. Sacks are nice, but the other two can result in turnovers and bad passes due to happy feet.
Significantly reducing the time a QB stands in the pocket is more important than just sacks.
March 16th, 2016 at 10:20 am
I will maintain the Bucs (under Mike Smith) will go more for the up the gut pressure with a rotation of McCoy, Spence, McDonald, Gholston, and maybe Rankins/Buckner.
March 16th, 2016 at 10:24 am
@Cobraboy you a right, everyone overlooks pressures and patdowns, which both usually result in an incompletion. I’m thinking Ayers will be just fine but Jax Smith is the man who is gonna bust out with a double digit sack season. I definitely see us drafting a DE also but Smith is the man to watch this year.
March 16th, 2016 at 10:27 am
Doubt it, but he’ll prob get 8 or 9.
What matters more is pressure. Consistent pressure in the form of sacks, hits, hurries, and pressures throughout the whole game is what we need.
March 16th, 2016 at 11:19 am
@Biff Barker……..Derrick Brooks discussed what you have said….and he said if they want you, they find a way to keep you……
March 16th, 2016 at 1:16 pm
“Joe has an idea but cannot confirm”
I’ll tell you again who let Michael Bennett walk, It was YOUR ROCK STAR JOE. Your ROCK STAR had control of the roster, Your ROCK STAR Drafted Daquan Bowers, Your Rock Star pulled a Lovie and tried to throw use inuendo to throw Schiano under the bus when faced with the question over Bennett but was too much of a (Miko said it best on her’s and Brent’s video) !@#sy to come out and man up. Instead he hides under how he picked Bennett up off Seattle’s discard pile, Yet Miko said it best about GM’s and their draft picks already DIDN’T SHE JOE?? There’s your ROCK STAR REVELATION, try not to cry over it.
March 16th, 2016 at 1:31 pm
I think he’ll be lucky to get 4-5 sacks.
But it may not matter if we pick up two studs in the draft.
So far as I’m concerned…Right Tackle and Defensive Ends are the most important positions to pick right in the draft. If only three picks are good picks, those are the ones that need to be.
Get them right, and the secondary even becomes better.
March 16th, 2016 at 1:37 pm
@buc4life1979
No GM is perfect. Mark Dominick had so pretty blunt weak areas, but so does Jason Licht.
Dominick was horrible at talent evaluation, both in free agency and the draft. But he excelled in negotiations and cap/contract management.
Jason Licht is horrible at spotting free agent veteran talent and negotiating trades, but he excels at young talent (the draft and undrafted) and cap management.
No one is perfect.
March 16th, 2016 at 2:02 pm
Lol Bonzai grading light hard on those Lovie smith acquisitions still.
Dude isn’t perfect but to act like he has been a complete failure at everything outside of the draft is way over the top. Need I remind you, beyond the fact that Lovie had total personnel control:
1. Lovie Smith was the one who called out the offensive line right after he was hired = his moves to let 2 starters walk forcing Light to gamble on Collins and Mankins
2. Lovie Smith was the one with a defensive scheme that supposedly had no use for lock down man corner = letting Revis go and prompting the signing of Verner and Michael Johnson
3. Lovie Smith was the one who named Josh McCown the starting QB before any competition took place = Mccown was hand selected by Lovie
4. Mike Jenkins / Tim Jennings were only brought here because of Lovie and were the worst FA acquisitions of the last couple years
Now your flip side argument is that Lovie should get credit for the drafts but we all know that Lovie Smith did not direct 2 offensive drafts. Nothing in his NFL history supports it so let that go
March 16th, 2016 at 2:04 pm
Yes, it is about getting pressures but more than anything else it should be about how to maximize a players performance. Gerold McCoy is a perfect example. He just turned 28. Which means his best football is right now and we only have a two to three year window before he starts to decline. Finding a way to eliminate or reduce the double teams against McCoy starts with the tackle opposite him. We need an explosive DE on his side. On passing downs we can line up Robert Ayers as a DE on the opposite side or in the interior. This is why we need to draft Noah Spence or Leonard Floyd to fill the DE position next to McCoy. Next draft Hassan Ridgeway in the third round. There would be pressure coming from all of the defensive front. This could give Ayers and GMC a shot at double digit sacks this year.
Robert Ayers – Hassan Ridgeway – Gerold McCoy – Leonard Floyd.
March 16th, 2016 at 2:33 pm
Ayers is who his sacks says he is. He will not get double digit sacks here he is not that guy.
March 16th, 2016 at 3:15 pm
8 sacks would be nice….10 would be great…GO BUCS!!!
March 16th, 2016 at 4:05 pm
Ayers signed his “retirement” contract and moved to Florida, he’s not going to be a factor in 2016 or beyond. He may get 2 or 3 sacks by falling on someone while getting pancaked.
March 16th, 2016 at 4:06 pm
Quit dancing around the facts joe – Schiano and Dominik wanted to get a deal done with Bennett. The Glazer Brozos were the ones who pulled the plug on contract talks with the only respectable edge rusher we’ve had since Simeon Rice
March 16th, 2016 at 4:21 pm
I wish Joe would quit with these meaningless stats like double digit sacks. Remember, if Joe had had his way two years ago, the Bucs would have been forced to release Johnny Football last week. Instead the Browns fired him and the Bucs got Jameis Winston in last year’s draft.
What matters is total team sacks and 2015’s playoff teams averaged 43.5 per team, while the Bucs racked up just 38 or about five sacks off the pace. Now, it doesn’t matter if we drop the QB by having four DL with 11 sacks each or an eight-man DL rotation where four guys get five each and four guys get six each we still get a playoff caliber of sacks.
Let’s remember football is the ultimate team sport. For example without a center that knows how and when to snap the ball, nothing else happens. So let’s not worry about one guy getting double digit sacks, but let’s worry about the Bucs getting a playoff caliber number of sacks.
March 16th, 2016 at 5:05 pm
I don’t care how many sacks he gets or doesn’t get. I say the same for everyone else on the defense. What I care about is disruption.
I want to see the offensive line moving backward on run plays with defenders threating to take the handoff and I want to see the pocket collapsing on every side on pass plays. I want to see tackles for loss. I want to see quarterback hurries. I want to see quarterbacks having to pick themselves up off the turf, play after play. I want se offensive plays where the timing is so hosed that they can’t function.
If they can do that, play after play, week after week, I don’t care if no one notches a sack all year.
March 16th, 2016 at 5:22 pm
I don’t care how many sacks he gets or doesn’t get. I say the same for everyone else on the defense. What I care about is disruption.
I want to see the offensive line moving backward on run plays with defenders threating to take the handoff and I want to see the pocket collapsing on every side on pass plays. I want to see tackles for loss. I want to see quarterback hurries. I want to see quarterbacks having to pick themselves up off the turf, play after play. I want se offensive plays where the timing is so hosed that they can’t function.
If they can do that, play after play, week after week, I don’t care if no one notches a sack all year.
March 16th, 2016 at 6:03 pm
The Giants hardly played this guy before last season. That is why his stats were so low before last season..
March 16th, 2016 at 9:39 pm
No