The Wide Receiver Black Hole
August 31st, 2016
Russell Shepard skies for a grab Wednesday. (Photo courtesy of Buccaneers.com.)
We all know how the lack of depth at wide receiver is awful. After this game, it is as jumbled as ever.
Bernard Reedy had a touchdown reception but had ball control issues so bad they made Mike Evans’ K-Y issues look like Fred Biletnikoff.
Kenny Bell caught a pass and hung onto the ball for dear life and had no intention of YAC because his catches are so rare. How rare? A Bell catch is like a baseball player getting his first major league hit. He gets to keep the ball.
Evan Spencer had a moment or two as did Russell Shepard. So did Freddie Martino with his six catches. But did any of these guys impress Bucs fans, or more importantly AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht?
Ronde Barber, part of the broadcast crew for WFLA-TV Channel 8, said before the game that the receivers after Rudy Humphries have been so nondescript in preseason, this game would provide a chance for someone to step up and secure a position.
Joe isn’t sure any of these guys secured anything but doubt for where they will collect a check next week.
The fact that Ryan Smith, who has a bum hand, was fielding kicks in the second half is not much of a vote of confidence for Bell or Reedy being kept as a kick return specialist.
August 31st, 2016 at 11:40 pm
Time to look else where for a reciever, or maybe bring in a vet.
August 31st, 2016 at 11:46 pm
Trade Glennon for Desean Jackson. Maybe they need a backup?
August 31st, 2016 at 11:48 pm
Why Licht hasn’t signed more depth at WR is a mystery. You have a future HOF (hopefully) in JW3 and can’t supply him with the best possible targets. Guess some may say well he threw for for 4K yards last year to a mediocre receiving corp, but can you imagine what he could do with some speed and depth at WR?
August 31st, 2016 at 11:49 pm
James Jones? I think he proved he can still be effective in a limited role but has the ability to step up as a replacement for one of the outside wide outs if they have to miss some time (a few weeks) I’m not sure he could do it long term.
September 1st, 2016 at 12:14 am
As much as I like Jones too, you can’t bring on another veteran receiver.
September 1st, 2016 at 1:12 am
Why not another veteran receiver. Hump me are young and we def draft a young guy next year so there’s 3 young receivers. What does it matter? You can’t develop that motley crew we have. If you wanna try put them on ps..
September 1st, 2016 at 4:33 am
The sky really isn’t falling,; most teams are probably envious of what the Bucs have in terms of our ability to move the ball through the air (and on the ground for that matter). For starters, we have Jameis throwing the ball, and he’s improving steadily. Both VJax and ME13 present unique threats obviously, but will do well to catch 55-60% of the balls thrown to them. Hump should do better than that based on what we saw last year, probably in the 70% range. Then we have several TEs who are pretty good receivers, Brate and ASJ especially. Add in Martin and Sims, both of whom should be in the 70% range, and it’s not like Jameis is without weapons.
September 1st, 2016 at 7:58 am
Jason better be studying film on the other 31 teams, there are other teams out there that are rich with receivers, if you want to sniff the playoffs, we need something else than what we have, sad to say Kenny Bell is not a natural receiver and we actually missed Dontae Dye last night
September 1st, 2016 at 8:44 am
U knows it’s pretty bad when u wish u had D.Dye back as a receiver. Lol Licht has to sign another WR after last night’s drop fest. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen worst depth at WR like it is now. We have great starters but we all know that injury are always gonna happen and u have to be prepared for them. Just like at LB this year I’d in trouble so as a starter go’s down. Our depth at LB is prob worst in my eyes. I have trust in Licht that he will find sum talent on the waiver wire tho.
September 1st, 2016 at 10:02 am
I thought the whole back-up defensive line played poorly, and the back-up linebackers looked like they were non existent. I do hope that Licht is really going through the waiver wires for linebackers and defensive linemen. If not, the Bucs are going to be in trouble if a starter gets injured.
September 1st, 2016 at 10:14 am
Out of what I seen last night, I would say we have to keep Martino as our #5 and hope/pray for a decent FA pickup. I feel good about our top 4 WR plus Murphy coming back in week 6, but we are in deep shizzz if VJAX or Evans goes down.
September 1st, 2016 at 10:21 am
For all the MG8 haters. How can a backup QB shine when he has no one to catch the damn ball? Give the guy a break.
September 1st, 2016 at 11:19 am
@Defense Rules. That’s kind of the point. I think you’re a bit fanboy on our TEs, but we did the hard part at receiver. We got the beast #1 and a quality #2. Jason caught his dick out on the easy part. Trying, imo, to be cute. No reason to keep slow to heal Murphy and let a number of proven vets sign nothing contracts. Jason didn’t hedge his bet there and now we are dumpster diving at least 1 WR for our opening day active roster. So our #3 gets witness protected when we line him up outside and our #4 is a teams gunner. Our #5? Waiting for that dude to get cut from somewhere.