Robert Ayers Wants A “Hostile” Spring
May 16th, 2017
Robert Ayers has answers, fingers Mike Smith.
Robert Ayers might not know exactly what caused the Buccaneers’ widely publicized defensive communication issues last year, but he has clear thoughts on a fix.
In typical Ayers fashion, he says the answer/prevention lies in ramping up no-pads underwear football practices and injecting them with as much game-like intensity as possible.
Ayers explained to Buccaneers.com, the official house organ of your favorite football team.
“You’ve just got to overemphasize it. You’ve got to be, you know, almost over-exaggerate everything,” Ayers said. “Because we’re out here right now going through plays and stuff. You almost have to create an environment to where it’s hostile, to where it’s like that game-like environment, whether you’re on the road in Atlanta or Carolina or New Orleans or whatever. You gotta try to make it to where it’s tough. And you got to put a lot of pressure on yourself to where you can create a tough atmosphere. That’s what we’re trying to do. Just so far, you know, I think we’re a lot further than where we were last year, just because we’ve got Coach [Mike] Smith, which was huge for us. Bigger than any player that we signed or drafted, just having that same defense [is] bigger than anything.”
Man, there is so much to love about Ayers.
Dirk Koetter says he wants “a badass football team,” and Ayers is in the mix provides a huge head start. The man wants hostility — in May!
Joe’s not sure Ayers will get his wish. Good coaches know how to handle their teams and prevent burnout.
Yes, Joe has the ultimate faith in Dirk Koetter. As a rookie head coach, Koetter was rather gentle on players and very protective through training camp. Joe even thought last summer was a little soft, relatively speaking. But there were the Bucs on opening day in Atlanta — 100 percent ready and thrashing the eventual NFC champs.
In Dirk We Trust.
May 16th, 2017 at 12:50 pm
But very unready a week later in Arizona
May 16th, 2017 at 1:09 pm
I don’t understand why you’re so hype about Robert Ayers. He was the fourth best defensive lineman on the team last year. Honestly, I think he is more bark than bite and may not really be respected in the locker room as much as you think he is. I know he was injured for a lot of last season, but still, I’m kind of sick of hearing so much about him at this point.
May 16th, 2017 at 1:23 pm
Love this kind of attitude and 180 degrees better than 93 who couldn’t inspire tony robbins to get out of bed…..and it will be infectious from the offense who has high motor high energy WINNERS from Jameis to ME and Djax and now OJ, those are 4 proven big time winners that will help get the defense fired up and just keep 93 in arserve role
May 16th, 2017 at 1:27 pm
Just kidding. Ayers stats were pretty good for him not playing the full season. I just don’t remember as many impact plays from last season I guess.
May 16th, 2017 at 1:28 pm
When Ayers’ results on the field match his rhetoric I will pay more attention.
May 16th, 2017 at 1:33 pm
Anyone follow the Bucs on Snapchat, or Instagram ? I was wondering who’s number number #35 ” Bobby Mac ” it said under it.
May 16th, 2017 at 1:34 pm
1991, honestly our defense needs guys with a bark. So even if he was more bark than bite (which he wasn’t), I’d be ok with that balance of leadership. There was a real dropoff those games he was injured..
May 16th, 2017 at 1:35 pm
Ayers had lots of splash plays and when they were needed too. Best signing was Ayers too.
May 16th, 2017 at 1:40 pm
Stars brought that tough mentality to the D line
May 16th, 2017 at 1:46 pm
Ayers wants hostile
Licht wants players with the desire to win at all costs.
Koetter wants a Badass Team
Winston wants players that hate to lose.
Does not sound like there will be room for the soft career losers like Mccoy and Martin. Nice to see the team trying to win now. No more soft serv or giving up the booty at RayJay like the mccoy led defensive units of the past.
May 16th, 2017 at 2:01 pm
Nvm guys lol rewatched the snap, it was #36 Robert McClain
May 16th, 2017 at 2:03 pm
Rojas,
Robert McClain is #36.
May 16th, 2017 at 2:03 pm
hey Rojas, #35 in Javien Elliott. Unless it is a UDFA the wear the same number until cuts.
May 16th, 2017 at 2:13 pm
I definitely like his mentality and he was a good signing, I agree. I’d like to see more from him, and the D-line in general though.
May 16th, 2017 at 2:18 pm
Love Ayers and how can one not be happy he is on our team? Gotta have a few GOGS out there and with him, Kwon, and rookie Evans, we have at least one soldier on all three lines of defense. What kind of idiots are out there who are not enthused by the mentality that Auers brings to this team. Guess some of you out there will never be satisfied..GO BUCS !!! STICK CARRIERS UNITE !!
May 16th, 2017 at 2:25 pm
DOGS NOT GOGS ^^
May 16th, 2017 at 2:33 pm
Id have to agree with some of the posters here.
I like Ayers mentality; however, he talks like he has the game of JJ Watt.
Ayers, at some point you need to let your game dictate your talk. You want a nasty team…blah blah blah…how about you show up and earn your paycheck on the field and not with the reporters.
Gerald…Kwon…David…Grimes…you boys have earned the right to talk
May 16th, 2017 at 2:33 pm
@tmax- A lot of good Ayers’ hostility was in relation to his numbers! Did Ayers’ hostility win games? I must’ve missed something.
I don’t disagree that we need the DAWGS. I get it. We need production though, not words. This area continues to be ‘under construction’. Pointing to ONE guy for the woes of this team continues to be misplaced though tmax.
May 16th, 2017 at 2:39 pm
Bucsfanman
well its not like the choirboys were producing before he got here. Give me the dawgs at least it’s real and not some soft arse farce.
production is key and timing of that production is also key. If you are all tuckered out by halftime with sore knees, bad biceps, bad shoulders, sore vag and a paper cut then production can be misleading and less impactfull.
May 16th, 2017 at 2:47 pm
“sore knees, bad biceps, bad shoulders,…”
I thought you were talking about me until you got to the sore vag part!!!!
The TEAM has not produced as a whole for a very long time. That’s the point I’m making. Yes, GMC has been on those rosters but so have numerous other under-achievers that get free passes from you.
May 16th, 2017 at 3:21 pm
Tmax, Give the McCoy bashing a rest, Ayers may have a tough mentality but can’t hold McCoys jock strap on the field. I think the people who understand football are happy to have McCoy on this team.
May 16th, 2017 at 3:54 pm
Skipper
sure everyone is happy to have the ice cream man on the team until it’s a big game and he disappears as usual. great first half window dressing
May 16th, 2017 at 4:51 pm
Ah Maxi, leader of the loser posters culture. But even you say, “Great first half”. Um, doesn’t that half count? Last time I checked there were two halves to a game. And as I’ve pointed out before, Sapp’s “4th quarter impact numbers” are very similar to GMC’s. Except, well, he made meaner faces while doing it. now if you want to talk about someone, Ayers has been a career underachiever. As someone said above he talks like he’s JJ Watt. He’s not. Talks like Tarzan plays like an oft injured career underachiever (he too was a 1st round draft choice). GMC on the other hand has been a career achiever. It’s not his fault that he had the bad luck to be drafted by an awful football team, a team that he is 1/22 of (1/53rd to be honest).
May 16th, 2017 at 5:23 pm
@Dusthty Rhothdes
LOL on the tony robbins ref. Gordon Solie is smiling somewhere….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWSikqdP_vM
May 16th, 2017 at 5:28 pm
@The Bucs Narcisist 4
On July 12th 2015 Locked in said…. oh wait I must have lost my personal prophetic archive
May 16th, 2017 at 5:55 pm
Give it up 007. You will never convince the dreamers about McCoy. They live in dream Land d not reality.
You see, the dreamers don’t seem to understand that Warren Sapp is a once in a lifetime player. In their dreams they think it is easy to acquire HOF players.
So when Reginald Roundtree reported on action news that McCoy could be the 2nd coming of Sapp the dreamers(before ever seeing McCoy play a single down) assumed he would be……..assumed he had to be. The dreamers just knew that the franchise was in good hands with a new Sapp type player here. The dreamers were happy as clams as they went to bed each night knowing that McCoy would take over the franchise.
The dreamers knew that McCoy would demand accountability from every man on the team. The dreamers knew that McCoy would spark a fire under one of our noname bench players and turn them into a HOF player, just like Sapp did with Lynch. The dreamers had visions of McCoy being the best player on the field at all times and dominating games and hurting QBs.
The dreamers dreamed so much about McCoy they were sure he was on his way to taking the franchise on his back and defeating triple teams with ease and leading us to the Super Bowl.
Again mind you they thought all this before they ever even saw Gerald play.
Now I don’t fully understand the minds of dreamers so I can’t really explain their hatred. My guess is that when the dreamers realized he was never going to be as good as Sapp that they determined that since what they fully believed was true wasn’t……..that means the direct opposite must be true. This is their new dream, or nightmare if you will. The dreamers are now haunted by the anti-Sapp.
The dreamers are entertainment though in a sick type of way. Just laugh at them and make fun of them. The dreamers still believe in unicorns and pixiedust. They probably wear their lucky brown stained #99 whity tightys on gamedays and they poke forks in their #93 anti-Sapp voodoo doll.
May 16th, 2017 at 6:21 pm
Ayers is a good player. He was quite effective when healthy last year. And as already noted – our Dline was much worse when Ayers was not in the lineup.
Just need him to stay healthy which is tough to do in the trenches of the NFL at his age and mileage. The exact same can be said of McDonald who has been even more injury prone.
Hopefully we can keep the DLine players healthy this year.
The rotation of Ayers, McCoy, Baker, Spence, Gholston, McDonald and Jac Smith is quite formidable if we can keep all of them healthy for 19 or 20 games + pre-season. What are the odds of that? Like 2.8%?? LOL
May 16th, 2017 at 7:31 pm
Love his talk, but he wasn’t real healthy last year and his health may be going. Warren Sapp can still talk, too. Hope he stays healthy this year. No arguments better than when he is there. Should have drafted DeMarcus Walker @ pick #50.
May 16th, 2017 at 8:12 pm
I think the days of being Tennessee ready are long gone
May 16th, 2017 at 8:18 pm
I’m hearing some nasty ‘tude emanating from One Buc Palace…
May 16th, 2017 at 9:51 pm
Oh. And Ayers showed up big in games? No he never really did. Nor did he have any game saving plays or show up in the 4th quarter. Put up or shut up. Talk is usually cheap. But in this case it costs a lot and posters can talk this much crap and not produce.
May 16th, 2017 at 11:48 pm
Dues will be paid this Tuesday night at the armory in Tampa.
May 17th, 2017 at 12:57 am
JimmyJack..I’m you’re huckleberry.
You’re dreaming yourself. 🙂
May 17th, 2017 at 1:02 am
Sapp has NOTHING to do with it.
May 17th, 2017 at 4:48 pm
JJ….John Lynch, noname bench player….your high as fh*k dude….ignorant reference in a otherwise great post…just sayin