He’s Back!
January 22nd, 2021
Activated
For those who are bummed that furniture-tossing, bicycle-throwing Bucs wide receiver won’t play against the Packers, get a load of this:
Brute nose tackle Vita Vea was just activated by the Bucs this afternoon. Joe will guess the Bucs didn’t do that just so he can sit at home and watch the NFC Championship game on his big screen.
Joe wrote about Bucco Bruce Arians’ goal of limiting Vea to 20 snaps on Sunday. The following is Joe’s guess:
The Bucs are already strong against the run without Vea. However, the Bucs’ pass rush has been too invisible the last five games with just one sack total from Jason Pierre-Paul, NFL sack king Shaq Barrett and Ndamukong Suh. The very last thing the Bucs need or want is for Aaron Rodgers to throw from a pocket fully uncontested.
So Joe is guessing Vea plays primarily on passing downs in an effort (desperate?) to try to help Shaq and JPP get an extra step to get to Rodgers.
January 22nd, 2021 at 1:55 pm
Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
January 22nd, 2021 at 2:02 pm
YES SIR!!!!!!
GO BUCS!!!!!
January 22nd, 2021 at 2:09 pm
Time for Shaq to earn that massive extension in the form of pressures and sacks. Can’t be paid like a blue chipper when you’re invisible the last 5 or so games.
January 22nd, 2021 at 2:10 pm
Buccaneers allowed 2.7 yards per carry with Vea
3.9 without.
The Bucs pass rush had a 33.9% pressure rate with Vea
26.6% without.
Choose those 20 plays wisely. He is a beast in the middle that most stats don’t show. He takes up a guard and the center every play
January 22nd, 2021 at 2:11 pm
If he’s healthy, don’t limit him to 20 snaps. He doesn’t need to cover kicks, he needs to eat space and push the pocket.
January 22nd, 2021 at 2:14 pm
Yessir! I’ll take VV playing over AB. Bucs are deep at WR.
January 22nd, 2021 at 2:14 pm
LOL, now the Packers must game plan for a 350 lb Manbeast!
January 22nd, 2021 at 2:16 pm
Bucs are going to win the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. Very excited to see Vita play in this game. As Ray Lewis liked to say, “Any dogs in the house?”
January 22nd, 2021 at 2:18 pm
AB will be miss so stop with that! This great news to get Vea back he has been miss and is need!!
January 22nd, 2021 at 2:18 pm
I am excited for this! Vea is a beast. I just am curious of what kind of football shape he could be in. I guess we will find out Sunday.
January 22nd, 2021 at 2:31 pm
hey joe, roughly how many plays a game did he play before the injury? its not like he was on the field for every snap anyways, so if he plays 20 snaps, thats prolly about half of what he normally plays anyways, right?
January 22nd, 2021 at 2:39 pm
Perfect timing, welcome back V2!
January 22nd, 2021 at 2:45 pm
Joe so excited to announce v coming back spelled Antonio brown wrong lol go vita and go Bucs!
January 22nd, 2021 at 2:46 pm
In the games he played he averaged 44.6 snaps per game.
January 22nd, 2021 at 2:52 pm
Can’t wait to see him pushing O lineman into Roger’s lap
January 22nd, 2021 at 3:04 pm
so he’ll be playing about half, if hes actually limited to 20. if he’s effective, im guessing he will play closer to 30 or more
January 22nd, 2021 at 3:06 pm
I wonder if he starts or comes off the bench?
I’d bring him off the bench for specific situations.
January 22nd, 2021 at 3:08 pm
Good news Bucs fans. That dirtbag retired so Ian Beckles is actually listenable on 620.
Talking about VitV the other day and said how big a deal it is when you can have a solid rotation. Allowing everybody to play that much tougher and stronger in a more limited role. Makes a lot of sense and Ill take a former linemans word for it.
Also heard McClendon(spelling) is healthy too. McClendon, Vita, Suh, Gholston and Taco sounds like a dang fine rotation to me…….Im looking for Gholston here. He has been really really good the past 2 games, just no spash plays. Maybe that changes Sunday!!!
GO BUCS!!!!
January 22nd, 2021 at 3:12 pm
i think that this means that we undeniably have an advantage in the trenches on both sides of the ball now. if it is windy and snowy, that only increases that advantage. its amazing how all the talking heads seem to think it a no brainer green bay win… we’re better than them at every level, except maybe qb and rb, and thats a minimal difference. i really think that we are the better team!
January 22nd, 2021 at 3:13 pm
Hell yes!
January 22nd, 2021 at 3:15 pm
20 seems like a rough estimate. My guess is if he is holding up OK later in the game and it’s close, he’ll be in there. At the very least, he will take up a bunch of attention in the middle to free up our pass rushers to go 1×1.
Rodgers splits between clean pockets vs. pressure are staggering. Earlier this year, he was completing 84% of his passes in clean pockets vs. 35% under pressure.
January 22nd, 2021 at 3:45 pm
Oh man! My favorite player is coming back! It’s a small miracle. Nobody beats VV. He is the straw that stirs the drink
January 22nd, 2021 at 3:51 pm
This us play offs, you play until you can’t. 20 snaps what is BA saving him for?
January 22nd, 2021 at 5:52 pm
Not sure. Not at a place now where can easily pull that up.
Remember Vea has had two soft practices and no games since October. He cannot possibly be in shape to play 40 snaps without risking a real bad injury.
January 22nd, 2021 at 6:20 pm
Good news. I hope they only use him as absolutely needed in this game. We’ll need him for the next game!
January 22nd, 2021 at 6:27 pm
I way bummed when he went down. The forecast called for a playoff picture, to get him back in a game this season. OK, just got out of the Way-back Machine; am now in the present. That’s way past cool! 🙂
January 22nd, 2021 at 6:41 pm
Joe, I was thinking he was gonna play on first downs to stop the run and keep them in second and long
January 22nd, 2021 at 7:21 pm
Atlbuc.
I was thinking that also, along with very short yardage situations until I saw these stats
–
Buccaneers allowed 2.7 yards per carry with Vea
3.9 without.
The Bucs pass rush had a 33.9% pressure rate with Vea
26.6% without.
He has a big impact taking a guard and the center up the middle in the pass rush.
Basically if he’s going to play 1/3 of the defensive snaps, they need to choose wisely
January 22nd, 2021 at 7:49 pm
Throwing downs? That would be 55 snaps LOL
January 22nd, 2021 at 8:49 pm
Hoping off IR straight into the championship game, you know he is going to be hungry
January 23rd, 2021 at 12:36 am
VV will be used like it is the last game of the season and the number of reps will be as many as the team needs. The only thing limiting his snaps will be the score board!