Bucs DL coach Kacy Rodgers.

Joe has been a big fan of defensive line coach Kacy Rodgers for a couple of reasons.

First, Joe respects the hell out of guys who were Bill Parcells’ assistants. Both Bucs defensive coordinator Todd Bowles and Rodgers worked with Parcells in a past life. Let’s just say if a guy doesn’t know how to coach up players, Parcells wouldn’t tolerate him on his staff.

Also, wherever Rodgers has coached, he has had a pass rush. Joe doesn’t believe in coincidences in the NFL.

So Joe ran across something pretty cool. Always in the hunt for information and intel, Joe subscribes (free) to Mike Tannenbaum’s newsletter. Tannenbaum, a former Jets and Dolphins general manager, and now a BSPN talking head, created the football thinktank “The 33rd Team.” The newsletter often has interesting tidbits like the following:

Chris Canty is a former Giants teammate of Bucs pass rusher Jason Pierre-Paul. The defensive tackle was originally drafted by the Cowboys (when Parcells ran the shop). Others in his Cowboys draft class were DeMarcus Ware, Marcus Spears, Jay Ratliff and Kevin Burnett.

So in this interview, JPP’s former teammate was asked to name his “mentor” when he first got into the league. He named Rodgers, his position coach with Dallas.

“Kacy Rodgers was really the driving force behind us being able to have so much success early in our pro careers, and a big reason why some of us were able to have sustained success in the NFL,” Canty said. “He taught us offensive line protections, he taught us formations, he taught us basic offensive systems. So being able to learn the game from that perspective, learning how to break down the tape – that’s really what allowed us to get our football IQ caught up to our physical abilities.”

Now Joe never thought about this previously, but the more Joe does think about this the more impressive it seems. By coaching a defensive lineman backwards, teaching him about offensive line calls, schemes, etc., then a defensive lineman would likely know how to better counter these calls and schemes.

Joe can only assume Rodgers is still coaching the same methods. No wonder the Bucs are so good against the run and can get after the quarterback.

So while we still celebrate the Bucs’ pass rush that got the franchise its second Super Bowl, Joe will lift a Big Storm Brewing beer this afternoon that the Bucs have a wise owl like Rodgers coaching up the defensive line.