Rave Rookie Reviews
September 16th, 2021
The Bucs’ young linebackers drew rave reviews.
Special teams saved opening day, and Joe’s not talking about the miserable Cowboys kicker.
The Bucs won fourth down, looking decent in the return game with Jaydon Mickens and doing a great job covering kicks and punts, with a helluva night by the punter thrown in.
Bucco Bruce Arians is extra proud. First, he set out this offseason to repair his special teams. Second, a bunch of rookies got the job done.
“Special teams won that game for us,” Arians told SiriusXM NFL Radio yesterday. “And our young linebackers, all our young guys, did a heck of a job winning their 1-on-1s and, you know, pinning them deep all the time. It was an awesome job by our special teams.”
Look at the special teams snap counts and you’ll see rookie linebacker K.J. Britt (fifth-round pick) and rookie LB Grant Stuard (seventh-rounder and pictured above) getting a ton of work, as well as first-round pick Joe Tryon, and third-year LB Anthony Nelson.
This bodes very well for the Bucs’ special teams. Those young core players should only improve.
September 16th, 2021 at 3:18 pm
Britt definitely shows up on tape on ST! Keep it up young fella!
September 16th, 2021 at 3:31 pm
Tryon should not be on special teams
September 16th, 2021 at 3:39 pm
That’s Mr. NFC Special Teams Player of the Week – Bradley Pinion
September 16th, 2021 at 3:55 pm
So our Special Teams wins the game for us where we commit 4 TO’s, 11 penalties for over a 100 yards, give up huge yardage totals and Mickens’s contributions in this article only get the superlative “decent”?!
On a night where Mick contributed heavily to the unit that won us the game and one of the better ST’s performances as a whole across the entire league Wk 1, he only gets a “decent”….tough crowd
p.s. not to mention Mick is ranked 3rd in the League in KO returns and 7th in punt returns (w/ a big one being called back)
p.s.s. Not to mention Mick also played pretty well as a Gunner too (which he didn’t even know he was gonna play until like Game Day, or had been practicing much there in his own words)
I think Mick deserves a little more than a decent for his Wk 1 performance
Agree w/ “helluva” night for Pinion and kick coverage was indeed pretty good
September 16th, 2021 at 9:12 pm
@JGhotier: No doubt about it, JM85 is trending up!
September 16th, 2021 at 9:17 pm
JG. tl;dr
September 16th, 2021 at 9:22 pm
Bojim
Are we supposed to know what that means? LOL
September 16th, 2021 at 9:25 pm
The Bucs have 2 “Mr Irrelevant “ players on the team ..is that a record?
September 17th, 2021 at 12:42 am
Last I checked “Mick’ was a racist perjorative for an Irishman. Now I’m certain there are some black people from the Emerald Isles, but I’ve not met one. Point is, we live in toxic ‘woke’ times, and ‘Mick’ is a poor choice of words. If you want to heap praise, or affection on a player show some uncommon sense and call him by his given name.
LFG Bucs!
September 17th, 2021 at 4:46 am
As a Mick myself. A Maguire and a McDermott.
I have no issue reclaiming the word “Mick” with pride.
Tom Brady is a Mick. So am I.
For me?
Jaydon Mickens nickname should be “Feisty Mickens.”
He is Feisty. By definition, “a person who is relatively small, determined, and courageous.”
Fiesty Mickens has become my favorite player on the team.
Go Bucs!
September 17th, 2021 at 5:01 am
JimBuc2,
Almost all NFL players have nicknames from fans and Mick (Mickens) is what BA and the team call him
September 17th, 2021 at 7:09 am
Im a full “Mick” and I did not even pick up on that. I guess that is what the PC crowd does, they go looking for something thats not really there – except to them. I am pretty sure that is Micken’s nickname; I believe I heard BA call him that.
Maybe we should fire BA… yea, that seems about right… And about that mascot leprechaun…
September 17th, 2021 at 7:31 pm
Shut up with the “woke” crap. This is football dammit. Take yo soft , offended over everything to the house. We rough up in heah.We tough up in heah and we cuss and fuss up in heah. We got no truck wid “woke”. Betta wake yo butt up and talk football. You wanna be politically correct run fo office.
September 18th, 2021 at 10:58 pm
There is no keeping politics out of football now. It’s wrote All Over the field and the back of players helmets. Unfortunately politics is a part of football now like it or not