Special Teams Help Arrives In Tavierre Thomas
March 19th, 2024
Fans may remember Thomas for blocking a Bucs field goal attempt in preseason.
A former Baker Mayfield teammate in Cleveland has arrived in Tampa.
Joe’s referring to the Bucs signing cornerback/special teams ace Tavierre Thomas in free agency. Those hoarse from screaming for Dee Delaney to have competition can finally calm down.
Thomas was a Browns rookie along with Mayfield in 2018, so Joe has to think Thomas comes Mayfield approved to Tampa Bay. He played the past few seasons for Houston.
Thomas, 28, made some starts there but struggled to stay healthy, though Joe will give Thomas credit for surviving the Lovie Smith experience.
The slot corner flirted with the Lions before signing in Tampa. Undrafted out of Ferris State in Michigan, Thomas is quite a success story for lasting into his seventh NFL season.
And yes, Joe was joking about Delaney, who currently is an unsigned free agent.
March 19th, 2024 at 12:12 pm
He blocks kicks? Will the Bucs actually try to do that once in awhile? Or even once?
March 19th, 2024 at 12:16 pm
Solid depth and game day contributor in a variety of roles, every team needs them, good teams have good ones.
March 19th, 2024 at 12:22 pm
Special teams got better when Keith Armstrong retired.
March 19th, 2024 at 12:26 pm
Did we signed a DE?
March 19th, 2024 at 12:32 pm
Poor kid. Can you imagine getting drafted by a team that went 0-16 the year before?
Hard to believe, 2 years after he was drafted, they were winning playoff Games.
Baker Mayfield Magic.
March 19th, 2024 at 12:36 pm
Nobody wants to play with Baker….. just ask the guys on here.
March 19th, 2024 at 12:40 pm
The Bucs did a solid job at bolstering two huge areas of need this off-season – interior offensive line (2) signings and defensive backs (3) signings.
The rest will be addressed with our draft picks and maybe another cheap free agent signing or two after the draft.
March 19th, 2024 at 12:46 pm
Maybe I missed something here,….Why would Mayfield approve or disapprove a CB who plays on special teams?
I like BM, I am not a hater, but I would find laughable if The Bucs should ask him…….
March 19th, 2024 at 12:50 pm
I’m curious as to why they haven’t resigned Delaney. And wasn’t it you Joe, that mentioned resigning him in an article about a month ago?
Delaney has definitely been a serviceable back for us and has done his part nicely for a back up so I’m definitely wondering why not. Maybe he’s asking for too much money?
March 19th, 2024 at 12:56 pm
@ Obvious
“Delaney”
He could still be added after the draft or whenever a Buc DB goes down during the regular season. He is familiar with the system and isn’t a bad back-up DB.
I expect the reasons for not re-signing Delaney were the same reasons for not re-signing guys like Fieler, Stinnie, Leverett, D. White and R. Neal.
There are better inexpensive alternatives available…
In Licht I trust.
March 19th, 2024 at 1:06 pm
Can’t have enough good back ups.
March 19th, 2024 at 1:31 pm
Its likely that one of our best Special Teams players last year – Zyon McCollum – will no longer be playing as much (or any) special teams this year because he is a full time starting CB now.
So signing a guy who can fill that roll and also provide solid competition for young Izien at the Nickle spot was a good idea.
Hope Thomas performs well for us in whatever roll he plays.
March 19th, 2024 at 1:40 pm
I don’t understand the Bucs not re-signing Dee Delaney at all. He’s got 3 years experience in this defense, and last year was his best by far. He’s durable (has 49 games to his credit in 2021-2023) & hasn’t missed a game in the last 2 years. Is fairly fast (4.46 sec 40) & has played lots of S/Ts for us as well as filling in in the Secondary numerous times.
Last season Dee only started 2 games, but got 449 def snaps total, in several different positions. Kind of a Swiss army knife type of player? His 48.5% completion percentage (33 targets allowing only 16 completions) was the best of any of our CBs or Safeties. Hopefully we re-sign him before some other team figures out that he’s really a very good backup.
March 19th, 2024 at 1:43 pm
4.38 speed joins two other CBs with 4.3 speed…..Dean & Zion……we got sum speed!!1
March 19th, 2024 at 1:49 pm
I like Delaney.
March 19th, 2024 at 1:58 pm
Was wondering when this part of the Licht plan would kick in. We can use a couple of special team aces. With Zyon getting a promotion, we will need more special team bodies. Hoping the new ST coach brings improvement to our coverage teams.
March 19th, 2024 at 2:29 pm
Here is the trivia question of all trivia questions
When was the last regular season or playoff blocked kick and the last blocked punt by the Bucs special teams?
March 19th, 2024 at 2:32 pm
The 61 yarder should not count in 2022 because it was a 61 yarder
March 19th, 2024 at 2:37 pm
I thought David Moore was pretty good, hope he comes back
March 19th, 2024 at 3:03 pm
Idk that he is just a special teams contributor. He actually graded out better overall than Carlton Davis and while he doesn’t produce a ton of picks he wasn’t bad in pass coverage. Better in previous years than last but I think he also had an injury last year
March 19th, 2024 at 3:18 pm
“The Lovie Smith Experience”. Wasn’t that a ride at Busch Gardens that spun round and round but never went anywhere? I seem to recall I got off feeling really nauseous.
March 19th, 2024 at 3:27 pm
He had good PFF rating in Houston and plays slot as well as special teams
About 60% snaps past 3 seasons.
March 19th, 2024 at 3:38 pm
Somebody has to take Zyon’s special teams snaps if he’s our starting corner now.
March 19th, 2024 at 3:58 pm
Bucsfan Says:
March 19th, 2024 at 2:29 pm
Here is the trivia question of all trivia questions
When was the last regular season or playoff blocked kick and the last blocked punt by the Bucs special teams
——————
The last blocked punt I remember was vs the Broncos in Denver in 2020.
Seems like a blocked/tipped kick was more recent…maybe even by Logan Hall…which seems/sounds backwards. 🙂
March 19th, 2024 at 4:02 pm
* Actually both may have been blocked by O’Conner.
March 19th, 2024 at 4:52 pm
I’m a little surprised we didn’t resign Delaney yet. Is he in Bowles doghouse? Too expensive? He had a very good passer rating, allowing only a 55, and he had two picks.
BTW here are last season’s pick leaders (I included Whitehead):
Jordan Whitehead 4
Antoine Winfield 3
Carlton Davis 2
Devin White 2
Christian Izien 2
Dee Delaney 2
Shaquil Barrett 1
William Gholston 1
The rest of the DB’s had zero picks. Interestingly, with CD3, White, and Shaq gone, we lost 5 INT’s from last year.
March 19th, 2024 at 4:58 pm
I think we have upgraded our secondary overall and I look forward to who else we add.
March 19th, 2024 at 5:47 pm
Tavierre can play – he’s not just a special teams ace. He’s a decent/good slot corner too
March 19th, 2024 at 9:32 pm
Well can’t u read thomas was drafted.with baker to browns so baker must know a bit about what he is capable of or does that not make sense like baker wasn’t asked to give his 2 cents bout Coen being interviewed for OC job also
March 20th, 2024 at 12:12 am
BakerBucs says Says:
March 19th, 2024 at 9:32 pm
“Well can’t u read thomas was drafted.with baker to browns so baker must know a bit about what he is….”
Ironic you call someone out on their ability to read. As per the article, “Undrafted out of Ferris State in Michigan, Thomas is quite a success story…”
Those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
March 20th, 2024 at 5:14 pm
Hopefully Licht won’t pick any special team specialists in the draft this year.