SirVocea Dennis: Felt “Great” When Bucs Faced Commandos In Playoffs
June 6th, 2025
How hurt was SirVocea Dennis?
Does anyone still have the memory of the Bucs losing to the Cowboys at The Licht House on Monday night of Wild Card Weekend in 2023?
You remember the game, right? A gallant warrior like Ryan Jensen tried to play with a knee that was destroyed the previous July? The Cowboys won 31-14.
Joe will never forget Jensen hobbling on the field. He had no business being there. He was a shell of his Pro Bowl warrior self.
It really was sad that was his last game — on national television. Joe was reminded of baseball Hall of Famer Willie Mays playing outfield for the Mets well past his prime in the 1973 World Series or Aaron Rodgers joining the Steelers. Mays, the best player of his generation, played like an out-of-shape minor leaguer in the field.
Weeks later, Jensen retired. His knee was wrecked beyond repair — during underwear football of all things.
Fast forward to this week when Bucs linebacker SirVocea Dennis spoke at One Buc Palace and explained how he was feeling after shoulder surgery.
“I feel great,” Dennis said. “Actually, I felt great [during] our last playoff game, really.
“It just feels amazing being out here practicing with the guys, just being around football and just being back just to play healthy.”
He felt great during the playoff game, eh? That’s news to Joe.
Why is it news to Joe? Just as the playoffs began, Joe spoke with Dennis in the Bucs locker room. Dennis told Joe he couldn’t suit up for Washington; rehab from shoulder surgery just wasn’t quick enough to get on the field.
Until that point, Bucs coach Todd Bowles held out a sliver of hope Dennis could play if the Bucs made a playoff run. In fact, two weeks before the Washington playoff game, Dennis told Joe he was crossing his fingers, hoping he would recuperate enough to play.
Joe can understand if the Bucs didn’t want to take chances with Dennis and decided to rest him for a fully healthy 2025.
OK, fine. Makes sense. But the Bucs had zero issue shoving Jensen on the field when he played some snaps like he still needed crutches.
The Bucs knew what they had in their weakest spot on defense with both J.J. Russell and K.J. Britt at inside linebacker. Wouldn’t a starter who felt “great” have been at least a minimal upgrade?
Could Dennis have been, well, less than upfront with Joe about his injury? Sure. The thing is, Joe always looks at players’ body language. Some people just aren’t good poker players, and Joe remembers Dennis’ body language that day to be awful, like mom told him he was grounded and wouldn’t be able to play Madden for a month.
Dennis looked like “Droopy.” Joe doesn’t believe Dennis was conning Joe.
Did the Bucs shut Dennis down against his wishes?
This is all very interesting to Joe.
June 6th, 2025 at 4:21 am
Hmm Got to agree with Joe on this one. Dennis got shut down? Todd does some trully strange things with players sometimes. This makes no sense considering who we were trotting out there in a freaking wild card game!
Jensen on one leg may have been better than the alternative though Joe. Hainsey was not ready. It took him another full season plus to bulk up to where he could hold down the middle.
Go Bucs!
June 6th, 2025 at 4:22 am
No idea what this article is trying to accomplish Joe. On one hand it says … ‘Until that point, Bucs coach Todd Bowles held out a sliver of hope Dennis could play if the Bucs made a playoff run.’ Fine, but then it closes with … ‘Did the Bucs shut Dennis down against his wishes?’
What? I all seems like speculation & innuendo. Back when the playoff game happened, Dennis told y’all that he couldn’t go. Then last week he says he felt great that same week of the playoff game. But Todd’s the suspected villain?
June 6th, 2025 at 4:59 am
DR
Heard.
June 6th, 2025 at 5:20 am
Well Defense Rules, this article did remind me that Logan Hall’s biggest contribution as a Buc up until now is shredding Jensen’s knee which was a major contributor to the Bucs having a less than stellar offense in Brady’s and Jensen’s final year. This does not absolve Leftwich for his abysmal year as OC but losing the key cog on the OL was devastating.
June 6th, 2025 at 5:57 am
I don’t have access to his medical file, and wouldn’t know what to do with it if I did.
I do know the Browns had somebody with a bum shoulder they wish they would have shut down a few years ago, so I guess there’s layers to being “ready to play”.
June 6th, 2025 at 5:59 am
Ryan Jensen intentionally did not have surgery with the intent of rehabbing and getting back in the game at the end of the year for Brady’s last stand. Both players were at a cross roads of their career. In hindsight it was the wrong decision. Dennis has his whole career ahead of him, and the Bucs probably learned a lesson that year if anything.
Apples and oranges really. You’re telling me AWjr took the field 100% last year? Individual cases are different. You can “feel great” while not being medically cleared to play.
June 6th, 2025 at 6:06 am
Yeah it was Dave. It HURT not having the leader of the O line for the year. What hurt even more was that our GM didn’t replace him with a far more solid guy than Hainsy because he wasn’t ready at the time.
As a result Brady wasn’t able to do much in his last year
And our right guard wasn’t replaced by anyone special either when he left in free agency. We lost 2 BIG ONES in 2022 before the season even started. It was all we could do just to fall in backwards with a BIG 8 wins on the season.
I Blamed A LOT on our GM that year because I know in my gut that the master of the O line “Could Have” gotten us FAR BETTER GUYS than who ever the 3rd and 4th stringers were that we sent out to protect Brady. I believe one of them was a “brand new” to the Pro’s Hainsly. I can’t remember the other….
The ONLY TIME Licht has broken my heart. THAT was the Real Flaw in lichts game after BA got here…. The 2022 season Oline…
Even with that, I’m Still very Proud of our GM, feel he’s the Best we’ve EVER HAD, and GREATFUL I don’t see any signs of him taking his foot off the Pedal.
In fact I pray he’ll give us another 10 years and accomplish a True Dynasty
June 6th, 2025 at 6:39 am
It could have been that he felt great and the Buc wanted to play him but the team Dr’s wouldn’t clear him. But with Jensen it was the same but the ignored the Dr’s based on how Jensen said he felt and learned from what happened. Just a theory.
June 6th, 2025 at 6:47 am
D.R.
As usual I agree with you.
“What? It all seems like speculation & innuendo.”
INDEED! I get it! We’re in the slowest part of the year and perhaps “speculation and innuendo” are all that is available. I think there’s more but hey it’s not my blog and the guy running it have done an awesome job!!! That’s why I’m here.
But the troll infestation loves to feed on “speculation and innuendo”.
Whenever I read speculation and innuendo from trolls, politicians, or anybody for that matter the first question that usually comes into MY mind is MOTIVATION.
Was it an honest mistake? Are we upset that perhaps the Bucs withheld some knowledge from the public? Or is it simply “much ado about nothing”.
What does Occam’s Razor tell us about this. That it’s probably the latter, much ado about nothing. But hey I’m here commenting so who am I to criticize a successful formula?
June 6th, 2025 at 7:12 am
Obvious One, I think you’re referring to Shaq Mason at RG. T think the other guard was Aaron Stinnie or something like that. We got Mason from the Patriots for like a 4th or 5th round pick. We drafted Stinnie a few years prior. Both stunk. I do remember we were short on cap space. It was bad enough we couldn’t keep Alex Cappa at RG. I wonder if he’s still with the Bengals?
June 6th, 2025 at 7:16 am
People love to point the finger for Jensen’s injury and the subsequent poor oline play. I blame Jensen. It is a contact sport, people get hurt. Jensen chose to rehab over surgery, taking himself out for the year. And Licht couldn’t break the bank while still nursing 2 past their prime players riding the bubble of their balloon contracts (Brady n Jensen). It’s always easier to find blame than solutions
June 6th, 2025 at 7:48 am
I think Jensen’s injury was because of Tom’s evil cu** wife!
She evil eyes him.
I hate Gisele with a passion.
She was sleeping with her jujitsu instructor.
She ran away with him and crushed Tom’s spirit and hurt her own daughter!
Tom was going to retire at 46. 25 years before most American men!
I’m 42. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to retire.
And the toxic feminist and man hating culture of America blamed Tom!
I worked with gay-ass simps at my school, and men, MEN were saying,
“Well. He should have retired. It’s his fault.”
What????
She was cheating. She destroyed her kids lives. She took her daughter’s father out of her house.
And replaced her father with a dooshbag ju jitsu instructor.
The case of Gisele versus Tom is a perfect example of how insane the culture of woke America has become.
June 6th, 2025 at 7:53 am
The knee was a lost cause, surgery or not
June 6th, 2025 at 8:23 am
Slow Friday? Crack a brew, take the edge off. And prepare for the mighty 2025 Bucs!
June 6th, 2025 at 9:18 am
Nothing to see here… move along….. a nothing burger today…..
June 6th, 2025 at 9:19 am
Jensen and Brady had a lot more power than Dennis will ever have. Jensen wanted to play and knew the risks. Brady wanted Jensen to play. Jensen played.
Trainers tell Dennis he isn’t ready. Dennis isn’t ready. Dennis doesn’t play.
June 6th, 2025 at 9:36 am
Sometimes , warriors or not, you’ve got to protect players from themselves , if you don’t really bad things can happen, how many times have you seen entire careers ended early, because someone felt a player could not be spared for one lousy game?
June 6th, 2025 at 10:09 am
So basically you’re saying the Bucs allowed Jensen to tank the playoff game so he could take snaps from Brady before he retired?
June 6th, 2025 at 10:11 am
If Jensen had the surgery he might have been able to play in 2023. I’m just saying maybe. Still, he was a lot closer to the end of his career than the beginning. As far as Voss goes it’s just hard to say. From what I’ve read it takes about 8 months to heal from shoulder surgery. One thing I can tell you for sure: you can’t believe a single word any of these guys say when it comes to injuries.
June 6th, 2025 at 10:24 am
JD still: look no further than Baker. In 2021 he had to wear a big shoulder brace to play. I didn’t really care about him when he played for the aptly named Browns but I thought he had a very promising season in 2020. I never did see a lick of sense in them trading Baker away that offseason, but I think his shoulder might still have been messed up when he was trying to play for the Panthers. Well, maybe it was just the Panthers. Brady couldn’t win with that team. Maybe Joe will ask him about that one day.
June 6th, 2025 at 10:29 am
He may just be misremembering how things went down at the time.
June 6th, 2025 at 11:08 am
Running out of things to write
June 6th, 2025 at 11:10 am
Remembering that Dallas playoff game still gives me PTSD. The Bucs have never been flatter for a game. If Jensen shouldn’t have been playing but did, that’s on the coach. If the team couldn’t get up for a Cowboys playoff game, that’s on the coach. (And the Cowboys were in the toilet — everyone else had been beating them like a rented mule the last few weeks of the season, and again the following week.)
Coaching matters.
June 6th, 2025 at 11:49 am
Never suggested anything remotely like that.
June 6th, 2025 at 12:35 pm
Thanks for clearing me up Fred. You’re spot on.
And Even with a tight cap…. there’s just No Excuse for the Sorry Excuses for football players that we marched out there. I’m not going to bother with due diligence concerning those two. I wonder if their still on a Pro team but not enough to look it up.
What a waste of a season. BIG TIME PURE LUCK to have fallen and crawled and finally got kicked across the finish line by another teams bad luck. And that was WITH talent that two seasons before WON the Super Bowl, and as soon as 1 year prior to the new head coach taking over, our Bucs Broke our Own Regular Season WIN rate with a STRONG “13 REGULAR SEASON WINS”, WITH AUTHORITY!
Some would tell you we lost EverOne from the Bowl winning season. EXTREMELY UNTRUE. We did lose a couple of guys off the D line like Suh and JPP and THAT was acouple Big Ones. But that’s hardly enough for SUCH A PATHETIC SHOWING as what the 2022 season had to offer……
I think it was the O line that made the Real Difference. Jenson and Cappa…. Brady was Running for his life All Season Long! That Just Didn’t Have to be. Licht FAILED US ALL in that respect that year. I don’t know why Licht didn’t Make the Arrangements for ANYONE better than the replacements that sucked out loud.
Maybe Licht wanted Brady Gone.? Well, he got his wish if that was the case…
But that’s the past and Not the case anymore. That IS the year (2022) I feel like Jason Licht COULD HAVE gave us a better shot at it and the Only real bone I have to pick with Mr Licht. LOVE HIM otherwise…
We are a Far More well rounded (Offensively) team these days. We may be an even deadlier Offensive Team than our last Bowl win. The question is When Will the “Defense AS A WHOLE” catch up???
And THAT’S the $64,000 question. Or in today’s translated denominations, the $64,000,000 question.
I
June 6th, 2025 at 1:20 pm
Joe,
I suspect that it is a lot easier to tell a rookie LB to sit than it is to tell a team captain Super Bowl winning Pro Bowl hard ass Center to sit.
Thinking of team morale, a rook being told to sit wouldn’t raise an eyebrow. But, players probably want that team captain on the field.
But, letting Jensen start a series and then rest or rotate would have been better.
June 6th, 2025 at 1:36 pm
I didn’t hear anyone moaning when Jensen suited up.
June 6th, 2025 at 2:15 pm
Thank you for reading the Tampa Bay Enquirer
June 6th, 2025 at 3:15 pm
Feeling great and being in football shape and ready to play are two different things. I can’t believe for a moment if he was ready to play they’d instead save him for this season – that’s nonsense.
With that said, the defense did their job that game, they gave up 16 points and made a huge 4th quarter goal line stop and gave the ball back to the offense with 7 minutes left and the chance to go up 2 scores. That loss wasn’t on the defense.
June 6th, 2025 at 4:33 pm
Teacherman
“I hate Gisele with a passion.”
Get help! They have therapy for irrational hatred.
You know NOTHING about what happens in OTHER PEOPLES marriages! If you wish to read some nasty rags that post all kinds of wild speculation fine, but to do it and let it make you HATE is truly SAD!!!
Now call me some kind of name because you have no INTELLECTUAL response.
June 6th, 2025 at 4:37 pm
@Rod Munch
I used to think you were simply a di%k but over time I’ve come to appreciate your opinion, occasionally 🤣
If you’d just let go of the Baker bashing troll posts 🤔
I agree tho…. The offense, at the very least, shares responsibility for that loss. Defense did enough.
The geniuses that predicted Detroit would would show us how a real team and coach handles injuries, and would trounce the commanders, had nothing to say after Jayden and company ripped the Lions a new a$$hole.
Our defense had issues last season. Everybody knows what they were BUT Todd and his staff on defense did give up only 17.5 PPG after the bye – with 2nd 3rd and 4th stringers manning important positions. NOW we have Morrison, Parrish, SVD, the Walker’s providing more talent and depth. If we can stay relatively healthy our defense should make a big jump this year.