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You’ve heard the annoying cliché repeatedly, “the NFL is a copycat league.”
It’s accurate. Teams are always looking at what worked for a competitor and/or are seeking a successful trend. [read more]
Golden Tate has golden hands
Earlier this week, Joe linked to his good friend Justin Pawlowski, “The Commish,” of WHFS-FM 98.7, who did some research and came up with a top 10 list of value free agents on the market that could likely make an impact for the Bucs.
Among the names on Pawlowski’s list was Seattle wide receiver Golden Tate. Joe was OK with having Tate. He’s not Vincent Jackson or Larry Fitzgerald, but then again, the Bucs just need a solid No. 3 guy for good depth.
Injury-prone Tom Crabtree may force the Bucs to draft a tight end.
People say the Bucs have talent. They do. There are also as many holes as there is talent.
Take tight end, a position Bucs fans love to kvetch about. Joe can think of no other position in the past two years Bucs fans grumbled more to their bartender about. Even when the Bucs had hobbled Kellen Winslow, the position was not top shelf.
(Joe will spare you the references today to Winslow’s Target-parking-lot, Vaseline-heavy, fake-pot-smelling, jerk-chicken moment in Jersey.) [read more]
The Bucs’ new hierarchy should be considering one huge QB question in the NFL Draft, says Brian Billick
Johnny Football chatter sure seemed to raise the blood pressure of former Super Bowl winning Coach Brian Billick during an interview on the Ron and Ian show on WDAE-AM 620 yesterday.
Billick was all relaxed talking about how Mike Glennon had a better interception-to-pass ratio than Russell Wilson and Matt Cassel, and how Glennon might be worth giving a second season as a starter, but Billick got fired up when asked for his opinion on Johnny Football. [read more]
Joe wouldn’t lose sleep if the Bucs drafted stud offensive lineman Jake Matthews.
There is no surer football axiom than “it’s all about blocking and tackling.” And that starts in the trenches.
It’s simple offensively: If you cannot block a cool breeze, then your offense is going to stink out loud.
Yes, the Bucs stunk out loud.
Oh, sure it didn’t help that Doug Martin and Mike Williams were lost for the season with injuries, and quarterback Rip Van Freeman was lost for the season by going all Sybil on his team. But simply put, the Bucs were damaged by an inconsistent offensive line.
Now Darrelle Revis already told Joe in Hawaii that he’s finally — finally! — 100 percent healthy. But it’s another thing to know he’s telling the same thing to his teammates.
Gerald McCoy talked about Revis and much, much more during an appearance on NBC Sports Network last night. [read more]
Joe is running out of angry analogies to describe his disgust with the Bucs’ rank inability to dirty the jersey of an opposing quarterback. Of course, it didn’t help that the Bucs virtually employed a square dance on passing downs. Defensive linemen did so many stunts it’s a wonder empty-headed Nicole Zaloumis and the crew of that insipid “NFL AM” schlock didn’t slobber over themselves the way they have such a dancing fetish.
ESPN’s Pat Yasinskas was a witness to this drek as well (the Bucs’ putrid pass rush, not the “NFL AM” show) and in writing about how badly the Bucs need a pass rush, indirectly pointed a finger at Da’Quan Bowers as one reason the Bucs couldn’t breathe on opposing signal-callers. [read more]
Networks can’t completely hide Tampa Bay for uncertainty at quarterback
Before the NFL signed away Thursday Night Football rights to CBS this week, the league previously had committed to having every NFL team play at least one night game during the regular season.
If a team wasn’t chosen by a TV network for Sunday Night Football or Monday Night Football, then NFL Network promised to overhype the likes of Jacksonville, Cleveland and more on a Thursday. [read more]
Gregg Rosenthal
There were some 6,600 people credentialed to cover festivities during the week leading up to the Super Bowl and many were at the Prudential Center in frozen Newark to cover Media Day. As you know, Joe was there.
So too was Gregg Rosenthal. The NFL.com scribe leads the team responsible for the site’s news blog, “Around the League,” and was kind enough to give Joe a few brief moments in his extremely busy day to talk Bucs. Rosenthal has some very intelligent and interesting takes on popular subjects related to the Bucs. [read more]
Mr. Derrick Brooks talks about how he is adjusting to being known as Hall of Famer in this BSPN video.
Former rockstar general manager Mark Dominik seemed to enter every NFL season with questionable cornerback depth.
There was nothing behind the unreliable Adderall Twins in 2012, and last year the Bucs started training camp with two rookie corners (Rashaan Melvin and Johnthan Banks), plus often overmatched Leonard Johnson, inexperienced Danny Gorrer and versatile yet undersized (5-6) veteran Michael Adams behind injured Darrelle Revis. [read more]
Penn State’s Allen Robinson might be a nice play in the second round.
Even after the Bucs lost the services of Doug Martin to a season-ending shoulder injury, the Bucs had a solid ground game with Mike James and later, Bobby Rainey.
The passing game? Meh!
Mike Williams was lost midseason with an ugly hamstring tear that required surgery. Guys who would otherwise be walking the streets served as the Bucs’ No. 2 through No. 4 wide receivers. Rookie Mike Glennon got little help. [read more]
Formerly hound-hating quarterback Michael Vick, the pending free agent and arch enemy of the Mike Glennon Mob, talked about what he’s looking for in his third NFL team last week on Radio Row at the Super Bowl.
Interestingly, via the SiriusXM Radio video below, Vick was very quick to say he wants a team with a great coach and a strong defense.
Is Father Dungy playing a role behind the scenes to get Michael Vick to Tampa Bay?
The Mike Glennon Mob doesn’t want to hear it. They don’t want to be bothered by simple facts. It’s pretty clear the Bucs are not joking around with the prospect of bringing in free agent quarterback Michael Vick to Tampa Bay. [read more]
If you missed JoeBucsFan.com’s interview with Darrelle Revis on the sun-drenched Pro Bowl practice fields in Hawaii, you can catch up here.
But Joe also had a more intimate chat with Revis after the game. [read more]
Why does Joe place such a high priority on quarterbacks? Why does Joe always say quarterbacks lead? Because there is no other position that demands a player touch the ball virtually each and every snap.
Quarterback has evolved to the point where the game is approaching flag football status. If you don’t have a decent quarterback, you are sunk. It’s that simple. Oh, people can holler that defenses win games, but if you can’t score, you won’t go far. Denying that having a decent QB is vital for postseason success is the equivalent to the employed crazy person who walks down the sidewalk and claims to no one in particular that he doesn’t have to pay taxes. Sooner or later, the IRS will take a big ol’ bite out of his rear end. [read more]
