Bucs Nation

AP Postseason Awards Announced: Rodgers wins MVP, no Buccaneer wins anything

2012-02-05T01:46:37Z

The Associated Press has announced the winners of its postseason awards, as they do every year. The most important award, the one of Most Valuable Player, was unsurprisingly handed out to Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Fellow NFC North QB Matt Stafford won Comeback Player of the Year. Two other quarterbacks also won awards, and the Bucs must be thrilled that both of them reside in the NFC South: Drew Brees won Offensive Player of the Year while Cam Newton won Offensive Rookie of the Year. Finally, Denver Broncos linebacker Von Miller won Rookie of the Year and Baltimore Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs won Defensive Player of the Year.

Surprisingly, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won no awards. I blame that mostly on the lack of awards like "worst tackler" (Tanard Jackson), "worst quitters" (half the team), "most blowouts", "most disappointing player" (Josh Freeman), or "worst collapse in the history of the NFL".

2012 Hall of Fame class includes four linemen, bodes well for Warren Sapp?

2012-02-04T23:31:15Z

The 2012 NFL Hall of Fame class has just been announced, and it will consist of Pittsbrugh Steelers center Dermontti Dawson, Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Jack Butler, Minnesota Vikings, Atlanta Falcons and San Francisco 49ers defensive end Chris Doleman, Seattle Seahawks defensive tackle Cortez Kennedy, New England Patriots and New York Jets running back Curtis Martin and New Orleans Saints and Kansas City Chiefs offensive tackle Willie Roaf.

This isn't exactly the strongest class, but it was very heavily focused on linemen on both sides of the ball. The Bucs' only inductee in the Hall is a defensive lineman as well: Lee Roy Selmon. He could realistically be joined by two players next year, when both Warren Sapp and John Lynch are eligible. While Mike Alstott is eligible too, he is very unlikely to get in to the Hall of Fame.

But the lineman-heavy selection this year bodes well for Warren Sapp next year, whose only real obstacle to getting into the Hall of Fame may be his rough handling of the media during his playing days. But based on his record as a player, he should see a first-ballot Hall of Fame induction next year. Especially so because issues like character and handling of the media don't officially impact the decisions of the Hall of Fame voters.

Buccaneers hire one-day Northern Illinois OC P.J. Fleck as Wide Receivers coach per report

2012-02-04T21:33:42Z

According to ESPN Chicago, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will hire former NFL receiver P.J. Fleck as their wide receivers coach. P.J. Fleck spent two seasons as Rutgers' receivers coach under new Buccaneers head coach Greg Schiano, and was hired by Northern Illinois as its offensive coordinator just two days ago. He resigned just one day later, however, and Pewter Report quickly connected the dots.

P.J. Fleck played college football at Northern Illinois and went undrafted in the 2004 NFL draft. He signed with the San Francisco 49ers but never played in a game before becoming a coach. Since 2006 he has coached for Ohio State, Northern Illinois and Rutgers University. At Rutgers he coached Mohamed Sanu, likely to be a second-round NFL draft pick this year. With both Sanu's head coach and receivers coach now with the Bucs, he would be a logical target for the team.

This is the first assistant coaching hire for Greg Schiano, if the report turns out to be correct. The Bucs are likely to flesh out their staff over the next couple of days. The Bucs don't necessarily need to be speedy with these hires, as the team's coaches cannot work with the players for the next couple of months anyway per the CBA.

Marrying 'The Plan' and Free Agency for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers

2012-02-04T17:21:22Z

For the past three seasons, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have had a plan, supposedly. They wanted to build a team through the draft, re-signing their own drafted players and largely steering away from free agency. The results so far have been mixed. There is talent on the team, but there are some major deficiencies too - and the success of a lot of recent draft picks is still in doubt because of injuries and inconsistent play.

It's not surprising, then, that three years into the plan the Bucs seem to be pushing for a change. The Bucs will be 'involved' in free agency, and they have been making it quietly and subtly known that they will spend some money this offseason. Of course, part of the plan has always been to add a few free agents when necessary.

But what kind of free agent will the Bucs pursue?

Tampa Bay isn't the team to just add free agents willy-nilly. They've always been burned when they do that. What's been successful for this team has been adding free agents who are still relatively young and have some of their best years ahead of them. The free agency route was successful for Tampa Bay when they stuck to that formula: Keyshawn Johnson in trade, Simeon Rice and Brad Johnson in free agency: those were successful additions.

But when they went with the real veterans, the 32-year-old proven free agents - the Derrick Deeses, the Todd Steussies, the Charlie Garners - that's when they failed. That's not exactly surprising: those free agency additions are very rarely successful around the NFL, as older players are more injury-prone and usually have significantly declined by the time they hit the market.

So, don't expect the Bucs to go after the 'proven', multi-year veterans. They'll be active in free agency, to an extent, but they'll go after the younger players as much as they can. Players like Cortland Finnegan, Stevie Johnson, Curtis Lofton, Marshawn Lynch and Carl Nicks are a lot more likely to be Buccaneers next season than Reggie Wayne, Robert Mathis or London Fletcher.

Daily Bucs Links 2/4/12 - Free agency coming?

2012-02-04T12:32:11Z

Bucs Beat: Team to be 'involved' in free agency | TBO.com
How involved is that going to be?

Big East coaches offer a glimpse into the mind of Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Greg Schiano - Tampa Bay Times
And that mind was plenty annoying for Big East coaches.

Greg Hardy, Adrian Clayborn all-around DEs - NFC South Blog - ESPN
Clayborn looks like a future star.

Goodell: No immediate plans for NFL expansion, except Thursdays | TBO.com
More Thursday games, and every team is going to get a primetime game every year.

P.J. Fleck Resigns After One Day at NIU, Next Stop Tampa? | Pewter Report
Former Rutgers receivers coach, resigned from the NIU offensive coordinator job.

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Madonna gives Bucs' McCoy advice but no kiss | TBO.com
Ehm, okay.

Sports | Unlike Patriots, NFL slow to embrace 'Moneyball' | Seattle Times Newspaper
Well, when you define moneyball as 'whatever the Pats do', sure.

Bill Belichick, Vince Wilfork, and the New England Patriots defense - Grantland
A really good piece on the Patriots' defense, and a good primer on 4-3/3-4 defenses and 1-gap/2-gap techniques.

Greg Schiano Leaves Spotlight Of Rutgers Football For Low-Profile Buccaneers Job | The Onion - America's Finest News Source
Hawwwww.

Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, And The Genius Of The Patriots' No-Huddle Offense
The genius is snapping the ball before the defense is ready. That's why I loved that the Bucs went after Chip Kelly, who built his entire program around that.

[Video] Journey to the Field: Davin Joseph, Pt. 1 | Buccaneers.com
How did Davin Joseph get to where he is now?

Legacy, O-line will lead Tom Brady to Super Bowl win over Giants - Don Banks - SI.com
I hope not.

Five reasons Giants will win Super Bowl XLVI – Audibles
Better.

Three things to dislike about new Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Greg Schiano

2012-02-04T00:37:31Z

I looked at three reasons to like the hiring of Greg Schiano a couple of days ago, but there are also some reasons to dislike this hiring.

Can he bring in and work with good assistant coaches?

This is the number one question Greg Schiano has to answer now, and he hasn't done a good job so far. He wasn't helped by the timing of his hiring, which saw a lot of good assistant coaches already signed by other teams. Instead, the Bucs face a somewhat depleted coaching market - and they aren't exactly making a lot of progress right now.

That's the problem with hiring someone who has been a college coach for the past 14 years: he doesn't have an extensive NFL network to help him find the right assistant coaches. While I'm sure Schiano will eventually assemble a coaching staff that works for him, the quality of that coaching staff will be negatively impacted by the lack of choice the Bucs have.

He wasn't all that successful at Rutgers in the first place

While he turned around a historically inept program, his success wasn't overwhelming. He went 68-67 in his 11 seasons at Rutgers, which isn't great. He never won the Big East, and only had one truly successful season when he came within one win of making the National Championship Game (probably). But his record doesn't scream "great coach". If a coach can't win the Big East, can he win the Super Bowl?

Offense? What about offense?

Greg Schiano has a defensive background. That's nice, but it comes with a few problems. First and most obviously, hiring him does little to help get Josh Freeman back on track - especially so if he can't bring in good offensive assistant coaches. Second, defensive coaches tend to be conservative in calling games and building teams. They want to win on defense.

At least Schiano didn't talk about having a ball-control offense, so that's one step in the right direction. But conservatism and this version of the NFL don't mix. The best teams are aggressive and make bold moves - on the field, and in personnel decisions. Will Schiano do this, or will he be Steady Eddie?

2011 Season in Review: Running Back

2012-02-03T22:24:45Z

As we move on with the 2011 Season in Review series, we come to the running back positions - perhaps the most discussed, but also most misunderstood position on the team.

What happened in 2011?

During the 2011 season, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers ran for fewer yards than all but two teams in the entire NFL. They had just 9 rushing touchdowns, 23rd in the NFL. No team ran the ball less than the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the 2011 season, but despite that the Bucs actually averaged 4.2 yards per attempt, 16th in the NFL.

The reason the Bucs didn't run the ball more? They never committed to the running game, and they constantly got blown out forcing them (to an extent) to abandon the run. Add to that an early injury to Earnest Graham, causing him to miss half the season, and a Kregg Lumpkin who never turned into a good player and the Bucs' running game and their running backs were awfully ineffective.

Legarrette Blount

Legarrette Blount didn't reach the 1,000 yards mark, but was still relatively successful as a runner. With 781 yards on 184 attempts, Blount averaged a respectable 4.2 yards per carry. He was still inconsistent, but he was much improved from the previous season. His vision was better and he ran with power and the right pad level more consistently.

Fumbles plagued him at the end of the season, however, and that's something he will have to correct. More importantly he needs to use this offseason to learn his responsibilities as a blocker. Pass-blocking isn't a physical problem for Blount, as I've seen him execute blocks consistently, but he couldn't get on the field as a pass-blocker - which means it is likely a mental thing.

Ultimately, though, Blount remains a limited running back. He can't make a man miss in the open field, and he can't run outside the tackles. That limits his effectiveness as a receiver and a runner. He can be used to pound the ball inside the tackles, but that's about it. It's something you can certainly build around, but you also need a complementary back to provide a different element - and that's what the Bucs missed in 2011.

Earnest Graham

When Earnest Graham was healthy, he showed he could still carry the ball effectively. He averaged a whopping 5.6 yards per carry on 37 attempts this season, but he was most important on third downs where he was a reliable pass-blocker and a capable receiver. Of course, he was lost for the season with a knee injury in London, and that really hurt the Bucs' offense.

Kregg Lumpkin

After Graham's injury, the Bucs relied on Kregg Lumpkin as their third-down back. Lumpkin was not very good. While he wasn't absolutely disastrous, he missed too many blocks and failed to make defenders miss in the open field consistently. He improved a little toward the end of the year, but combined with his terrible production as an actual runner Lumpkin was a liability, not an asset.

Mossis Madu

Mossis Madu was the intriguing undrafted rookie. He didn't get much of a chance, but he showed a little potential late in the season. He's worth keeping around as a backup, at least.

2012 Options

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers could probably address their running back situation immediately in the 2012 NFL Draft by selecting Trent Richardson with the fifth overall draft pick. But the 2012 draft is filled with capable running backs, and the Bucs could probably pick up a good all-around or complementary back later in the draft. Chris Polk, Lamar Miller, David Wilson, Doug Martin and Lamichael James are just some of the players who the Bucs could select beyond the first round of the draft.

In addition, there's always free agency. Ray Rice, Matt Forte and Michael Bush are three big names the Bucs could attempt to sign - but those three are likely to be franchised or otherwise re-signed with their teams. Behind them, the pickings become slim. Marshawn Lynch could hit the market, while Peyton Hillis, Cedric Benson and Mike Tolbert are scheduled to be free agents too. Jason Snelling, Justin Forsett, BenJarvus Green-Ellis, Ryan Grant and Tim Hightower are all likely to be available as well.

The Bucs also have some decisions to make on their current stable of backs. Earnest Graham is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent, while Kregg Lumpkin will be a restricted free agent. Legarrette Blount is scheduled to be an exclusive-rights free agent, which basically guarantees that he'll be back.

Projected 2012 Depth Chart

Legarrette Blount, New Addition (third down), Earnest Graham, Mossis Madu.

Todd McShay 2012 NFL Mock Draft - Morris Claiborne

2012-02-03T19:57:28Z

Todd McShay's second mock draft of the year is out, and he has the Tampa Bay Buccaneers picking cornerback Morris Claiborne of LSU over WR Justin Blackmon and RB Trent Richardson. So with those two still available, why did Claiborne fall? Because he has the Minnesota Vikings picking T Riley Reiff out of Iowa.

Current Buccaneers RB LeGarrette Blount is no Trent Richardson, so dont't rule out Alabama's bell-cow back as an option here. Tampa Bay's cornerback situation is a nightmare, though, with Ronde Barber on the decline and Aqib Talib facing off-field issues. Claiborne would bring to Tampa the best man-to-man cover skills in the 2012 class, along with good speed and instincts.

And once again, the running back vs cornerback debate rears its ugly head. I tire of talking about this. It gets boring and everything that's been said on the subject has been said. Running backs can be had later in the draft, and their short shelf life doesn't make them worthy of a high first-round pick. At the same time, Trent Richardson does look pretty special and the Bucs need to add some kind of change of pace back for Legarrette Blount.