Biggest Disappointment: Antonio Bryant?
January 7th, 2010
Joe cannot call Antonio Bryant's play this season a "disappointment" like Vacation Man of BSPN did.
This is the time of year where teams that are not in the playoffs are having all sorts of season retrospectives written and the Bucs are not immune.
Vacation Man of BSPN.com of course chimes in with his look back at the Bucs but he has a curious element in his synopsis.
Vacation Man has a category on the Bucs retrospective called “Biggest Disappointment” and curiously he lists Antonio Bryant.
Again, there are plenty of possibilities. But I’m going with receiver Antonio Bryant. He had a huge season last year and the Bucs placed the franchise tag on him. It meant he didn’t get a long-term contract, but it also meant he made about $10 million a season. The basic message from the Bucs was, “go out and show us you can do it one more time and we’ll reward you’’. Instead of doing that, Bryant did little for much of the year and, then, had the nerve to point the blame at just about everyone but himself. Umm, that’s not how you get a long-term deal. Good luck in free agency.
Joe isn’t so sure this is fair to Bryant. Sure, on paper, his numbers didn’t come close to what a franchise-tagged receiver should have. But let’s remember he was hurt most of the year and then when you factor in the quarterbacks he had throwing passes to him and the change in coordinators in midstream, it’s easy to understand why Bryant’s numbers suffered.
When Bryant was healthy and quarterbacks were able to get the ball to him he did just fine.
Now, his fellow receiver Michael Clayton could be listed as a biggest disappointment, but he too had nagging injuries. However, when he did play, he continued to drop the ball just like he has in seasons past so Joe isn’t sure sure Clayton was a disappointment.
No, if Joe had to list a disappointment, it would be a collective disappointment and that would go to the offensive line as a whole.
The Bucs offensive line, entering the season, was thought to be one of the NFL’s best. That didn’t happen. At best, the offensive line was average this season.
January 7th, 2010 at 9:48 am
How come Hovan does not catch any flack? This guy did nothing on possibly the worst Defensive line we have ever seen. He looks like someones little brother whose is stopped cold by the older brother with 1 arm. And his arms can’t reach, but he looks like he is trying to run and swing his arms wildly.
January 7th, 2010 at 9:57 am
The_Buc_Realist:
Joe believes you make a valid point but not sure that Hovan is a “disappointment.” There’s a reason the Bucs are surely going to draft a defensive tackle early in this April’s draft. Joe’s not sure anyone expected Hovan to be an All-Pro this past season.
Was there hope Hovan would have played better? Sure.
January 7th, 2010 at 10:03 am
Why do so many fans want Bryant resigned if he is such a disappointment? I think he got singled out because of his bad boy image. It was didappointing to have him injured for the first half of the year, but the lack of running game, Clayton, Sabby, the D-line, and Derrick Ward were all bigger disappointments in my mind.
January 7th, 2010 at 10:10 am
There are just TOO many disappointments to list.
As for AB – my BIGGEST disappointment is the timing of his knee surgery – it sucked missing the whole preseason. How the heck is ANY QB supposed to get a timing pattern down when their #1 receiver is hobbling on the sidelines?
Considering the number of QB’s the Bucs used I never expected AB to come close to his 2008 numbers.
Of all the Bucs “problems” AB isn’t one of them. Sure I didn’t like his comment about how 9.7 million just “doesn’t go far,” and his “give me the damn ball” remarks but what WR DIVA doesn’t rant like that?
If Dominik were smart (jury is still out on this one) the Bucs would sign AB to a 5 year 30 million deal with 8 guarenteed up front. That SHOULD be enough to keep him and load it with incentives.
Let’s face it until Freeman gets up to speed do you really want to pay ANY WR boatloads when they will likely only be thrown to 3-4 times a game?
As for Joe’s comment about the Bucs O-line being AVERAGE? Who are YOU kidding? Most games the Buc’s O-line got manhandled – especially in their last game against the Falcons. Even Penn spent more time in the backfield than downfield. It’s bad enough that Caddy had to run around Falcons but when it’s your own team mates as well…?
The ONLY offensive player who played ABOVE average was Winslow and even Kellen needs to work on his blocking skills/or lack thereof.
Faine did OK – you could definately see the difference when he was out but there were many games when the opposition just shot up the A-Gap. The Bucs still need to work on a screen play!
January 7th, 2010 at 10:25 am
Joe, the disappointment is not that he is not all-pro. Its that he is on the TEAM!
January 7th, 2010 at 10:55 am
AB should have gotten a bigger version of the contract that Michael Clayton received this past season and Clayton should have been let go. I hope we keep Bryant.
Look at these two stat-lines. Both had nagging knee injury’s.
Antonio Bryant
G:13 GS:11 Rec:39 Yds:600 Avg:15.4 Lng:42T TD:4
Michael Clayton
G:13 GS:11 Rec:16 Yds:230 Avg:14.4 Lng:47 TD:1
January 7th, 2010 at 11:23 am
Will never share the love this site has for AB…he is a guy with slot speed that insists on playing the split position because of the paycheck. Watch the film, he doesn’t separate from the defender. Most of Freeman’s interception are generated while trying to throw to him. You had a guy that whined after wins about his lack of involvement. When you are at the game you see a guy always in Freemans ear. He dropped as many of the Josh Johnson passes as Clayton did. He got beat to the ball by a 5’10” practice squad corner on the decisive interception. I know he had a bad knee, but…cmon.. The problem is the Bucs have been woeful at drafting wide receivers and picking up free agent recievers and people around here don’t have not seen really good NFL receivers. Hopefully Stroughter will emerge into that Welker type slot guy, but you don’t have to go outside of the NFC South to realize we are behind the curve on receivers. We aren’t going to the Super Bowl next season with or without Bryant. This franchise is about developing Freeman right now, love that or hate it. Spend that free agent money on the d line and secondary, look at some WR’s late second and third.
January 7th, 2010 at 11:24 am
1. OLine
2. Bryant
3. Sabby (for those that thought he might be decent)
January 7th, 2010 at 11:28 am
Just look at the picture you managed to dig out from him and that is the window Freeman gets to through in. Yeh AB makes a lot of great catches because he has to fight through defenders to get them but young inaccurate passers “allowing the reciever to make a play” equals interceptions.
January 7th, 2010 at 12:57 pm
Joe, I’m relatively new here so i have to ask, what does BSPN mean? I know its obviously ESPN, but just wondering why you switch the E with a B.
January 7th, 2010 at 1:04 pm
Other than Clayton here are other and better candidates than Bryant for most dissappointing. For me dissappointing means you had high hopes for them that they fell far short of living up to.
1. Gaines Adams. All off season we heard how anything less than double digit sacks would be failure for him. Then there was talk about him going to a d line camp with some of the big time sack guys in the NFL and being ready to dominate. Not only didn’t he sniff that number, he also ended up getting traded.
2. Derrick Ward. The biggest free agent signing the team had in the offseason was a backup who didn’t make very many game changing plays.
3. Jeremy Trublood. Leading the league in false start penalties along with all his other boneheaded penalties is not a good look.
4. Jerramy Stevens. Wouldn’t block and caught only a handful of balls. He was basically a waste of space most of the year for the offense.
January 7th, 2010 at 1:09 pm
Ding… ding… ding!
That’s why Joe picked the o-line as a whole Steve. Joe had huge expectations for them.
January 7th, 2010 at 1:10 pm
Phil:
BSPN = BullShit Programming Network.
Thanks a lot for checking out Joe! Stick around. Joe provides Bucs content each and every day. Doesn’t matter what time of the year it is.
January 7th, 2010 at 1:14 pm
haha nice joe. that is good
January 7th, 2010 at 1:25 pm
Have to agree there are many other candidates besides AB as well. Trueblood and Ward are the first that come to mind. Didn’t save my tape of the game, but Trueblood let a Falcon DL (I believe it was Biermann) run untouched between he and Joseph (with no outside pressure) directly to the QB and had zero foot movement on the play. It was almost like he was blocking ghosts. It was just one play, but it was a microcosm of his season, IMO. Guess we should be thankful he didn’t rip the guy’s helmet off as he strolled by.
As a Buc DB, I’d be much more concerned facing a team with AB at wideout as I would a team with Clayton there. If Dominik can resign AB to a reasonable deal, I’d say do it. If Clayton can be spun with a draft pick to make a deal, even if it’s pairing him with our 3rd to move up into the 2nd (as an example), at least your getting something in return.