The QB Blast: Name Graham Starting Fullback
February 24th, 2010
Former Bucs QB Jeff Carlson
JEFF CARLSON
JoeBucsFan.com analyst
Former Bucs quarterback Jeff Carlson (1990 & 1991) writes the weekly QB Blast column here at JoeBucsFan.com. Joe is ecstatic to have him firing away. Carlson has TV gigs in the Bay area and trains quarterbacks of all ages via his company, America’s Best Quarterback.
The Buccaneer brass will evaluate a ton of potential NFL talent at the combine this week as they make their plans for the April draft.
They got their man to lead the offense last year and now they must put more pieces of the puzzle together to make that engine rev higher this season.
While I’m not all that excited about Cadillac Williams or Derrick Ward, the guy that needs to be their starting fullback is Earnest Graham.
I don’t care that he is undersized. He is the kind of football player that I want to go to “war” with. Not only is he a selfless player, willing to do whatever it takes to help the team, he has multi-purpose abilities that can help make Greg Olson a better play-caller.
There was great expectation for Jon Gruden to implement his “rocket” backfield, putting two tailbacks on the field at the same time and trying to give the defense more speed to defend. Earnest Graham may not put much fear into too many defensive coordinators based on speed, he is the perfect guy to help create specific mismatches that can give the Bucs an offensive advantage.
That was Gruden’s best attribute as a coordinator and Olson would do well to follow his lead with regards to who they choose to be their lead blocker.
Or, if they are smart enough to move their offense into the 21st century, they would choose instead to be a more diversified offense, focused on giving their “franchise” quarterback more opportunities than handing the ball to “journeyman” running backs.
February 24th, 2010 at 12:12 pm
Carlson ur an idoit good thing ur not a head coach cuz you be fired like gruden was fired! The bucs need a new tailback weather it be blount out of oregon or dixon from mississippi state I like these guy more then the three we have on roster I would trade all three and start over!
February 24th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
Im with you here !! … Graham probably has the best Yards per carry of the Bucs backs over the last 3 years yet we ignore him … Anyone remember when 2 Saints tried to tackle him and they just bounced off … He has some Alstott in him with his Balance
February 24th, 2010 at 12:24 pm
Zech, what round do you think we should draft Blount or Dixon?
February 24th, 2010 at 12:27 pm
Makes sense to me. And I think Joe mentioned this previously or something close to it. Just name Graham the fullback and find a way to get all these talented players on the field. Graham and Caddy probably only have one more year left in them anyway
February 24th, 2010 at 12:32 pm
Blount and or dixon I would draft them in rounds 3,4 or 5th round somewhere between there!
February 24th, 2010 at 1:15 pm
zech, And you are what coach? For what team?
February 24th, 2010 at 1:16 pm
You can’t run a pass-heavy offense with an inaccurate QB, a good TE and 1 decent WR (assuming Bryant is gone). You play to the strengths of your personnel, and at this point the personnel does not have the right strength to go pass-happy.
February 24th, 2010 at 1:34 pm
The dream will have this all figured out, similar to the masterful job he did fully utilizing Ward, Graham, and Caddy last season.
February 24th, 2010 at 1:37 pm
Graham has proven to be a productive runner! Use him!!
February 24th, 2010 at 10:01 pm
Zech: I didn’t say the Bucs don’t need better runners, in fact, I called them “journeymen”. The point was the fullback. Some people want a huge guy to blow holes, I would rather have a guy with the attributes of Graham that can block, catch, run, go in motion and run routes on a mismatch, etc., etc.
I have been screaming for too many years about how bad the Bucs personnel is and was under Gruden, especially the receiving corps. I didn’t say go “pass-heavy”. I said “more diversified” and that is what having a Graham-type fullback would help do.
February 25th, 2010 at 12:35 am
Agreed Jeff. Keep up the good work! 🙂
February 25th, 2010 at 12:37 am
Keep Graham and Pressley at FB hopefully Askew and Storer can come back.
Jeff your thoughts on keeping J.Johnson, if he gets some REAL reps this off season. Do you see he has a future in the NFL, Back up or Starter? I don’t believe he has gotten as many QUALITY reps in any of his off season and Training camps with the BUCS.
February 25th, 2010 at 4:29 am
CARLSON GET IT TOGETHER GUY……GRAHAM NEEDS THE BALL MORE….THATS THE BOTTOM LINE….AND HE CAN BE OUR FEATURE BACK…IF YOU LOOK AT ALL THE LONG RUNS THE PAST 3 YEARS ON THIS TEAM, EG HAS ALMOST ALL OF THEM….HE DOESNT HAVE THE SPEED BUT HE DOES BREAK THROUGH THE LINE OFTEN AND HE IS HARD TO TAKE DOWN IN SPACE AT TIMES…HE IS NO DOUBT A 1300 YARD BACK IF HE IS FEATURED…..ADAM FROM NY
February 25th, 2010 at 4:31 am
ID LIKE THEM TO GRAB GERHART FROM STANFORD AS WELL IF HE IS AVAILABLE FOR US…..ADAM FROM NY
February 25th, 2010 at 8:04 am
I think the mentoring thing with an older QB is overblown. Brett Favre just told the truth a few years ago when he said it wasn’t his job to develop Aaron Rogers and to find a QB willing to do that as part of his job is to find a guy cashing a paycheck, not a backup QB!
Having a mobile QB as my backup is what I would usually want. I liked Marc Bulger a few years ago in his “timing” system with the Rams, but things really have to be in sync to work well. If he his coming off the bench because the starter got hurt, then things won’t be clicking and I would rather have Josh Johnson that could potentially make things happen on broken plays with either his arm or feet.
The new (former NFL QB) quarterback coach is the mentor and the guy being paid to be just that. If you want a personal trainer to wake up with Freeman and work out at 6AM, you can buy those too. Another older veteran is not going to be Freeman’s sidekick (like Gilligan and the Skipper), it just doesn’t work like that.