Critics Of Barrett Ruud Unfair
March 15th, 2010
It seems eye-RAH! Kaufman, of the Tampa Tribune, has heard all the complaints about Barrett Ruud and he’s fed up.
Appearing on The Fabulous Sports Babe Show on WHBO-AM 1040 Monday afternoon, Kaufman all but called out the critics of the Bucs underperforming middle linebacker.
Kaufman blamed Ruud’s problems not so much on Ruud but on who is playing in front of Ruud.
“I will not judge — nor should you — I will not judge Barrett Ruud when Ryan Sims is playing in front of him,” Kaufman said. “Now, when he has a stud playing in front of him and he is making tackles six yards downfield, then we have a problem.”
Kaufman didn’t just tear into Ruud’s critics. He also seemed skeptical of the current player-acquisition philosophy.
“If the season started today, this is the worst receiving corps in the history of professional football,” Kaufman said. “Reggie Brown? There’s a reason why the Philadelphia Eagles kept drafting receivers. You can’t pass up on guys like Anquan Boldin who wouldn’t have cost that much.
“[If the Bucs are banking on a starting receiver being drafted] putting stock in a second round receiver is dangerous.
“This team has so many needs. It’s tough to hit five out of five and this team’s track record [in recent drafts] is not very good, but I won’t blame [Bucs general manager Mark] Dominik for that. There were too many big misses. Poor Kellen Winslow. He may get triple-teamed.”
Kaufman also suggested there will be blackouts this year, not thinking the Glazer family will continue to pick up the cost of 20,000 tickets each game to qualify for a sellout.
March 15th, 2010 at 2:52 pm
What?! The richest owners in the NFC South not picking up tickets again…Thank goodness for DirecTV!!
Barrett Ruud – I like the guy. So he’s not vocal, big deal. Give him a DL and watch him fly. I wouldn’t say he’s a stud, but he’s above average for sure.
March 15th, 2010 at 2:57 pm
bucfanjeff:
Even with NFL Sunday Ticket, if a Bucs game is blacked out locally, you’ll have to drive to Fort Myers to watch it live. Even NFL Sunday Ticket will black out a Bucs feed (within a specific radius of the CITS).
You can, however (for a price Joe believes; not sure) watch it on NFL.com, taped, after the Sunday night football game.
March 15th, 2010 at 3:10 pm
Joe is correct….looks like it may be Caybrews and Deckerhoff a few sundays this year!
March 15th, 2010 at 3:20 pm
I don’t think Ruud is as bad as some people make him out to be. I think he is solid. I will agree that he does need to make more big plays though.
Glad some of these writers are coming down on the Glazers for not spending. Ira hit the nail in the head when he said the 5 out of 5 comment. It is almost unheard of to hit on all your early round draft picks. It just doesn’t work that way. But the Bucs seem to think that they will. And I will hit my head on the counter if I read again how the Bucs are wise to build through the draft. EVERY TEAM WANTS TO BUILD THROUGH THE DRAFT!! Some teams just go at it differently. Like trading some of the picks for players. But this is not a new philosophy that the Bucs are peddling and it is not some miraculous cure to their ills.
Ira was also correct in saying that it wasn’t wise to count on a 2nd round pick to lead the receivers. Receivers notoriously don’t make a huge impact in their first season (unlike running backs for instance). Very few gain 1000 yards in receiving. And the Reggie Brown trade makes me more and more nervous. The Eagles were thirsting for receivers after TO left and they’ve been looking to replace him for several years now. So Brown must not be that great. I forgot who said this, but they were right in saying that Brown was not replacing AB but more like he was replacing Brian Clark.
This offseason has just been very frustrating. I still don’t get how people can defend what the Bucs are doing. Yeah yeah yeah build through the draft blah blah blah blah. But not to help the team through free agency is just asinine. Now people are saying that the Bucs are very smart and waiting for 2011 to make their big splash in free agents. Haven’t they been saying that for several years now??!! That once they were free from the salary cap hell that Rich McKay put us in that the wallet would be open. Well the joke was clearly on Bruce Allen when he thought that. And it will be on Mark D. if he thinks that will happen next year.
March 15th, 2010 at 3:25 pm
Sorry Joe, I should have elaborated more…I live in Charlotte, NC – the heart of Panther Country (and subsequent abuse). I’m fine here, no worries with the blackouts! Hopefully this year when I watch the game at the Kitty Kats Koral (panther stadium), I won’t watch Freeman throw 5 picks.
March 15th, 2010 at 4:40 pm
Hard to believe our middle linebacker is great when we ranked dead last in the league against the run.
But what is the identity of the Bucs? Are we trying to be a running ball control team? passing team? Go back to the Dungy style of keep the score down with great defense? What is it these guys are trying to accomplish?
With these moves why did they even bother drafting Josh Freeman?
I don’t see what the plan is except “we got ten picks in the draft”.
March 15th, 2010 at 4:48 pm
Ruud sucks
March 15th, 2010 at 4:54 pm
least not get carried away Rudd is good needs work but he is not #57 who most teams ran at , the only play Iremeber him making was aginst the Dolphins. But since the blocking Icon is still on payroll why not move him to linebacker since he likes contact so much would be right up this coaching staff’s alley they love trying to make someone something they are not
March 15th, 2010 at 4:57 pm
oops meant quincy black # 57 plus most linebackers are good as the Dt’s in front of them so ease up on Rudd
March 15th, 2010 at 5:02 pm
It’s not the sole responsibility of the LB to stop the run. There is a first line of defense – it’s called the DL. I don’t care what LB you put back there, if the DL sucks the run plays are going to eat up 3-4 yards a pop.
March 15th, 2010 at 5:18 pm
I do think the play of the DL has a great deal to do with how the LBs play. If the DL holds up some blockers, it frees up the LBs to make plays in the backfield. Baltimore usually has had a good DL and they has helped Ray Lewis tremendously in making tackles. Casey Hampton is a great DT and he frees up space for Farrior and Harrison. So getting a person like a Suh or McCoy will have a trickle down effect on the D. Hopefully this will help Ruud, Hayes and Black make more big plays. It is amazing that we have had this problem with the DL for several years now. If the Bucs would have addressed this earlier, then some of these problems would not have occurred. And quite possibility saved Gruden’s job. But I’ve gotten over that firing. I don’t even think it was a mistake per se. The big mistake was who they hired.
March 15th, 2010 at 5:29 pm
Would Ruud make more plays with a better line? Probably, but Ruud is a small LB with spaghetti arms. He usually makes his tackles, eventually. Ruud may be Okay, but the questions are: Is he great? Is he feared by RB’s & TE’s. Is he in the top 10% of NFL LB’s? 25%? 50%?
Yea, OK, he’s alright, but is this as good as it gets? I don’t think so and as they say, “Film doesn’t Lie”.
If Ruud was the best at his craft, he would have a big contract long ago. Truth is that this guy will be replaced when the right opportunity comes along.
Hayward is #57, Black #58. Geno Hayes #54, has the most potential of the bunch. The rest of them are backups at best or good special teamers on another team. The Bucs need a serious inside LB to take control of the defense.
I guess my question is: Is this as good as it gets? I hope not.
March 15th, 2010 at 6:29 pm
Funny, I don’t recall a bunch of complaining about Ruud’s tackling in the 2007-8 seasons. I don’t have game film to study, but it may have been Barrett was trying to make up for bad plays by others when people saw those tackles downfield.Maybe he had guards on him that weren’t supposed to be there; maybe no one on the D-line was good enough to need doubling. I’d appreciate some comments from Mr. White on gap-control in this context. One thing I like about Ruud, he shows up to play every Sunday.
March 15th, 2010 at 6:37 pm
I see that RFA Hargrove is visiting the Lions. If they sign him, could mean they go o-line at number two.
Perhaps the bucs will have a choice between Suh and McCoy. Most mocks have Bradford to the lambs.
That might be some much needed good news for bucdom.
March 15th, 2010 at 7:02 pm
The blocking icon is ranked 206th among receivers in 2009. Even Mo Stovall beat him at 164th.
Can’t wait to buy a ticket to that aerial display.
I only point that out to show we may have worse problems than Ruud.
March 15th, 2010 at 8:02 pm
Having a stud DT in front of Rudd isn’t going to help him when he has to meet the blocking fullback in the hole , and he loses that battle everytime , getting blown 5 yards back into the secondary.
You have to win some physical 1 on 1 battles at LB , regardless of who is playing in front of you.
March 15th, 2010 at 8:22 pm
I remember that as well Mike J. People were upset that Ruud didn’t make the Pro Bowl a couple of years ago. So suddenly he now sucks? Ok then. You can’t have a Pro Bowler and I think the Bucs have way bigger problems than Ruud. The whole DL, Quincy Black’s LB position (Black played a lot worse than Ruud IMO last season), a CB opposite Talib and a S opposite T. Jackson. So I would tackle those positions first on D.
March 15th, 2010 at 8:50 pm
THANK GOD I BOUGHT A GOOD SUPPLY OF ENERGIZER BATTERIES BECAUSE ITS GOING TO BE BLACKOUT HEAVEN IN TAMPA..
March 15th, 2010 at 8:55 pm
Pro Bowler at every position is what that should have read in my fifth sentence.
March 15th, 2010 at 10:32 pm
I was a much bigger Rudd supporter before he got blown by a quarterback! I do like him and hope he can rebound with a better d-line but damn, a quarterback! Here’s hoping he didn’t see him coming.
March 16th, 2010 at 8:55 am
Barrett Ruud was one of the 11 on a team that was the absolute worst, last place, in team rushing defense.
He gets the blame like the rest, they all stunk.
Barrett also was the acting MLB… So he gets extra blame for over pursuing and being out of position… As well as the othe 2 LBs. I have seen on several plays where the offense ran a counter or cut back and ENTIRE buccaneers defense was pursuing in the wrong direction… Time and time again.
March 16th, 2010 at 9:26 am
I don’t agree with Ira’s articles very much at all. But, if he said all that above, I agree absolutely with him.
Last year, Albert Haynesworth was paid more than our whole defense & coaching staff. Our d-line was, and still is, a joke. Besides, Bisaccia, our coaching staff was, and still is, a joke. Our owners are a joke. So how can anyone blame Ruud when the opposing teams o-line & running backs were 7 yards downfield within 3 seconds ofter the snap! And for you kool-aid drinkers, if you purchase a season ticket this year, the “jokes on you”!