Bucs Grooming A New Tight End?
May 5th, 2010
Seventh-round pick Erik Lorig might get a look on offense
The guy standing around in uniform doing nothing in the various video clips of Bucs rookie minicamp was Erik Lorig, the Bucs’ final seventh round pick.
The defensive end out of Stanford is sidelined with a pectoral injury.
Woody Cummings, veteran Bucs beat writer for the Tampa Tribune, did a little digging into Lorig’s status and found that he not only might he be out of action for a long time, the Bucs don’t see him playing much, if any, defensive end this season and are considering him at tight end.
His days playing on the offensive side of the ball might not be over. Though the Bucs see him working primarily as a defensive lineman, they haven’t ruled out the possibility of using Lorig as a tight end on occasion.
“You are talking about a guy who played tight end for years,” Bucs coach Raheem Morris said. “You only get 45 guys on game day, so who knows, he may actually show up and play a little tight end for us at some point.”
At this point, the 6-foot-4, 281-pound Lorig would be happy to play anywhere. That pectoral problem has the potential to rob him of his rookie season, which probably would sour the Bucs a bit, too.
For you bottom-of-the-roster fans, Lorig’s presence probably isn’t a good sign for Ryan Purvis, the Bucs tight end on the practice squad nearly all of last season. Purvis told Joe last year that he’s more of a pass catcher than a blocker. And it would seem that the Bucs are more in need of the blocking type.
Also, Lorig’s injury probably gives undrafted free agent defensive end James Ruffin a better shot to make the team.
May 5th, 2010 at 1:32 pm
When did Lorig get hurt? Post draft? If pre-draft, why did we even draft him?
May 5th, 2010 at 3:02 pm
bucfanjeff:
He was hurt pre-draft, and word is he won’t be ready until training camp at the earliest , so we drafted a guy that will have to miss all the rookie mini-camps.
Why did we take him?? We took him because we love wasting draft picks , and our scouting department is run by retards.
May 5th, 2010 at 3:39 pm
Exactly. RM knows for a fact that the kid will be a bust at whatever postition they try and play him at and ANY of the stellar seventh round talent they passed on to draft this bum will not only start but probably be pro bowlers by year 2. /sarcasm
May 5th, 2010 at 4:26 pm
Too funny. Yeah, all two guys that were drafted after him will be pro-bowlers in no time. Everyone else they passed up could still have been taken as undrafted rookie free agents. When you’re the third from the last pick in the draft, be prepared to step into the role of Mr. Irrelevant if the last and next to last picks get cut before training camp. I don’t think the team would have been better off drafting Tim Toone or Josh Hull anyway and those are the only guys that matter, because they were the ONLY guys drafted after Lorig. Everyone else that the team may have wanted that was still available then was available after the draft.
May 5th, 2010 at 6:23 pm
Yes sunrise Jeff, because it’s always a good idea to draft a guy who will have to miss all the rookie mini-camps , and then try and change his position . That has a high likelyhood of sucess , and it’s what you see all the model teams in the NFL ( i.e. the Patriots ) do. / sarcasm.
Just because most 7th rounders don’t pan out , doesn’t mean you totally forfeit the pick and waste it on someone who DEFINITELY won’t pan out.
I can see why some of you like Radio and DUmbinik so much , you’re on the same simple-minded wave-length.
May 5th, 2010 at 7:34 pm
Jermaine Phillips??? HEE HEE HEE
May 5th, 2010 at 9:39 pm
Is this Radio guy really this ignorant? Change his position? You mean back to TE where he has more snaps then DE? That kind of change. Know it won’t pan out? Hmmmm, and you have the audacity to call out Dominik and Raheem.
May 5th, 2010 at 10:26 pm
Steve White blogged about our lack of a good blocking tight end last year.
May 5th, 2010 at 10:44 pm
If Ruffin is black, Purvis might as well kiss his job goodbye. Lets keep Stephens who doesn’t even stop to block a blitzing linebacker. We had Becht who was a blocking TE but let him go. Do these idiots ever quit drinking gin down at No. 1 Buc Place.
May 6th, 2010 at 12:30 am
You guys should read the article. The summary that JBF gave is awful. You want to know why Lorig was drafted? Click on the link.
May 6th, 2010 at 12:38 am
Joe here,
UfoJoe – It’s not a “summary.” And Joe already encourages everyone to read the article by only cutting and pasting a few graphs here and linking to it. … Chose to present just one take on how the team might use Lorig.
Why must you be so mean spirited?
May 6th, 2010 at 8:01 am
If it was panning out at TE Stanford would have left him there , Jeffy boy. LOL
It’s another reach, and another wasted pick. Get over it. You people who used to think it was Chucky responsible for these poor late round picks , THINK AGAIN.
May 6th, 2010 at 9:43 am
More Radio Mushmouth negativity without actualy reading the article.
It says the might use him at tightend at times. Not that he will be a full time tight end. He will be an option if needed.
And he’s hardly the first player to be drafted in the late rounds with an injury. If their medical staff felt like he would be fine then its no problem.
As for missing mini camps and offseason programs…what 7th round pick is expected to be a factor anyway? He has plenty of time to recover.
May 6th, 2010 at 9:54 am
The perenially competitive teams hit on SOME late round picks , not all , but some . They provide depth and special teams production.
Teams that go into a decade -long downward spiral of futility , like we are on course to to , miss on all thier late round picks.
Just becuase there is a high bust rate , does not mean you should piss the pick away, as if it doesn’t matter. If your philosohy is to build through the draft and ignore fre agency , you can’t afford to reach .
I’m not being negative , I’m being real.
May 6th, 2010 at 10:14 am
I wasn’t saying that the pick can be thrown away i was just saying 7th round picks don’t really contribute immediately.
Since he most likely would have been on the sidelines this season his injury and missing some of the offseason programs won’t be as harmful as if he were a 1st-4th round pick.
He doesn’t have to be counted on from the start of the season so he has time to get over the injusry and be a factor later in the season or next year.
Its not pissing away a pick.
If this guy heals and becomes a solid player then you’ll be eating your words.
May 6th, 2010 at 11:20 am
This front office scored last year in the 7th round with Stroughter. This year, we have three 7th round draft choices. There are many who think we may have “hit” with Watson or Grimm. Not to say we have or haven’t yet, as we do not know, but if one of those guys makes an impact on special teams (or better yet at their position) then it makes the Lorig pick less of a “need to hit”. It allows the team to use the 3rd to last pick in the draft on a “project” or “potential” rather than an “immediate impact”.
I, for one, would be incredibly impressed with this front office if they “hit” two years in a row in the 7th round. They’ve already done better with the Roy Miller pick last year than the previous administration did with the Dexter Jackson pick, or even the Dre Moore pick, or Michael Clayton pick…. or…..
May 6th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
>he not only might he be out of action for a long time,
In the article, Cummings wrote that the injury had the “potential to rob him of his rookie season.”
That’s speculation on the part of Cummings. And JBF regurgitated it without any follow-up.
http://blogs.tampabay.com/bucs/2010/05/stanford-de-lorig-could-be-a-luxury-player-for-the-bucs.html
Morris is not concerned about Lorig’s injury and expects him to be ready for training camp.
“We knew the one (injury) that’s going to be a little bit longer with Lorig and we knew about that when we took him,” Morris said. “We’ll wait for him and see when that comes around and he’s ready to go.
“He had the pec coming out of school, which we knew about. Everything is a guess-timate right now. He should be ready to go for training camp or at the end of OTA’s, you never know. It could be minicamp, whatever the case may be.”
May 6th, 2010 at 1:54 pm
Joe here,
UFOJoe – Please don’t assume Joe “regurgitates without follow up.” That wouldn’t be correct. The Times and other outlets also reported last year how Angleo Crowell would be ready to go for OTAs and training camp, but we know how that turned out. And when Crowell was signed, Joe seemingly was the only one who delved into his medical history. You’re welcome to sniff around the archives. (Joe even called Dr. James Andrews for his research. Joe remembers that call well, since the person Joe spoke to their just assumed Joe was calling about Brett Favre’s injury).
Lorig is hurt. He’s been hurt for a while. Joe hopes he gets better and doesn’t need surgery.
May 6th, 2010 at 7:48 pm
UFOJoe is a reject from the now defunct Official Bucs Message Board, Joe. I’ve seen him there…he is simply wandering in the wilderness looking for a place to spread his stupidity now that his old stomping ground is kaput.
Take him with a grain of salt .