Leftwich Preferred Not To Be In Tampa Bay
May 22nd, 2010
Joe is still amused how hateful Bucs fans spread venom at quarterback Byron Leftwich.
The guy, at the time he started for the Bucs, played behind a sieve of an offensive line (remember Sean Mayhem?) and had no receivers to throw to. (Antonio Bryant wasn’t healthy.)
Leftwich came from a Super Bowl-winner with a decent offensive line and one of the deepest sets of wide receivers to throw to in the NFL. Leftwich was a key cog in that championship season for the Steelers, coming off the bench, leading Pittsburgh to a road win at Washington as the Steelers eked out the AFC North title and home field advantage for the playoffs.
So it wasn’t surprising to Joe to hear Leftwich say how happy he is to be back in Pittsburgh and playing for one of the NFL’s elite teams. And by all accounts he’s the Steelers starting quarterback until horny sleazebag Ben Roethlisberger, who gets way to handsy with drunk college chicks, comes back from his four-game suspension.
“It was tough,” Leftwich said of his departure from Pittsburgh to Tampa Bay last offseason in a video posted on Steelers.com. “I never really wanted to leave. But [Tampa Bay] was an opportunity as a professional I had to take advantage of. It didn’t work out but I’m happy to be back” in Pittsburgh.
Let’s see if Joe can do some math:
Leftwich is good enough to suit up for a team with a front office largely regarded league-wide as having the best group of talent evaluators in the NFL.
Leftwich was good enough to be a backup to one of the game’s top quarterbacks on an eventual Super Bowl winner.
Leftwich was good enough to come off the bench to win a crucial road game for said top quarterback.
Leftwich is good enough to return — and start — for said team that has serious postseason aspirations.
But in hateful Bucs fans’ eyes, Leftwich is not even good enough to backup a still unproven quarterback on a team that last year had a shaky offensive line with a poor set of receivers and an at-best average rushing attack.
OK, Joe thinks he understands… well, not really!
May 22nd, 2010 at 3:07 pm
QB’s always get the blame when a team is terrible. To bad. I like Leftwich he is a stand up guy. I hope he does good this year. {Except one game against the Bucs. He needs to have a bad game then.}
May 22nd, 2010 at 4:04 pm
I know it’s the slow season Joe,but you have run this Leftwich departure
quite a few times.I personally think Byron is a nice guy,but really does
not fit into thr bucs rebuilding plans.There are a lot of other teams who
passed on Leftwich when we traded him and they can’t all have quality
back ups.The only team interested was Pittsburgh.
May 22nd, 2010 at 4:20 pm
I see your point Joe, but losing Lefwich is about number 27 on the list of curent regime errors, IMO.
May 22nd, 2010 at 5:29 pm
Losing Leftwich was not an error by the regime. The reason he does so well in Pittsburgh is because he is basically the same QB as Big Ben. Neither of them gets the ball out of their hand in less than 5 seconds. It takes 2 seconds for Lefty to wind up. Pittsburgh doesn’t care about a few sacks, they’ve got another QB that can come in and get sacked behind that one.
Our O-line was not good, Lefty was too slow (in release and footwork), we needed a different type of QB, one that could move their feet, maybe make something happen, and hopefully not get killed in the process. So, they switched to JJ who moved around, made a couple things happen and didn’t get killed. He didn’t win any games, but it showed that that was what we needed (for now). Enter Freeman… to do the same things as JJ, but also to get much needed experience and win some games.
I’d rather they never brought Lefty in. It caused an unneeded QB competition that took reps away from the rookie, divided the fan base (for Lefty, for McCown, for Freeman). Maybe he is a “better” QB, just not for us, for the Steelers.
May 22nd, 2010 at 5:46 pm
I’m no regime apologist , by any stretch of the imagination , but saying losing Leftwich was a mistake is a joke.
It’s like being a passenger on the Titanic, and saying it was a mistake not to have ordered fish instead of chicken as you float in the frigid water.
Get serious , people , Leftwich is a sorry ass joke. Let’s discuss something relevant.
May 22nd, 2010 at 6:36 pm
Tape doesn’t lie. Right?
SSSSluggo has years and years of bad tape, on every team he’s played for. Just because he had 1 semi good game in Pittsburgh doesn’t make him a decent QB. If Sluggo is/was so great, where is the proof? Let’s see the tape of all his great performances. Good luck finding that. Trent Dilfer was a better QB than Leftwich, and everyone knows how bad he sucked, and got a ring too. So let’s not talk about Sluggo like he is Dan Marino or Tom Brady. Tape doesn’t lie, over and over and over.
May 22nd, 2010 at 6:37 pm
Why did the Bucs bring in Sluggo in the first place? That was the real bonehead move.
May 22nd, 2010 at 6:38 pm
I predict the steelers will be 1-3 with Leftwich starting.
May 22nd, 2010 at 6:44 pm
HOLY F*****G S**T!!!!!!!
Radio MushMouth agrees with a move made by the Morris/Dominik Regime??
I’m playin’ the PowerBall TONIGHT!!!!!
May 22nd, 2010 at 6:57 pm
In response to D-Money, who’s prediction I agree with, I find the NFL’s punishment policy disturbing. Roethlisberger’s suspension is 6 games, which can be reduced to 4 if Ben a) keeps his hands, which I have named “Chester” and “Molester”, to himself and b) he fulfills whatever PR nonsense that the league requires of him (ie. Tiger Woods going to “Sex Rehab”. Side note: the American Medical Association does not recognize “Sex Addiction” as a real disease or disorder of any kind). This is nothing more than some lame as PR move. The league can say “We suspended him for 6 games!!”, when they know it’s going to end up being only 4. This is just another crack in the foundation of our society. No one is held accountable for their actions. While millions of gallons of oil is escaping into the Gulf, Corporate America points the proverbial finger at each other…
I like the way Goodell has taken a stronger stance in disciplining it’s players, but if you’re gonna go old school, “Talk Soft, Carry a Big Stick”, then spare me the dog and pony show and punish your players firmly and swiftly. It looks like some pansy parent bargaining with their children to behave…”I’ll give you a cookie if you…(fulfill the normal expectations of a human being)”
May 22nd, 2010 at 7:07 pm
So where exactly did Leftwich say he preferred not to be in Tampa? This site loses all credibility when it puts words in people’s mouths.
May 22nd, 2010 at 7:59 pm
People hated him because they ran off Mc Cowm. It is a race thing nobody wants to see it that way. Freeman looks better behind the same liune as Leftwich he can move and break tackles Leftwich stands there and gets pummled.
May 22nd, 2010 at 10:09 pm
It’s not a race thing, jlynch , it’s a slow-clumsy-poor-mechanics-slow release-fat and-out-of-shape thing
May 22nd, 2010 at 10:17 pm
Leftwich didn’t impress me I was at a few of the games he started here in Tampa and he didn’t seem like he had the drive to push these young guys, he always seemed lathargic and pouty. Good luck in Pittsburgh, ill take josh johnson as a #2 any day
May 22nd, 2010 at 10:32 pm
Joe here,
Cyberdilemma – Take a deep breath and relax and re-read everything. Nobody’s putting words in anyone’s mouth. Joe is very sensitive to that kind of stuff, and that’s not what’s going on here.
May 22nd, 2010 at 10:38 pm
agree, not a race issue but there was an issue with not going to McCown. Luke may be a total joke but he should’ve been given the chance to run the team some last season without bringing Leftwich in. Drove me crazy to hear Raheem go on about his wonderful personality and magnetic smile..huh… As far as the Joe love … root for him, then pop in the tape of the Giants game.
May 22nd, 2010 at 10:43 pm
oh and Joe…this “I never really wanted to leave. But [Tampa Bay] was an opportunity as a professional I had to take advantage of. It didn’t work out but I’m happy to be back” and ” Leftwich Preferred Not To Be In Tampa Bay” are two different things… Besides what do you expect him to say? That he loved Tampa and wished he wasn’t back in Pittsburgh?? Cmon
May 23rd, 2010 at 1:21 am
It never ceases to amaze me, that crap Joe spins and posts on slow news days.
May 23rd, 2010 at 1:23 am
Trading Slugwich was not an error by this regime. Bringing him here in the first place was an error, keeping himm over McCown was an error. Getting rid of him was a great move.
May 23rd, 2010 at 8:11 am
I have to agree with everybody that said bringing him in in the 1st place was the mistake. The competition on a rebuilding team should have been between the veteran and the rookie, not two veterans and the rookie taking scout team reps. The problem was the front office and coaches were in denial about the fact that they were in a rebuilding year and thought they were somehow contenders.
Leftwhich may be a nice guy but that doesn’t translate into a good QB. Of course Lefty is happy to be in Pittsburgh, he should be happy to still be in the NFL regardless of the team.
Last year was just one massive free agency debacle that I hope to forget about as soon as possible.
May 23rd, 2010 at 9:58 am
Leftwich is a joke. He was a joke at the end in Jax, he was a joke in Atlanta, he was a joke in Tampa.
1 game in Washington where he came in at halftime with his team already up 10-6 DOESN’T make him anymore than what he is… which is a BELOW average QB.
May 23rd, 2010 at 7:50 pm
Let’s see how well Sluggo fares as a starting QB in Pittsburgh without Santonio Holmes and the teams prepared for the slow moving and throwing leadfooted dimwitted QB. If they are better than 0-6 when Rothel returns, it’s because they went to another QB.