Hope Rests On Rookie Miracles
June 25th, 2010
The Bucs want a strong showing from Brian Price, who has participated in few practices to date.
St. Pete Times uber columnist Gary Shelton felt a bit sadistic today and went to great lengths to explain to Bucs fans what most already know: that barring an incredible showing by several rookies and second-year players, the Bucs are destined for a poor season in 2010.
Among other areas, Shelton zeroed in on the defensive line, making a case that league history would advise Bucs fans not to expect much from that position of weakness.
Shelton even talked to defensive line coach Todd Wash, who didn’t sugarcoat much.
“We understand what rookies are,” said Todd Wash, the Bucs defensive line coach. “If they’re out there, it will be because they’ve earned it.
“It’s a hard transition. Once you get to week 10 or 11, these guys are getting ready for their bowl games. It gets to be a long season. We need to control that a little. We don’t want them to get burned out.
“If a player isn’t physically ready to go, you can put a damper on his career by playing him too soon. As coaches, we’ve got to be smart about that.”
Joe’s not sure what Wash is talking about when he says the rookies have to earn it. It’s already glaringly clear that Gerald McCoy will start — ready or not. And Brian Price is going to be playing on third down unless Roy Miller somehow plays out of his mind in the preseason. And even then, Price was the No. 35 overall pick in the deepest draft in years. He’s playing.
News flash for Wash. The youngsters don’t have to earn anything. Ryan Sims will warm the bench.
The other top rookies won’t have to earn much time, either. Raheem The Dream just has to hope they earn him another year.
June 25th, 2010 at 3:49 pm
I disagree with Shelton. It’s way too early to tell who will be on top and which teams will be on the bottom. One key injury can sink a team e.g. Peyton Manning or Tom Brady. Numerous injuries or several to key players has the same result. A team can being kicking butt for the first 12 games, be 9-3, and then lose the next 4 and be out of contention. We’ve been to that horror movie. The bottom line is that none of these prognosticating A$$holes can predict the future and on a good day TBO sucks and the SPTimes has little or no clue.
Sorry, I’m just tired of so called fans/reporters telling us our is going to suck.
I say “You Suck!”
June 25th, 2010 at 3:58 pm
Why is JoeBoltsFan still up? Do you have to satisfy advertising contracts before removing the site? Clearly a good idea that didn’t pan out.
Do tell.
June 25th, 2010 at 3:59 pm
and BigMac…ditto brother, ditto – we have to play the games.
June 25th, 2010 at 4:02 pm
Joe here,
bucfanjeff – For the record, JoeBoltsFan never took any money from advertisers. The ads there were just freebies for those who advertised here. Regardless, the site ran pretty strong for a year and we got a chance to test out the market. Amanda Harris, the lovely lead writer there, was hired away from JoeBoltsFan by the Lightning organization, and subsequently we made the business decision to stop updating the site after the season. …It may be re-launched in a big way, but no announcement at this time.
June 25th, 2010 at 4:05 pm
Thanks for the update Joe. Maybe it would help to post Watsonesque pics of Amanda on the site to draw in visitors. Just a thought. 🙂
June 25th, 2010 at 6:24 pm
Worst to First it has yet to fail.
That alone should get some people off the edge.
June 25th, 2010 at 7:43 pm
Shelton shows good insight. Sapp didn’t show his pro bowl form unil his third year. Still, the defensive line can’t be any worse than it was last year. Or can it.
June 25th, 2010 at 9:23 pm
@bucfanjeff and bigmac:
Is that stuff that u guys are smoking legal? There is NO chance that this group can be competitive in the division or the league. They are one of the bottom 3 teams in the league, luckily they open with one equally as bad – Cleveland.
After that, they will ony win 1-3 more games. Youth NEVER translates to winning quickly in the NFL. This team is HORRIBLE, many argue that they did not improve from 2009 for 2010. Subtractions: AB, Wilkerson, Hovan, Penn (possibly) cancel out or may outweigh the additions for this year.
Half the draft picks will fail, thee other 95% will not be solid pros for 3 years, 1 player from these drafts may meaningfully contribute – probably just Freeman.
Lets all get excited for 2012. Thanks Glazers, Dom and Rah for destroying an exciting decade plus!
June 25th, 2010 at 10:17 pm
Thomas, nothing but the good $hit baby. like Gold.
Joe, congrats to your sister Amanda, getting hired by Mr Vinik and Yzerman and that crew is awesome.
I can’t wait until the Bolts get this thing rolling, and now she’s a part of that.
Way to go Amanda!!! Good Job Joe!
June 25th, 2010 at 11:08 pm
thomas said:
Half the draft picks will fail, thee other 95% will not be solid pros for 3 years
Dude, go back to school. you just said we had 145% draft picks. Either you don’t know half is 50% or you meant to say that 95% of the rest. Either way, it’s pathetic.
So many people are being a bit hypocritical here. The rookies won’t be good, let’s see what they do when the pads are on. Well, if we won’t know what they can do until the pads are on, then we obviously don’t know what the team will do until the pads are on. Until the games mean something, we won’t know if they’ll win or lose, actually we won’t know until the game is over. If you don’t want people talking up the rookies or the team because they haven’t played the games, then don’t trash them before the games are played either. I understand you have an opinion, but this is just getting old hearing about how players or the team will suck when the games haven’t been played. Miami turned it around a couple years ago when nobody expected them to, there’s no telling if the same could happen to the Bucs UNTIL THEY PLAY THE GAMES!!!
June 26th, 2010 at 2:15 am
People, just look at history! If the Bucs are going to rely heavily on rookies (they pretty much have to since the cut the veterans), it’s going to be a painful year.
Shelton is right with regards to the DLine. How many rookie DT’s have been successful in their rookie year? Sapp wasn’t great. Raji last year was suppose to be an animal, but you didn’t hear a peep out of him. Did they even call his name when the Bucs played Green Bay? They say it takes 3 years for a D-lineman to figure out how to play in the NFL.
If we’re lucky maybe one of the draft picks will be Rookie of the Year material. Odds are that position will be one of the WRs (assuming Freeman is half-way decent this year).
How about last year’s draft? It’s not like people are saying Moore and Miller are shaping up to be superstars this year. Hell, their first 2 picks this year were DTs! To me, that says they aren’t terribly comfortable with Miller. And unless Freeman is the 2nd coming of Dan Marino, he’s going to have a rough year too (epecially if Penn is MIA). So far, Stroughter is the most productive player from last year’s draft and last time I checked he wasn’t in the running for Rookie the Year.
It’s far from certain that even last year’s rookies are going to be major contributors this year, must less to expect this year’s crop of players to do much of anything. Just look at history!
June 26th, 2010 at 11:00 am
History is just as subjective as speculation. Anyone can point to specific things historically and say “see, that’s what will happen”. Yet, someone else will find other things historically to make their point and say “no, that won’t happen, this will”. I can point out teams turning their team around from bad to good in one year, you can point out teams that “went young” and were bad for consecutive years, I can point out players that had success in year one, you can find players that didn’t. Once again, they have to play the games. We can speculate all you want, we can even back it up with a little history, but until the games are played it’s anyones guess as to how this team will do.
June 27th, 2010 at 7:14 am
@ BamBamBuc
Rookie Players, 2nd year Amateur Coach, the recent history of the tighfisted Glazer Boys! And you think this is a formula for success?
When the 2010 season is “history”, we will have the 1st pick in 2011!
June 27th, 2010 at 11:49 am
If you expect miracles from rookies, your gonna be disappointed. This year(uggh) is still rebuilding- thanks, Gruden! Even if the rookies are better than expected, we have no depth at OL, DL, LB , or secondary. A couple injuries, and are starting even more rookies. Oh well, a least the Tailgatings good! And the Cheerleaders look like they have recruited well:) . Good lines, nice depth, especially at tight end! Hopefully the Berrs good, and I’ll still be happy ta be there!