OTA Absences Will Count Against Ward
June 8th, 2010
Derrick Ward seems to have landed in his coaches' doghouse, perhaps taking the spot vacated by Antonio Bryant.
Sure, Derrick Ward was back at Monday’s OTA practice after some sort of extreme dental makeover that caused him to miss all of last week’s OTA festivities.
He’s all peachy now at the voluntary workouts, but it seems damage has been done. That’s the word from St. Pete Times Bucs beat writer Rick Stroud, aka The Mad Twitterer, who claims Greg Olson and others say Ward’s no-show act has consequences.
“If Derrick Ward has any more reasons not to come, legitimate or not, I just don’t know,” Stroud said to J.P. Peterson on WQYK-AM 1010 on Friday evening. “You know, in talking to Greg Olson and other people, they’re just like, ‘Well, you know we’re going to be loyal to who’s here.’ And you can’t really blame them for that.”
Sure sounds like Olson and the Bucs brass don’t consider dental work enough to keep a guy out of three practices — voluntary or not.
Joe’s not surprised by any of this. It would be hard for an offensive coordinator to avoid giving preferential treatment to the players who sweated it out every day with him installing the offense in June.
Joe’s only surprised (but not really) that Olson and company are spilling all this to the media, saying those in attendance at OTAs would earn loyalty from the coaches. The Bucs new media czar really needs to send Olson a stern message, or at least some fresh duct tape.
June 8th, 2010 at 12:43 pm
Penn is missing OTA’s as well but the word on JBF is pay him… I think he is a good LT and we have had him on the “cheap” (oh yeah thats a bad thing right?) but he did this last year as well missed OTA’s(how did that work out for him and the O-line).. As for Ward, well he had some dental work done maybe it was an abscessed tooth, and caused him to be a little off… who knows.
I like the fact that the Coaches are giving credit to those who are out working in OTA’s.. If i’m at work and the boss tells me i need to work on Sat, on a volunteer project, and i don’t show up.. i would say that I might not get a good pay review.. same thing here only it is Playing Time on Sundays…
June 8th, 2010 at 1:19 pm
Speaking of Olsen and his offense. I just read this from pft:
“It’s very similar to Gruden’s offense,” running back Earnest Graham told Roy Cummings of the Tampa Tribune. “It’s the same mindset, the same offense. What he has the quarterback doing, the receivers and the running backs — it’s pretty much the same system.”
The running backs seem particularly pleased with the offense Olson has installed this offseason.
June 8th, 2010 at 1:54 pm
@oar: It’s not the same offense, but may have some similarities. Gruden was lots of crossing routes, shorter throws. I think he means more so from a RB perspective, run blocking, etc. It’s been “well documented” that, thus far, there are a lot more vertical aspects to Olsen’s offense – and have been practiced as such.
@Joe: As for this article, Olsen is only saying what everybody knows happens already. Actually, the same can be said for many jobs across America.
And out of curiosity, just how many “Joe’s” are there?
June 8th, 2010 at 2:09 pm
Joe here,
bucfanjeff — There are 2 1/3 Joes.
June 8th, 2010 at 8:32 pm
I think the coaches are in Ward’s doghouse.