How Young Are The Bucs?
September 11th, 2010
You have heard it. Joe has heard it. The Bucs will be a young team this year. But how young?
Consider the information passed along by eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune on the TBO Bucs Twitter feed. He has the numbers and when the 45-man roster is announced, literally 25 percent of the Bucs will be rookies.
The Bucs have 12 rookies, plus first-year RB Kareem Huggins on their 53-man roster heading into Sunday’s opener against Cleveland.
Damn that’s young. And we all know how well rookies play in the NFL.
As Joe stated before: next year, maybe. Two years from now, certainly.
This year? Well, make sure you have ample cold adult beverages nearby.
September 11th, 2010 at 9:40 am
And surprisenly the Panthers are the youngest team in the NFL.
September 11th, 2010 at 10:30 am
As they rookies play this year and make rookie mistakes, I will keep in mind that 2 years from now we’ll be thankful. I guess its better than the constant recycling of has-beens.
September 11th, 2010 at 11:10 am
The Bucs are actually tied for 5th youngest in the league as far as 53 man rosters is concerned. We have 2 rookies listed as starters (McCoy and Williams) with Biggers starting this week (not a rookie, but didn’t play last year due to injury), Price seeing decent playing time, Huggins (not a rookie either), and a few others that have seen limited action so far. The team is young, they’ll be starting even more guys that were only active last year (Freeman, Stroughter, Moore). It’s not like their starting lineups will include Preston Parker, LaGarrette Blount, Myron Lewis, Cody Grimm, Dekoda Watson, etc. They have many young players that will see their first action on special teams this week. Some will work into positional rotations. The experience will be good for all of them. But we have experienced players at most positions.
September 11th, 2010 at 11:25 am
@ Larry, excellent point.
September 11th, 2010 at 11:41 am
I can;t wait to see them tomorrow!
September 11th, 2010 at 12:08 pm
It was about time this team starting planning ahead and not just praying to make it through the next game. This team will surprise a lot of people this year and by next year it will be playoff time. Bucs start off laying an ass kicking on puppy pound this weekend !
September 11th, 2010 at 12:55 pm
Everyone assumes just because you have young players you magically develop into “lasting contenders”.
Not necessarily true, ask the Detroit Lions.
Basically, same team as last year with McCoy and Jones added on defense, Williams and Vincent offense. Not clear how that will lead to many more wins.
this regime was left with a good young o-line, secondary and linebackers, not “has beens”. No excuse for not winning and contending now, IMO. A lot of our guys played significant roles in the two recent NFC South title teams.
September 11th, 2010 at 2:11 pm
Eric, you’re going to be eating crow when the lions show their growth this year– and when they’re even better next year.
September 11th, 2010 at 2:45 pm
The reason why this team is on the young side is because our drafting over the last ten years hasn’t been great. I’m not really worried about the young DTs. They cannot, and may I repeat, cannot play any worse than Hovan and Sims last year. The Bucs DTs last year got pushed around and gave absolutely no pass rush last year.
“It’s all about 5”. And Raheem is right. If and big “if” improves his decision making, this team will play well. If he doesn’t improve or regresses this team is in trouble for many years to come.
September 11th, 2010 at 7:50 pm
Joe, why is it “OK” to wait two years now when you couldn’t wait 3 years ago? Why can’t you hold Morris to the fire the same way you did the last coach? One more question. What has Morris done that you keep referring to him as a “MASTERMIND”?