Faine On Okam, “Stabbing Raheem In The Back”
December 17th, 2010
Chatty, injured center Jeff Faine took a break from discussing Josh Freeman’s Taco Bell obsession yesterday to chime in on a variety of other Bucs stuff.
Speaking on The Jeff Faine Show on 1010 AM, the Bucs captain warned that Raheem Morris’ loose leash on the team won’t last forever the way things are going.
“Guys are stabbing Raheem in the back,” Faine said, regarding Bucs’ off-the-field incidents.
Faine said Raheem gives the team “a lot of leeway” but “it’s going to come to a point where he’s not going to do that anymore.”
On manbeast defensive tackle Frank Okam, who is off the practice squad and will be wearing a helmet Sunday, Faine said the 6-5, 350-pounder is very strong. “I’ve seen him in the weight room repping over 500 pounds [on the bench press].”
Faine said Okam needs polish to his game but works hard. Faine talked about how intensely the young d-lineman practice and that has made the offensive line better. Of Faine’s first practice back after a quad injury, “I was like, man, that was like playing in a real game.”
December 17th, 2010 at 11:06 am
I really hope Okam can turn out to be yet another piece we found and can also hopefully contribute to the run defense. You can’t teach size but you can coach technique.
December 17th, 2010 at 11:12 am
Ok so Faine admits the leash is loose right now. Rah has to change that now!
December 17th, 2010 at 11:24 am
Okam has been around, what? 3 years now? He should NOT have that much to learn with technique anymore.
I hope he pans out and becomes a short yardage, 1st down beast stuffing the run and taking up two blockers. It just sounds like he is not that good and is all show.
Hope I am wrong because like I said, I would love to see a 350 run stuffing machine in the rotation with McCoy, Price, and Miller for years to come.
Now go get a DE that can rush and some LBs!
December 17th, 2010 at 11:31 am
Lol. I thought for a second that frank backatabbed Raheem. But hopefully he can just hold his own and not get washed up in the run game.
December 17th, 2010 at 11:41 am
Off topic joe, but I came across this on Bucstats.com…He points out something that all those talking about the Bucs opponets records, which is 80-89…
” Chicago’s opponents’ record is 74-95, Green Bay’s is 79-90, the Giants’ is 71-98. Hell, the Saints’ is 68-101″…from Bucstats.com
So, according to Buc You, Thomas 2.whatever, Eric the missing, and a few others…none of these teams are any good either.
December 17th, 2010 at 11:42 am
Not sure what happened to my first sentence, but you guys get the drift.
December 17th, 2010 at 11:44 am
The pic reminds me of Dexter. TAKE IT!!
December 17th, 2010 at 11:47 am
On topic…In public Faine should be toeing the company line. This is a bad move on his part. He is a smart guy, I am shocked that he would make such a statement in public. I may disagree with the CEO of the company, but I am not going to tell it to all of our customers. With all the injuries, he may know is days are numbered anyway.
OK coaches, tighten up the ship. Players, you guys need to tighten it up as well. This goes for the entire league.
December 17th, 2010 at 11:56 am
Frank Okam- This guy makes me wonder exactly what the plan is for this defense going forward. He has the body type of a 3-4 nose tackle all the way. He doesn’t belong in a 4-3 defense in which he will have no pass rushing ability. Is Raheem considering the move to 3-4 defense? Is the extensive use of the 3-3-5 a prelude to a full time switch to a 3 man front? It wouldn’t be that hard to do at this point. 350 lb. Okam as the fat load, space eating nose tackle. GMC and Brian Price as the defensive ends. Geno and Barrett as the inside linebackers. Then pay Lamarr Woodley whatever it takes to sign him and draft another 3-4 guy to be your outside linebackers. I highly doubt this is the case but its not out of the realm of possibility.
December 17th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
gitarlvr:
Dominik signed the guy in basically a move that reminds Joe of something grasping at straws. If Joe’s memory is correct, this guy Okam was signed when the Bucs were still getting gashed by the run (sans the Redskins game, there were a few games where the Bucs stopped the bleeding).
Joe just can’t get worked up over a guy that in the middle of a season was on a practice squad. Additionally, how many tackles does Okam have in three years, four tackles for a guy that monstrous playing defensive tackle? Hell, a defensive tackle can just fall over and get that many tackles.
December 17th, 2010 at 12:17 pm
Did Nina get cut from of the team? 🙁
December 17th, 2010 at 12:57 pm
Joe-
Oh im not saying its likely to happen. If the Bucs wanted to play a 3-4 they would probably have to draft someone to play nose tackle. Miller is not big enough. Okam is prototype size but like you said probably not very talented. All im saying is if the Bucs are going to play this much 3 man front they might as well go all the way and do it right. I personally think they should get back to basics with a 4 man front. With all the defenses moving to 3-4 there is less competition to draft 4-3 personnel and offenses are getting less experience against it than they used to. The one thing I don’t like is being so caught in between. If your going to use a 3 man front then draft and sign some pass rushing outside linebackers and do it right. Im sick of seeing guys like Tim Crowder and Stylez White playing as stand up linebackers at times. They have no ability for that. All im saying is I think Raheem should go full force one way or the other. There is too much of our personnel doing things they aren’t really cut out for in this current scheme.
December 17th, 2010 at 1:06 pm
Blee:
Who is “Nina?”
December 17th, 2010 at 1:09 pm
I am putting McBuc’s Bucstats numbers in my quiver for the haters…That is very interesting, McB!
December 17th, 2010 at 1:52 pm
@Joe
Nina Stauffer. One of the hotter cheerleader on the squad.
December 17th, 2010 at 2:23 pm
Nina Stauffer got cut from the cheerleading squad??? This is far more significant news than anything related to this Okam cat.
December 17th, 2010 at 2:28 pm
Blee:
What do you know about this Nina Stauffer? Joe’s on his laptop and, for a variety of reasons, Joe can’t see well on it. A quick check on the Bucs cheerleader site no longer has Nina’s photo on it, so unless Joe missed it — possible — you may be right.
How and where did you learn of this transaction?
Yes, Joe’s about topics, not transactions, unless it involves a Bucs cheerleader.
December 17th, 2010 at 2:55 pm
I would like to see Dexter & Lumen(in Bucs Cheer attire) go off on one of the refs for making bad calls. Bad Call Vigilantes.
December 17th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
@Joe
My friend highlighted it to me seeing as Nina was absent for the past couple of games. This is devastating!
December 17th, 2010 at 3:09 pm
gitarlvr,
I think there is a league-wide push toward versatility. Coaches seem to be leaning towards running aspects of both the 3-4 and the 4-3 philosophies. Few teams these days line up and dare the offense to beat them. So much emphasis is placed on disguising coverages, blitz packages, etc. The teams that will have the most success going forward, will be those with players who can seamlessly transition between systems. Thus, an offense cannot make any assumption based on personnel groupings and will continually be confused and forced into bad plays.
Now, it is all well and good to run a bunch of tricky plays and “show different looks” but you have to succeed in doing so.
Raheem has proved great at disguising coverages and getting our secondary in positions to make plays. It almost seems like his system is predicated on baiting QBs to throw into danger. Once he gets a better handle (or better players) on the blitzing, we will dominate.
December 17th, 2010 at 5:12 pm
Crime against humanity.
December 17th, 2010 at 10:09 pm
if u ask me, i really want woods and okam will be with us years to come!!! even if we keep 5 DT, also, i guess kyle moore era en TB is done, injury prone, not factor on field, im really liking bennett and magee on the team, we need to pick up two nasty DEs and thats all!!!