Toughest Decisions Rest On Offensive Line
January 4th, 2011
It’ll be one of the great debates of the Bucs offseason — for fans and probably for the team: What will the Bucs do along the offensive line?
The Bucs lost Davin Joseph, Jeff Faine and Jeremy Trueblood and still blocked for a five-yards-per-carry rusher and kept Josh Freeman pretty clean. Crap, they won 10 games.
Joseph has missed nine games because of injury over the past three years. Faine has missed 12 games over two years. Those guys will make an awful lot of money next year. Did the Bucs really significantly miss either one?
Did James Lee do enough to be counted on as a starter? Forgetting about replacing Jeremy Trueblood, who sure seems like a goner.
Joe has no clue how Faine or Joseph might handle fighting for their jobs in training camp. How do the Bucs look Jeremy Zuttah or Ted Larsen in the face and tell them they’re not starters anymore.
Tough calls all around.
January 4th, 2011 at 9:44 am
Id sign Joseph and keep Faine, let Trueblood go.
I like the line of…
Penn…Zuttah…Faine…Joseph…Lee
Ted can play Guard/Center as can Zuttah slide over to center if needed, thats alot of versatility.
Larsen played extremely well this year, but i cant say the same about Hardman, he was nothing more than average.
January 4th, 2011 at 10:29 am
Raheem once used a phrase, “I’m going to tolerate you until I can replace you”. That applies here, but in this case, sign Joseph and keep Faine until you can draft a suitable replacement.
January 4th, 2011 at 10:36 am
I would resign Joseph cut or try and trade faine and let trueblood walk then it would be Penn Larsen zuttah Joseph and lee and it’ll be a pretty damn god line next season
January 4th, 2011 at 10:41 am
Its called building depth. Sign Joseph and Faine. Let Trueblood go.
January 4th, 2011 at 10:49 am
I agree with travis. Joseph and Faine stay. Jeremy “I didnt know I couldnt jam my hands into his face and throw him onto teh ground” Trueblood can go. I’m tired of his drive-killing penalties. We need depth on the O-line so better decent players around even if Larson and Lee are better.
January 4th, 2011 at 11:00 am
Faine needs to go. Makes way too much money for playing half a season every year. Isn’t he the highest paid player on the team?
January 4th, 2011 at 12:03 pm
They owe Faine alot anyway, so I think he stays. Plus, Zuttah is a great backup because he can play just about everywhere.
Joseph to me is still damn good. Larsen is a backup who did OKAY but not better than Joseph.
Lee has taken Trueblood’s job. My guess is he is the odd man out and will not be back.
Which also means drafting an OT in round 3-4 for depth
I know we look at Freeman standing upright mostly and Blount gaining yards, BUT Blount had to create alot on his own AND there is a reason they were passing alot on short yardage plays.
January 4th, 2011 at 12:05 pm
Oops, I meant Hardman as Joseph’s backup, not Larsen.
Also, the other reason I see Faine and Jospeh back:
If they reach an agreement on the CBA, then there will be a salary floor and the BUcs will HAVE to spend about 25 million+
January 4th, 2011 at 12:16 pm
joe – I can only hope the front office is NOT drawing the same conclusions regarding the offensive line you are.
No one should derive that we can do just fine WITHOUT guys like Joseph, Faine and Trueblood…not after the princess schedule we played this seeason. We will need all-hands-on-deck in the coming season.
I’m only asking for reality to temper your view that our back-up offensive linemen are “good-enough”.
We just finished a schedule that 3-13 earned us – including the “luck” of drawing NFC West teams during one of the worst divisional performances in league history – next season we will play a schedule that 10-6 earns us…there will be a difference.
…so, quick answer? YES, we will need Faine, Joseph and Trueblood next season.
January 4th, 2011 at 12:32 pm
White Tiger said
“We just finished a schedule that 3-13 earned us – including the “luck” of drawing NFC West teams during one of the worst divisional performances in league history – next season we will play a schedule that 10-6 earns us…there will be a difference.”
Only 2 games on schedule is determined by not our record but what place we finished in the division. Yes we were 10-6 but also finished 3rd in our division which means we’ll play the other 3rd place teams from the 2 divisions that we don’t play in the NFC. All other games are programmed in and not determined by record
January 4th, 2011 at 12:38 pm
I think Joseph is a gone cause he is going to want to get paid like a top 5 guard. Which I don’t think he is. Faine I think is gone too . Think about it are they going to pay Penn Faine and Joseph all that money and tell the youngsters to sit down. Penn while everyone was blown away I was not don’t think the bucs will tie all that money up when eventualy they going have to pay big money to m Williams blount and one more good year from talib going have to pay him big
January 4th, 2011 at 3:40 pm
Joseph is a stud, we should definetly keep him…as for Faine, while his is injury-prone, i loved how we had such great depth on the O-line, so i would like to keep that goin..resign joseph and faine
January 4th, 2011 at 5:55 pm
Faine, Trueblood are def gone, maybe even Joseph. I would really like us 2 draft Mike Pouncey at guard. Our only sure starters are Lee and Penn with Zuttah a maybe at center.
January 4th, 2011 at 7:13 pm
Does anybody watch zuttah? He absolutely sucks as a center… His shotgun snaps are off the mark all the time and against the saints he self destructed and then got in a big argument with Freeman in the middle of the field and with his team mates and got Freeman pissed because he wouldn’t snap the damn ball before the play clock ran out. I’m surprised there hasn’t been a story written about this yet (maybe there has but I missed it) that’s one of the few times I have seen Freeman pissed a one of his players like he was zuttah.
January 4th, 2011 at 7:18 pm
I’d keep Penn, Larsen, Faine, Joseph as starters and draft a RT
January 4th, 2011 at 9:16 pm
Well they have to resign joseph and faine. Or draft guard and center highly. Maybe Larsen and Hardman have played well enough to be starters but what happens when those guys get hurt? Oh we assume that the next practice squadders up become solid starters. We can’t live in fantasy land. There is no endless stream of castoffs that will magically be solid players for the Bucs. We know what have with Faine and Joseph and they need to be resigned so that guys like hardman and zuttah\larsen can be our depth. Unless people want to see the Bucs drafting o-line and not defense in the first couple rounds, no one should be talking about not resigning faine and joseph.