More Veterans = Better Football
July 23rd, 2011
Nothing’s been normal about this offseason, thanks to the asinine lockout, and the preseason will take on a different look as well, says Bucs icon Derrick Brooks.
Fans actually might not mind paying top dollar for preseason games.
Speaking this week to the dean of Tampa Bay sports radio, Steve Duemig, of WDAE-AM 620, Brooks explained a byproduct of the lockout will have more name players on the field in August.
“This is probably one of the first preseasons you’ll see a lot of veterans play, which is going to hurt the chance for some of these younger guys making teams. Period,” Brooks said. ” A lot of veterans are going to have to get in football shape a lot sooner, and they’re going to have to play a lot of snaps to get in football rhythm.”
Brooks went on to say teams with new coaching staffs, especially, will be all but forced to run with veteran players as the team learns schemes on the fly. And the veteran presence, Brooks said, likely will mean better football come opening day.
Brooks expalined that the more he played in a preseason the sharper his tackling was early in the season.
Joe’s not sure how the Bucs will approach the preseason. Obviously, the team is not in transition mode with a new coaching staff. But the upcoming no-two-a-days rule in training camp might force the Bucs to give regulars more time in preseason.
Regardless, if Brooks is accurate, Joe is fired up to see better preseason action, including a guy like Allen Bradford trying to bust through a defensive line not made up of soon-to-be luggage handlers and beer truck drivers.
July 23rd, 2011 at 9:59 am
Well, it certainly is a unique situation. But the bucs gave Freeman so few snaps in the pre-season games last year that who really knows what we might do.
I mean if the transition year between rookie year to second year is so important, then why did Freeman only make 8 pass attempts in the ENTIRE preseason last year?
July 23rd, 2011 at 10:02 am
I would say the thumb injury caused concern, ‘roy…
July 23rd, 2011 at 10:31 am
Good one, CJ
July 23rd, 2011 at 11:24 am
Yea, broken thumbs do slow down your preseason reps . .
July 23rd, 2011 at 11:40 am
START THE SEASON!!!!
July 23rd, 2011 at 12:12 pm
Good call, Brooks. I hope there are few/no injuries with all our “stars” playing the preseason.
July 23rd, 2011 at 12:12 pm
START THE SEASON!!!
July 23rd, 2011 at 12:18 pm
I don’t care about “good preseason Football”. The games don’t count. I don’t want anymore injuries to our young starters. Screw preseason. I want good regular season games. Preseason is for finding the Sammie Straughters, E.J. Biggers, and Cody Grimms. Let the kids get their chance! Last thing we need is a bad injury to Blount , Williams, Benn, McCoy, Clayborn, Or ( God Forbid!), Freeman!
Sit the Vets- play the kids!
July 23rd, 2011 at 12:47 pm
Exactly… I’m actually just as excited for the pre season because I want to see our draft class in action. Foster, Stocker, Ahmad Black, Hardy, and Gaitor are all guys I’m very very curious about. I doubt Bowers is going to see a whole lot of preseason snaps, but it would be nice to get a glimpse of Clayborn. Agree with Tim that there is absolutely NO reason to risk injury to Mike Williams, K2, Talib, and Freeman… Our DLine should get some snaps to build chemistry though
July 23rd, 2011 at 1:38 pm
also we will probably be adding 30! players pretty quickly as the roster cap for preseason will go up to 90
July 23rd, 2011 at 2:06 pm
Freemanbomb5- exactly! I love seeing the young guys show what they can do! Still wanna see Rendrick Taylor run. And Demarr Dotson. Wil Barker Is a monster tackle- can he play? Dezmon Briscoe showed amazing skills last year. Did he get better, or sit on his butt all off season( that was the knock on him!
Plus we aren’t gonna have much Time to see this years crop of undrafted Rookies- and Mark Dominick has shown Incredible ability at finding Diamonds in the mud( Donald Penn, Legarrote Blount, Ted Larsen, etc, Etc.)
A few years ago, watching the rookies made ya sick! But now, it may be one of the most exciting things to see- because you just know that we are gonna find another great player outta all the rookies we bring in. It’s fun to watch
The next few weeks are gonna be fun, Too!
We HAVE to spend almost 60mil in players! I still believe this was the plan by the Bucs! We have the most money, with the biggest free agent class in history. We should be able to find some great defensive players to join the great young core we’ve added!! It’s gonna be fun!
July 23rd, 2011 at 5:00 pm
What is the big huff about Larsen? I saw very little in him last year. He looked very out of place. Hardman looked better than Larsen, but that isn’t saying much.
A few upgrades on the OL are more of a necessity than an upgrade at CB. Our offense is being built to be our strong suit. We need a dominate OL to do that. CB can wait. OL is the need now to insure a healthy QB and RB as well an increasingly productive offense..
July 23rd, 2011 at 6:20 pm
Hardman and Larsen both graded out Higher than Joseph and Trueblood. As Rookies. And the line’s production nea
By nearly half once the New lineup was playing.
That reason enough muhaha?
July 23rd, 2011 at 9:15 pm
@Capt.Tim You didn’t give any references. Who graded them higher?
BTW I should point out that Hardman and Larsen both played guard last year. Trueblood has nothing to do with this conversation. Larsen covered for Zuttah when Faine went down and Zuttah moved to Center. Hardman covered for Joseph.
Either way, there wasn’t a noticeable ebb or gain on the OL with all those moves. All are replaceable in my mind. We haven’t really had a good year on the OL since 07/08.