Bucs Will Rely On Old School Signals
August 11th, 2011
"Get the dreads out of your ears and listen to me, son."
The fancy headset that’ll be in Mason Foster’s helmet tomorrow night will come off the field with him when he departs on most third downs.
Per Stephen Holder of the St. Pete Times, that means Quincy Black will get the defensive calls via sideline signals on passing downs. Or there always could be a guy sent in with the play. Joe really doesn’t find this to be a big deal, since the players learn the signals anyway in case of emergency, but it’s interesting nonetheless.
That will leave the Bucs in a situation where they’ll have to go old school on third downs, signaling defensive calls in to Black, who will relay them to teammates in the huddle. The transmitter makes life simpler and reduces the likelihood of miscommunications. Without one, and without a true middle linebacker in the game to make the calls, are the Bucs more susceptible to miscues? That remains to be seen.
As for preseason games, Joe’s not sure whether the rules allow multiple guys to use a communication helmet since nobody plays the entire game anyway. But in the regular season, only one player gets the honors.
Joe realizes that a significant percentage of Bucs fans will simply be ecstatic if they see Foster play physical football and shed blocks, even if he misses some calls.
So it goes in the post-Ruud era.
August 11th, 2011 at 3:14 pm
Is that like morse code or baseball signals? I guess, we now know why Raheem is a big Rays/Joe Madden fan!
August 11th, 2011 at 3:18 pm
I hope Foster knows the difference between a bunt and a blitz signal!
August 11th, 2011 at 3:19 pm
Smoke signals OAR…TJack will be sending them.
August 11th, 2011 at 3:24 pm
Someone please answer – I thought Quincy Black was already a starting linebacker. So he is going to move to middle on third downs and then bring in like hayward to play outside…..?
August 11th, 2011 at 3:25 pm
The post-Ruud revisionist history is amusing.
This guy was such a valuable part of the Buccaneers defense that they let him walk to Tennessee without even so much as a courtesy 2-year offer.
That fact alone should tell you:
1. How highly thought of Ruud was to the professional evaluators in the Buccaneers brain-trust (including Dom and Rah).
2. How important the skill of “defensive positioning” is when they’re willing to trust it to a rookie.
August 11th, 2011 at 3:28 pm
Couresty offer? PFFT PLEASE! this is the NFL, they didnt owe Ruud anything
August 11th, 2011 at 3:33 pm
How do you know they didn’t offer him a deal? the Tampa 2 gives the middle linebacker no chance to shine. Raheem wanted him. I think Ruud was tired of listening to B.S., and he walked. Tennessee let Stephen Tullock, a pretty highly respected MLB, go to sign Barrett.
Time will tell.
August 11th, 2011 at 3:33 pm
Guess you could call this Morris Code… See what I did there?
Bad jokes aside, this is a temporary inconvenience. The more experience Foster gets, the more he’ll be out there on 3rd down situations. The kid has quite a bit of potential. Going with a young MLB is not some new idea that no one has ever tried. Got to start somewhere, might as well get him out there. Learn while doing.
August 11th, 2011 at 3:56 pm
Tom, when they go to a nickel defense, they add an extra DB and pull a middle LB off of the field. Last year, it was either Black or Hayes that came off for the extra DB, but this year (at least early on), they’ll pull Foster and leave Black and Hayes on the field.
August 11th, 2011 at 4:24 pm
McBuc
LOL Gooood one!
Picked-off
Another gooood one!
Bad jokes or gooood ones, nothing beats a sense of humor!
August 11th, 2011 at 4:42 pm
I was going too say…Picked Off had the joke of the day. Also, a great screen name.
August 11th, 2011 at 4:44 pm
OAR, I thought of a new drinking game. Everytime someone mentions Ruud on JBF, you take a drink. Would we even make it to the game?
August 11th, 2011 at 4:55 pm
I took one of my brothers to a game last season, and he drank a 12 pack of Bud Light (yuck) on the ride from Sarasota to the Stadium at 10 AM. Needless to say, he’s a golfer.
So is this new game like Buc Pong or something?
August 11th, 2011 at 5:11 pm
LOL, that could be a name for it. When I was a kid I went to a “Scare Face” party. At this event everytime Al dropped an “F” bomd you had to drink, and when the put tape two in you had to drink everytime anyone around you dropped one…of course everybody lost interest pretty quick and it just turned into your typical college party.
August 11th, 2011 at 5:21 pm
Or drink everytime Thomass ruins a blog? Nevermind, we’d end killing ourselves with alcohol poisoning!
August 11th, 2011 at 6:12 pm
Capt.Tim Says:
August 11th, 2011 at 3:33 pm
How do you know they didn’t offer him a deal? the Tampa 2 gives the middle linebacker no chance to shine. Raheem wanted him. I think Ruud was tired of listening to B.S., and he walked. Tennessee let Stephen Tullock, a pretty highly respected MLB, go to sign Barrett.
________________
Middle LBs don’t shine in the T-2? Are you serious? EVer heard of Brian Urlacher, Jonathan Vilma (as a NY Jet), Jon Beason, Shelton Quarles, Hardy Nickerson? All Pro Bowlers despite the “handicap” of being a T-2 Mike.
Don’t act like the Titans turned away Tulloch to sign Ruud… Ruud was signed several days into free agency without so much as a sniff from the Bucs or competition from any other teams. He was given a one-year deal to show the NFL if he can actually play and to bridge the gap between the Mike of the future, Colin McCarthy.
Tulloch was so highly thought of, that when Detroit signed him, they moved him to a new position, letting Deandre Levy continue on at MLB (despite being only marginal in that role himself).
August 11th, 2011 at 6:15 pm
BTW, thanks Joe for finally following up on a question I emailed you with on Tuesday. It seems one of the main stream media finally decided to ask the question I’ve been wondering about for weeks…
August 11th, 2011 at 10:37 pm
Tom………….
They may be using Hayward a lot to as a slash player DE/3-4 LB
August 11th, 2011 at 10:45 pm
@Capt Tim
Tennessee’s GM said they offered Tulloch a contract which was denied by Tulloch.
There isn’t a single report or statement from Dominik that says Ruud was offered a contract.
August 11th, 2011 at 10:57 pm
Rock, hammer, scissors?
August 11th, 2011 at 11:52 pm
Hammer Like the A-Train!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!