Jimmy Raye Won’t Tolerate Shabby Blocking
May 28th, 2012
Former Bucs TE Anthony Becht, who spent five seasons as the Jets’ great tight end hope before coming to Tampa in 2005, routinely has said in radio interviews that it took him three seasons to learn how to be a good blocker at the position.
Interestingly, in a recent chat with Tom Krasniqi on WHBO-AM, Becht said Bucs new offensive advisor/coach Jimmy Raye rode his ass hard about blocking when Raye joined the Jets in 2002. Coincidentally, that was Becht’s third season in New York.
Now Becht is no Hall of Famer, but he did craft a long career for himself, primarily as a blocker in later years. Becht started five games for the Chiefs in 2011.
The point here is that Becht’s message was that Luke Stocker likely will have Raye and others driving him hard to become a punishing blocker, something nobody is expecting from Dallas Clark.
Buccaneers.com penned a feature on Stocker last week that had Stocker chatting about how the Bucs will rely on him as Greg Schiano tries to run the ball like a 1970’s powerhouse.
“If you look at our roster, I’m one of the biggest tight ends we’ve got and one that has a little bit of experience blocking in this league,” he said. “I got some last year, so they’re definitely looking at me to be the guy that lines up and blocks the power and those kinds of things.”
Joe hopes Stocker can step up and “block the power,” which Joe expects to see plenty of this season as the Bucs take advantage off all things Carl Nicks and Davin Joseph.
That said, Joe was intrigued when rockstar general manager Mark Dominik quickly tendered Demar Dotson this offseason, a guy who routinely checked in as a blocking tight end in 2011. Joe won’t be surprised to see more of Dotson in that role.
May 28th, 2012 at 2:07 pm
damn joe the site is slow today
May 28th, 2012 at 3:20 pm
Isnt that Raheems Grandma?
May 28th, 2012 at 3:34 pm
bd you have a problem with black grandma,forgot all black peoble look a like.
May 28th, 2012 at 3:35 pm
It took becht 5 seasons and took Winslow, until, well never to learn how to block. So glad that no good cancer is gone.
Now if I can just get coach that no-good Talib – web will be rid of all of the rahdom cancers.
May 28th, 2012 at 4:48 pm
Good.
We didn’t tolerate Sabby tackling either.
May 28th, 2012 at 6:00 pm
Thomas – Talib is a GruAllen cancer, get it right.
Garv – we didn’t have to tolerate Sabby tackling, he couldn’t…
May 28th, 2012 at 6:05 pm
BamBam……yes, that was my humble attempt at humor. LOL
As for Talib, I’ll leave that to coach Schiano. He’s already shown us he’ll make tough decisions and if Aqib is not all in or cannot be for other legal reasons I’m sure coach will handle it.
I have heard time and time again that Aqib Talib is a good teammate and that has to count for something along with is obvious talent. We’ll see.
May 28th, 2012 at 6:42 pm
Yeah, I got that Garv. If he did tackle, we probably would have tolerated it.
As to Talib, he has obvious talent if the only talent you’re concerned about is “ball-hawking”. He does break on the ball well and has good enough hands to get the INT. Problem is he’s lacking in many other areas. For example, he’s been known to bite on the first move. Usually this is an attempt to make the highlight reel with a pick. Problem is, it also means he gets burned quite frequently by a double move. Also, he’s horrible about getting a bump on the WR in press coverage. Sure, there’s supposed to be Safety help over the top, but if he can’t slow the WR, the Safety will be late getting there. Those are two examples, but his off-man coverage isn’t great until the WR is 15 yards downfield. Anything underneath and he never gets there. I recall the Ravens tearing him up with underneath routes up and down the field last time we played them (I believe that was Sabby’s last game as a Buc, when he totally lost Heap on a blown assignment). For the past two years, beyond the INTs, Talib has been vulnerable and burned repeatedly. Remember Painter to Garcon twice last year with Talib in coverage? Yeah, we’re not talking Manning throwing the ball or Calvin Johnson catching it… it was Painter to Garcon.
Talib may be a good locker room guy, but if he can’t be on the field with his teammates due to off field things, he’s not a good influence. As for on-field? That’s in serious question at this point. He has a LOT to prove this year (fortunately for him, it’s a contract year, when most players play “out of their minds”).
May 28th, 2012 at 6:42 pm
Dotson also played good college Basket ball. Meaning he has decent eye hand coordination. I think he prolly has hands to catch in a pinch if need be!
May 28th, 2012 at 7:11 pm
Stocker, Lorig, Dotson, Cody Johnson at FB, and Blount or Martin would make quite a power backfield and TE set.
May 28th, 2012 at 8:37 pm
Brandon brings up Cody Johnson. I’m intrigued as to what he brings to the table.
May 28th, 2012 at 9:57 pm
Short yardage specialist.
May 28th, 2012 at 9:57 pm
Pete422,
Cody Johnson profile.
http://www.texassports.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/johnson_cody00.html
May 28th, 2012 at 11:00 pm
If Talib is so bad than how come PFF rated him 11th best corner this past year, which was a down year for him. Give me a break he isn’t top five but clearly is our most competent cover corner. Not having Sean Jones as his primary over the top help will only improve his game. Once the trial is behind him and he’s exonerated of all charges I’m predicting he makes his first pro bowl and becomes that feel good story on behalf of Coach Schiano.
May 29th, 2012 at 12:29 am
You’re also predicting that he’ll be exonerated of all charges then. Both by the legal system and the NFL. Regardless, having Barron behind him will certainly help, but if you really watch the games (not just look up rankings on very subjective websites) you’d see he hasn’t been as good as advertised. Even watching the limited angles we get on TV, it’s pretty obvious. I would presume coaches film shows even more. Don’t get me wrong, he’s not horrible, just not as good as he’s made out to be. Definitely not good enough to be worth the headaches of his off-field issues.
May 29th, 2012 at 2:48 am
@BamBamBuc — I think you’re mostly right on Talib. I agree he’s not as good as advertised, BUT, I think that he’s better than you give credit: he played with weak, revolving safeties and next to no LB support against mainly number ones. Yes, Barber did well.
As for his off-field stuff, he had the taxi (STUPID!) and now this Dallas thing, which the more the dust settles the more it looks like he was set up by a jerk harassing his sister/mother. I think FreemanBomb5 is right, the legal will go away. As far as the NFL, I don’t think they can touch him. Especially if the Killer Saints legal claims are right and that all incidents prior to the CBA are exonerated.
May 29th, 2012 at 3:40 am
None of us really have knowledge of how good (or bad) Talib is. We don’t know who was truly to blame on a play, because we don’t know the defense called, nor do we know his responsibilities within the play call. I will say this: if the powers that be thought he wasn’t a damn good player, he would have been cut a long time ago. I would love to hear someone argue that fact. They’re certainly not keeping him because he’s a great citizen.
May 29th, 2012 at 11:50 am
Ish70:
Rookie fight with teammate. Resulting in the other player, who was selected in a later round so of less importance, being cut.
Threatening referees, resulting in all refs having a more critical eye on all our players, resulting in higher number of called penalties.
The taxi driver incident.
A car incident where he allegedly threatened the woman driver of the other car with bodily harm…even though it was Talibs fault.
The shooting in Texas.
Multiple fist swinging at players in games.
Cussing out his head coach in England.
Although I don’t often agree with Thomas, and I certainly would not express my opinions in the same manner. On this particular matter I’m forced to agree.
I think people are looking for reasons to keep Talib because we don’t have a suitable replacement. But consider this…each time an incident occurs it escalates from the previous one. Each time gets worse.
So, what if Talib ends up killing someone? If it happens, the Bucs are saying the kept him regardless of the potential for harm he represented. Cutting him might slap some sense into him. It would be the best thing for him.
Instead, excuses are being made to keep him.
Each year he does something. This year will be no different. He should have been cut already.
May 29th, 2012 at 11:52 am
And I say that even feeling that he may have been justified in Texas. Dumb in how he went about it, but justified.