Bucs Hurt By Quarterback “Donkey”
January 28th, 2014Arguably the greatest wide receiver never to make a Pro Bowl (five consecutive 1,000-yard seasons) Amani Toomer learned plenty of football during his 13 seasons and 668 receptions with the New York Giants. A former student of ousted Bucs offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan when he coached Giants receivers, Toomer was doing his SiriusXM NFL Radio/NBC Sports thing at Super Bowl Media Day today. Joe caught up with Toomer to talk about the failed Bucs offense and Sullivan.
JoeBucsFan.com: Former Bucs offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan was your position coach and is someone I know you respect and have followed. Did the Bucs offense last season look like Sullivan’s, or did it seem to you that maybe the offense had some new influences?
Amani Toomer: No, it was pretty much spot on. I think the quarterback situation really hampered that team. Even now, it’s not a secure thing. A coach once told me, the defensive line coach for the Giants when they were kicking butt, everybody was giving him credit and he said, ‘Hey, nobody’s ever won the Kentucky Derby on a donkey. You need the horses.’
And that’s what I thought about when I saw Mike Sullivan’s offense. He had great weapons on the outside and a talented offensive line last season. But if you have an inconsistent signalcaller, you’re in trouble and your consistency won’t be there.
Joe: Did you watch Mike Glennon much? Are you saying he was a donkey?
Toomer: Yeah, I think Glennon had a good run, a good month or so, but in the NFL things usually go in four week cycles. If you have a good four weeks, especially at quarterback, defenses are going to figure you out and then you are going to have to adjust. Constantly adjusting your game and improving. Glennon had a great four or five week run and then everybody caught up with him, and he didn’t adjust and get to finish well. With quarterbacks it’s not just an ascending plane. They go up and down and up and down because they always are getting scouted and need to adjust their games. The ones that adjust are the good ones that can have long careers as starters.
Joe: I just heard you talking to Nashville media saying that Jake Locker wasn’t “the guy” and not in the class of guys with franchise QB potential. Is Glennon in that group or do you have more hope for Glennon’s potential?
Toomer: I just don’t know yet. I was impressed with him at times. I thought his poise was good. I thought he did some good things. If you’re a third-round draft pick and can do some good things in your first year, that shows real signs of having the ability, but it’s going to be a bumpy road to develop it.
January 28th, 2014 at 7:32 pm
Here fishy fishy fishy…
January 28th, 2014 at 7:33 pm
“We ain’t leaving without a victory. We ain’t leaving without a victory. So y’all. Hey, my brothers, put a smile on your face. OK. Because Florida State, if we going to do it then, we do it big. Let’s go baby. Let’s fight.” – Jameis Winston’s speech in October before playing @Clemson.
Winston in 2015!
January 28th, 2014 at 7:41 pm
Say no to rapists at the QB position, or any position for that matter
January 28th, 2014 at 7:44 pm
“He had great weapons on the outside and a talented offensive line last season.”
Wow, really? Jackson is a great weapon but who else? Talented on the Oline? hmm Did you ask him, How well he thought that E. Manning would have done with that much Offensive line talent?
I am sure they would have at least went to the playoffs… LOL hahahahahaha
Thanks for the laugh
January 28th, 2014 at 7:46 pm
Orca,
He’s talking about Winston, not Rothelisberger!
January 28th, 2014 at 7:48 pm
Anyone ever won the Kentucky Derby on a giraffe?
January 28th, 2014 at 7:56 pm
Imagine that, Toomer a former student under his buddy Sullivan would actually be impartial and throw Sullivan’s inept offense under the proverbial bus. Much easier to blame it on the rookie QB. I’m with Rusty on this one.
January 28th, 2014 at 8:07 pm
This is the same guy who said on NFL Radio that the Bucs were foolish for letting Freeman go.
His opinion is meaningless in regards to QBs.
January 28th, 2014 at 8:13 pm
@Orca, I didn’t know you were there when the “alleged rape” happened. Tell us in YOUR own words what u saw take place…..
January 28th, 2014 at 8:30 pm
Orca..blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah and blah.
January 28th, 2014 at 8:33 pm
I’m glad you all are so willing to take rape accusations so lightly. I obviously don’t know if he did it, but it sounds extremely suspicious. It would have to be taken into account when considering Winston in the draft.
January 28th, 2014 at 8:34 pm
How about no to alleged rapist. Where there’s smoke there’s fire.
January 28th, 2014 at 8:43 pm
Ahh….. Its good to check in on GlennonBucsFans.com every now and then.
Toomer made a good point about teams figuring Glennon out after his little run in Nov. The same way defenses caught up with Freeman in ’11.
Granted, Freeman and Glennon had a coach who had no idea how to adjust and didnt believe in improving mechanics. But maybe a guy like Johnny Strip Club is what it takes to improvise when the scheme is a dead end.
And sorry 1987, I just don’t want to wait around another 15 months for that 2-digit IQ’d Semenole.
January 28th, 2014 at 8:59 pm
I do want to say the Talent on our Offensive line on paper looks good, but we have yet to see it play full strength (non injured) together on a consistent basis. I understand that is tough in the NFL, for sure.
Would love to see some upgrades here before the season starts.
January 28th, 2014 at 9:31 pm
I’m pretty sure they don’t even allow donkeys in the Kentucky Derby. Soooo…that’s probably the main reason a donkey has never won.
Usually when these wanna be analysts speak if you listen close they’ll give you a little nugget that blows their credibility out of the water. On this case he says that the offense had weapons on the outside and a talented offensive line.
After that sentence nothing he says has any weight because he obviously doesn’t know a thing about this team.
January 28th, 2014 at 9:37 pm
Comment deleted. … Please don’t pretend to know Joe’s “feelings.”-Joe
January 28th, 2014 at 9:37 pm
Upgrayedd….you mean soon to be 2-time Heisman trophy winning and 2 time National Championship QB.
The BEST QB in college football today is Jameis Winston.
blah blah alleged blah blah
January 28th, 2014 at 10:05 pm
Our o line was ranked 15th best in the league, without nicks, by pff. Our o line looked bad because the QB behind them was terrible at recognizing blitzes, and didn’t adjust the line nor call an audible nor read the hot route. He isn’t cut out to be an nfl starter. It’s ok, there only a few dozen capable of it in the whole world. Even being a back up in the nfl is a pretty honorable position.
January 28th, 2014 at 10:15 pm
@Amani
Thank you, thank you, thank you. We have been trying to convince these MGM ppl, but they are stubborn. Is it just a coincidence that our O-line, WR and RB were average in ranking, but our offense overall was LAST in the entire league? I don’t think so. This is a professionals opinion MGM. I am sure you will be silent for now…
Trade up and draft Teddy or Manziel
January 28th, 2014 at 10:17 pm
Dead last in offense but got a hell of a QB.
Yea sure we do.
January 28th, 2014 at 10:36 pm
“Say no to rapists at the QB position, or any position for that matter”
“How about no to alleged rapist. Where there’s smoke there’s fire.”
Just like the Duke Lacrosse team, right?..Unfortunately, a small percentage of girls falsely claim rape, forever staining innocent people. These ignorant comments are a perfect example.
” I just don’t want to wait around another 15 months for that 2-digit IQ’d Semenole.”
^And then you have the drooling knuckle draggers like this. In fact, Winston is quite intelligent.
I’ll take Dilfer’s opinion of Winston:
http://youtu.be/Euqwd-0hBcw
January 29th, 2014 at 1:11 am
^ Just saying his character needs to be checked out thoroughly and some investigation to see if there’s any truth to the allegations.
January 29th, 2014 at 5:57 am
^
Actually no, you called him a rapist. And there WAS an investigation.
Did you read the entire report? If the accuser’s lawyer/aunt is to be believed, there would have to have been a massive conspiracy involving not just the TPD, but Tallahassee Memorial Hospital (sealed rape kits), The SAO, The FDLE (drug and alcohol tests), and the UF chemists lab followup drug and alcohol tests).
#fsucleatchasers (if you don’t what that is, you surely will if they are dumb enough to file a civil case.) There’s plenty of social media evidence that will come into play.
January 29th, 2014 at 7:01 am
@harry – toomer told you why it was last after the 4 Weeks that glennon was solid. Defenses adjusted to take away what glennon was doing. One of the things that got schiano run out if town was his bone headed approach to adjustments rso wouldn’t it stand to reason that they told glennon that “we just want you to go out there and do this”and then never adjusted it after defenses started picking up on it. Send to me like that’s got schiano written all over it
January 29th, 2014 at 7:06 am
@trubucfan-the coach had out pro bowl dt stunting at the line almost every play, do you really think he’s going to tell the rookie qb, who want even supposed
January 29th, 2014 at 7:08 am
To start this year to go ahead and audible and call out hot types and do whatever you think is best out there. He micromanaged every aspect of their day, you think he’ll give the new guy autonomy at the line?
January 29th, 2014 at 7:42 am
You can’t claim journalistic integrity in one sentence and then continue to bash a player based on personal feelings in the other.
Really, that’s odd. You mean you never heard of opinion being part of journalism. Never read a column or an editorial? Sorry to hear that. –Joe
January 29th, 2014 at 9:10 am
Tony,
Nearly all sports reporting is opinion unless they are reporting the box score or highlights. Move on bro.
January 29th, 2014 at 1:47 pm
To all the Nole fans, send us a link when they build a statue of “Famous Jameis” outside of Bowden Field.
Winston is not Tim Tebow.
January 29th, 2014 at 3:19 pm
Johnny Strip Club. Just spit my beer all over reading that!
Well put Upgray, well put
January 29th, 2014 at 3:29 pm
Joe vs Glennon…..round 32 of 398. Coudn’t help but laugh at the talented O-line comment. Sully’s playbook was the same with Glennon. So team’s had plenty of sully’s offence tape to go on. I think when team’s have a year of tape to pour over. They can pretty much figure out the whole team’s playbook. “He be much better second year in this offence” everybody uses is a load of garbage. Just ask RG3. A fresh offence gives the element of suprise. Hey joe we all are wrong sometimes. Don’t let your embarasment of being dead wrong on Freeman. Then the bandwagon consensis that “Glennon will be a good backup in a couple year’s”. Don’t let me dig up that “Bucs should extend Freeman blog you posted”Lol. The book on Glennon coming out of college was that he has a powerfull arm. But questionable footwork that can lead to being inaccurate. The same skillset as Freeman basically. Except Glennon footwork was better than expected. His pocket awareness is lacking however. Kevin Kolb is a QB with absolutelly no pocket awareness. I’m not blind to the fact that can be the kiss of death for a QB as well. After 5 season’s of Freeman. We can all see that you can NEVER count on a QB with bad footwork. They can never be consistant enough to win 3 playoff games and hoist a trophy. Just ask Matt Stafford. I used to think bad footwork was fixable. With Freeman’s career basically over because he couldn’t get his footwork right. Makes me think it’s unfixable. He had million’s of reason’s to fix it. Chances are Joe talked to lot’s of football people during SB week. But only the guy’s that want to bash our “Maybe a backup” 3rd round QB that threw 19TD’s and 9 Int. Make the blog. The fact’s are the fact’s people Glennon won his team out of the bridgewater,Jonny football sweepstakes….New coach ,new GM are not gunna spend a 1st or 2nd round pick on a QB. Why take the chance on a QB who’s will throw a pick for every TD. When the guy on the bench has shown he can go 2-1 TD to Int’s with a garbage O-line WRer’s and running back’s plucked off the street’s.
January 29th, 2014 at 5:27 pm
The more comments about Glennon, the more Joe is going to write about him. Website traffic is king and all of you are playing right into his hands…MMMmmwwwhhaaa ha ha ha ha!
I say lets wait and see what shakes out in camp.
January 29th, 2014 at 6:17 pm
“Winston is not Tim Tebow.”
Very true. One’s a QB. The other is a runner.