Dietrich-Smith On The Rise
March 25th, 2014
Two things jumped out at Joe after a modicum of research on new Bucs center Evan Dietrich-Smith.
The first thing that crossed Joe’s mind was when Bucs general manager Jason Licht was hired, he emphasized “value” in acquiring free agents.
Also, when speaking last week on SiriusXM NFL Radio, Dietrich-Smith mentioned Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was upset he left the team.
You know, most quarterbacks don’t give a rat’s rear end if a guy who can’t block leaves. Good riddance. But a guy who can block, quarterbacks want those guys to stick around. Apparently, Rodgers has good reason to be irked. Here’s an analysis from Matt Claassen of Pro Football Focus on Dietrich-Smith’s first year, last year, as a starting center for the Packers.
Evan Dietrich-Smith is coming off of his first season as a full-time starter at center after starting the last few games in 2012 for a declining Jeff Saturday. Dietrich-Smith graded out as an average run-blocker, which was a slight improvement over 2012. His jump in pass blocking was more significant. He did give up five sacks, but only allowed nine other pressures all season to finish with our fourth-highest pass blocking grade among centers.
From the way Rodgers reacted to Dietrich-Smith leaving the Packers and how Licht looks for value, it seems the Bucs may have gotten themselves a center very much on the rise.
March 25th, 2014 at 7:16 am
Well, that’s one piece of the puzzle…lets hope the other pieces fit asw well…
March 25th, 2014 at 7:34 am
Wasn’t he upset when Crabtree left too?
March 25th, 2014 at 7:40 am
It seems the new Bucs regime are true believers in the Pro Football Focus stats and rankings. That could be a great thing, but I wonder why some teams put more stock in their analysis than other teams.
Joe- can you ask Licht about that next time you get a chance to get a question in at a press conference?
March 25th, 2014 at 7:44 am
So we have two starting offensive linemen that are relatively new starters. Our left tackle and our center. That good be a very big problem or they could just be hitting their stride into becoming stars? Seems a little risky to me though banking on too many guys but that’s why these guys make millions.
March 25th, 2014 at 8:19 am
Seems to me they will be moving away from Man blovking scheme, and brought in a center who commanded an up tempo Green Bay offense
March 25th, 2014 at 8:46 am
jvato24 Said:
“Seems to me they will be moving away from Man blovking scheme, and brought in a center who commanded an up tempo Green Bay offense.”
I believe they are going to to zone blocking.
March 25th, 2014 at 9:01 am
We had zone blocking last year, so that isn’t new. Glad to see us going to an up tempo game, though, to wear out the other defense and get in more offensive plays. Good we have a Center who is up to speed on the new scheme. Seems like our new Tackle was chosen based on the need to block for screen passes too. That will slow down the pass rush by the defense too.
March 25th, 2014 at 11:32 am
joseph mamma Says:
March 25th, 2014 at 7:44 am
So we have two starting offensive linemen that are relatively new starters. Our left tackle and our center. That good be a very big problem or they could just be hitting their stride into becoming stars? Seems a little risky to me though banking on too many guys but that’s why these guys make millions.
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I think the bigger risk would’ve been counting on the same guys from last season that did less than a stellar job. Zuttah was a decent, very athletic center, a below-average, extremely athletic guard. Dietrich-Smith will be a slight upgrade…though Zuttah gave up something like one sack all last season, he was pushed around often in the running game. Penn and Joseph are not playing at the level their salaries indicated. I liked Penn and was hopeful he would stick around at a reduced salary but banking on him getting into and staying into shape seems more risky than a guy in Collins that has shown he can be a valuable member of an OLine. Jospeh never lived up to the hype, don’t draft OGs in round 1 unless they’ll be annual all-pros.
March 25th, 2014 at 11:36 am
@owlykat – I hope your right about ability to block on a screen pass. I never saw a team set up for screen passes more poorly than last years oline.
March 25th, 2014 at 12:21 pm
Yes, we did do a fair bit of zone blocking on the OL last year, and we know already from the heinous Jeff Jagodzinski experiment that the personnel we had on the OL at that time (which was roughly the same personnel we still had through last season) were far better-suited for more traditional man-blocking schemes. That tells me that the offensive schemes Tedford has in mind for this season probably had as much to do with the release of so many players from the OL as did performance.
March 25th, 2014 at 12:34 pm
Licht must love PFF. Virtually all the guys Bucs have signed graded well on PFF, and all the players released graded poorly v. salary.