“Ideal Cover-2 Corner From Central Casting”
March 12th, 2014
Bill Polian explains why Alterraun Verner is in the Dungy-Lovie mold
Yes, Lovie Smith doesn’t like being called a Cover-2, Tampa-2 guy. He’s evolved. The Bears defense evolved under his leadership. Times have changed.
That’s all very nice, except the Bucs are still going to be playing loads of Cover-2 this season.
So it felt good to hear Bill Polian, the longtime Colts general manager and current BSPN and SiriusXM NFL Radio analyst say new Bucs Pro Bowl cornerback Alterraun Verner is a perfect Lovie fit last night on NFL Radio.
Polian speaks from experience when he says Verner is out of the Father Dungy/Lovie mold.
“The ideal cover-2 corner from central casting. Very smart. Good tackler. Good run force guy. He’s got the ability to turn the ball over. That’s highly prized by Tony [Dungy] by Lovie [Smith] by any of us that worked with that defense,” Polian said. “Turnovers are the key. And he can do it. And he’s not costing $16 million a year. That’s a great signing. Lovie continues to put the pieces in place exactly as you should for that defense.”
Yes, that was Polian taking a swipe at Darrelle Revis’ contract. Verner comes at half the price.
Joe surely didn’t watch much Titans football last year, so Joe is eager to see how Verner practices and plays. He and the other brand new Buccaneers will meet the media today at One Buc Palace at 3 p.m. The Bucs are back on the practice field in four short weeks.
March 12th, 2014 at 10:06 am
this is really what i was thinking when they signed him. A “ronde barber” type of player. A good system guy, no knock on him. I think lovie will make him great.
March 12th, 2014 at 10:07 am
Can you say the next RONDE BARBER ?????
March 12th, 2014 at 10:08 am
Loydd Christmas: So what do you think the chances are of a guy like Revis restructuring to stay on a stacked Defense like the Buccaneers?
Joe: One in 16 million
Loydd Christmas: SO YOURE TELLIN ME THERES A CHANCE!!!
::::::::::::::::::After 4PM March 12, 2014::::::::::::::::::
Loydee Christmas: Hey! What was with all that one in 16 million talk?
March 12th, 2014 at 10:14 am
screw Revis. Hell of a player, but Be gone with him. Tired of his act.
March 12th, 2014 at 10:15 am
Man I can’t wait for this lazy “the Bucs will only play Cover 2” talk to end. The Tampa 2 is no more, NO ONE, including Lovie plays Tampa 2 anymore. The rule changes and evolution of big fast pass catching TE’s attacking the seams of a defense prevent teams from playing it most of the time. Will we use it from time to time, absolutely but all this “analysis” by the main stream media is just lazy. I love the verner signing, I’d love it even more if we kept the best CB in the league on the opposite side of the field from him. But hey “3rd round draft picks are REALLY IMPORTANT!”
March 12th, 2014 at 10:17 am
Polian also said the Revis trade was one of the worst in history.
March 12th, 2014 at 10:20 am
But hey “3rd round draft picks are REALLY IMPORTANT!”
I tend to agree with you, we should know tonight how Lovie & Crew feel.
March 12th, 2014 at 10:21 am
Look Verner might be excellent, but lets not put him in the Ronde talk right now. Ronde is going to the Hall of Fame. Verner is 25. Time will tell.
March 12th, 2014 at 10:29 am
Fritz50 I hope Love/Licht are more like Rays management and less like Dominik/Schiano. Trading out of (self-imposed deadlines) is almost universally DUMB and costs the team doing the trading equal value. The Rays always trade from a position of strength when value is the highest and don’t let others dictate the terms. It either makes the team better or it doesn’t. If the Bucs/Glazers/Licht/Lovie have brains & balls they eat the 1.5 million roster bonus and the 3rd rounder vs the 4th rounder hold Revis. This will reduce his overall cap hit for other teams in 2014 (making a trade more enticing) as well as swing the pressure back on teams who thought they could make an “easy run” at Revis once he gets “cut”. Teams like the Pats and others who missed their FA target at CB, will have the pressure shifted BACK on them instead of on the Bucs who have the asset everyone wants. I’m hoping these media reports of “cutting him” to save $ and a meager 3rd round pick are coming via other teams and not our own brain trust.
March 12th, 2014 at 10:32 am
Bevis, thats all i got. ha ha
March 12th, 2014 at 10:43 am
If he Bucs REALLY wanted to move Revis for picks, they could offer to pay some of that 16mil for another team. Bucs say get #2 or #3 pick this year and pay $6 mill of his salary. It COULD help.
March 12th, 2014 at 10:51 am
I like revis ALOT but if he’s not budging then he’s no team player. Ppl who want to win with the team they are currently on will help in any way. I include retains business is business but he’s just being plain selfish. Revis yes you are very talented and it might take 2 ppl to fill in the gap your leaving but it can be done. Just go away Anderson the leaders step up and control this team. Your a distraction and one that’s isn’t needed. And about the cover 2 I believe it’s a more evolved cover 2. One that fits the speed of the game. Still the same foundation but now it will be very difficult for offense to adjust to it. I’m excited to see what lovie does with it.
March 12th, 2014 at 10:53 am
I really hope they eat the 1.5 million and wait until a team that is still corner hungry ponies up some draft picks, replacing the third we lose. 1.5 million is nothing when you’re playing with Glazer’s money, right?
When is the deadline for the cap? I mean, at what point does the final–you spent this much money over the cap, now you’re penalized–kick in? Can they keep an inflated cap until mid summer knowing a suitor will show up?
March 12th, 2014 at 10:53 am
I like revis ALOT but if he’s not budging then he’s no team player. Ppl who want to win with the team they are currently on will help in any way. I understand that business is business but he’s just being plain selfish. Revis yes you are very talented and it might take 2 ppl to fill in the gap your leaving but it can be done. Just go away And let the leaders step up and control this team. Your a distraction and one that’s isn’t needed. And about the cover 2 I believe it’s a more evolved cover 2. One that fits the speed of the game. Still the same foundation but now it will be very difficult for offense to adjust to it. I’m excited to see what lovie does with it.
March 12th, 2014 at 10:57 am
Half the price? Do math joe. That’s 9.35 million less than Revis. And Verner was a pro bowl and all pro this year. Excellent signing.
March 12th, 2014 at 10:58 am
Couldn’t agree more, Matthew. The third round pick we lose should easily be recouped via Revis trade.
March 12th, 2014 at 11:00 am
Yeah Joe,
They are all new to us….
What about coining the phrase for the 2014 Tampa Bay team “the New Buccaneers”. Fits well…….new influx of talent/new uniforms ……perfect.
March 12th, 2014 at 11:04 am
Verner was a very good signing. I was thinking Lovie and Licht were dumping Revis with no real plan in place. Verner is no Revis, but Lovie has made it clear he wants players that fit his system. I don’t completely agree with that concept, it will be ok as long as the plan is working though.
March 12th, 2014 at 11:05 am
The Bucs are not holding on to Revis past 4pm today just to try and work out a trade later on, because trade offers will get worse later on, not better. At that point teams are doing the Bucs a favor to take a $16 million cap hit off their hands.
March 12th, 2014 at 11:14 am
Calling Revis “a bum” for not being a team player and taking a pay cut is laughable. It’s not his fault Dominik gave him that ridiculous contract, I’m sure if any of you would like to go into your bosses office and offer to take a pay cut for the “good of the company” they’ll happily take it. However, i’m guessing all of you would find that just as ridiculous as Revis would asking him to “take less”. It’s not like he didn’t perform, he’s a Pro Bowler.
The point is we can “afford” Revis currently under the current cap, there is no penalties sans having to pay him the $16mil we agreed to. What are you getting for the 16 million? I can tell you what is left in the FA market it won’t be nearly as much of an impact as Revis brings for that price. All my point is to not “panic” and trade him because of some arbitrary deadline WE CREATED. The 4pm deadline is literally about 1.5 million roster bonus and a 4th round pick becoming a 3rd round pick. After that we have loads of time prior to the first snap of the season. Injuries happen, teams miss on their FA targets, teams are unhappy with their draft. It’s obvious there is a substantial market for Revis, even bigger if we eat a little of his salary. I think its insane these minor issues are the reasons WE MUST DO SOMETHING by 4pm. Good teams wait and trade from positions of strength, dumb teams panic. I continue to hope we aren’t the latter.
March 12th, 2014 at 11:15 am
@Matthew
I was thinking the same damn thing-
March 12th, 2014 at 11:18 am
^^Now that’s how you establish a position of strengthen^^
March 12th, 2014 at 11:20 am
But wait-wouldn’t it that inhibit our ability to acquire additional free agents?
March 12th, 2014 at 11:21 am
I hope you’re right Matthew! Would luv to keep Revis right now
March 12th, 2014 at 11:23 am
But if Revis is refusing to restucture, why would he do it later on? Because thats the only way to facilitate a trade. If nobody wants to eat the $16 million cap hit now, when teams actually have space, nobody is gonna want to do it later. Holding on to Revis in the hope something works out is foolish. Cut him and move on. But there’s almost no way we’re getting a pick that is what some people want. If we get better than a 5th I’ll be slightly impressed.
Besides if we’re going to be signing even more FAs as it appears we might, Revis has to be cut to make those signings work.
March 12th, 2014 at 11:23 am
Yeah it would. We’ve spent much more then I thought we would in FA, so I’m just waiting to see what happens now
March 12th, 2014 at 11:24 am
Yep-It would-So we’re up against the wall-If we can’t trade ’em we gotta cut ’em
March 12th, 2014 at 11:25 am
Via Rapport: “If teams want to trade for Darrelle Revis, then convert his $16M salary into a bonus, the cap number would be $5.6M this year.” No reason Buc’s couldn’t also do this or a version of this. They could also do this and trade him. Are you telling me no team will part with a late 1st or early 2nd round pick if they could get Revis at 8, 9, or 10 mil this year? GTFO Sam Shields and Talib are getting paid more then that. However, that takes some outside the box thinking, eating a little cap space this year, balls, confidence and the willingness to call other teams bluffs.
March 12th, 2014 at 11:29 am
That’s my point “other signings” aren’t going to equate to the value of Revis thus its a ridiculous argument, we must cut best player A to get a couple of players who are average at best players at their position. I won’t get into the advanced metrics here but Revis is so far above the other FA’s left with regards to “actual” verifiable impact on the field it’s a joke we are thinking we need to move him to “get better”. You can always cut him in April or May or June or July or August and recoup most of that cap $. This entire thing is driven by panic over a 3rd vs a 4th round pick which is absurd. Similar to the Freeman panic cut (where several teams attempted to sign him as soon as he as he was cut) we panicked and sold low. Dumb teams do this.
March 12th, 2014 at 11:33 am
Mike…. Matthew is wrong. Throw away your Revis jerseys.
March 12th, 2014 at 11:34 am
Confirmed “Pats, Giants, Eagles, Falcons” have all called about Revis. The market is there, Buc’s just gotta get creative and have enough stones to leverage a trade that is worthwhile and not panicked.
March 12th, 2014 at 11:36 am
bucrightoff…your right man. They would not be free spending the way they are if Revis was not a goner.
Some fans still want to hold onto some shimmering ray of hope. Whatever helps ya I guess.
March 12th, 2014 at 11:36 am
Buc1987 how am I wrong? Nothing I said was factually inaccurate. You might “not like or agree” with my opinion on the subject but nothing about it is technically “wrong”. It’s fine you are in the panic camp, it’s your prerogative. History tends to agree with my opinion as good teams wait, bad teams panic trade.
March 12th, 2014 at 11:37 am
Haha! My Revis jersey is a jets jersey!
March 12th, 2014 at 11:38 am
It’s not “shimmering ray of hope”, it’s obvious they are trying to get rid of him. No one is arguing that they will for sure keep him (even though they could financially), the argument is the Buc’s are operating in a dumb & short sighted manner trying to get rid of Revis.
March 12th, 2014 at 11:40 am
Mike Says:
March 12th, 2014 at 11:21 am
“I hope you’re right Matthew! Would luv to keep Revis right now”
Matthew…one way or another Revis will not be a Buc by the end of today, so if your handing out hope that they might keep him. That makes you wrong.
March 12th, 2014 at 11:40 am
Matthew, when it says they called, what it means is they’re all offering essentially the same thing: A low round pick, likely a 6th than can become a 5th.
You also listed several very good franchises who don’t waste assets when they can get a plyer for free. They are offering their worst offers hoping the Bucs take it. But because Revis is a holdout threat 24/7, I can guarantee you all teams are concerned he will force his way out. And he still has to restructure his deal for any trade, which he has refused because if he’s going, he wants to be a FA and control his destiny.
March 12th, 2014 at 11:41 am
@Matthew
Nah, get into the advanced Metrics/Break that sh#t down.
March 12th, 2014 at 11:42 am
Although you did make some great points as to how or why they should keep him.
March 12th, 2014 at 11:42 am
I’m not worried. L&L have a plan. Trade, Release or Keep are all open options. Maybe they just decided to put pressure on teams to see if any would come out bidding like crazy. Maybe they intend to keep him and convert some of it 16M$ into Bonus. Maybe they are trying to show Revis he needs to get a more reasonable contract. Maybe they are the ones leaking all the infos. We don’t know and I’m fine with that. FA looks pretty good right now and it seems like Draft will be about OL and WR and maybe a QB. I would like them to try lowball 1 year deals to Peppers and Allen (now that DEN turn their interessomewhere else) to see a line with Peppers, GMC, MJ, Allen on passing downs but hey that’s my fantasy, not theirs 🙂
We still need depth at LB now that Hayward and Watson are out and another CB for sure. Can’t let LJ start another game this year.. Good quality backup but nothing more at the moment.
March 12th, 2014 at 11:43 am
There’s very few players that I keep an eye on and Revis is one of them. I understand what’s going on right now, but that doesn’t mean I need to like it! I think cutting Revis is completely insane! No words around it! Dumbest move of all times in my book
March 12th, 2014 at 11:44 am
Well Mike I think the ridiculous trade in the 1st place was the dumbest move of all times.
Now someone is trying to fix it.
March 12th, 2014 at 11:48 am
I never said he “will be Buc” so feel free to defeat that strawman all you’d like. I was merely making the point “he could be” if the leadership wanted to keep him. This notion that “he must go” due to his cap number is absurd. They look according to the media that they don’t want to keep him, so now we move to how can we get the most for his value. He doesn’t need to restructure his deal to be traded. The Bucs by virtue of holding on to him past today and paying his 1.5 million roster bonus takes his cap hit down to 14.5 million. The Buc’s are also able to convert part of his salary (without Revis) into a Bonus and pay it up front. Revis’s refusal to restructure was a refusal to take LESS money. If he gets his 16 million it won’t matter how it’s paid. If the Bucs were to eat some of his salary this makes him easily tradable to more suitors, creating a bidding market and leverage for the Bucs, potentially getting them a more valuable draft pick. Falcons and Giants have both done really dumb trades before but agreed Philly/Pats tend to be smarter franchises. All the more reason we should be “alarmed” they are clamoring to get Revis by this “4pm fake deadline”.
March 12th, 2014 at 11:50 am
What exaclty made acquiring Revis so dumb? He alone turned us from 17 yards from worst pass defense ever to middle of the road. What’s dumb is cutting him 1 year in considering what we paid. But Revis did his job last year at a high level. Not like we trading for a scrub. We’re just cutting him after only one year, which is what makes the trade dumb. But if he played out the deal at the level he can, it wouldn’t be dumb at all. Elite cover corners are exceedingly difficult to find, as much or moreso than franchise QBs.
March 12th, 2014 at 11:51 am
The more I think about-The more review others views about it-I can’t believe we actually made this trade..smh. It’s water under the bridge now-But wow!
MARK DOMINIK WILL GO DOWN AS ONE OF THE WORST GM”S IN SPORTS HISTORY!!!
MORE LIKE -THE SMOKING ROCKS STAR
Dave Chappelle – I smoke rocks remix!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqNC3WYMGO8
March 12th, 2014 at 11:58 am
@87…, much like Joe will never have me sold on JF, you will never have me sold that this is good!
March 12th, 2014 at 12:01 pm
Only things I truly hate is that Revis won’t give in and we lost a 1st and 4th! Sounds like we lost big time to me!
March 12th, 2014 at 12:08 pm
Obviously it was dumb move. Look at the mess they are in now. It would have happened the same way next year or the year after as well. Too much damn money for anyone to take a trade for him. The only option is to cut him. Which would have been the only option next year and year after that. Dom or no Dom.
March 12th, 2014 at 12:09 pm
The Bucs went 4-12 with there over paid DB. Hell they went 7-9 without him.
March 12th, 2014 at 12:12 pm
Revis wasn’t the reason we went 4-12. A horrible head coach, basic offensive/defensive scheme, sub-standard QB, zero pass rush were the reasons we went 4-12! By all advanced stats and league personnel experts/scouts Revis was the #1, 2, or 3 CB in the league last year depending on who you ask. Tough to argue the guy didn’t perform.
March 12th, 2014 at 12:12 pm
Here’s a funny story about Revis’s contract and the cap: It didn’t and wasn’t going to matter. Even at this very second, with Revis contract included, the Bucs are under the cap. Dominik screwed a lot up but the cap he managed well. The Bucs were going to be fine, and with the contract structures set up as they are, older guys were always going to be able to be cut to make it work. You may not like paying Revis $16 million a year, but it was never going to harm the Bucs cap wise.
Money was never an issue here. Lovie wanted 3 parts for the price of 1. And while some people will automatically assume that to be a win, remember the 1 pieces a top 3 at his position, and none of the other 3 rank in the top 10 at their position.
March 12th, 2014 at 12:20 pm
Who says Revis won’t restructure his contract? All I’ve heard is that he won’t take a pay CUT. That is totally different than a restructure. Actually, the Bucs have it in the contract that at any time they can convert a portion of the salary into a bonus/guaranteed money. Key is the numbers still add up to the equivalent of $16M/yr. Difference is when converted/restructured into guaranteed money, you can save money against the cap in the current season, but if they player is cut before he gets to the final (bigger $ years) of his contract that money becomes “dead” money that hits a teams cap all at once. Revis will get the money he’s supposed to get if it is a restructure, but the cap hit won’t be crazy in the first year, maybe two. Of course, then Revis will be getting Joe Flacco money in the last couple years.
March 12th, 2014 at 12:23 pm
Mevis gave up quite a few big plays and scores. Love light looked at the tape and didn’t like it. They didn’t like a lot of what they saw, that’s why this roster will be more than 50% new. Last year this time we all wanted Rock star to pickup a free agent cb. The Jets must have gotten to Rock star beforehand because he didn’t even sniff the value corners. We made the worst trade possible and the new regime is doing a great fixing it fast!!
March 12th, 2014 at 12:44 pm
Matthew…I’m not saying Revis is not any good. I’m saying that if the team goes 6-10 this season. WTH do they need an over priced DB for? They can get the same results with less money at the position. If your team goes 4-12 one year and then 6-10 then next. It’s wasted money. The house has not even been built yet and some of you want to buy that Ferrari.
If the team is built to win now, fine keep Revis. If not and Lovie sees the team 2-3 years away (non-publicly of course)then get rid of him. Yes that means cut if you have to.
March 12th, 2014 at 12:48 pm
Daffy Buc…perhaps other teams have looked at the tape too.