Bobby Rainey Pushing Out Doug Martin?
September 17th, 2014
The new Bucs bellcow?
It is just weird to Joe what is happening to Doug Martin and Joe cannot put his finger on it. The man Bucs fans affectionately refer to as “Muscle Hamster” exploded onto the scene his rookie year in 2012 and made the Pro Bowl.
He hasn’t been the same since.
Last year, he never got on track for reasons not exactly known. Martin was lost for the season injuring his left shoulder on a pass play. Martin returned healthy, but in the season opener, he looked far more like the Martin of 2013. To be fair, Martin also injured his knee in the second half.
Last week, Martin must have had flashbacks to 2013. He stood on the sidelines and watched Bobby Rainey run wild through the Lambs’ defense. This hasn’t been lost on Bucs fans and hasn’t been lost on Dixie Chicks coach Mike Smith, notes the “Custodian of Canton,” eye-RAH! Kaufman of The Tampa Tribune.
“I think that he’s small in stature, but he’s a very strong runner,” Smith said of Rainey. “He’s got very good vision and there’s not a whole lot of area to hit. You’ve got shoulder pads and knees, and that’s about it. He’s very compact. I think that he’s got very good feel and very good vision.”
From the day Joe first had a chance to talk to Bucs coach Lovie Smith back at the NFL Scouting Combine, Joe has noticed Lovie is smitten with Rainey. Oh, Lovie always refers to Martin as his “bellcow,” but then Lovie will bring up Rainey. He rarely talks about, for example, Mike James. You can infer what you wish.
But with Martin still off the rails (and dinged up) as we enter the third game of the season, and Rainey getting chunks of real estate when he does get carries, don’t be shocked if Rainey gets more touches than Martin until Martin finally shakes off whatever is holding him back.
September 17th, 2014 at 3:06 pm
Rainey was the recipient of good blocking from the offensive line, Doug Martin was not…
September 17th, 2014 at 3:10 pm
^^^agreed
September 17th, 2014 at 3:10 pm
“don’t be shocked if Rainey begins to get more touches than Martin until Martin finally shakes off whatever is holding him back.”
I believe you are correct.
September 17th, 2014 at 3:10 pm
if the offense was less predictable, and maybe threw the ball on 1st or 2nd downs, or god forbid in the redzone…maybe they would be on the field longer and could use both backs…….Martin can hit a hole like ron jeremy, but rainey makes more out of nothing
September 17th, 2014 at 3:12 pm
“Martin can hit a hole like ron jeremy…” Hah!!
September 17th, 2014 at 3:13 pm
Depth at RB is one of the few bright spots on this team. Figuring out who should start or get the most carries is a good problem to have. Judging by the rate of injury last year and this year, we’re going to need everyone.
September 17th, 2014 at 3:34 pm
Agree w AnotherJ
Not so much what douggie fresh hasn’t don’t but what Rainey has been able to do. If offensive line is all about meshing, then week 1 should definitely NOT be a beacon of Martin’s abilities.
Plus, why do we need a bell cow?! A pro bowler and a guy that can break off for 100+ any given Sunday; split them in the back field – yes please!
September 17th, 2014 at 3:48 pm
He makes better reads than Martin he is better
September 17th, 2014 at 3:48 pm
bobby rainey was signed by mark dominick and greg schiano last year just a reminder for some of you bucs fans out their that enjoy critizing schiano alot.
September 17th, 2014 at 3:50 pm
Nothing to see here folks, keep moving.
Lovie said at the beginning of the year the RB position would be done by committee.
Like your allegory DallasBuc.
Blocking has certainly improved for Rainey and yes it would help if we threw more often on first down.
Counting CB’s, there were 10 in the box with a single high safety on almost every first down last week. We didn’t start trying to throw them out of it until maybe the fourth quarter.
September 17th, 2014 at 3:53 pm
Rainey has another advantage (huge) over Martin and James: He’s never been injured. Don’t think for a second that isn’t becoming a huge deal for both of them. You can’t count on a guy who gets dinged up very often.
September 17th, 2014 at 3:55 pm
lovie smith pound that rock tomorrow run behind mankins and collins all day and josh dont make any mistakes and just manage the game. and we win tomorrow is that simple falcons cant stop the run nor the pass but we will see what happens. go bucs
September 17th, 2014 at 3:55 pm
Lol thanks ander…that is sure to turn the tides of public opinion.
September 17th, 2014 at 4:04 pm
And in the third round they drafted wait for it.. …. A rb!! And the reason lovie always talks about Rainey is because he’s a better overall runner on most levels. Want to know why Mike Smith is talking up Rainey instead of martin? Because they know that if you clog up the hole were dougillac is supposed to run he has no vision he’ll run right in to the back of his olines ass.
Writing has been on the wall for a while. Something these coaches saw on film that lovie and co. Didn’t like about dougillac.
September 17th, 2014 at 4:07 pm
People forget what Martin looked like in 2012 en route to a pro bowl as a rookie. Rainey is not better than Martin.
September 17th, 2014 at 4:08 pm
Doug has always been overrated. Fans were about ready to run him out of town 2 years ago during his rookie season and then he had that 1 monstrous game against Oakland and everyone all of a sudden anointed him as the next Ray Rice. He’s not a fluid runner and doesn’t have that extra gear to run by defenders. He’s good for 2 yds or so and an occasional 15 yd burst. Heck it was taking him about 30 carries a game to put up those 100 yd per gsme stats.
September 17th, 2014 at 4:08 pm
However, with the garbage talent evaluation under new regime they would run him out of here.
September 17th, 2014 at 4:24 pm
When Rainey runs, I always get the feeling like he could pop one lose at any moment. I never feel that way with Doug Martin. Rainey is more elusive and just seems to find the holes with cutbacks and making himself small to fit through the holes. People talking about better blocking are dreaming.
September 17th, 2014 at 4:29 pm
Lets keep feeding the ball to those who are having high grades for this coaching staff. You earn your money then you should get paid!
Go Bucs!!!
September 17th, 2014 at 4:37 pm
@ Waterboy You know what they say, Never let facts get in the way of a good post.
There was never a time in 2012 that fans (other than maybe clueless fans such as yourself) wanted Martin gone.
And no, it didn’t take him 30 carries a game. He averaged just under 20 carries a game and had 1,454 yards rushing. As a matter of fact he only had more than 25 carries 3 times that season.
Add on top of that an additional 472 yards of receiving and he was second only Adrian Peterson in combined rushing/receiving yardage.
He hasn’t been as good since but to say he didn’t have a great rookie season is just foolish.
September 17th, 2014 at 4:49 pm
Speaking of blocking, anyone remember those two whiffs in the first game? Martin wouldn’t have played for Gruden with that nonsense.
September 17th, 2014 at 4:55 pm
Let be clear…I do not want Martin gone. But, nothing would surprise me these days. I guess the question is…when Simms returns…if he is as good as Lovie thinks he is…would the Bucs try to move Martin? I hope not. We need depth somewhere on this team… Lol
September 17th, 2014 at 4:57 pm
Too much speculation on Doug Martin. The job is martins to lose and just because Rainey had good games while Martin was injured means that toe to route Rainey isn’t good enough to take his job and to date what I’m hearing is the guy still starts, or used to take more than one good game to talk like this especially considering Rainey is on his third team and was 3rd on the depth chart last year
September 17th, 2014 at 5:03 pm
LMAO! To everyone that thinks Rainey is better than Martin.
Come on now, Rainey actually had holes and lanes to run while Martin was getting hit before he even got the ball. He will surpirse people tomorrow in ATL. COUNT ON IT!!!
GO BUCS!
September 17th, 2014 at 5:11 pm
Martin is not back to 100% healthy, nor has the O line been adequate when he was playing. Funny how fans react to a good game by Rainey with I told you so and gee aint he great and ditch that bum Martin. A healthy Martin is way better a player than Rainey. If Rainey gets big yards against Atlanta, some of you fans will want to trade Doug for a plug.
September 17th, 2014 at 5:35 pm
Waterboy…you know that there are people that record every stat that exists for a football game and then catalog those stats for you, right?
Bucs Single Season Rushing Record: James Wilder
407 attempts – 1,544 yards – 3.8 avg
Doug Martin 2012:
319 attempts – 1,454 – 4.6 avg
Nobody wanted to run him out of town. He didn’t rack up all those yards in one game. He was also a receiving threat. Nothing you said was even in the ballpark of reality. Doug is not one of the problems with this team.
September 17th, 2014 at 5:53 pm
I still think Mike James is better than all. He was given a few carries, but unfortunately on most of them Aaron Donald or Robert Quinn owned Collins, Mankins and EDS and there was no room for James to run. Hopefully he gets more carries to display what he can do. A 1-2 punch of James and Rainey, two extremely hard runners is a nightmare for any defense to handle.
September 17th, 2014 at 6:02 pm
I like Doug Martin a lot, but Rainey has a bit more wiggle in his hips, and is great at turning no gains in to positive yardage…almost (dare I say) a little bit like Barry Sanders. It’s great we have 2 really good backs…and if James is healthy, it could be 3.
September 17th, 2014 at 6:11 pm
It sure would be nice to have a one two punch of Martin and Rainey similar to the eagles mcCoy and sproles
September 17th, 2014 at 6:16 pm
If Martin is healthy I think Lovie will give him a chance behind this gelling offensive line. I DONT think Martin will ever be a bell cow. A back his size has to be able to react quickly but he has not shown that so far this season. I dont care who does what I just want a win dammit!!!!!
September 17th, 2014 at 6:18 pm
@DMoney and RealityCheck
Take away the one big game against that great Oakland Raider defense and then talk to me about how great he played. I agree DMoney nobody wanted him gone in 2012 but a lot of us felt that Blount should have gotten a lot more carries and Martin should have been nothing more than a 3rd down back.
Even Carl Nicks was quoted in 20012 prior to the Oakland game saying that he liked Doug and all but teams didn’t have to load the box and prepare the same for Martin as they did for Blount. Then Martin had that 1 big game and all of the critics disappeared.
2012 Stats for Doug Martin
WK Game Date Opp Result Att Yds Avg Lng TD
1 9/9/2014 CAR W 16-10 24 95 4 15 0
2 9/16/2014 @ NYG L 34-41 20 66 3.3 12 1
3 9/23/2014 @ DAL L 10-16 19 53 2.8 17 0
4 9/30/2014 WAS L 22-24 8 33 4.1 10 0
5 Bye — — — — —
6 10/14/2014 KC W 38-10 13 76 5.8 23 0
7 10/21/2014 NO L 28-35 16 85 5.3 36T 1
8 10/25/2014 @ MIN W 36-17 29 135 4.7 41 1
9 11/4/2014 @ OAK W 42-32 25 251 10 70T 4
10 11/11/2014 SD W 34-24 19 68 3.6 14 0
11 11/18/2014 @ CAR W 27-21 24 138 5.8 27 0
12 11/25/2014 ATL L 23-24 21 50 2.4 10 2
13 12/2/2014 @ DEN L 23-31 18 56 3.1 9 0
14 12/9/2014 PHI L 21-23 28 128 4.6 14 1
15 12/16/2014 @ NO L 0-41 9 16 1.8 11 0
16 12/23/2014 STL L 13-28 18 62 3.4 8 0
17 12/30/2014 @ ATL W 22-17 28 142 5.1 40T 1
September 17th, 2014 at 6:21 pm
Oh and I guess he did play well in the garbage game against Atlanta the last game that year since they were preparing for the playoffs and didn’t even play their starters.
September 17th, 2014 at 6:37 pm
Ok, since we are revising reality, if I “take away” the one big game against Oakland…
Rushing: 1,454 – 251 = 1,203
Attempts: 319 – 25 = 294
Receiving: 472 – 21 = 451
Final: 294 attempts for 1,203 yards with an average of 4.1 yards per carry
1,203 + 451 = 1,654 all purpose yards
Yep, still a great season with a shitty team. You can’t just pick and choose what version of events you’d like to recognize, what games count and what don’t and what woulda, coulda, shoulda happened. Nobody other than you wanted Blount to get the carries and Doug to be a 3rd down back. If anything, that is completely reversed. Blount is now on his 3rd NFL team by the way. You’re living in a fantasy land.
September 17th, 2014 at 6:37 pm
Rainey on the field is much better than Martain in the tub…
September 17th, 2014 at 6:38 pm
Ok, since we are revising reality, if I “take away” the one big game against Oakland…
Rushing: 1,454 – 251 = 1,203
Attempts: 319 – 25 = 294
Receiving: 472 – 21 = 451
Final: 294 attempts for 1,203 yards with an average of 4.1 yards per carry
1,203 + 451 = 1,654 all purpose yards
Yep, still a great season with a terrible team. You can’t just pick and choose what version of events you’d like to recognize, what games count and what don’t and what woulda, coulda, shoulda happened. Nobody other than you wanted Blount to get the carries and Doug to be a 3rd down back. If anything, that is completely reversed. Blount is now on his 3rd NFL team by the way. You’re living in a fantasy land.
September 17th, 2014 at 6:56 pm
There is a reason he’s only the Waterboy. Having the running back we do, we are very fortunate.
September 17th, 2014 at 7:01 pm
It is very interesting that for the second season in a row, the O-Line blocks for Rainey and not Martin?
September 17th, 2014 at 7:13 pm
I would like to see what Lane can do on short yardage situations. We still don’t know how he runs the ball. If he can pound the line hard enough, that would wear out defensive lines quicker.
September 17th, 2014 at 7:35 pm
It is a good argument to put up that Martin is still better than Rainey. But by now it should be pretty obvious that he is no bell cow deserving of 70% or more carries with Rainey and James behind him. I think once James gets into a groove as well, hopefully against Atlanta and Martin returns by 4th game, it could be a 40%-30%-30% kind of deal favoring Martin until the other guys do more with less.
September 17th, 2014 at 9:04 pm
Bonzai I agree. I would like to see Lane on a third and goal. No tricks just hard nosed blocking and running.
September 17th, 2014 at 10:44 pm
Rainy runs the way Martin used to run. With anger, power, determination, and chutzpah. High stepping his way through tackles. Martin used to do that his rookie year. I look at Martin now, and he looks like he isn’t putting any effort into it. Just charging into a wall over and over and over again like a dumb ol bull.
September 17th, 2014 at 11:10 pm
Getting rid of Doug Martin even for a 2nd round pick would be foolish. It’s not like we’ll do anything useful with that pick anyway (we usually suck at drafting).
Maybe this team will win someday if we stop giving up on our best players.
September 18th, 2014 at 1:02 am
The fact is rainey has out played him.. he deserves to be our number 1….
September 18th, 2014 at 9:59 am
Doug martin has had two super games. I understand he was injured last year but still, no consistency. I have a feeling that doug martin will get all of the carries against a bad falcons run D. if he does nothing tonight, bobby rainey will be the bucs running back.
September 18th, 2014 at 10:26 am
Joe can you PLEASE tell me which one of these mofos to start in Fantasy tonight I got both of them just in case and every freaking site is telling me something different
September 18th, 2014 at 2:05 pm
We all agree that the 2012 Doug Martin was a great back, however today Doug is a shell of his former 2012 self. I like Doug, he may yet return to 2012 form but right now Bobby Rainey is better than he is in this system. Every time Doug gets the ball now I can predict what’s going to happen, he is going straight up the middle, get pushed back 2 yards, and I going to yell at my TV. Martin is also a terrible blocker. Rainey isn’t much better but at least he is not whiffing on plays like Doug. Like I said I like Doug, but I don’t care what he did in 2012 if it’s not helping the 2014 team.