Miserable Offensive Line
November 27th, 2014
One would have thought that when Tampa Bay purged just about every capable offensive lineman from its roster last spring, that the concept was to improve, not to get your skilled position players maimed.
Joe wonders how four 2013 starters were tossed overboard, and all found a way to start and produce with other offensive lines — two for playoff-bound teams. Maybe Bucs overlord of football operations Lovie Smith was a bit too quick to pull the trigger?
Film guru Andy Benoit of theMMQB.com was in pain watching the Bucs block last week in Chicago.
Film: #Bucs OL arguably the worst in the league this year.
— Andy Benoit (@Andy_Benoit) November 26, 2014
Of course, hindsight is 20/20, but it didn’t have to be.
Was Donald Penn so onerous that he couldn’t have been kept? Jeremy Zuttah was that bad they couldn’t keep him around? Davin Joseph was willing to take a massive paycut to stay with the Bucs. What would it have hurt to have him battle for a gig?
There is a reason why Anthony Collins was always a backup. There was a reason why Evan Dietrich-Smith wasn’t re-signed.(Remember Joe’s steadfast rule: stay away from a player Ted Thompson no longer wants when the price of keeping him is mere peanuts). Demar Dotson still does not remind Joe of Dan Dierdorf.
When the Bucs go to rebuild their roster in a few weeks, don’t be shocked if they begin with the offensive line.
That was a whole lot of work and Team Glazer cash the Bucs went through last year to retool the line, with nothing to show for it.
November 27th, 2014 at 11:01 am
Team is 3 great drafts away from being a 10-6 team
November 27th, 2014 at 11:23 am
Edwards is injured…..but pretty soon we should be seeing Pamphile on the line….if not….something is dreadfully wrong…
We absolutely need to be developing our younger players and that includes Glennon & Herron.
November 27th, 2014 at 11:34 am
I believe this is the biggest problem on the team they don’t run block worth a crap so there is no running game which puts it all on the quarterbacks to throw the ball a lot more than either is capable of doing. Oh and they don’t pass block well either. I don’t think any quarterback they could draft or sign would be successful with no running game or pass protection.
November 27th, 2014 at 12:03 pm
I cant trust LOVIE to build this team through the draft or free agency. I’m loosing confidence in his ability to select players and to coach them.
November 27th, 2014 at 12:03 pm
Safe to say there will be some movement on the offensive line over the off season. The Bucs have to produce an effective running game to be able to win more than a few games.
November 27th, 2014 at 12:27 pm
There’s an error in your copy… Only one playoff bound team… Donald Penn (not playoff bound), Davin Joseph (not playoff bound), Jeremy Zuttah (PLAYOFF BOUND), and Carl Nicks (retired).
No error. Ted Larsen, starting left guard for the Cardinals. Joe wasn’t referring to Nicks. Larsen made four starts for the Bucs last year and played in every game.–Joe
November 27th, 2014 at 12:31 pm
Wondering if the problem is their zone blocking scheme. Requires, quick, speedy and athletic offensive lineman to work.
Does describe anyone currently on the Bucs’ OL? Mankins? ODS?
November 27th, 2014 at 12:32 pm
* “does that describe”
November 27th, 2014 at 12:38 pm
The only thing wrong with Benoits’ tweet, is that the word “arguably” does not belong.
As I see it, Lovie/Licht just might have more ‘holes’ going into this off season than they had when they took over. When it’s an error, in judgement, or inability to judge correctly, only time will tell. It ‘could’ be that Lovie relied heavily on Warhops’ input.
November 27th, 2014 at 12:43 pm
The problems with the offensive line start with the crappy offensive line coach!
November 27th, 2014 at 12:50 pm
“…Maybe Bucs overlord of football operations Lovie Smith was a bit too quick to pull the trigger?”
Joe, Lovie’s response would be “…but we were 4-12…”.
So, what does it mean when Lovie changes half the players on the team, and we are worse? And this is the guy who determines who we bring in next year. Friggin scary!
November 27th, 2014 at 12:57 pm
I’ve got a great idea: let’s let the genius who put this current offensive (pun intended) group together have ANOTHER crack at it. *eye roll*
November 27th, 2014 at 1:15 pm
Penn had a terrible game against Robert Quinn but it’s Robert Quinn for god sakes. Every LT in the league had a bad game vs him. Penn was a great run blocker, always down field always putting a hat on a guy. And Zuttah, he looks great in purple. He’s really playing some inspired ball.
Eds =mj. I’ve given up on trying to see him make a play. It’s like he’s not even out there.
Mankins although tough as nails makes too many mistakes. Penalties, missed blitzes, etc
When Dotson is your best OL you have major issues.
November 27th, 2014 at 1:21 pm
This is why we need to draft the “nasty” with our 1st pick. O or D linemen, please! There are no short cuts to signing FA “nasty, see: the ghost, EDS, Collins and Mankins to some degree.
We need to spend premium picks on premium linemen.
November 27th, 2014 at 1:24 pm
I’m still wondering how L&L could have penciled in Carl Nicks as the starting left guard. Were they really caught THAT off guard by a career ending injury?
I remember all the training camp reports and pics here on Joe of Nicks in his floppy hat at practice. They HAD to know Nicks was not going to play, and yet they talked about him up until the day he finally reached his settlement.
November 27th, 2014 at 1:33 pm
the general manager has shown very poor decision making selecting players as replacements. this applies to the d-line, d-backs and o-line. I don’t even need to mention the crap players names in the GM’s selection at those positions. lovie and the GM should be fired. the stadium will be empty next year. people will not pay to see a crap team. lovie’s talk is BS. the record speaks for itself. the NFL is a business. no fans in stadium will mean less people to spend $8.00-$10.00 for a beer next year or $20+to park a car.
November 27th, 2014 at 1:47 pm
Jordan Says:
November 27th, 2014 at 12:27 pm
There’s an error in your copy… Only one playoff bound team… Donald Penn (not playoff bound), Davin Joseph (not playoff bound), Jeremy Zuttah (PLAYOFF BOUND), and Carl Nicks (retired).
No error. Ted Larsen, starting left guard for the Cardinals. Joe wasn’t referring to Nicks. Larsen made four starts for the Bucs last year and played in every game.–Joe
Gabe Carimi….Atlanta Falcons…..could win the South. That makes TWO playoff teams. Right now I like the Falcons over the Saints or Panthers.
November 27th, 2014 at 1:49 pm
Yes the Bucs OLine is “miserable”. The Bucs OLine was miserable last year as well – and was eating up too much of the payroll for such terrible play – so L&L blew it up and replaced 4/5th of the starters. That obviously didn’t work out very well this year as the OLine is still the weakest unit on our team. I suspect we will see similar turnover up front this coming year as well. When in doubt, re-boot.
Joe quit pining for the over payed, under performing OLine players we let go. If we had kept them all – our offensive line would still be terrible just like it is now.
November 27th, 2014 at 1:52 pm
More info on the forgotten Buc…Gabe Carimi – Bears Head Coach Lovie Smith said Carimi would come in as a left tackle. General Manager Jerry Angelo said he is versatile enough to play both left and right tackle, while Smith said the Bears would keep all options open, including potentially that of guard
November 27th, 2014 at 1:52 pm
That was from Gabe carimi’s Wikipedia page.
November 27th, 2014 at 2:08 pm
Online coach Warhop has to go.
November 27th, 2014 at 3:01 pm
using elaborate stats to evaluated talent may work in baseball but not in the NFL.
November 27th, 2014 at 5:47 pm
Right now- Donald Penn is 6th ranked OT in the league- with a minimum of 150 blocks. The raiders are campaigning him for the ProBowl. If you read anynof the Raiders sites- lots of Raider fans saying “thanks Bucs!”
Warhop must go
November 27th, 2014 at 7:14 pm
There is normally more than one way to make something work, it is called “adjustment”. This includes coaches.
Same old non working scheme for blocking/protection which neither veteran or rookie can seem to figure out how to make work regardless of how many linemen they have put in so far, and that has been many players.
November 27th, 2014 at 9:34 pm
Penn and Zuttah are lighting it up this year.
November 27th, 2014 at 11:11 pm
“There is a reason Anthony Collins is a career backup.”
You just sung the Josh McCown song.
November 28th, 2014 at 12:57 am
Simple … They watched weeks 17, 16, 15 … Get it? Your 4/12 o line quit playing by week 10. The new regime saw the quiters and the players … No players, all quiters. Why is it so damn hard for you knuckle heads to understand that? People quit on Schitno like Martin Saint Louis quit on the Lightning. Geeez, I thought there was some intelligence on this forum, obviously not!!!! Oh, yes the hockey players name is butchered intentionally … Felt I had to explain that!
November 28th, 2014 at 2:19 am
What qualify them as capable of building a decent OL? All of their moves have been miserable failures.
It’s gonna be tough convincing Bucs fans to be excited!
November 28th, 2014 at 4:23 am
what else would one expect from Lovey the looser?
November 28th, 2014 at 9:14 am
Bogiedr,
Excuse me Assy McHatterson, but didn’t Schiano and the O-Line go 4-4 to close out the year.
If we can get double the wins, in half a season with those “quitters”, then what do we have here? A bunch of damn losers…
November 28th, 2014 at 9:15 am
Bogiedr,
My apologies for the name calling.
I do agree that St. Louis dogged it for te lightning last year.