Licht Impressed By Shining Brate
December 2nd, 2014
Just like last year (Tim Wright), the fourth-ranked tight end to open the Buccaneers season has made a mark.
That doesn’t happen often in the NFL.
Seen by Joe struggling at times through training camp, undrafted rookie tight end Cameron Brate has ben impressing behind the scenes, Bucs general manager Jason Licht said Sunday.
Brate, a Harvard man with an economics degree, made his NFL debut Sunday. His first start saw him look pretty solid serving as a fullback, and he caught a 17 yard ball from Josh McCown, a sharp route from the slot.
“There’s a lot of people that love the upside that Cameron has, including myself,” Licht said on the Buccaneers Radio Network. “Smart, smart guy from Harvard. Athletic, he can catch the ball. He needs to be a little bit bigger, a little bit stronger, develop over time. But now his time has come a little bit earlier than we expected it. And we’ll see what happens.
“You know he loves football because he could be making more money than most people right now with his brain, but he chooses to keep after football.”
A practice squad guy, which Brate was until last week, typically earns about $6,000 a week during the regular season. So, yes, Brate might have found better employment with his fancy economics degree. But Joe doesn’t care about that. Joe was just happy to see the kid look like a real tight end — block, and catch the ball and absorb a shot.
Joe’s not expecting a Tim Wright story and emergence, but it would be great to see Brate get a good look through the final four meaningless games.
December 2nd, 2014 at 3:34 pm
Oh brother, now Licht is blowing smoke up the 4th string TE’s ass.
#it’sabucslife
December 2nd, 2014 at 3:35 pm
ha, an undergraduate econ degree (harvard or no) doesn’t get you over $100k coming out the gate most anywhere in 2014. as a guy in your early 20’s, practice professional football for a living for as long as you can keep the gig and see where it goes.
December 2nd, 2014 at 3:51 pm
Joe man get out of my head!!! Just commented on this kid earlier today. He looked really good out there. Nice catch, good blocking but then he dissappeared of course.
I have a feeling that in the next ten years were going to see a lot more players being drafted from Ivy League schools. They may not be the most athletic candidates available but they’re smart and you don’t have to worry about videos showing up on Twitter.
December 2nd, 2014 at 3:52 pm
Will any of the starting TE’s be available Sunday?
December 2nd, 2014 at 3:56 pm
So does this mean he’s going to be traded to NE ?
December 2nd, 2014 at 3:58 pm
All he really has to know to help us win games is the personnel groupings. If he can remember to make sure someone leaves when he goes in – that puts him ahead of Cousins and Herron.
December 2nd, 2014 at 3:59 pm
“it would be great to see Brate get a good look through the final four meaningless games.”
Obviously, the games aren’t meaningless to Brate…..
Not meaningless to me either…..I know what you are trying to say….meaningless in-so-far-as playoffs are concerned……but otherwise, not meaningless….
December 2nd, 2014 at 4:07 pm
Love some of the pics you put up Joe do you have some stash of all of these that you collect throughout games, like having someone dedicated to finding these pics and storing them.
December 2nd, 2014 at 4:15 pm
Licht is impressed by Trash McCown and rest of his illustrious FA class. Consider the source…
December 2nd, 2014 at 4:17 pm
Look Sunday was clearly a tale of the challenge of depth. There is never really enough! When you get down to 4th stringers, practice squad fodder, it can be desperate, or it can be like finding some money you forgot you stashed.
Brate was called upon in a dire emergency, ALL THREE TE’s ahead of him down.
He didn’t look like Jimmy Graham, but that wasn’t his job. He absolutely did his job and solidified his position on next year’s practice squad until perhaps he can figure a way into the lineup.
Now that poor Gelkey kid. They obviously short changed the Center position when they considered backups! Talk about a total lack of depth at that position. It was embarrassing. I felt sorry for that kid. He clearly wasn’t ready for prime time. Maybe this horrid experience will toughen him up IF they’res another opportunity.
December 2nd, 2014 at 4:21 pm
Yo…Joes or any other swing dik journalist in this town…STEP UP and start asking the tough questions as you are supposed to do…..starting with…who calls the shots…L or L….?
December 2nd, 2014 at 4:21 pm
The remaining games are meaningful – for the draft that is.
Based on what I see so far, this team isn’t smart enough to take advantage of porous teams playing badly.
So thank goodness they can’t ruin the draft!
December 2nd, 2014 at 4:55 pm
You got it JOE. Happy to see someone look like a “REAL” TE. Unlike the one we have starting that is a man beast with all the intangibles and upside. #87 AKA JOES man crush is soft, lazy and gives up consistently on plays.
December 2nd, 2014 at 6:44 pm
So maybe I missed it – but I never heard what was wrong with our 1st, 2nd and 3rd string tight ends. Just that they were all inactive for Sunday’s game. Weren’t all 3 active and playing the week before? What happened? Somebody catch me up.
December 2nd, 2014 at 7:30 pm
I wonder which $9 million dollar trojan horse we can trade him for this offseason?
December 2nd, 2014 at 8:36 pm
Ryan Fitzpatrick is a smart Harvard grad and look as how well he turned out. Just because you can read the book, doesn’t mean your athletic enough to play on Sunday.
December 2nd, 2014 at 10:14 pm
Fitzpatrick just threw for 6tds last Sunday and is a starter. What was the point to your statement?
December 3rd, 2014 at 12:48 am
The field is littered every Sunday with epic busts that Licht was impressed with. Grain of salt here.
December 3rd, 2014 at 9:26 am
These last few games aren’t meaningless at all. Great opportunity to see if lovie’s defense can stop or limit some pretty good QB’s plus I hope we lose out and grab mariota 😉 and heck who knows we might get a great OC