Rebuild Of Offensive Line “Necessary”
January 7th, 2015
Fox Sports Florida columnist Andrew Astleford suggests the Bucs’ offensive line requires another rebuild.
It’s difficult to fathom just how nearly everything Bucs coach Lovie Smih touched turn to disaster this past season.
Oh, sure, one could point to the improved defense (“improved” does not equate to “good,” and good defenses don’t hack up six fourth-quarter leads). After that, this team was an unequaled nightmare.
You had the Freddie Krueger-like play from Josh McCown, the screendoor-on-a-submarine offensive line, and the all-too-often impotent rushing attack.
Rookie wide receiver Mike Evans was the lone saving grace for Lovie. Austin Seferian-Jenkins was a wash this season with injuries, Charles Sims showed scant big-play ability, the rookie offensive linemen had their faces plastered on milk cartons, and Robert Herron couldn’t catch a cold in Minnesota.
The cherry on top was that twice-released cornerback Mike Jenkins was all but gifted a starting job over promising second-year corner Johnthan Banks and, if not for an injury, Banks likely would have started the season on the bench. As it turned out, Banks logged one of the best seasons a Bucs corner has had in recent memory. In retrospect, it was an accident that happened.
Lovie took a four-win team and ran it deeper into the ground.
In his Bucs season review, Andrew Astleford of Fox Sports Florida took a fair but bruising look at Lovie’s initial season. He typed about the “swings-and-misses” on the offensive line, hinting the team lost fans’ trust in its ability to repair it in one season.
Looking back, the 2014 campaign will be viewed as a golden opportunity missed to begin the Smith Era in a healthy way, and because the NFC South was so terrible, Tampa Bay could have ended its playoff drought with better calls in free agency. The Bucs can’t count on their division to be as awful next season, and it’s hard to imagine the Saints and Atlanta Falcons, in particular, staying down for long.
Nothing is guaranteed in the wild world of the NFL, where it’s possible to go from worst to first with discipline and a little luck, but the Bucs’ margin of error should close.
So the urgency should be clear for Smith and Licht to identify why so many swings and misses happened in their first season together. Turns out, the pair’s rebuild of the offensive line, headlined by the signings of Collins and Dietrich-Smith and the trade with the New England Patriots for Logan Mankins, proved to be the largest failure. More tweaking of the line will be necessary, and even if the Bucs select Marcus Mariota with the No. 1 pick, the rookie’s tantalizing athletic skill could be neutralized by defensive pressure.
As Joe stated with his good friend, “The Big Dog,” Steve Duemig of WDAE-AM 620 yesterday, Joe isn’t buying the rhetoric from One Buc Palace, claiming Evan Dietrich-Smith is entrenched for next year and Logan Mankins is too valuable with his professionalism to wave good-bye. It’s pretty much a given, thought, that Anthony Collins is a goner.
You can’t tell Joe if Bucs general manager Jason Light finds better linemen (who wouldn’t be?), at a cheaper price, he wouldn’t act quickly to upgrade the line.
Some 13 years ago, the Bucs had one of the NFL’s all-time great defenses that carried them through miserable offenses to the playoffs. This just in: the current Bucs defense is, while improved, a far cry from coming close to that dominant 2002 defense.
January 7th, 2015 at 9:08 am
I think this year is an example of how the modern game has passed Lovie by. He should have known that Arroyo wasn’t a capable replacement so that excuse holds no water with me. Either that or we have the worst roster ever.
January 7th, 2015 at 9:13 am
So the architect of this hot mess remains omnipotent?
I advise the clueless and confident crowd to brace your ignorant arses for another 2-14 season.
January 7th, 2015 at 9:14 am
We have the cap space and the draft picks to improve the linhe….I suspect that we are planning on beefing up the right side with a RG/RT…..and if we can find some versitile depth…we will be OK.
Of course we need better coaching…..
January 7th, 2015 at 9:15 am
have they fired the O line coach yet?
January 7th, 2015 at 9:27 am
I find myself sharing the same views as Steve D. on several points related to the QB and OL.
I also agree with a couple things Joe is saying.
Not everything, but a few things.
We do need a Mariota Watch to get equal time though.
January 7th, 2015 at 9:29 am
Tampabaybucfan Says
“We have the cap space…”
How much cap space do we have?
Remember, we need to resign a couple players, including David.
January 7th, 2015 at 9:37 am
the concern should not be with cap space or debate which lineman to keep the concern and quit frankly the scary part is the person in charge of making those fixes / decisions is a stubborn fool that the game has clearly passed by.
January 7th, 2015 at 9:41 am
Where are all these great lineman in FA? We just went a whole season along with 31 other teams picking over the carcasses of what was available to no prevail. So now miraculously there will be a load of NFL ready lineman just waiting for us? I’m not buying it. It’s more important we select a shiny new QB with the first pick just so he can be destroyed physically and mentally shell-shocked in his rookie year because it was a sexier pick. It’s gonna still be tough enough having protection for Mariota, who has escape ability, and can run 4:3, much less trying to protect a pocket passer like squint-eyed Winston.
Yep, who needs lineman anyway when we’re going to draft Superman.
right?
January 7th, 2015 at 9:43 am
Rebuilding the OL …IS THE GREATEST NEED !!!!!!
all else follows
January 7th, 2015 at 9:44 am
Oh, sure, one could point to the improved defense…
Improved over what? Maybe it improved over itself (post Falcons beat down vs prior), bit it was not better than 2013’s D…you know that stunting “Rutgers D”. As for Oline improvement I think that is probably one issue every single one of us can agree on, it is absolutely imperative that the Bucs improve that unit.
January 7th, 2015 at 9:45 am
@ Bonzai
Projection is $30 mil not counting any cuts…. Have enough for two high priced FAs…& still take care of existing players…..
January 7th, 2015 at 9:47 am
^^^ correction post Ravens beat down
January 7th, 2015 at 9:49 am
Bonzai
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=129664#comments
January 7th, 2015 at 9:50 am
O-line needs rebuilding?
The guy is a regular Sherlock Holmes…..wonder how much head-scratching it took for him to figure out what EVERYONE knows!!
January 7th, 2015 at 9:53 am
” In retrospect, it was an accident that happened.”
Joe this is speculation, maybe Jenkins had known the system better at the time and was therefore executing better in camp? Maybe Lovie wanted to light a fire under Banks and challenge the youngster to step up? Anyways the end results were Banks having a nice season in Lovie’s system. Also if Winston decides not to declare I think that first pick becomes twice as valuable. But can you pass up a top QB prospect like Mariota for a king’s ransom? Also one last note-please can we get Jason Pierre-Paul in FA?
January 7th, 2015 at 10:15 am
I think the fans have been saying since week 1 that we need to blow up the o-line and rebuild it.
January 7th, 2015 at 10:19 am
Letting the guys who built the total crap line of this year get another shot to build a line is not inspiring. Then you look at Lovie’s history of OLines in Chicago and you resign yourself that it probably won’t get much better. I guess that’s why they have to draft Mariota, because he’s gonna be running for his life.
January 7th, 2015 at 10:24 am
with the worst 0-line in the nfl the bucs will be in trouble next year. mariota the Hawaiian raised Samoan American QB will be scrambling for his life!
January 7th, 2015 at 10:27 am
SAMCRO Says:
It’s more important we select a shiny new QB with the first pick just so he can be destroyed physically and mentally shell-shocked in his rookie year because it was a sexier pick. It’s gonna still be tough enough having protection for Mariota, who has escape ability, and can run 4:3, much less trying to protect a pocket passer like squint-eyed Winston.
Yep, who needs lineman anyway when we’re going to draft Superman.
right?
_______________________________________________________
lol
January 7th, 2015 at 10:44 am
SAMCRO Says:
January 7th, 2015 at 9:41 am
It’s more important we select a shiny new QB with the first pick just so he can be destroyed physically and mentally shell-shocked in his rookie year because it was a sexier pick. It’s gonna still be tough enough having protection for Mariota, who has escape ability, and can run 4:3, much less trying to protect a pocket passer like squint-eyed Winston.
Yep, who needs lineman anyway when we’re going to draft Superman.
right?
**********************
I’m not buying what you’re selling. I’m not sure where this started or why people think if you draft an OL in the 1st round that your O-Line will be set. You guys do realize that there is a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and even a 7th round right? Which means, we can take that sexy pick at #1 and get a potential franchise QB. On top of that sexy pick we can then get an OL in the 2nd round and even the 3rd round. Hell, we can even take that sexy pick and trade up in the late 1st round and get Peat for our OL. Does that mean we will win the Superbowl now because we took an OL in the 1st round? No.
January 7th, 2015 at 10:48 am
” The cherry on top was that twice-released cornerback Mike Jenkins was all but gifted a starting job over promising second-year corner Johnthan Banks”
This is simply deja vu. Remember Lovie’s mentor Father Dungy? One of his first moves when he came to the Bucs was to bench John Lynch in favor of one of Dungy’s guys from KC. Luckily for Dungy and the Bucs that guy got hurt and Lynch was back in the lineup for good.
Now if Banks can replicate Lynch and go on to an all pro career I’d be really happy. Don’t think Banks is that good but he is a decent NFL corner and an asset to this team. I agree with Joe. WTF were they thinking with Jenkins over Banks?
January 7th, 2015 at 12:59 pm
The problem is you can only rebuild with what’s available to you. We’ll see this offseason what they learned from last season. Wholesale changes didn’t work so I suspect we’ll see less of that than most probably want.
January 7th, 2015 at 1:35 pm
FIRE WARHOP
January 7th, 2015 at 5:08 pm
We can’t assume a 100% success rate in FA and the draft, or even 50%, but it would be nice if they picked a couple of winners for a change. By what is being said it seems like Lovie is happy with many of the players on the oline (and is likely loyal to the oline coach too….yuuckkk!). At the same time, perhaps it is all just coach speak and anything can and perhaps will change based on opportunities that present themselves later. That is what makes the off season interesting, what is the strategy, what will they do, who will they get and how will it work out? However, one thing I expect is that they likely make at least one pick in the draft that makes absolutely no sense to fans (like another running back at #2, maybe a beast to pair with the unproven big play, speed-in-space Sims). Get ready for L&L II, the sequel (and 2-14 II, the sequel?). Go Bucs.