“It Is Terrible In Tampa”
May 19th, 2015
NFL.com is no fan of running back Charles Sims.
The 2014 Bucs offense was gut-wrenching. Joe didn’t know what made him heave more last year, turnstile blocking, no running game, a turnover-prone quarterback who played like a scared eighth-grader, or the not-so-well-done cheeseburger Joe tried to wash down with a rank craft beer sporting some weirdo name.
If Joe had been sitting in the Den of Depression rather than working a home game, Joe would have been inclined to chuck a warm $8 beer.
Oh, the Bucs receivers were excellent, at least rookie Mike Evans and veteran Vincent Jackson. The rest of the offense was so wretched a cat would have tried to kick sand over it.
What unnerved NFL.com scribe Gregg Rosenthal about the Bucs offense was the lack of a running game. In this NFL.com video with the alluring Colleen Wolfe, Rosenthal is shocked the Bucs didn’t try to upgrade the running attack this offseason.
“If you look at the running back group, it is terrible in Tampa,” Rosenthal said. “Everyone is excited about Jameis Winston and who he is throwing to. You still have Doug Martin sitting around. You have Charles Sims who I was not impressed by a season ago but the group in Tampa there seems to like him. And then you have Bobby Rainey.
“They brought back what was probably the worst running back group in the league and now [the Bucs] are bringing that back all over again. The offensive line should be better but it is looking like a poor running game. Sims, to me, was a guy that was very upright and stiff and did not inspire a lot of confidence.”
Even Wolfe, the Megyn Kelly (?) of NFL Now, gorgeous that she is, had a bitter beer face when she began speaking of the Bucs running backs. That’s a first for Joe.
May 19th, 2015 at 7:07 am
chicken or the egg…
Ol or the Rb’s
May 19th, 2015 at 7:15 am
that’s just ignorant!!!! your not impressed with the rookie that came back form injury reserve huh lol oh well these morons say all kinds of insane things and are proven wrong so often they know everyone will forget what they said in the first place
May 19th, 2015 at 7:20 am
Jim Brown could not have run effectively behind that line!!!
May 19th, 2015 at 7:37 am
Simple trade Martin, witness him rush for 1000+ on a better team, and come to proper conclusion that O-line & OC were sh!t and RB’s were banged up last year. OC should be better, injuries is an unknown, and OL is still probably bad
May 19th, 2015 at 7:37 am
No holes , met behind the line or as soon as they were handed the ball and the qb put on his back at the same time. What did this idiot watch?
May 19th, 2015 at 7:46 am
Defenses could crowd the line of scrimmage because McCown was unreliable, inconsistent, as Joe said, looking like a scared eight grader. If the Bucs can establish the short yardage passing game early, the lb’s will back off the line and allow our ol to block one on one. maybe holes will open up and help the running game.
May 19th, 2015 at 8:01 am
Gregg Rosenfetus is an idiot. The play calling/schemes were terrible and we all know that our OL sucked.
We have good running backs and I think they’ll do very well this season.
May 19th, 2015 at 8:03 am
Martin is not the best back on the team. I wish Rainey could get more touches.
May 19th, 2015 at 8:06 am
New OC should help, but this is a bad group.
May 19th, 2015 at 8:08 am
and James is all but forgotten…would keep him over Sims…not impressed with the 3rd round, wasted pick
May 19th, 2015 at 8:09 am
I think with Koetter’s crew, the fans and the NFL are going to be surprised.
May 19th, 2015 at 8:13 am
Im with OB on this one.
May 19th, 2015 at 8:20 am
I can’t look at last year and assume that any part of it will translate over to this year. Between having an actual QB, an actual OC and an improved line I don’t think that our offense will look anything like it did last year and I’m not convinced that the people who struggled last year won’t have a dramatic improvement this year. True, our backs don’t have the kind of talent that will shine even without a person in charge that has anything resembling a plan, a la Evans and VJax, but we do have players who have talent and an offense that is built around showcasing that talent should go a long way.
Last year was rough but just having those infrastructure pieces in place makes this team so much more promising than it was even at the beginning of last year, before it all went awry
May 19th, 2015 at 8:34 am
Did any of you guys see the new Bucs long-snapper make a full court shot with a long snap????? Crazy. At least shouldn’t see anymore balls rolled to the QB from the C position
May 19th, 2015 at 8:36 am
I don’t get how Rainey gets ignored over and over and over again. He has been the best back on this team since he got here. Get him a better line and with Koetter, even Dougie will be saying “Muscle Hamster who?” Rainey will get some love soon. I’ve been rooting for and defending this guy for so long, he’s starting to feel like my little brother!
Not all blonde bimbos are created equally. Megyn Kelly is the Russel Wilson of the media. The rare brains AND bronze in one package. That Wolfe gal is one tantrum away from being the next Britt McHenry.
May 19th, 2015 at 8:36 am
just goes to show that national media know nothing about small market teams like tampa, if it was the jets or giants or patriots the excuses for the run game would be endless, you cant even take into account a college quarterbacks coach calling plays and the bad o line play into an obvious factor as to why the run game was bad?
oh I get it Gregg Rosenthal is a stat geek, look at the stat sheets aka cheat sheet and make a stupid take on a franchise
May 19th, 2015 at 8:41 am
Sims was brought here to be “speed in space” not a power running back. When a player whose game is predicated on speed and cutting hurts one of his wheels it’s obvious his game is going to suffer. We really don’t know about Sims. Let’s see how he plays when he’s healthy.
Martin also battled through injuries to start the season and showed progress the latter part of the season. Let’s see how he performs this year when he’s healthy.
All of these backs are “serviceable” and can be pieces of a strong offense. Do we have a bell cow running back like a Lynch or Lacy…no…but we can win without one.
May 19th, 2015 at 8:53 am
Smh. Next >>>>
May 19th, 2015 at 8:55 am
This guy did not watch the Bucs last year, obviously. RB is one of our deeper positions.
May 19th, 2015 at 9:03 am
Why was the running game so bad? It was for a couple of reasons.
1. The OL could not create any openings consistently.
2. The defenses did not fear our QB and passing game.
3. Bad play calling/ lack of a credible OC.
Simple as that. I would wager that our RB’s would have had much better stats if they were playing for someone like Green Bay. E. Lacey would not have had a great season if he were playing for the Bucs last season.
May 19th, 2015 at 9:06 am
I’m concerned Bucs are setting Dougie up for failure this year… I don’t believe in the line they’re marching out this year either
May 19th, 2015 at 9:12 am
I’m satisfied the RB crew can get it done for the Bucs, overstacked seems the case to me. O line improvement is key. Hell, even OJ Simpson couldn’t have run into the clear on this team last year.
May 19th, 2015 at 9:16 am
What an idiot. This is definitely not the worst RB group in the nfl. Im also pretty sure all these “experts” (lmao) on all these different sites have probably never watched a bucs game in their entire lives
May 19th, 2015 at 9:19 am
Honestly, I think that this year for our offense will be a lot like last year was for our defense. We’ll see signs of life at time, especially as the season goes on, but I would imagine that it’s going to be a lot of people just trying to feel each other out. That’s unfortunate for Martin, since he won’t be here next year but I think it’ll bode well for Sims going in to next year
May 19th, 2015 at 9:49 am
Gregg Rosenthal is the worst of the PFT-don’t-know-crap-about-football rejects. The dude is a fantasy nerd and nothing more. I’ve never been impressed with his football knowledge and even less impressed with his writing ability. He is a first class ZERO. I really don’t care what he has to say about any subject.
May 19th, 2015 at 9:55 am
Let people outside Tampa think what they want. We all know the real reasons the running game has not been there. All the better when we catch them by surprise.
May 19th, 2015 at 10:32 am
You can’t judge a running game without having the OC in place to know what it should look like.
May 19th, 2015 at 10:33 am
The RB group is bad but it’s not worse than Dallas’.
Besides the lack of run game is more a result of the coaching staff & OL.
I think our best bet is using Rainey on perimeter runs, and Sims as a receiver on dump-offs that are an extension of the run game. Those guys can make plays in space and the perimeter blocking is better than the interior push.
May 19th, 2015 at 10:59 am
D. Martin League MVP. I said it first.
May 19th, 2015 at 11:22 am
We have a quarterback and two potential all pro receivers to go qith an offensice line that should be somewhat improved. Defwnses wont be able to stuff the box and take away our running game without eventually getting shredded by the passing game. Thats why the running game will be better. Its not that this player sucks or whatever. That is just so lazy. And to think morons like that just got paid for their take on our running backs. The reason we didnt have a running game was because defenses filled the box and our running backs had no where to go. Then Mccown and Arroyo were unable to take advantage, so the defenses never had to adjust. Wether it was Arroyo crappy play calling or Mccown fsiling to execute idk. And while our o line wasnt entirely to blame, they still sucked and they werent going to give us any extra edge. That is why we had no running game. Not because Doug Martin sucked or this player sucked. GTF out of here. I cant beleive how lazy and ignorant the national media can be regarding the Bucs.
May 19th, 2015 at 11:38 am
@LargoBuc – They’re able to be lazy because we haven’t done well enough to justify them devoting any time to figuring out what’s actually going on with our team. I get it. Especially when there are only so many hours in the day and the Bucs have been so bad. It’s a small market and everyone just views it as a win on their schedule and don’t think anything else about it. The onus is on our guys to stand up and make them pay attention.
May 19th, 2015 at 1:25 pm
i think our RB corps is somewhat overrated by fans and by JBF. however, they are better than they looked last year, with a garbage OC calling garbage plays blocked by a garbage OL.
of course, a big part of the rationale for a step forward this year is different guys being healthy again. But is that something we can rely on? the only reason we know about bobby rainey and mike james is because we have multiple RB injuries to work through every year.
May 19th, 2015 at 5:12 pm
We need a work horse back. Simms will be hood for catching passes and keeping defenses hobest with his hands but Mike James is the only guy I see on this roster that can run it up the gut and average 5 yards. Mime James reminds me of a Jeremy Hill. He runs hard for a little guy.