Henry Melton Talks Edge Rush
June 13th, 2015
Henry Melton talks to Joe.
Aside from his last year in Chicago, when he played but three games, Bucs defensive tackle Henry Melton has always been somewhat adept at getting to quarterbacks, an area the Bucs, aside from Gerald McCoy, are rather impotent.
The Bucs are still looking for a double-digit sack guy from the edge since Simeon Rice left. It has been such a waste of time, Team Glazer millions and effort. Joe has thrown in the towel and believes the Rays will play in a new Tampa stadium before the Bucs have another 10+ sack guy at defensive end.
So when the Bucs courted Melton in the offseason, they floated an idea at him: Would he be interested in playing defensive end on obvious passing situations.
Melton not only seems cool with that, he’s sort of looking forward to the challenge, if it happens, so he told Joe on Thursday, after the final OTA practice of the year.
“Yeah, you know, I played a little bit of end last year,” Melton said of his lone year with the Cowboys. “[The Bucs] brought that up to me. We have been messing with the rotation a little bit. We are just going to take it into training camp and see how it works.”
The Bucs could use every stinking edge they can get to produce an edge rush. If using a rotation of castoffs who got a handful of sacks from the edge (Jacquies Smith, George Johnson), and a tackle who can rush the passer as an end (Melton), perhaps, just maybe, the Bucs might be able to piece together double-digit sacks from an edge.
Sort of a like a defensive end by committee.
June 13th, 2015 at 8:09 am
No way in hell that Lovie does not draft a premium edge rusher next draft
June 13th, 2015 at 9:40 am
maybe they can find a decent end of the waiver wire
June 13th, 2015 at 9:48 am
Putting the four best pass rushers in on obvious passing downs makes a lot of sence. I’m sure the Loive detractors will find something negative to say here.
We all know who they are.
Tmaxcon is one. Although he is so knowledgeable about the NFL he doesn’t know the difference between a restricted FA and a FA.
June 13th, 2015 at 9:57 am
I wouldn’t put it past Melton to have and make that desired impact.
June 13th, 2015 at 10:15 am
No way in hell that Lovie does not draft a premium edge rusher next draft
Bucs began scouting for a defensive end in the 2016 draft months before the 2015 draft.
June 13th, 2015 at 11:13 am
Not saying they are or will be the Giants, but the Giants did the exact same thing during their SB runs. They had even had Tuck playing DT on passing downs and other packages. Their line was pretty light in terms of size when they implemented this scheme but the $hit worked.
June 13th, 2015 at 2:36 pm
The Tampa 2 requires a good pass rush, to be most effective.
Come to think of it, Ali Marpet has enough speed to be a pass rusher, though he was drafted as an offensive player.
June 13th, 2015 at 2:40 pm
Anxious for us to get into pads and put our Defense against our Offense and see just how good our rookies are. I think it is a mistake for Licht to pass on the All Pro Guard from Philly while we still have Gilkey on our roster, one of the worst OL in Buc’s history!!!