“If You Don’t Have Anybody That’s Pushing You, Then Who’s Going To Make You Better?”
June 16th, 2015
The Bucs’ mandatory, three-day minicamp starts this afternoon
Many folks out there believe the Buccaneers have open competitions for every starting job this season. Joe knows that’s naïve silly talk.
But at least Tampa Bay has made a lot more positions competitive. And that’s always good because the nature of a quality football player is to crave any opportunity to compete, even with a teammate, even if it’s a rather phony competition (see quarterback).
Doug Martin touched on this with Casey Phillips of Buccaneers.com. Via video, Martin earnestly said he welcomes the Bucs’ deep running backs corps. “If you don’t have anybody that’s pushing you, then who’s going to make you better?” Martin asked.
Joe has no problem gifting quality players a starting job. That’s just the real world. However, Joe has a massive problem letting that player continue to start if he plays like garbage. And that was one of the biggest core problems with the Bucs last year.
Yes, it all led to nirvana and winning the Chase for Jameis, but it remains a mode of operation that has to stop.
June 16th, 2015 at 10:06 am
ahem…..Alterraun Verner…
June 16th, 2015 at 10:10 am
Who were you going to replace Verner with last year… He was a pro bowler so you got to give him a chance to learn a new system, nobody ever said he was Revis (except the coach)
June 16th, 2015 at 10:17 am
Thats fine, but if Lovie is so gung-ho on Mike Jenkins, he should take Verners spot LONG BEFORE he takes Banks’ spot…
June 16th, 2015 at 10:18 am
And secondly Rrsrq, We’re not talking about last year….we’re talking about this season…
June 16th, 2015 at 10:20 am
Well, Martin WAS at his best when he had a 1000 yard 5 YPC guy wasting away on the bench behind him.
June 16th, 2015 at 10:27 am
I c your point TRM, no way he takes snaps from Banks… Hopefully Lovie will eventually get to where Dungy was, pretty much always drafting the replacement (the next man up) that when a Bucs starter went out, barely missed a beat, it also helped that Ronde and DB never missed a game
June 16th, 2015 at 10:35 am
Why would the Bucs be having a phony competition at QB? Oh yeah, to raise Glennon’s trade status because any old backup QB is good enough to get the job done should Winston get injured. Backup QB’s are a dime a dozen, don’t you know? Maybe so. Jameis better be a sure thing or there will be a meltdown in Bucsville.