Dancing On The Bubble
July 25th, 2015
Throwing out the names of Garrett Gilkey and Robert Herron incites Bucs fans into various degrees of rage.
Shoot, even some thin-skinned fans grumble about the pride of Largo High School, cornerback Leonard Johnson.
(Joe has noticed a trend among sports fans. They simply loathe the guys at the very bottom of a depth chart, no matter the team, no matter the sport. Hell, the St. Louis Cardinals have the best record in baseball and their fans just cannot wait to take a fungo bat to reserve infielder Pete Kozma. What do people expect from guys who barely made the roster, Hall of Famers?)
Well, in a kind of a fun projection for the Bucs’ 53-man roster, ESPN’s Pat Yasinskas has some good and bad news.
Yasinskas projects that Gilkey makes the team. He also believes Johnson will be on the roster come Sept. 13.
However, Yaskinskas believes if you are a Herron fan (there is actually a Robert Herron fan?), you better get your fill in preseason because he won’t be in the Tampa Bay area come the middle of September, unless he lands a job at Publix.
Yasinskas also believes that fan favorite Luke Stocker’s days are numbered.
July 25th, 2015 at 10:08 am
Nobody wants their team’s respective Jose Molina, and yet that Molina keeps getting trotted out either because he has one integral, though fundamental, ability or because he has inside knowledge and photos of the head coach.
July 25th, 2015 at 10:24 am
It’s simply common sense….if you want your team to improve….you have to improve the players on the bubble…..you can do that two ways….the best is from the top down…..bringing in a draft pick or FA that pushes a player out….the other is to replace them with waiver wire FA pickups or trades.
Sure, you want to root for these guys to succeed….but I will be perfectly fine if Gilkey, Johnson & Herron are gone…..you could add a couple of others to that list.
July 25th, 2015 at 10:28 am
Natives and long time local dwellers gravitate towards home talent to stick with their favorite pro football team. The same for high school players to land with their favorite college teams. When it comes to football, there is no place like home.
July 25th, 2015 at 10:30 am
Agreed TBBF, either build the team top to bottom or bottom to top, or both simultaneously. We have serious issues w our skill and depth, keeping around bad players seriously assuming there are better ones out there only hurts us.
July 25th, 2015 at 10:55 am
There is a portion of fans in the bay who would be happy with bucs being 0-16 year in and year out as long as the team has a Dungy disciple running the outdated tampa 2 with a team full of hypocritical choirboys. Thus the blind love for the fool known as Lovie “I’ve Won Nothing ” Smith.
July 25th, 2015 at 11:04 am
@tmaxcon
Very true, some will never admit it, but they would sign up as life long season ticket holders if the Glazers signed Monte Kiffin’s Grandson as the Head Coach for 2045!!!!
July 25th, 2015 at 11:05 am
Read Yaskinskas’ projection Joe, and several of his keepers made me scratch my head.
Keeping Javorskie Lane for starters. Great story, but he hasn’t shown all that much. Would much rather keep Luke Stocker (preferably), or Joey Iosefa or Dominque Brown at this point.
Keeping Garrett Gilkey and Matthew Masiflo as the 9th and 10th OLinemen is puzzling. I can see keeping 9 OLinemen (not 10), but hope that we bring in at least 1 experienced FA eventually (when other teams start cutting).
Also like Michael Koenen, but doubt we’ll keep him this year. Spencer Lanning looks to have a little better stats, is a lot younger, and obviously cheaper.
And like some others, have to question keeping Leonard Johnson. Another great (local) story, but just not fast enough or quick enough for CB in the Tampa 2.
At this point, it’s all kind of irrelevant anyways. Once the pads go on and the preseason cranks up, I think it’ll be pretty obvious to the coaches who the keepers are.
July 25th, 2015 at 11:08 am
Sorry to rain on parades but this game called football is won in the trenches and neither of our trenches have been very good as of late. Great OLs make even bad QBs look good.
July 25th, 2015 at 11:31 am
I heard a whisper that Buffalo is Very interested in MG. It is best for All involved that he has a good preseason. Including MG.
July 25th, 2015 at 11:33 am
For the crowd that believes good punters are integral to winning:
Prior to last year, Koenen was a pretty good punter. The Bucs have been downright putrid with him as punter.
July 25th, 2015 at 11:35 am
Luke “IR” Stoker?! No way! Say it ain’t so Joe!
July 25th, 2015 at 12:17 pm
I predict that on defense, any player that doesn’t make the roster should stay ready, because its only a matter of time before they get a call due to injury.
July 25th, 2015 at 12:37 pm
Fun fact, Leonard Johnson played quarterback at Largo. He even led to a state semi appearance against St. Thomas Aquinas of Ft.Lauderdale.
Its just amazing to see someone you played with in HS make it to the NFL. Dont forget about Dexter Mccluster on the Titans. He has NFL speed which is why he is a valued kick returner.
Sadly, LJ just dosent have that NFL speed.
July 25th, 2015 at 1:14 pm
Nobody hates Leonard Johnson because they are sensitive fans. We hate Leonard Johnson because we pay attention to the football games and he is absolutely atrocious. For the past two years he has been 3rd(ish) on the depth chart and I would rather see us roll out and armless C.J. Wilson.
July 25th, 2015 at 1:49 pm
Stocker is a pretty good football player if he can stay healthy. The coaches love his blocking ability and he is not a liability in the passing game. Can also play H-back pretty well.
Hopefully we can find better than Gilkey for the bottom of the OL depth chart – and/or his play improves.
Leonard Johnson is all heart and has a nose for the ball – unfortunately he is often times too slow to get there and be in position to make those plays he is capable of.
Herron’s career in the NFL will be very short if he doesn’t figure out how to hold onto the ball. What good is a receiver who drops more passes than he catches? The fact that the Bucs drafted 2 receivers this year speaks volumes about how they feel about Herron.
July 25th, 2015 at 4:12 pm
Herron was held back in part by playing with the noodle-armed q-b Brett Smith at Wyoming. The Bucs had Smith in last year as an UFA. He didn’t even make it through camp.
Funny, but IIRC (and I do) several posters on this site were advocating for Tampa Bay to draft Smith. So our 2014 draft could have been worse if only the team had followed our suggestions.
July 25th, 2015 at 4:18 pm
Herron was held back because Herron couldn’t hold onto the ball. A nasty habit for a wide receiver.
July 25th, 2015 at 6:37 pm
@Bucanew…
The falcons had possibly a wose O line than us last season. They put up points.
If this offense doesnt produce its no ones fault but Lovies.
He also did decent for what he had to work with in Jacksonville.
July 25th, 2015 at 8:26 pm
Bucs will be fools to not keep Hall on the roster over those low rung receivers, guess the preseason will have to play out…
July 26th, 2015 at 12:27 am
@The original “Kevin”
No way did the Falcons have a worse Offensive Line than the Bucs last year. Our center alone cost us 2-3 games.
Lucky us, he’s still here. (rolls eyes)
July 26th, 2015 at 4:03 pm
I don’t think Herron, nor L.J. make the final roster.
July 26th, 2015 at 4:09 pm
Just watched Bruce Carter get burned for a TD by the Packers TE. I hope he learned something from that play.