Best Of The Bucs’ Cornerbacks, Lovie Says.
November 11th, 2015
Joe had a simple question for Lovie Smith today in the wake of the massive cornerbacks shakeup Sunday.
Coach, was the best play you’ve gotten from your cornerbacks this season?
Yes, Lovie said. The change to Sterling Moore and undrafted rookie Jude Adjei-Barimah, represented a significant upgrade from Johnthan Banks and Mike Jenkins.
Lovie took a follow up question and made sure to lump new nickel cornerback Alterraun Verner into the mix. Lovie said any corner should want to play nickel because the position is in the middle of all the action.
Joe knows Lovie doesn’t see Verner’s move inside as a demotion. Once upon a time, Lovie coached nickel cornerbacks himself while serving as head coach in Chicago. And now, the Bucs have a dedicated nickel coach, Larry Marmie, one of Lovie’s mentors early in his career.
It’s a very safe bet that there will be no changes at cornerback Sunday against the Cowboys and Dez Bryant.
November 11th, 2015 at 4:59 pm
Verner has been playing really well in the Nickel
November 11th, 2015 at 5:00 pm
well what took so long to get 3 cbs that could half way do their job.
why was Jenkins and the cut cb getting so much playing time?
this is just more and more bs from lovie.
this week they will see a different version of cover 2 from cowboys.
i would hope that the bucs can slow down the 3rd qb for the cowboys this year.
maybe even win the game on offense.
November 11th, 2015 at 5:13 pm
Not a Lovie defender but does anybody really disagree with his assessment?
Perhaps Banks is getting the short end of the straw. But the coaches are constantly viewing the video and practice. I don’t buy into the “Lovie pet” theory at all. The NFL is simply too competitive. Coaches would sell their moms down the river for another victory. They are all going to play the people they believe are the best, not their “favorites”.
There is one thing that unites us all including Lovie. We all simply want to WIN.
Lovie is playing the best players he and his staff have determined give them the best shot at winning. I’m not saying Lovie makes all the right decisions. I’m simply saying “favoritism” has nothing to do with it.
Certainly coaches more easily trust players who have performed for them in the past. Lovie may be guilty like many other coaches…can you say CHUCKY!!! who tend to lean on vets and especially vets who have already played well for them. Sometimes that leads to mistakes like Jennings or Charlie Garner among others in Chucky’s case.
November 11th, 2015 at 5:18 pm
Banks and Vernor are your best corners. Period.
November 11th, 2015 at 5:42 pm
Banks, Verner and Moore should have been the starters from the 1st game – I have been saying this since pre-season. It’s not that hard to see. Banks and Verner should be the outside corners in the standard 4-3 configuration – and then move Verner into the slot position when a 3rd “Nickle” CB comes in for “passing” downs. That’s the role that Ronde often had and excelled in once he got established and Verner can be effective that way. Alterraun ain’t Ronde – but he’s a fairly talented and solid cornerback IMO.
Lovie – are you trying to tell us that rookie undrafted free agent Jude is a better NFL CB than Banks right now today??? I would buy that you sat Banks for a game to send a message or whatever if you felt that was necessary – but don’t try to tell us this UDFA rookie will be able to consistently cover the likes of Dez Bryant and Julio Jones better than Banks will be able to. I call major BS on that if that is the storyline here.
November 11th, 2015 at 5:56 pm
Cuz an undrafted rookie CB cant play better than Banks? Banks has sucked out loud for the most part this year.
November 11th, 2015 at 6:04 pm
Brian,
Don’t know if I’d say Banks has sucked but he hasn’t been the next coming of Revis or Sherman. He MAY be better than the rookie but as your first sentence implies…he MAY not.
And it’s not inconceivable that both Banks and the rookie can play in the NFL. We’ll see won’t we.
November 11th, 2015 at 7:09 pm
Pickgrin … I also believe that Banks, Verner and Moore are our 3 best CBs. However, I’m not convinced that Banks isn’t still hurting from his injury (missed 2 games for injury). He used to cover a lot closer, but now seems to be laying off more for some reason. I think he got hurt in the Texans game, and then didn’t play against the Panthers or Jaguars. Banks played a bunch against the Redskins and Falcons, but none against the Giants. Weird.
One thing I noticed in looking at the snap counts on defense for each one of our 8 games is that Lovie has been constantly changing CBs. It took Verner and Banks about half the season last year to develop some chemistry, and then they started doing a lot better I thought. No chemistry this year because CBs are constantly moving in and out of the starting rotation.
November 11th, 2015 at 7:10 pm
Lovie been trying to get rid of Banks since the day he arrived. I predict Banks will be the next corner to go make the probowl for years to come with another team.
November 11th, 2015 at 7:14 pm
BTW- A poll should on another Bucs site ask “Should Lovie be fired now?” With well over 2k votes it’s 70-30 against firing him. I have a feeling if JBF ask the same Q it would be have the inverse result.
November 11th, 2015 at 7:15 pm
Banks looked decent his rookie year and then made a big jump in his 2nd year. He was easily our best CB last year.
Perhaps Banks is still suffering lingering effects from his injury that kept him out earlier in the year – but there’s no way you can convince me that Jude is better than Banks unless Banks is not 100%.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out…
Moore made some good plays against the Giants and deserves a lot more snaps than he was getting prior to the last game. That much is obvious. As is the fact that Mike Jenkins SUCKS and had NO BUSINESS starting at any point this year (Jennings too)… I wish we had cut Jenkins coming out of pre-season and kept LJ.
November 11th, 2015 at 7:43 pm
HDotson does not have great trade value now, but he has much greater depth value to us because he can start at either tackle position if one goes down and there will be no fall off. Just like EDS has proven he too has depth value because he was decent at Guard when we needed him. We also know that Pamphile played well at LG and we will start him there when Mankins retires. So we now have an OL with chemistry and good backups so we can fix the Defensive holes you have been debating here in the next draft along with some good Free Agents. We will be much better next year and we are still worth watching right now. Verner is a big improvement at Nickle Back, Conte is a keeper and Tandy with experience has all the tools to be good at Safety or CB and More is a keeper too. Replace Spencer next year with a Second Round CB to develop, take a first round DE, an experienced WR and Safety in Free Agency and a Big Back in the third round and trade lesser picks to move up in the draft to get the best talent. Then we will be set!
November 11th, 2015 at 8:06 pm
Dotson has no trade value… Because the trade deadline has come and gone.
November 11th, 2015 at 8:14 pm
I like Verner in the slot he is built for that and it’s huge upgrade over Leonard Johnson bless his soul… But ya Banks and Sterling sounds really good to me. I mean maybe Jude is upcoming thing but cmon now Banks handled megatron that year Revis went down I think banks matches up nicely against Dez
November 11th, 2015 at 8:21 pm
Defense Rules
Another Great Post Sir!
November 11th, 2015 at 8:35 pm
Why not try banks at free safety ?
November 11th, 2015 at 8:36 pm
Banks was thought to be a star FS in the making at Ole Miss before they moved him to CB
November 11th, 2015 at 9:10 pm
It can only (hopefully) be better than what we recently put on the field as our cb defense..,we have to fix this to ever be competitive. Jameis can only do so much. We can’t expect him to put up 40 or more points. But bless his amazing heart he will try if he has to! Red zone is next in his focus so sh&t you never know what he is capable of….Go bucs..,
November 11th, 2015 at 9:13 pm
Give it two weeks and it will be Banks, Moore, and Verner…like it should’ve been from DAY ONE.
November 11th, 2015 at 9:52 pm
Dirk Kotter pretty much revealed today that Lovie is making all personnel decisions without consulting any of the coaches on offense or defense. This explains so much. I knew he had control but I figured he would be begging Kotter for his advice, considering Kotter is actually a good coach. Dotson > Gosder, Banks > Jude, Melton > the rest of our healthy D-line and Kotter > Lovie. Lovie has some weird way of evaluating players that fails to consider talent and match ups. It doesn’t work!
November 12th, 2015 at 3:38 am
You people need to get over this “fire him now” mentality. It’s a loser mentality.
In the preseason you were The same people talking about DB depth. Banks has not been that good this year. He flat out sucked before his injury. Verner has not been any better until just recently. So he tried Jenkins and a former pro bowler in Jennings. You have to give all of the more than one game. That is what he did and it has not worked out. So they have mixed and matched now we will see how this goes.
The bottom line is the thought of Banks and burner with Jennings and Jenkins as back up at the beginning of the year same damn good. I do not blame the coaches for them not playing up to their potential.
basically nothing changes for next year. they need to hit up DB and DE in the draft, along with another WR.
November 12th, 2015 at 3:39 am
FSuking.
Dirk never said that. At all
November 12th, 2015 at 3:41 am
Sorry for all the typos. Did that via audio
November 12th, 2015 at 8:55 am
Dave,
I don’t ever post on this site but this seems to be a time to do so. I follow every bucs game and rarely listen to press conferences as I find everyone is trying to say what’s correct, it’s to fake for me. But I listened to Dirks this morning, then followed it up by reading the same quote on the bucs app.
When asked about Demar coming back and where Dirk would play his linemen
“Again, it’s great to have that problem, number one,” said Koetter. “Let’s start with that. How many teams can say they have guys that aren’t playing as much as they would like to that are capable starters in the NFL, especially on the O-line, so we are in a great position there. That is mostly Coach [Lovie] Smith’s area so that would be a better question for [him]. From where I sit, I look at it as a great problem to have and whoever is out there, where going to be fine with them.”