Marpet Made GMC Better
December 21st, 2015
Improving GMC.
Yes, we all know about Bucs right guard Ali Marpet, the rookie from Division III Hobart College who seemingly has shocked the NFL world because he handles the rigors of top-shelf professional football just fine.
Well, SI.com has an interesting piece on Marpet, mostly his background and his family, which is not exactly a standard Ward and June Cleaver household.
In some respects, Marpet is a product of a suburban New York hippie couple, if there is such a thing.
But tucked away inside the story is an intriguing quote from Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht about Marpet’s first training camp.
“He went up with Gerald McCoy (Tampa Bay’s all-pro defensive tackle) in training camp and we kept saying all throughout training camp that Gerald is going to make this guy better,” Licht says. “And Gerald did make him better, but about the third week of camp we kind of looked at each other and thought, ‘Maybe Ali is making Gerald better too.’”
This is true in a lot of ways. After the first couple of practices, Marpet was holding his own against GMC. He made GMC work, not that he didn’t put forth 110 percent effort to begin with, but GMC was rolling slugs in practice like he had been in previous years.
That could only have made GMC better. Thanks to a Division-III guy who has taken the NFL like Joe does a watering hole on a hot July Friday afternoon.
December 21st, 2015 at 2:06 pm
Cmon Joe! This can’t be true! A rookie from Div 3 making GMC better?
This just doesn’t pass the sniff test.
December 21st, 2015 at 2:39 pm
Strange, I don’t recall seeing a better GMC on the field this year. Maybe he has made him a better leader or teammate. No that’s not it. Only thing I’ve seen better from GMC is his paycheck.
December 21st, 2015 at 3:04 pm
Ali is a cool cat, his hippie parents made him so.
December 21st, 2015 at 3:22 pm
Wow so many ways to go with that softball pitch.
I think it’s time to match McCoy up with someone else in camp, it ain’t working. I’d say practice his double teams, but baby steps…
For Marpet, too bad he can’t have anyone to mirror Aaron Donald, he got BLOWN up Thursday
December 21st, 2015 at 4:50 pm
Yeah McCoy clearly didn’t get Marpet ready for a true disruptive DT.
December 21st, 2015 at 4:56 pm
But what should we expect from a DT who is not disruptive himself. What pisses me off is that our GM saw this and probably quickly realized man I shouldn’t have given that huge contact to McCoy. I should have saved it for the Guys backing him up cause their production is about the same collectively and if one gets hurt we then have multiple guys to use instead of being stuck with a player that is overrated AND always hurt.
December 21st, 2015 at 6:01 pm
Man Big Brother Ali could benefit from someone like Donald. THE BEST DT IN THE LEAGUE. Sucks he has to go against soft a$$ Richard Simmons every practice.
December 21st, 2015 at 6:36 pm
McCoy critics and whiners:
Stop whining to other adults -OR- do the unthinkable, and back up your claim with actual data.
Until then, you’re just a miserable lot of petulant whiners.
Go Bucs!
December 21st, 2015 at 8:03 pm
Everyone holds thier own against McCoy.
December 21st, 2015 at 8:53 pm
So fan of bucs if a player gets 6 sacks over three games but dies nothing the rest of the year they had a great year in your mind? This is the problem with stats when actually watch the games you can see he is useless. By the way I can say what I want as I have been a season ticket holder since 1996, so you better damn well believe when I pay to see his lazy, effortless a** play patty cake one on one half the time I will state my opinion!
December 21st, 2015 at 10:21 pm
I’ll never understand why GMC is considered an above average DT cuz he’s nothing special and plays with no passion
December 21st, 2015 at 11:08 pm
Red Stripe is washed up at this point.
December 22nd, 2015 at 8:57 am
Does anyone else remember the fight in camp that GMC got into? Who was the culprit? That’s right it was Ali Marpet. He was so physical with GMC in practice that he got to a Pro Bowl DT. Wake up Bucs fans. Ali could end up being a better pro than GMC.