“Steal!”
January 23rd, 2016
Talkin’ Bucs
It’s draft season, and legions of NFL fans love the work of mighty helmet-hair draft guru Mel Kiper.
Kiper is a busy man for BSPN on all things NFL Draft, but he also took time out to review and breakdown the drafts of every single team in 2015. You can read the whole epic, rearview-mirror look here.
Here’s what Kiper had to say about your Buccaneers.
Post-draft grade: B-minus
Safe to say this draft looks a lot better. Not only did Jameis Winston make major strides and end up throwing for more than 4,000 yards — the third-highest rookie total since the merger behind Cam Newton and Andrew Luck — he showed he can be a locker room leader early on. Can he maintain that into the offseason? That’s the question, but judging on what he did, Tampa’s decision looks smart. Donovan Smith was a slight reach for me, but he came in and played left tackle. It wasn’t always pretty, but what can you expect? Ali Marpet also started and was solid in the run game, and Kwon Alexander looks like one of the steals of the draft. It’d be one thing if this team played all these guys and was a train wreck, but they truly got better in 2015. So they deserve a major bump.
New grade: A
Ahh, yes. Kiper can’t help but write about the grand slam from Jason Licht and Lovie Smith.
Perhaps the biggest question mark among the 2015 now is whether new defensive Mike Smith will use Alexander effectively. Still just 21-years-old, Alexander will have to learn a brand new defense, one that might not be as favorable to an undersized linebacker.
Smith says he will focus on a scheme that flexes to maximize his available talent — how refreshing! — but that’s easier said than done.
January 23rd, 2016 at 7:52 am
Seems hard to believe that anyone could mess Kwon up if Lovie didn’t.
January 23rd, 2016 at 8:12 am
I wouldn’t worry about Kwon and David. Smith’s LBs in Atlanta and Jacksonville were also undersized and did pretty well. He drafted Sean Weatherspoon to be his Will LB and he is/was undersized and fast, Mike Peterson and several of his Jacksonville LBs were undersized and fast as well. If Smith is half as smart as he is given credit for, he’ll know that you can’t put big slow Mason Foster LBs on the field in today’s NFL and expect to stop anybody from throwing the ball.
January 23rd, 2016 at 8:37 am
lol @ tampabaybucfan
January 23rd, 2016 at 8:43 am
Mel Kiper is ironically one of the most inaccurate mock drafters out there…once you get out of the top 8 or so picks.
Smith says he will focus on a scheme that flexes to maximize his available talent — how refreshing! — but that’s easier said than done. – Joe
Agree! We’ve heard it all before. It’s all words until it gets done. However…Mike Smith is kind of cool. A little goofy, I think…but he clearly knows his stuff. I like what I see so far, and he was the DC I preferred from the two discussed.
January 23rd, 2016 at 8:44 am
Brandon Says
“If Smith is half as smart as he is given credit for, he’ll know that you can’t put big slow Mason Foster LBs on the field in today’s NFL and expect to stop anybody from throwing the ball.”
Mason seems to have done pretty well in the playoffs this year.
January 23rd, 2016 at 8:53 am
Personally, I like the fact that Kwon will play in his second year and will no longer have to drop so deep into coverage and the Mike LB spot anymore. He should be playing much faster this year with more knowledge and fewer coverage responsibilities”
January 23rd, 2016 at 9:01 am
If I remember an article I read correctly, Mike Smith does like to be more aggressive and blitz his LBs a bit more? That was a strength of David under Schiano, and I could see Alexander excelling in blitz packages as well. I would welcome that if so!
January 23rd, 2016 at 9:06 am
Given that Kiper is prone to add a + or – to his grades….our first was a B-, his grade is still absurd!!!
Four of your draft choices make the all rookie team!!! You discover the most promising franchise QB since Luck…if this draft wasn’t an A+ then there will NEVER be an A+.
If #3 continues to improve as we believe..and Smith and Marpet do the same..and Kwon blows up….this will be one of the greatest drafts in our history matching the one that brought Sapp and Brooks. Those two are HOFer’s and so we obviously have to withhold judgement for a decade to see if this class can mature and develop into greatness.
January 23rd, 2016 at 9:32 am
Both of them can blitz and cover and play the run- in today’s pass happy league we should play a base nickel with Eric berry type playing the underneath safety as the third LB
If you don’t let teams eat you alive underneath the rush actually has time to get there and disrupt a throw or bat a pass to cause some TO’s
That was Lovies defense downfall, so glad he is gone!
I think our old Bucs did this a lot with Rhonde as the third LB basically…
Think We are definitely on the right track, imagine two more drafts similar, even half as good as this and we have at least 4-5 more impact starters…
Fingers crossed!
January 23rd, 2016 at 10:02 am
No one is a draft expert just like no one is a fantasy football expert. Good for kiper for duping the suits into paying him for guessing who will and won’t be good
January 23rd, 2016 at 10:03 am
StPeteBucsFan … ‘If this draft wasn’t an A+ then there will NEVER be an A+.’
Couldn’t agree more St Pete. Drafting FOUR high-quality starters in a single class is almost unheard of I’m sure. Add in Kenny Bell who’s on IR (but has great promise IMHO) and that was more than likely a once-in-a-lifetime draft. Plus in the post-draft period we picked up several guys (Humphries, Dye and Hey Jude) who got a lot of playing time last season. If our 2016 draft is only half as good as our 2015 draft we’ll be in great shape this year I would think.
January 23rd, 2016 at 10:13 am
Being bald…I shave my head not by choice. If I had as much hair as Kiper I certainly wouldn’t take it for granted and wear my hair like that.
January 23rd, 2016 at 10:54 am
I am still waiting to see about Alexander…. I scouted him thoroughly his last colleg year – mainly because I REALLY wanted the Bucs to draft Eric Kendricks as their MLB (just like I wanted Kuechly back in 2012). But….even though Kendricks had an outstanding year in MIN, we wouldn’t have gotten him in the fourth round and there is no doubt that the first 3 picks turned out well. But getting back to Alexander, like I say, I am still waiting for him to reveal his true self. What I saw on film of him in college was a player who was slow to react and almost always always out-of-position. Now, there can be a lot of reasons for this – and I am willing to wait and see. Maybe Lovie’s scheme fit him…I don’t know. I do like his “fire”. BUT it will be interesting to see how he reacts if his responsibilities change in Mike Smith’s defense…. I am afraid that if he has troubles adapting to a change – and he has to THINK before reacting – that we just may have already seen the best he will ever be in the NFL.
January 23rd, 2016 at 11:12 am
I really like the friction between Kiper and Gruden at the draft. Kiper is the only media personality I’ve seen that will go toe-to-toe with Gruden on the air. You can see Gruden pissing Kiper off, but Kiper doesn’t back down.
Gruden tries to glorify his opinions about the draft and
Kiper grinds his teeth wanting to bring up Grudens own draft record.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Gruden, but he is a character.
January 23rd, 2016 at 11:20 am
Mel Kipers favorite movie is Spaceballs.
January 23rd, 2016 at 11:55 am
I’m getting confused with the Smiths…
Can we start to call them…
Good Smith….Bad Smith
White Smith….Black Smith (no pun)
Bald Smith…..Hairy Smith (no pun)
January 23rd, 2016 at 12:17 pm
87 Ok bro that was a great line….LMAO
If I had as much hair as Kiper I certainly wouldn’t take it for granted and wear my hair like that.
January 23rd, 2016 at 1:27 pm
1st round- DB Eli Apple
2nd round- DE Noah Spence
3rd round-DB Kendell Fuller
4th round-WR Rashid Higgins
5th round- DB Justin Simmons
6th round -DE Victor Ochi
6th round FB -either brother of The Gronk or JJWATT
January 23rd, 2016 at 1:31 pm
Hey Tampabaybucfan: Hiw about Jackass Bucfan or A$$HOLE Bucfan, are you still confused?
January 23rd, 2016 at 1:34 pm
I want to see more press man coverage with some blitzing. Tired of this zone crap playing prevent lining up 7-10 yards off the receivers. I could go out there with two broken ankles and get wide open against Lovie Smiths defense. Anything other than him coaching the D cannot be anything but an improvement.
Pair that with the fact that koetter has full control over offense now, I am predicting a 9 win season next year. Maybe 8-8 but no worse.
January 24th, 2016 at 11:22 am
as much of a revelation as kwon alexander was, in hindsight i figure mike smith might have been set up better if we had hung onto mason foster for one more year. in a scheme where the MLB is doing more traditional stuff like taking on blockers, i could see kwon moving to OLB in the base defense and retaining nickel duties with lavonte