Bucs Drop Ball On Mark Barron?
February 25th, 2016
Rams coach Jeff Fisher seemed to suggest Mark Barron’s film showed an ability to play linebacker.
When former first round pick Mark Barron was with the Bucs, he proved to be a nasty hitter and a solid tackler, and he showed a Sabby the Goat-like ability in coverage.
In short, Barron was horrible in coverage as a safety. Many Bucs fans erupted in glee when Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht was able to get anything for Barron on the trade market (Licht used that compensation as ammunition to trade up in the fourth round to draft Kwon Alexander last year).
However, if one is to believe the hint that Los Angeles Rams coach Jeff Fisher dropped on Joe at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis yesterday, Barron showed on film the ability to play linebacker.
After obtaining Barron last year, the Rams dabbled with Barron as an outside linebacker and he played there full-time this season when starter Alec Ogletree was hurt in October. Barrom blossomed into one of the best outside linebackers in the NFL.
“We really liked Mark coming out [of Alabama],” Fisher said. “We were surprised to a certain extent that he was going to be available [by the Bucs]. So we took advantage of it.
“We kind of plugged him in and [Rams defensive coordinator] Gregg [Williams] is good at moving people around and creating opportunities. Then, early on in the season when we lost Alec. Mark, his reps increased and I thought he had a really good year.
“There is a trend in the league for that kind of a guy. We really feel like he fits right into our defense and he is a priority to get him re-signed.”
Say what you will about Fisher’s success as a head coach, or even his grasp of offense in the 21st century. But Fisher is a damned good defensive coach.
If Fisher, and it seems, Williams, could see Barron could play outside linebacker, how come Lovie couldn’t? Or was Barron just not a fit for Lovie’s beloved “scheme?”
February 25th, 2016 at 1:15 pm
I’ll never forget how he sacked and just threw RGKnees that one game 🙂 wish him the best
February 25th, 2016 at 1:19 pm
That’s why Lovie is gone !!!!!!!
February 25th, 2016 at 1:21 pm
Joe not for nothing but you ragged on Barron more than anyone I know. Barron is a beast. I’ve always said it, always will. Oddly enough, he might be the only guy traded by Lovie that does NOT have a SB ring yet.
We traded Barron so we could play Conte. Who does that?
February 25th, 2016 at 1:24 pm
Lovie is a defensive scheme genius! Clearly Mark Barron, Dashon Golston, and Darrel Revis are terrible football players. So glad we got rid of them so Lovie’s system really shine!
Think I’ll vomit now…
February 25th, 2016 at 1:32 pm
Gotta agree with DB55 Joe did rag on Barron quite a bit on this site now there’s no mention of that lol gotta own up to that one Joe.. To me you can NOT take someone in the 1st round especially in the top 10 and trade him away for peanuts before his rookie contract is up. Just a dumb move all around. Oh well seems like we are on the way up so no need to think about what could have been
February 25th, 2016 at 1:41 pm
DB, AC:
Please read second paragraph. Barron was/is horrible in coverage at safety. If he wasn’t, he wouldn’t have been moved to linebacker.
February 25th, 2016 at 1:43 pm
He was still a #7 overall pick. I don’t care if he’s a “serviceable OLB” with another team. The #7 pick in the draft isn’t supposed to be “serviceable.” He’s supposed to be a perennial Pro Bowler. The pick, regardless of what he ends up doing, was a reach. It was basically a microcosm of the Dominik regime.
I hated that pick the second it was made… so much so, I shut off the TV and went to bed and missed the Doug Martin pick.
February 25th, 2016 at 1:47 pm
BucTrooper, you should’ve been at Pete & Shorty’s. You wouldn’t have missed a thing.
February 25th, 2016 at 1:54 pm
Lovie dropped alot of balls. Too bad his never dropped. Look at his history of cutting and drafting safeties. He prob would have cut John lynch had he been hc back then. N yes barron was and prob is still terrible in coverage, so I have no prob with that dropped ball.
February 25th, 2016 at 1:58 pm
Sure…we dropped the ball….Dominick, Schiano, Licht, Lovie….all four….but you draft a safety at #7 to be a safety….not an eventual LB….
Here’s the question….and this is MMQ also……which LB would you rather have…..Barron or Kuechly?…..and don’t lay that….”we wouldn’t have LVD” on me….that’s pure speculation.
Here is another question…..would you rather have Barron or Kwon?
February 25th, 2016 at 2:04 pm
“Barron blossomed into one of the best outside linebackers in the NFL.”
Hyperbole much Joe? LOL So Mark Barron is now on par with Lavonte David eh?
February 25th, 2016 at 2:16 pm
The Barron vs Kuechly is a lesson I hope the Bucs learn from here on. When you draft a player early, for need, other than QB you are asking for disaster. Kuechly was passed on not for Barron but for Mason Foster. We had “our” middle linebacker and didn’t feel that we had a hole in that spot. Its not Barron vs Kwon either. They play different spots. The question is LVD vs Barron. They play the same spot.
The non pick of Kuechly is why you always use the early picks on BPA. If you remember correctly Dominick did a great job in that draft by passing on Morris Claiborne. He was the “consensus pick” He passed on him, traded down which gave him the ammo for Martin. I imagine he had Kuechly high on his board. His failure was drafting for need. This need was a safety to cover Gonzales, Graham and Olsen. A huge need created by the Tanard Jackson void.
Lesson, even when a need is huge, early picks are BPA
February 25th, 2016 at 2:23 pm
Joe
what can I say? You’re right his stats as a safety are almost identical to conte’s. Which means they both sux. But if I have to go to war on Sunday’s I want Mark The PUNISHER Barron to have my back.
Pick
Mark started 12 games vs LVD 16 games. In those starts they both avg just over 9 tackles per game. LVD had 2 more sacks n 3 more Ints than Barron. Yes LVD had more Ints last year than Barron has his whole career. Dammit I’m not making a good argument here. Fml
February 25th, 2016 at 2:31 pm
you draft a safety at #7 to be a safety….not an eventual LB….
Amen TBBF! In fact Barron was drafted specifically to cover the great TE’s our division had at the time he was drafted. He was going to be the dude that stopped those TE’s from running wild through our secondary. He didn’t!!
The fact that Barron has resurrected his career with the abiity to move over to LB is great for Barron. But you don’t spend a #7 pick on a guy who is an adequate OLB. If the trade lead to Kwon then we are still ahead of the game.
We blew a #7 pick but then got lucky with a 4th rounder. These things have a way of balancing out.
February 25th, 2016 at 2:39 pm
@ JOE you know who else isn’t the greatest cover S? Kam Chancellor who is one of the best in the game at the position but you never see him in a position to be exploited because his coaches know that they are doing.. gotta know how to hide players weaknesses
February 25th, 2016 at 2:42 pm
Another bust drafted by loser Dominik.
February 25th, 2016 at 2:52 pm
Spot on Tnew.
Barron sat in the box at Bama and had the advantage of being on dominant defenses that allowed him to freelance and tackle. My recollection of his time with the Bucs was that he was a step slow and took horrible angles, both things that should have been spotted sooner for a #7 draft pick.
February 25th, 2016 at 2:53 pm
Lovie’s sons weren’t good secondary coaches, Color me shocked!
February 25th, 2016 at 3:12 pm
His rookie season he reminded me of a slower Jermaine Phillips.
February 25th, 2016 at 3:31 pm
It’s all Lovie’s fault!
February 25th, 2016 at 3:33 pm
Gregg Williams not Robinson…Rams DC
February 25th, 2016 at 3:59 pm
LOVIE did it all by himself, but he is the one taking the knives out of his back!!
February 25th, 2016 at 4:08 pm
Ok Mark Barron plays LB he was picked 7th overall to play safety could not start for he Rams at safety so Lovie was correct but as far as moving him to a different position L&L dropped the ball
February 25th, 2016 at 5:05 pm
Another wasted 1st round pick.
Gaines Adams, Aquib Talib, Adrian Clayborn, Mark Barron, no 2013 pick, Davin Joseph, Michael Clayton, no 2002 or 2003 pick, and before that Kenyatta Walker.
That is a long list of busts or misjudgements.
February 25th, 2016 at 5:10 pm
This isn’t a new concept. Raheem did the same thing with Jermaine Phillips and everyone thought it was a dumb move.
February 25th, 2016 at 5:13 pm
Barron was a top pick drafted to play safety, and he sucked in 2 schemes. I’m quite sure no team in the NFL would have drafted him in the top 6 and change his position. Fisher didn’t have anything to lose because he came cheap.
February 25th, 2016 at 5:32 pm
Sometime some players just bloom later than others, the draft is a crap shoot for the most part, all 32 teams fans are spewing the same thing on missed draft picks, how many other teams passed on Keuchly, or Kwon, or LVD, or Antonio Brown, or Brady and we squabbling over Mark Barron, who many were excited to get, we thought he was our John Lynch, to go with our Derrick Brooks (LVD) and our Sapp (GMC).
February 25th, 2016 at 5:35 pm
@ TNEW
“Its not Barron vs Kwon either. They play different spots. The question is LVD vs Barron. They play the same spot.”
It is absolutely correct to compare Kwon and Barron……Kwon was an outside linebacker at LSU…..he was likely drafted to replace Lansanah because Carter was tapped to be MLB…..
He was switched to MLB by Lovie….(there is one that Lovie got right)
The point is that we have two really good linebackers…..both, strangely enough, because of Barron…..LVD because we picked Barron as a Safety in front of him and Kwon because we used the 4th round pick we got for Barron to move up….
So, I am perfectly OK now with our two stars and Barron is history.
February 25th, 2016 at 5:51 pm
even if everything you guy say is true he was still the best safety on the roster.
February 25th, 2016 at 6:58 pm
Mark Barron not working out here was pretty much due to Lovie’s ineptitude the past two seasons. It’s as if we won 6 games in 2015 despite Lovie…
His kids will be coaching only if his dad ever gets another job, which is highly doubtful. His son had no business coaching safeties for this team.
Great Guy…….terribly clueless coach.
February 25th, 2016 at 10:49 pm
Actually STPETEBUCS fan, I disagree with the statement “you draft a safety at #7 to be a safety….not an eventual LB….”
If you draft a safety at #7, that guy had BETTER be Ronnie Lott or Troy Palomalu. I would amend the statement to say “you draft a safety at 7 because he’s a lock for the Hall of Fame.” I said it when the pick was made… anything short of a yellow jacket for Mark Barron means he was a bust – PERIOD.
February 26th, 2016 at 9:05 am
Lovie Smith dropped the ball overall with the defense and Jason Licht has to take some of the blame as well because he had final say on the personnel moves. Everyone was screaming that we lacked talent on defense and didn’t have enough playmakers. Lovie inherited a team with plenty of talent on the defensive side of the ball and he totally depleted it because certain players didn’t “fit” his system. Which I hated the Cover 2 the moment he announced that our defense would be playing that scheme. That’s one of the biggest reasons why he failed as coach and why he was out of there after 2 seasons.
Everyone knew the type of safety Mark Barron was coming out of college. He is a thumper, a in the box safety, and that’s why he was a little more successful in Greg Schiano’s defense. Same goes for Dashon Goldson, he was a playmaker and big hitter, which was a flaw on Schiano and Mark Dominek signing him. You can’t have two box safeties playing in the same backfield because who’s going to cover the deep ball for you? Both Barron and Goldson displayed plenty of talent when you use them in the right way and clearly they were cover safeties, especially not in a cover 2 defense that lacked a pass rush.
But Lovie was dead set on getting rid of guys that didn’t fit his scheme. We got rid of Revis, who played great for us the one year he was with us, even with Schiano’s half brain dead ass failing to use him properly. Granted he was a big cap hit and I understand cutting him to use the money to retool our defense. But Revis was that good at the time to play in any kind of scheme. Instead we signed Alterraun Verner who was supposed to be a better fit in the cover 2 scheme, but all we saw was him getting beat consistently his first year in the scheme and eventually ended up losing his starting job in the second year. He’s looked like a total bust up to this point. Not to mention Jonathan Banks’s regression and basically total disappearing act this past year. But his first couple years with the Bucs he was improving year to year. But in comes this cover 2 and completely messed that up for him.
We got rid of Mason Foster who was a solid MLB that was great at stopping the run, but since Lovie deemed him athletically incapable of dropping back in his cover 2 scheme he was let go in free agency.
After year 1 for Lovie everyone was saying how he didn’t have the pieces that fit his scheme and that if he had his players his defense would be good, yea right! We went out and brought in a bunch of old ass Bears players to help the defense and what happened? Our defense for worse! Lovie took over the defensive play calling and what happens? We give up more 30+ points games this year than we did last year and not to mention how awful our redzone defense was this year. It was down right embarrassing.
It is well documented by now on why Lovie failed our defense. He wasn’t flexible with the type of guys he wanted and he wanted guys that specifically fit his cover 2 system. Instead of scheming to his players strengths he decided to get rid of them so he could bring in players that supposedly fit his system. The result of that is our defense being even worse and cost us so many close games this year.
The signings of Michael Johnson, Mike Jenkins, Chris Conte, Major Wright, Tim Jennings, Henry Melton, Tony McDaniel, Alterraun Verner, George Johnson and Bruce Carter all proved to be a waste of money. Only respectable signing under Lovie was Sterling Moore and even with that I wouldn’t say it was a great signing.
Lovie’s firing was deserved in my opinion and even though he had us going in the right direction offensively, he completely fell short on the defensive side. And I think the overall improvement from 2014 to 2015 was more credited to the success of the offense and the hiring of Dirk Koetter. I believe that’s why we won a lot more games because it surely wasn’t Lovie and his vaunted cover 2 defense that got completely shredded 2 years in a row.
With Koetter’s hands on the offensive and the hiring of Mike Smith I’m very excited to see how our defense looks. The simple fact that we’ll be switching over to a multi front defense will surely help us with scheming to players strengths. If we can improve that pass rush and strengthen that secondary, our team has the potential to compete for a playoff spot this upcoming season.
February 26th, 2016 at 10:00 am
CHYNO 1 WELL SAID and SPOT ON…exactly…dumb move having baron and goldson…pay me $500,000 a year I saw that on my couch….baron is going to be all pro due to a competent coach….
February 26th, 2016 at 5:41 pm
he would have been a more than capable Sam Linebacker in the Tampa 2 in hindsight.