Licht Doesn’t Want Vanilla Defenders
April 17th, 2016
In case you didn’t notice, there is a new sheriff in town running things on the field at One Buc Palace. Coach My Scheme is in Champaign molding young minds. Dirk Koetter is the Bucs’ field general now.
But on defense, the leader is Mike Smith — at least for one season.
With Coach My Scheme gone for good, how much must Licht tweak his breakdown of defensive prospects for the upcoming draft? Not much, if at all, Licht said last week during his pre-draft presser.
“There’s little modifications in every defense that some coordinators or defensive staffs, head coaches, maybe stress one position over another or a certain type of player whether it’s size, or whether it’s a certain skill set that a certain position has, that they stress over another,” Licht said. “We’re still looking for really good football players at the end of the day. I know it sounds vanilla, but from my chair, from our scouts, we’re looking for great football players that have a great mindset and have what we call the ‘Buc Mentality.’ So, that’s what we’re looking for.”
There is nothing vanilla about it. A good football player adapts to any defensive design. The question is, can the coach?
Joe finds it refreshing Licht is just looking for football players. As Florida cornerback Vernon Hargreaves told Joe at the NFL Scouting Combine, when Joe asked him if size mattered, “If you can ball, you can ball.”
April 17th, 2016 at 9:01 am
At the end of the day, it comes down to skillz, you can either play or you can’t. And I know one thing, VH3 is a footballer. The boy can play, and loves the game of football. I’m a huge Gators fan and watched almost every game Vernon played in so I can safely say that he would not dissapoint if he was drafted by the Bucs @ 9.
Whoever it is I have full faith in Licht picking the right guy to help this team.
With all this hype over these two QB’s right now I have a good feeling that one of those top talent guys will fall to our beloved bucs @ 9.
How but this crap that I’m hearing from all these scouts saying that Wentz and Goff are better prospects than Winston and Mariota? What a load of crap. But I guess there’s always gonna be pre-draft hype every year.
I hope two of those top 8 teams do believe that so one of the non QB prospect’s get pushed won the board and fall to #9
April 17th, 2016 at 9:14 am
@demboysfromdabay727
I think lovie the last 2 years proved you wrong!!! can a player have great “skillz” and out play a bad scheme?? yes, but at best, it will be good play and not great ( in lovie’s case no)!!! Can great corners play great with no pash rush???
That is why football is so great, So many components working together just to be good!!! And just about everything working together to put great players in great positions to succeed!!!!
April 17th, 2016 at 9:36 am
dirk Koetter is the new field general now
Hopefully we now have a coach that knows when to call a timeout to try to score at the end of half, and the proper time to challenge a bad call.
decisions on when to go for it on fourth and short,when to punt and try field goals need improvement.Read that Jerry Angelo wanted Lovie to hire an advisor to improve gametime decisions,but Lovie refused.Until you have a shut down defense conservative in game decisions lead to embarrassing comebacks such as in Washington.
April 17th, 2016 at 9:41 am
DemBoysFromDaBay727 Says:
I love that hype and wish there were more of it on marginal players at positions where the Bucs don’t have “need.”
The further good players the Bucs could use drop because of the hype, the more I like it.
That said, IMO the only ones affected by hype are fans. The scouts & GM’s aren’t, at least not so much.
April 17th, 2016 at 11:14 am
I’ve seen a few mocks that have Jack fall to Tampa at 9. Now that’s a versatile defender!
April 17th, 2016 at 12:44 pm
At 9, preferred to draft in this order: Jack, Stanley, VH3…please do not get so needy and get a cap shoot project of a d lineman here…or else there will be projectile vomitting. GO BUCS!
April 17th, 2016 at 12:57 pm
“scouts saying that Wentz and Goff are better prospects than Winston and Mariota? ”
well, I for one, do think these scouts are RIGHT at least about pure passing ability in comparison to WINSTON. But I do think that Jameis has more intangibles than either – i.e., leadership…and sex appeal to the Joe(s) !
April 17th, 2016 at 2:09 pm
I would bet that we do not pick at #9 . Tunsil will drop and be picked between #5 and #8 .Which will leave Stanley at #9. At that time the titans will make a trade to move up and grab Stanley and give us the 15th pick in the 1st and 1 of the second round picks and swap our third for their last second. Giving us 1 st and 3 seconds rounds. Then trade Glennon to get your 3rd back
My prediction at #15 we take …
Wr Corey Coleman out of Baylor
The 1st 2nd rd pick we take….
SS Karl Joesph out of West Virginia
The 2nd 2nd rd pick we take …
DE Noah Spence out Western Kentucky
The 3rd 2nd rd pick we take…
C Nick Martin out of Norte Dame
The 3rd rd pick we take…
Lb Jaylen Smith out of Norte Dame (risky but if its a hit he’s the next great lb)
April 17th, 2016 at 2:26 pm
You have put a lot of thought into this issue…..1nebuc. Nice job!
April 17th, 2016 at 3:08 pm
Largosam-
How do you justify Goff & Wentz being better passers than Winston? Not by any College stats or competition played that’s for sure. I guess it’s just a feeling just like you had a feeling MM was the better pick last year.
I see you’re STILL trying to hang on to the hope that JW3 is nothing special all while calling yourself a Bucs fan. Kinda sad.
LargoSamIM Says:
October 25th, 2015 at 6:11 pm
its marcus MARIOTA……the best rookie QB in the NFL….
LargoSamIM Says:
October 10th, 2015 at 6:39 pm
Let’s see… why didn’t the Bucs take Mariota:
a) he is more athletic than Winston no
b) he has quicker feet….. no
c) he is more accurate…. no
d) he is a leader on the field not in the press… no
e) hemakes good decisions… no
f) he won;t be able to play under center for a long time…… oh yeah.. that was it ! So how is that working out ??
April 17th, 2016 at 3:26 pm
@1nebuc … Interesting scenario but it’s totally out of the Bucs hands. Will Tunsil drop? Maybe, maybe not (personally I doubt he’ll fall that far … too many teams need OTs of his quality). Will the Titans make a trade to move back up? I would think that’ll depend on how badly they want whoever’s available at that point, and whether anyone (including the Bucs) are willing to trade down for what they’re offering. All I’m saying is there’s no way to even guess how the chips will fall.
The higher odds are that we will pick at #9. And if that happens, I’d love to see Myles Jack fall into our laps. Or if not, Ronnie Stanley would do just fine. If the 8 teams above us take who the experts predict they’ll take however, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see us take Sheldon Rankins … build from the inside out.
April 17th, 2016 at 3:37 pm
We will draft Carl Nassib
April 17th, 2016 at 4:07 pm
@Bill Byrne…
Its a small world I believe I had our sponsorships coordinator speak to you a couple yrs ago. Look us up on Facebook @NORTH TAMPA BUCS.
April 17th, 2016 at 5:11 pm
Stanglassman…that’s the way you do it Stan.
Peeps used to hate when I did stuff like that, but I find it interesting and fun. 🙂
April 17th, 2016 at 5:11 pm
VH3 can ball…enough said.
April 17th, 2016 at 5:30 pm
Mariotta is WAY more athletic than Winston. Don’t know where your getting that from. And, he has quicker feet as well. The rest of the list is pretty accurate. As long as Jameis stays out of trouble, I think we made the right choice. MM can ball as well. Both teams have their QB’s of the future. We have a better roster than Tenn tho.
@Pat
I like your way of thinking! As long as the 2 QB’s go 1,2, we will have a shot hopefully, to get one of those guys. I really like Stanley and VH3. Jack has the knee concern. He could end up being the one to drop. With his talent though, that would be a steal.
1neBuc
I like your idea of drafting Jaylon Smith in the 3rd if he is there. Who cares if he has to sit out a year. That’s just time for him to learn and watch the other guys. As far as your trade goes. That would be great. I just don’t see the swapping of our 3rd for their 2nd. We would be lucky to get just their 2nd round to fall back to 15. That would still be huge. An early 2nd is just as good as a late 1st. Even 43 or 45 would still be a solid pick up. That’s a great player added to our team. I like your optimism anyways! One can hope, and that would be a great thing to hope for. Can you imagine 3 2nd round picks!! That would be amazing.
April 17th, 2016 at 5:52 pm
FunkyM-
My point was that LargoSIM is and never really has supported JW3 and needs to get over last year’s draft if he wants to call himself a Bucs fan.
I think the word you are looking for is Nimble not Athletic many confuse the two.
Athlete-physically active and strong; good at athletics or sports.
Nimble-Agile, sprightly, light, spry, lively, quick, graceful, lithe, limber.
April 17th, 2016 at 6:20 pm
“With Coach My Scheme gone”
Wish you would just say his name.
April 17th, 2016 at 9:33 pm
Only one Lovie basher took the bait this thread and that’s was..Buc Realist. Perhaps Buc fans are ready to move on?
April 17th, 2016 at 10:00 pm
@buccaneerbonzai
What do you care!!! Actually its better than what some call him,, Coach Chaos!! and my personal favorite,,, Coach Clown Shoe!!!!! It was an unmitigated FIASCO ( as described by his own players) and deserves to be ridiculed!!!!
April 17th, 2016 at 10:54 pm
I’ve been warming up to the idea of going after Jaylen Smith if he falls to the fourth. M. Jack may fall to us, but we don’t know how he checks out medically with OUR staff. These two prospects and their injuries shake things up a bit because they are so talented in a draft that IMO is lacking in top notch prospects. But I’m still under the impression that if Licht can’t trade up or down he’ll take VHIII.
April 17th, 2016 at 11:47 pm
What the sht is “Buc mentality”?
Lately, decade ish lately, that’s losing consistently in embarrassing fashion
I can’t stomach this empty rhetoric
April 18th, 2016 at 2:04 am
VH3 gets cnsistently burned by bigger defenders.Kelvin Benjamin abused him. No way we draft him @9
April 18th, 2016 at 3:56 am
The Buc Realist: still can’t keep LOVIE’S (name) out’cha mouth! The tast must not be as bad as you say!
April 18th, 2016 at 8:59 am
@darealist
I didn’t know corners.were suppose to never give up a TD in their career. Cmon, there’s not a corner in college that shut down KB. VH3 Was also a true freshman that yet btw. The only other guy that got their way with him was amari Cooper so I can live with that. Those two guys are sum of the best in the league
A list of the guys he shut down
-Odell Beckham jr.
-Jarvis Landry
-Lequan Treadwell
-pharoh Cooper