Hargreaves “Is Going To Play”
June 16th, 2016
Bucs CB Vernon Hargreaves flies through the air to grab an interception in Wednesday’s minicamp practice. (Photo courtesy of Buccaneers.com.)
Yesterday, Bucs rookie corner Vernon Hargreaves made the play of underwear football season when he went Flash and raced across the field, sailed through the air, jumped a route run by misplaced Calgary Stampeder Donteea Dye and cherry-picked a pass from Mike Glennon, then slammed into the turf but never let the football loose.
It was beautiful. And plays like that have reinforced to Bucs coach Dirk Koetter that not only did Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht select the right guy in April’s first round, but Koetter announced at the end of underwear football season today that Hargreaves will be on the field when the season begins Sept. 11 at Atlanta.
What capacity Hargreaves will play is to be determined.
“He’s going to play, he’s going to play,” Koetter said of the Bucs rookie. “The guy is making plays every single day. He’s a football player. Everything we thought when we drafted him — he’s going to play. It will all fall into place. A lot of that will be determined by [the team’s] health.
“I am very confident Vernon can play inside at the nickel or play outside. Vernon can play both.”
When asked about his acrobatic interception yesterday, Hargreaves seemed to shrug it off.
“I was just trying to make a play on the ball,” Hargreaves said. “That’s all it was. Nothing too special. That’s what football is, making plays. When the opportunity comes my way, I’ve to be ready. And for the most part I’ve been ready in this minicamp.”
While Hargreaves admitted playing nickel is new to him and is a “learning process,” he is comfortable there.
“I’m enjoying it.”
June 16th, 2016 at 2:18 pm
This will be a real fight at CB this season.
June 16th, 2016 at 2:19 pm
Bucs should be set at the corner with 2 ex all pros and a 1st round pick. Should help the pass rush with more time to get to the QB.
June 16th, 2016 at 2:50 pm
I don’t want to get too ahead of myself here but I’m actually really excited about the defense this season. I think we have way more talent than showed last season and I think the coaching and scheme is going to allow guys like Verner and Banks to shine instead of what we saw last year. Not to mention LVD, Kwon, GMC. There’s too much talent on that side of the ball for what we saw last year
June 16th, 2016 at 3:05 pm
this pic is really growing on me top 5 defense top 5 offense smells like Super Bowl.Tampaaaaa
June 16th, 2016 at 5:42 pm
Jude Adjei-barimah is getting 1st team reps and a lot of attention from coaches. This pleases me. I liked him last year and thought he had a lot of potential
June 16th, 2016 at 5:48 pm
Would the Bucs have released this photo if it was Winston throwing?
June 16th, 2016 at 6:31 pm
@Brett
They’ve released a few videos of Jameis throwing picks, so I’m sure they would have.
June 16th, 2016 at 7:14 pm
Brett the Fameis hater.