“Now I Have To Make More”
August 21st, 2016
Vernon Hargreaves with one of his two picks last night. (Photo courtesy of Buccaneers.com.)
The kid is alright.
Rookie Vernon Hargreaves made a big time statement that he should be starting cornerback with a pair of picks last night in Jacksonville.
Hargreaves, who dropped what looked to be a sure-interception in the first preseason game at Philadelphia, grabbed a pair yesterday and, in the process, is showing big time under the light — just like the Bucs envisioned when drafted him No. 11 overall.
“Every [pick] counts, every one counts,” Hargreaves said to Casey Phillips of Buccaneers.com, dismissing any talk that preseason doesn’t matter. “It’s a great feeling. I was just being patient. I knew I would get one.
“I learned a lot playing a new position inside. Things you have to know and understand but at the end of the day, it is football and all about making plays. Now I have to make more.”
It was not outrageous to suggest that battling for the nickel corner position, Hargreaves had been outplayed by Hey Jude in training camp. But the way Hargreaves has flashed in preseason games, it’s going to be hard to keep him off the field come Sept. 11 in Atlanta.
Want a reason to hit the bottle early today? Hargreaves’ two picks last night equaled the number of interceptions by all Bucs corners all of last regular season.
How can a friggin’ NFL team go an entire season with only two picks from cornerbacks? Unreal!
August 21st, 2016 at 9:15 am
Yea Joe, can i get VHIII n Grimes on the corners, The Ryan n Chris show at safety
#BUCUTALKINBOUT
YO JOE!
GO BUCS!!!
August 21st, 2016 at 9:17 am
I’m feeling pretty good about our CBs 🙂
August 21st, 2016 at 9:19 am
Like this kid….great player and solid Tampa citizen….
August 21st, 2016 at 9:25 am
This may be suprising to most of the ppl who doubted VH3 soon as we drafted him UT I’ve been watching him do this his entire career in the swamp. It’s what he does best, make plays on the ball and get turnovers. Wich is what this team is starving for. Pretty puthetic when your rookie ties the team number for pics on a WHOLE season. Lol. Get use to it buc fans, there’s alot more where that came from.
And to the FSU fans where was your boy Ramsey at last night?? Made one tackle and dissapeared for the night. Hahaha I’d day UF shined last night and shut the haterz up for a while. It’s all nice when u can come up and make a stop in the run game but where it really counts is stopping the passing game and making plays on the ball wich is where VH3 excels at and is obviously way ahead of Ramsey in that department.
#CHOMP CHOMP #GATORNATION
August 21st, 2016 at 9:25 am
Call me…impressed.
August 21st, 2016 at 9:27 am
Dem…Ramsey basically shutdown Evans.
Are you ready for the Noles to whip some more Gator ass this season?
I guess so. #CHOMP
August 21st, 2016 at 9:47 am
They will stop throwing in VH3s direction……which is good…
Nobody shut down…..made a crucial 3rd down catch and a TD…..and had position on a couple of errant throws……
August 21st, 2016 at 10:13 am
He looked like a star under the big lights.
So much of sports depends on mindset.
VH28 has a great mind.
Hes ready.
Brent Grimes is a freak.
How does he jump like that??
I hope VH28 copies Grimes jumping routine!
August 21st, 2016 at 10:20 am
This D is gonna whip some ass this year!! Sacks, picks (and picks 6’s), 3 and outs, and forcing fumbles. This is gonna be fun. We just need to get to the season healthy. Go Bucs!!
August 21st, 2016 at 10:25 am
You know who is not alright. Aguayo. Say what you want. U can’t fix his early head. Tampa should invest millions in a sports psychologist but I think about it , money wasted that high of pick. You think this guy gets a break if he is questionable from 35 yards. I mean. Not if losing games am early on. Conor Barth get ready. This guy. You have to get to the 15 yard line to get close enough. Don’t care if preseason. No pressure. Regular season is on. Jason licht hasn’t slep. His GM buddies were blowing up his phone all night.
August 21st, 2016 at 10:26 am
Good job against the veteran Chad Henne (as shaky as he is). Maybe VH should be the Bucs’ third wide receiver on the depth chart.
August 21st, 2016 at 10:27 am
Very surprised that no one is talking about the out of bounds hit that KA58 made early in the game!!! That was exactly what we were saying when some of the players needed the “lovie” coached out of them!!! You could tell that was from all those drills of the coaching of “turnovers”!!!!
August 21st, 2016 at 10:44 am
Man, an article about a rookie playing well and there are guys here that just complain about other things. It seems like every time I read the replies, it’s people complaining about this or that. I would hate to start a season feeling that much pessimism. I know I get there by the end of the season (and lately I’ve been getting bummed on the team by october), buy we do have a lot to be optimistic about. Even with last night, 2nd place in the division is realistic, pretty much a toss up between us and atlanta.
August 21st, 2016 at 11:12 am
What happen against Blake Bortles, Allen Robinson and Allen Hurns ? They shredded this secondary like they were a block of cheddar cheese. If the secondary play this bad during the season, we will be lucky to win 3 games. If Bortles had play the entire game, he would have threw for 6 TDS.
August 21st, 2016 at 11:22 am
@lakeland-
By that theory, it jameis played the whole game he would have gone 6-20… and we had no mccoy, no Darryl smith, no game plan against them. Remember this is the time to work on different things.
August 21st, 2016 at 11:32 am
I tried to tell everyone that would listen. My being a Gator has little to do with wanting this kid on our team. Kid has a nose for the ball and the best teacher he ever had was Will Muschamp. He will be getting great coaching and will continue to get better.
…………………….
Also we have Over 50 of us in the JOEBUCSFAN.com Pickem league!!!! Gonna be great competing against you guys!
If you still haven’t entered you can do so at
http://games.espn.com/nfl-pigskin-pickem/2016/en/group?groupID=99276
August 21st, 2016 at 11:44 am
The picks are nice, but you gotta cover too. And that is where he is behind.
August 21st, 2016 at 11:44 am
@ Realist
players needed the “lovie” coached out of them
You are slipping……using a VH3 article to take a shot at Lovie……and, you’ve been doing so good…..
August 21st, 2016 at 11:51 am
@Tampabaybucfan
I don’t think that was a shot at the old coach, More of the bonehead play that was early in the game that needs to be coached out of the players that have been here the last year or two!!!
There is still work to be done, and we have not seen the full scheme yet!!! and VH28 needs to be worked in with the 1’s and same for NS57!!!
And by the way when Jalen Ramsey covered ME13, he shut him down!!!!
August 21st, 2016 at 12:33 pm
Realist…Correct Ramsey is going to be a beast….THIS season.
August 21st, 2016 at 12:54 pm
Realist
“coach the “lovie” out of him wasn’t a shot at the old coach?……are you joking?
August 21st, 2016 at 12:59 pm
Realist
You will have many appropriate opportunities to respond to Joe’s continual Lovie bashing…….& there’s no problem with that…….this wasn’t one of them.
Just to set the record straight…..I think Lovie should have been fired and was a terrible coach for the Bucs……worse than Raheem & Schiano. Just think it’s time to move on…..we have so much to look forward to.
August 21st, 2016 at 1:13 pm
Lovie, the nickname muscle hamster, what else is now off limits by the roving censor mob?
August 21st, 2016 at 1:34 pm
@Tampabaybucfan
I still say it was about bad coaching on the play that came from last year, If I was bashing, you will know when you see for example ( incompetent, coach my scheme), and all the other various colorful expressions we use to insult that man!!!
August 21st, 2016 at 1:37 pm
Let me see if I got this right. If he drops a pick, it was on a sure pick. If he makes a pick, it was a great pick. What, nothing in between? I saw that ‘sure pick’. If he would have caught it, it would have definitely been a great catch. He barely got his fingers on it. As it was, it was an excellent pass defensed. Why make it seem like he failed on a very successful play?
August 21st, 2016 at 1:38 pm
VH28 is the real deal!! I’ll admit before the draft I had concerns, but then started paying more attention to him and was happy with the pick. He’s gonna be a beast for us out there.
And please, no dont use him in the return game!!! Just dont. Cant risk that injury.
August 21st, 2016 at 1:39 pm
I wanted VH3 since day one..been watching him since his days at Wharton abd soeaking of Wharton, when I took my night walk last night, jamming to Pearl Jam, I walked right by his old HS..I gave it a big thumbs up in the air..
Proud of the 813 guy..
And I have NEVER understood why people argue over FSU and UF all the time..isn’t college, college? And NFL, NFL?..where’s that mentality from..I really do not understand it at all..
August 21st, 2016 at 5:38 pm
I think we are getting from this kid exactly what was on the scouting report – he’s going to get beat, but he’s also going to take the ball away. I’ll take that. He will have games where he looks like he’s terrible, but he’ll probably win some games for us with big interceptions. Somehow he just finds the ball.
August 21st, 2016 at 6:53 pm
well …
FSU is and was founded to be, a girls’ school.
UF was the quite the opposite, founded as a seminary before the land grant created the university.
that being said, the smartest guys went to FSU where even the ugly dudes got a lot of play as opposed to the perpetual ‘sword fight’ that is UF.
August 21st, 2016 at 11:42 pm
I see VH3 playing the nickel all season (barring injury to Grimes or Verner) and even then they might keep him at nickle and have Jude back up on the outside. Im ok with this. Nickel is looked at as a lesser job, but it is harder to cover guys in the slot. The route combinations are endless and you get the occassional nickel blitz.
Next season vh3 will be “promoted” to corner, opposite grimes.
August 22nd, 2016 at 7:36 am
A NFL team can go with two picks by their cornerbacks for an entire NFL season if they have the kind of coaching on defense that we had last year. That’s one of the many reasons Lovie is no longer here.
August 22nd, 2016 at 9:00 am
He keeps this up he will be promoted THIS year. Verner has yet to impress so nothing is set in stone for 21. He played nickel last year and might be in that role again.
August 22nd, 2016 at 9:32 am
evans did score a td….ramsey aint shut him out of the paint and that’s what counts…vhg28 has great ball skills something ramsey lacks…..verner and grimes have been playing decent but grimes struggled a little bit Saturday….he did get beat for a touchdown….GO BUCS!!!!