Not SEC Speed
June 14th, 2017
Talks DJax and wheels.
Bucs second-year corner Vernon Hargreaves is having a nice underwear football season.
But even the former first-round pick is not ashamed to admit he and his secondary colleagues struggle with the speed of receiver DeSean Jackson.
Yesterday, even Brent Grimes was eating grass clippings from Jackson as DJax got a couple of steps on Grimes down the right sideline, where he hauled in a rainbow from America’s Quarterback, Pro Bowler Jameis Winston.
Today, just before underwear football practice and after walk-throughs, Hargreaves talked about Jackson and his overdrive gear.
“Well, you know, he’s a vet,” Hargreaves said. “He is very seasoned. He has been in this league a long time. He is getting me better. He is really fast. It is something different to cover. We have a big guy like Mike [Evans] and we have a speedy guy in ‘DJax.’ it is good for me to get to see both looks.
“Of course, that’s what he does. That is why he has gotten paid for so long.”
So Joe asked the University of Florida product, who played in a conference touted to have “SEC speed,” if he ever faced anyone that comes close to having Jackson’s jets.
“Nah, absolutely not.”
Again, Hargreaves is having a nice underwear football season. But speed kills and one cannot duplicate speed. That’s what Jackson brings to the table, both as an offensive weapon and a guy the defense uses as a standard.
June 14th, 2017 at 12:39 pm
let’s see how he handles Jones and Benjamin before getting excited. smith did a nice job of hiding him last year.
June 14th, 2017 at 12:44 pm
tmaxcon Says:
June 14th, 2017 at 12:39 pm
let’s see how he handles Jones and Benjamin before getting excited. smith did a nice job of hiding him last year.
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of hiding him? He was the most targeted DB in the league last season.
June 14th, 2017 at 12:47 pm
Feelthe
Exactly. You beat me to it. He was the only cb in the league who gave up over 1000 yards. Not knocking him tho, he is gona have a great year. Qbs were stayin away from grimes more is all. Go bucs
June 14th, 2017 at 12:47 pm
No, apparently you can hide CBs… if only Schiano knew this we could have won the Super Bowl with Danny Gorrer, Leonard Johnson, and … I can’t remember the other clowns we put out there. Was EJ Biggers one of them? I think he was.
June 14th, 2017 at 12:47 pm
@tmaxcon … “smith did a nice job of hiding him last year.” Seriously? VHIII, as a rookie CB, got picked on every game (as opposed to QBs challenging Grimes). Got some real good experience in playing all 16 games I thought, to include third most tackles on the team. Suspect we’ll see some significant progress in his game this year.
June 14th, 2017 at 12:53 pm
Stay in your safe zone tmax. Personally, I like the feeling of excitement. If for whatever reason it all falls apart, I can take it. It’s a lot more fun when you risk a little emotion.
Stay safe my friend.
June 14th, 2017 at 1:20 pm
There’s no doubt that going against receivers as talented and experienced as Evans and DJax everyday in practices will help VH3 develop his game at a more rapid pace.
Everything has been trial by fire for this kid since day 1 and he starts his sophomore NFL season with even greater challenges and opportunities to improve by trying to cover one of the league’s fastest receivers on a daily basis.
This is good for everybody. Iron sharpens Iron. Real Recognizes Real.
“If you can play ball, you can play ball.”
Guess what – this kid can ball….
All this playing time and baptism into the NFL by fire is going to pay major dividends – and soon for Vernon. I expect towards the end of this year we are going to see Hargreaves’ talents really start to shine as he gets more and more comfortable. CB is one of the hardest positions on the field to make the adjustment from College to NFL – especially in quick fashion. Ask the best CB to ever play for this franchise. Ronde didn’t really start coming into his own until his 4th year in this league.
The Bucs have done a good job of shortening Vernon’s expected learning curve by allowing him to just play through his initial early development period. You could see at the end of last year how much progress Hargreaves had made just by getting that 1st season under his belt. He was thinking less and reacting more by the end of the season and that’s when the impact plays started showing up.
Now that he’s had an entire off season to break down a TON of tape of himself from last year – he can really start to concentrate on some details and nuances that will help take him to the next level as a reliable and solid defender.
If Grimes can maintain his high level of play and VH3 can take the next step – we may just have one heck of a starting CB duo this year.
Now about that thing these guys need most to do their jobs well – a pass rush – I hope we have one this year….
June 14th, 2017 at 3:12 pm
I brought up the same fact to tmax in another thread feelthepewter… he doesn’t care. He’ll just continue trolling regardless of how easily one can prove his opinion is completely baseless and not grounded in any reality.
June 14th, 2017 at 3:45 pm
VHIII flashed moments of greatness last year. Yes, they were few and far between but that’s the most you can realistically expect from a rookie corner. He also proved he is a consistent force at stopping the run. Its shaping up to be a very stout year for VHIII. Now he has seen all the receiver in our division. Expect more splash plays from Vernon. He will be a game changer for the Bucs.
June 14th, 2017 at 4:39 pm
Between Vernon and Tandy starting this year expect a lot of interceptions and good tackling by both to stop the run.