Did Bucs Get A Backdoor Break?
December 22nd, 2017
Two starters ruled out.
Joe calls this potentially too many cooks in the kitchen.
First, let’s get the bad news out of the way. Wide receiver DeSean Jackson and defensive end Robert Ayers have been declared out for Sunday’s Christmas Eve game at the Stinking Panthers. But is there a silver lining?
Jackson suffered his ankle injury on Monday night against Atlanta. He was only on the field for 22 snaps, his lowest of the season. Yet America’s Quarterback, Pro Bowler Jameis Winston, had his best game of the season, arguably.
Coincidence?
Now Joe isn’t anti-Jackson, let’s be clear. But Joe also thinks it may be fair to ask if Jackson was a good fit for the Bucs offense? His chemistry on bombs with Jameis has been off all year. Clearly Team Glazer is not getting its money’s worth invested in Jackson this season.
Of course, Joe only knows of two or three folks who were not on board with this signing before it happened back in March. Maybe when Jackson plays, there are too many cooks in the kitchen? Or too many weapons for Jameis?
December 22nd, 2017 at 3:05 pm
or maybe Jackson was never hit in stride…..
December 22nd, 2017 at 3:05 pm
Didnt Dirk mention something about asking Winston to do what he does the best and that is to throw to Evans. Guess Winston was cautious with throwing to Evans with Jackson on the field. Adds up
December 22nd, 2017 at 3:07 pm
Odd title Joe! I have to agree with you though. I think that there is ZERO chemistry with DJax and JW. On the other hand, Godwin appears to be emerging as a dangerous and productive target.
We spent way too much effort trying to get DJax the ball early on, and to the detriment of the team.
December 22nd, 2017 at 3:12 pm
He’s not a good fit. He wasn’t tracking catch-able balls by Fitz in his 2 starts. THere were 2 passes where he did exactly what he did with Winston – where the ball literally lands next to him within a yard or 2 – but Djax never adjusted to it and just kept running a straight lazy route. It wasn’t under or overthrown – just not perfectly in line with his route – but that’s a play he should be making way more often than not – and he hasn’t made ONE play like that all year.
His ball tracking ability was just as big a weapon as his speed if you watch his highlights. I haven’t seen him make any sort of athletic hands catch this year – typically if it doesn’t hit him right in the chest he hasn’t made an effort.
I’d move on.
December 22nd, 2017 at 3:14 pm
* I will say I think he’s made a couple decent hand catches in short routes – but I haven’t even seen him fight for a long ball or make a play on any of them – and plenty were catcahble – and it was with both Fitz & Winston starting.
December 22nd, 2017 at 3:15 pm
……………………Joe, I thought this site was rated PG?
Why you talking about backdoor action??????????
December 22nd, 2017 at 3:21 pm
yeah…you are right….he’d be a much better fit with either the Falcons,Panthers or Saints….
December 22nd, 2017 at 3:21 pm
Or maybe Todd Monken was right when he said that Jackson only came here for the money.
Haven’t seen a whole lot of that trademark Desean Jackson scrappyness or heart.
Seen a lot of laziness and unwillingness to adjust to/ lay-out for deep balls that were in his vicinity.
December 22nd, 2017 at 3:24 pm
Oh, and for every time that Dirk has lined up in the redzone with Humphries, Jackson, Reedy, Auclair, or Stocker… while O.J. and Cam were sitting on the bench… He should be fined 10k.
December 22nd, 2017 at 3:26 pm
He has been a Buc Bust…. Bunch of wasted $$$$$
December 22nd, 2017 at 3:40 pm
Right, because less speed and talent will make jameis a better QB. Of all the Bucs media outlets, JBF-family was by far the loudest saying we need MORE talent at WR, and now… less? lbeen hitting the bottle much lately?
December 22nd, 2017 at 3:43 pm
^^^ exactly last year this time everyone was screaming and it was obvious …”wee need a speed WR to stretch the field and get the DB’s off the line of scrimmage”….SMH
December 22nd, 2017 at 3:44 pm
Joe
I’ve been watching djx and huge fan of his since forever and knew day 1 this wasn’t going to be good. JW didnt need djx even around the same locker room let alone same team. Djx was a free agent for a reason
December 22nd, 2017 at 3:45 pm
Thank you! I have been saying this for weeks!
Had Jameis been allowed to NOT FORCE THE BALL TO JACKSON, this season would have turned out very different.
December 22nd, 2017 at 3:47 pm
Djx is washed. He was a deep guy the key word was….. Tampa is just bad at talent evaluation. It’s like the see star and sign them because what they did in the past not what they are going to for you in the future….I . E. Baker, djx,Ward
December 22nd, 2017 at 3:55 pm
@Lamarcus. Thank you.
THere’s a few other posters who’ve seen the obvious with Djax this year.
He is not tracking the ball at all. I have no idea why. It’s not Winston – otherwise I wouldn’t be able to recall 2 of the exact same type of plays with Fitz.
He probably could have caught about 5-7 long balls this year – that were plays he didn’t even try to track the ball. Balls that were within 1-2 yards; and he as a WR had plenty of time to adjust to that spot; but kept running a straight lazy route with no effort on the ball.
December 22nd, 2017 at 3:57 pm
Might I remind you all…most of you wanted a speed guy. Some pointed out that speed means nothing if he cannot catch reliably, but it fell of deaf ears.
December 22nd, 2017 at 4:02 pm
Yes. Another name that can be add to the infamous list of why the Bucs are losers!
December 22nd, 2017 at 4:03 pm
I like Jackson, but it always seems that free agents are more of a miss than a hit.
December 22nd, 2017 at 4:05 pm
Bonzai back at if. Cant catch reliably? He has great hands. No wr in the league catches balls 5 yards overthrown. He is the deep threat we needed and will need next year. The new offensive coaches surely cant be dumb enough to have him run one slant all year, and go deep half the time. Dirk thought his new toy would beat defenses deep like he thrashed his own defense during patty cake training camp. This while mess falls on the coaches. Anyone who sees it being talent or anything else doesnt see the big picture.
December 22nd, 2017 at 4:44 pm
Djx, Baker, all the sorry free agents we continue to put our hopes on are the reason I laugh at everyone that says go sign this guy or that guy and we are great. Guess what is be wary of anyone that signs with the Bucs. They aren’t coming here to win, remember that. Good for all the posters who seem to think our roster is full of players with any kind of trade value. It’s laughable, we aren’t in any position to trade players with talent unless they are effort or locker room issues, and no one is paying for those guys.
December 22nd, 2017 at 5:01 pm
DJax will be back in 2018 as $7M of next years $11M salary is guaranteed.
Would be nice to see Winston and DJax spend some time together on their own time and dime this off season – in an attempt to create some legit chemistry that never really developed this year.
#11 is quite a weapon and opens up so many other possibilities on offense – IF he and the QB can get on the same page and execute downfield hookups at least a few times during the year.
DeSean’s best attribute in theory may actually be how he can open up the whole offense including the run game – just by being an effective deep threat. But you have to actually catch a few long ones and make some big plays fairly consistently for that “great decoy” benefit to kick in.
We saw little to none of any of that this year and as a result, DJax’ roll was largely reduced to that of a speedy possession receiver who never forced defenses to spend extra resources on doubling him.
December 22nd, 2017 at 5:08 pm
Our Bucs are Long on excuses and short on Wins. If Koetter and Smitty remain next year? I wonder what excuse rabbit will be pulled from the..infamous TB Bucs Bag of Spins and tricks. Stay Tuned guys to that Buccanneer gameshow….SPIN’EM LIKE A TOP!!!
December 22nd, 2017 at 5:08 pm
Bingo…. Pick !
December 22nd, 2017 at 5:24 pm
Winston can’t throw deep to anyone, not just D-jax. His Monday night performance was an anomaly
December 22nd, 2017 at 5:30 pm
Those plays are extremely high risk even if you have Rodgers throwing the ball. Huge difference between a 20 yard pass to Evans who can use his size and height to a 40 yard pass to a smaller receiver who only has speed.
December 22nd, 2017 at 5:38 pm
Bucnjim…wez talk’n about a 15 yard pass thrown on time and in a place the WR can take it to the house.
December 22nd, 2017 at 6:00 pm
I’d just like to know whose idea it was to sign DJax in the first place. It’s been an undisputed and total failure and whoever lobbied for this guy needs to be held accountable.
The same thing should be said with Doug MARtin……..I can’t say who was the main guy deciding to keep him around the last two seasons but it is a fact that Dirk lobbied for the guy in 2016. How much affect that had on his contract is just a guess from my perspective.
And sure Doug had a very good season in 2015 but he had a lot of poor seasons as well that could/should have been taken into account.
December 22nd, 2017 at 6:18 pm
Jackson is a one trick pony anyhow. He just runs in a straight line, his speed is not what it once was, the guy only had 8td total in the 2 years before he came to Tampa. He catches bombs but doesnt score when he does catch them. Vincent Jackson had more production on the deep ball than Mesean Slackin’
December 22nd, 2017 at 6:49 pm
Winston has been with Evans, Brate and Hump since the beginning. Fitting that he has them to ride with for the next 2 games. Expect a lot of Godwin also
December 22nd, 2017 at 7:22 pm
Godwin Evans humphries brate Howard are good targets for Winston next year trade Jackson for a draft pick even a mid rounder could get a o lineman or secondary contributor worth more to team at this point
December 22nd, 2017 at 7:47 pm
@Joe … “Now Joe isn’t anti-Jackson, let’s be clear.” Seems like I saw an almost identical line not too long ago Joe … except the name in there was Martin, not Jackson.
Funny how when DJax was signed, just about everyone on JBF was ecstatic about the signing (including me BTW). Opportunity to stretch the field and open up some of the underneath routes. Everyone was totally confident that this was gonna be an unstoppable offense, what with Jameis coming into his 3rd year & with ALL these weapons at his disposal. No one seemed to give a hoot about the defense. Hmmm, funny thing happened on the way to the forum me thinks.
DJax gets some of the blame for this season, but the lion’s share has to go to Koetter & Jameis. Oh and Smitty. Forgot all about our sacrificial goat. My bad.
December 22nd, 2017 at 9:14 pm
Maybe Jackson’s been frustrated with Jameis being unable to pass it to him accurately. Letters using Jackson all wrong. Short crossing routes, ins and outs, slants… then u get him deep… but Cousins could do it just fine… why can’t Jameis? If Jameis is so good then why can’t he hit the deep ball? He’s a fastball pitcher with a he’ll of an arm but he needs better coaching and he needs a better attitude. He should be mote mature next year but still… he’s really bad on the deep ball and hitting receivers in stride. I’ll tell u what he’s really good at doing… getting his receivers hung out to dry with concussions and big time hits. Cam Brate had a “knee” injury after that hit vs Falcons… Cecil Shorts had a knee injury.
December 22nd, 2017 at 9:25 pm
Koetter*
December 22nd, 2017 at 9:29 pm
U could argue Shorts had a chance to move out of the way… he didn’t have enough time to react in my opinion but still… I’m tired of all the tight window throws… I think he’d be better in a west coast offense. Short routes… ins outs slants crossing routes… maybe deep in the run game is going
December 22nd, 2017 at 9:37 pm
Lol, Joes.
I think Djax might be the best player on our entire team.
Jameis just didn’t do his job effectively this year..
December 22nd, 2017 at 11:03 pm
DJax is mainly a decoy, that’s it … he gives almost no effort on 50/50 balls and I simply don’t think Jameis trusts him at all … I wouldn’t doubt if Godwin would put up much better numbers than DJax given the same amount of opportunities.
It wouldn’t surprise me to see the Bucs CUT Swaggy and Sweezy and trade DJax to a team like the Jaguars or 49’ers as those are two teams that could really use some depth at WR … if an out of shape, half season rental of Kelvin Benjamin was worth a 3rd and 5th I’d think DJax on his contract could net at the very least a 4th and I’d take that if I were the Bucs as I honestly think Jameis and Godwin would be a better combo
December 22nd, 2017 at 11:21 pm
How about Winston was accurate for a full game for a change. Only in Tampa would people think we couldn’t use a speedster like Jackson. I’ll admit he much be completely used to throwing to receivers who appear to be running through mud but no one has an issue getting him the ball until he got to Tampa….. So it’s not a Djack issue it’s a Winston and Koetter issue.
December 23rd, 2017 at 12:36 am
IMO Godwin should get more reps than DJax. This kid is our future not Jax.
December 23rd, 2017 at 9:05 am
The only BREAK our Bucs are gonna get this Sunday is When the Panthers BREAK IT OFF..IN THEM!!!
December 23rd, 2017 at 9:08 am
darin Says
“Bonzai back at if. Cant catch reliably? He has great hands.”
His career doesn’t support that claim when comparing the number of passes thrown his way to the actual passes. Easy for you to lay the blame at Winston’s feet, but you don’t know if it is Winston’s fault those were over thrown.
Winston was told to throw it up that and Jackson would be so fast he would run to it. He was over sold on Jackson’s abilities. And if Winston had not been pressed into throwing to Jackson so much, he would have had better numbers throwing to Evans, Humphries, Godwin, Brate and OJ.
December 23rd, 2017 at 12:25 pm
Jameis averages like 290 yards, 3 TDs and 0 INTs versus the Falcons – he owns them. This last game he had 299 yards and 3 TDs. The Falcons have a pass rush similar to the Bucs – and you see the results.