Alex Okafor Stays With The Saints
March 16th, 2018
Alex Okafor will keep hunting Jameis Winston
He visited Tampa Bay yesterday, and then he went running back to the NFC South champions.
Whether the Bucs really wanted defensive end Alex Okafor is unclear, but now they have no shot at the talented but injured defensive end. He inked a two-year deal with New Orleans today.
Okafor, 27, blew out his Achilles in November after a strong start to the season.
Per ESPN, “Okafor started all 10 games he played for the Saints and played nearly 80 percent of their defensive snaps, tallying 4.5 sacks, 9 quarterback hits, 2 forced fumbles, 43 tackles and 4 passes defensed.”
Okafor had played for new Bucs defensive line coach Brentson Buckner in Arizona. So there was a strong connection there.
Joe’s not going to cry about the Bucs passing on a guy coming off surgery, though it would have been nice to have a versatile young wild card like Okafor on the team.
Ironically, the guy who replaced Okafor in New Orleans after injury was sackless George Johnson, who was cut by the Bucs after the 2017 preseason. Johnson thrived with the Saints, broke his sackless run and was re-signed for 2018.
March 16th, 2018 at 12:14 pm
Lose all hope, ye who enter here.
March 16th, 2018 at 12:14 pm
Its getting to the point where I just have zero hope we are going to improve at all.
March 16th, 2018 at 12:18 pm
Snatch’em Up
Defensive Line
• Kony Ealy
• Willie Young
• Vinny Curry
• Bennie Logan
Defensive Backs
• E.J. Gaines
• Ross Cockrell
• Kenny Vaccarro
March 16th, 2018 at 12:24 pm
players want stability…..bucs don’t offer that…..not this year at least…..with a new regime, next year will be a different story!!!!!
no urgency….no excuse…
#NOEXCUSESIN2018!!!!!….GO BUCS!!!!
March 16th, 2018 at 12:26 pm
LUVMYBUCS,
Lol, bottom feeders like the Bucs are like stray dogs. Fighting with other strays for the leftovers.
Alex Okafor was only using the Bucs for leverage
To get a better deal from the Saints
March 16th, 2018 at 12:32 pm
It’s far more important to us to get Noah Spence back 100%. I still have hopes.
Okafor is coming back from an Achilles…lots of hit and miss there for a big strong guy pushing off repeatedly who needs his wheels to get his speed.
Spence on the other hand was never gonna be like Vita Vea able to collapse offensive lines by himself with brute strength…Spence is not built and it’s not his game to overpower LT’s with brute force…he uses his speed and leverage skills and as he continues to perfect some additional moves he’s a double digit sack guy…and a disrupter…IF he stays healthy. But since his game is not utilizing his upper body as much as his wheels I haven’t given up…yet..
March 16th, 2018 at 12:32 pm
Is it too late in the process to fire EVERYONE?? LOL
After week 8 last year I was already looking forward to 2018 season. Draft hasn’t even happened yet and the Bucs have already whipped that right out of me. I really hope the fans call and cancel all their season tickets. Will Clarke is our best bet at DE, OMG comical. He did show improvement though, I think. To me this is another gamble like Jack Smith. 15 tackles and 2.5 sacks (1 vs Jets, 1.5 vs GB, OTW a bunch of zeros).
March 16th, 2018 at 12:38 pm
Honestly, if I was McCoy, I would demand a trade or retire. Dude kills himself every year for this team. Tmax would argue but that’s okay. At least in the past years they at least tried to get him defensive help. The 2 “whiteys” may help inside, but there is still nobody on the outside and there is always that little issue of Smitty playing his CBs 10-15 yards back so no pass rush could get to the QB on a 1-2 step drop/quick slant=first down or missed tackle touchdown. But look at least we are rewarding our 5-11 role players with contracts (except Brate, Evans and Grimes) UGGGGHHHHH!!
March 16th, 2018 at 12:39 pm
V curry is probably much better. If not mistaken had most pressures of ANY eagle d lineman in more limited role
March 16th, 2018 at 12:44 pm
No Black players will sign with the Bucs as long at this G.M. and coach is in charge. Talk to black players around the league and you will understand why.
March 16th, 2018 at 12:47 pm
if they do sign Suh that DL is going to be interesting with Cam Jordan
March 16th, 2018 at 12:49 pm
Joe,
I feel like the you should get some fans to organize a protest outside of one box palace until this team uses free agency to
Fill even one hole. This is a disgrace, never has there been a team with this amount of cap room not spend at all in free agency or trade market. It’s like they simply want to lose. Not saying to spend just To spend burn ouf of the massive available player pool can any competent person really say none of those players would have improved our chances of winning games in 2018. Glazers need to be sent a message until they make a relevant signing.
March 16th, 2018 at 12:50 pm
#ItsABucsLife ya’ll
March 16th, 2018 at 12:51 pm
@Ed- I’m curious, how many black players have you spoken to who said this?
March 16th, 2018 at 1:04 pm
Wow not even having big buck here could persuade Okafor. After seeing this coaching staff last year I didnt expect alot of free agents wanting to come here, but I didnt think it would be this bad. I thought okafor would sign because of buckner. Thought wrong. Licht is gona go into the season with rookie edge rushers. We all know how that goes. Time for the glazers to do the complete makeover again next year. I hope they do their dang homework next time. You’d think they’d have a legit checklist when interviewing head coaches. If so it doesnr include much.
March 16th, 2018 at 1:05 pm
“Johnson thrived with the Saints…”
No he did not, lol. He was injured for most of both seasons! In 2017, he got 2.5 sacks before going down again.
That is not ‘thriving’.
March 16th, 2018 at 1:07 pm
Oh no, we missed out on yet another DE who is actively recovering from a serious injury, has never had double digit sacks and hasn’t had over 5 sacks in 3 seasons. Free agency’s a bust! Sigh. Teams sign players to silly contracts. That means teams will cut more players, etc. This is just the beginning and I’m actually glad we’re not overpaying for players we’ve not met and therefore have no idea if they’re a fit (see: Chris Baker). I’d sign Connor Barwin, a proven pass rusher and he’d come cheap.
March 16th, 2018 at 1:11 pm
LakeLand
Unfortunately – your correct my brotha.
March 16th, 2018 at 1:21 pm
Ed is an expert on black athletes? Gotta be the dumbest shi$ I’ve heard all year!
March 16th, 2018 at 1:37 pm
Sorry–I never saw hope in this one. As soon as they said the Saints were interested in re-signing the writing was on the wall.
March 16th, 2018 at 1:51 pm
I would like to see someone buy a bunch of billboards demanding that the Glazer’s sell the team. At some point you’ve got to assign blame where it belongs. These guys are clowns and have no business running an NFL organization. Again, they are only concerned with padding their pockets!
March 16th, 2018 at 2:08 pm
Licht gave the 4th string DE with the Bears $4m guaranteed, but didn’t want to do that here with a guy who played a ton and was very productive. As for his injury he had an achilles injury which I believe is only a 6-8 week recovery, it shouldn’t impact his offseason in the least.
March 16th, 2018 at 2:25 pm
Im seeing the term “whitey” and the phrase “no black players will sign with us”…..jeeze is this the version of the black kkk/panther power whatever going on now?….lol, if that were reversed, wow, talk about the stuff that would be said then, fkn comical r a c i s t s some of you lol.
March 16th, 2018 at 2:34 pm
Lol @ Ed #ridiculous #FootballFirst #AllPlayersWelcome
March 16th, 2018 at 2:39 pm
In fairness whitey is an acceptable term, but to claim the Bucs and the Glazers are racist are the comments of low IQ dope who breast fed until they were 13. The Glazers literally have hired more black headcoaches than any other owners, plus I’m almost certain the Bucs have had more black starting QBs than any other team. Of course the Bucs also having the lowest winning percentage in the history of the NFL (and it’s not even close) might not help the race baiters argument.
March 16th, 2018 at 3:21 pm
Rod,
The last two days you’ve killed it! Looters……Lol….still funny.
March 16th, 2018 at 3:54 pm
Like this Bucs fan has been saying, go GET CURRY! Reeeleased.
C’mon Licht. Say it with me, Vinnneee. Heallllthy, Currrry. Go get him.
Go Bucs!
March 16th, 2018 at 4:09 pm
Go get Vinny Curry! We need a pass rusher
March 16th, 2018 at 4:40 pm
The Hits..just keep on comin!
March 16th, 2018 at 6:00 pm
MadMax…dude I’m a whitey and I could care less if we sign black, white, purple green players as long as I don’t have to watch my team play like sh*t every week. If I was the Glazers, I would have fired the coaching staff top to bottom. No agent worth his salt would let one of his players to sign with a lame duck staff. If they wanted to give Licht another chance because of the drafts he has had, fine but they don’t owe Koetter and Smith a damn thing. These 2 idiots literally found ways for us to lose. Whether it was the game plan, scheme or whatever, they always guessed wrong. I would have also hired Derrick Brooks as Director of player personnel and let him handle FA. He has status and respect and I imagine it would be difficult to turn him down if he is sitting in front of you. Hire a young enthusiastic coach with a good plan. I think Clay Helton would be perfect. His dad coached here in the 80’s. He played QB at a major college and is the head coach at one of the biggest football programs in the country and having success. No more re-treads. Do it now before the season, FAs aren’t coming here anyway so why wait?
March 16th, 2018 at 6:10 pm
^Gotcha. Didnt know….couldnt tell.
March 16th, 2018 at 7:18 pm
Lol