Underwear Football Star
June 16th, 2018
New name, same solid player.
Joe is dubious of guys who shine in underwear football.
Perhaps Joe is too cynical, but in the past, guys who stood out in underwear football turned out to be total stiffs when the pads were on. So Joe read with a bit of skepticism Jenna Laine’s piece on who the 2018 star of underwear football season was for the Bucs. ESPN had each of its teams’ correspondents write an item about the best player during OTAs and minicamp and Laine chose linebacker Adarius Taylor (nee Glanton).
When reading this, Joe he felt sorry for Taylor. But this may be the first time in memory that a Bucs star in underwear football actually performs with pads on.
The PFF tribe documents that Taylor missed just one tackle in 99 rushing plays last season. That’s pretty good.
So perhaps Taylor could be that first Bucs player to carry over a special underwear football season onto the playing field this fall?
June 16th, 2018 at 5:06 am
trial by fire
June 16th, 2018 at 5:46 am
Catered his wedding this past summer, really genuine guy. Wish him and the rest of the LB corp an awesome season, pads or no pads.
June 16th, 2018 at 5:51 am
Hopefully Glanton doesn’t see the field much this year aside from his special teams duties. We need LD and Kwon and Beckwith to stay healthy in 2018.
Glanton proved last year he is plenty capable of coming in and playing well at a moments notice.
LB depth is not a problem – let’s put it that way.
June 16th, 2018 at 6:00 am
Like I said yesterday,
Sadly, we should let Kwon sign somewhere wiles, and slide Beckwith into the middle and let Adarius start.
That would be the prudent thing to do.
But….
I love Kwon and hope we sign him back!
June 16th, 2018 at 7:15 am
Completely didn’t situation because he’s no udfa just signed last week or rookie from practice squad of some random team. He’s been in the squad long enough to stand out I think. They are more happy with him because he’s backing up multiple linebacker positions. You can’t tackle so in camp you stand out by knowing the system at multiple spots.
June 16th, 2018 at 7:24 am
The 5 week dead period has begun!!!! Nothing to write about so you write BS. Taylor formerly Glanton proved his worth on the field last year. This is non sense!!!!
June 16th, 2018 at 7:35 am
Taylor is as good as our starters.
I fact, hes a much more of a sure Tackler than Alexander or David either one.
Two years ago, Alexander led the league in missed Tacklrs. David was on the list too.
We have great linebackers. Its just that Taylor may be fighting for a starting spot. He played great last year.
Nice to discuss which of our 4 great Linebackers is the best
Same with Wrs and TEs. Qb is pretty sweet , too.
Now have to get depth at both lines. Both lines could still use a youthful talent infusion( young DEs and RTs)
Secondary has some promising rookies, and aged Vets. Still a work in progress
June 16th, 2018 at 7:39 am
I’m excited that Adarius is playing great. C-O-M-P-E-T-I-T-I-O-N brings out the best in everyone. Agree with Pickgrin that LB depth should be a strength of this team. Adarius is solid, and Bond should be coming along. Cichy is the one though who has me curious (good size at 6’2″ and 238 lbs & good instincts but couldn’t stay healthy in college). Time will tell though.
BTW, for those who are interested in stats, snap counts can tell folks a lot IMO about a player’s importance to the team (and his healthiness?). Adarius for instance got 285 defensive snaps in 2017 as compared to only 22 in 2016. Played the entire games against the Giants & Pats (Kwon out in both games) and did very well. Interestingly (OK, to me), the Bucs’ player who had the most snaps in 2017 was … Mike Evans (884). Beckwith & Grimes came in a close 2nd with 850 snaps each. (Website found those snap counts on hadn’t been to before … located at http://subscribers.footballguys.com/teams/teampage-tam-6.php)
June 16th, 2018 at 7:45 am
Those suggesting we let Kwon go are not taking in future considerations. LVD will be gone after this year, as he no longer has the value to compensate for his cost. Beckwith is not here to replace Kwon, he is here to replace LVD.
LVD has a cost of nearly $10m per year, but as of 2019 he will have no dead cap. He will turn 29 after this season, so he is not a part of any long range plans, especially when you consider the huge contracts that will be signed next year. We’ll need that cap money.
Trading him would be the best move…and he might garner interest.
June 16th, 2018 at 9:10 am
Bonzai,
If you’re suggesting that route it would be Kwon that moves to weak since he played that in college and is smaller and rangier. Beckwith would be Mike backer, he’s bigger and plays it well. Taylor or Bond could be Sam. Just my opinion if your suggestion played out. Lvd still has a few more good years left though.
June 16th, 2018 at 9:43 am
i’d say this one actually means a little something because we’ve seen him actually play well in actual games last season unlike past minicamp warriors such as bell. when the news of beckwith injury broke i was a little worried but immediately remembered that taylor was fine last year when he was needed to play. with this news of a strong offseason so far gives me more confidence that if beckwith does miss anytime taylor will do a good job in relieve and who knows if he plays well enough he might make it hard for coaches to just give the job back up to beckwith so easily
June 16th, 2018 at 9:55 am
I think this also speaks volumes about Mark Duffner. Our linebackers have shined. All of them. When I heard Duffner speak on the Ira Kaufman podcast I was even more impressed with him. That guy is loaded with knowledge and wisdom. He knows the team and game so well. LB is the one position with the Bucs in the past few years where I don’t get worried if someone is out injured in a game. We have tons of depth.
June 16th, 2018 at 10:07 am
Teacherman
Well thought out post. As Joe wrote the other day there will be a cap reckoning one day.
I’m not as concerned about that because it certainly doesn’t effect this year and a lot can happen between now and next year.
But IF we have a move a valued player over cap concerns it seems LB would be a spot to consider. We have two stars and Adarius could easily be a starter.
I certainly take Bonzai’s point about LVD perhaps being the one we should let go because of age…I’m just not sure how much value he would have in the league compared to Kwon.
For those who track such things…can anybody here give me a ballpark guess as to what kind of draft picks we could expect for Kwon? LVD? I too LOVE Kwon but if you eliminated what’s going to be a giant expense and replaced him with a top draft pick next year…..Not necessarily Kwon but a starter somewhere.
June 16th, 2018 at 10:25 am
Kwon’s going NO WHERE. He has been working his ass off to become the dominate leader of this defense. Bucs are trying to become a tough team? According to LVD he said the other day Kwon is the biggest trash talker on the field. Is gonna cost some serious dough, but he’s second to Jameis of big contracts being handed out.
June 16th, 2018 at 10:57 am
“LVD will be gone after this year, as he no longer has the value to compensate for his cost”
That’s a pretty bold statement Bonzai.
LDs contract pays him $8.75M in 2018, $9.75M in 2019 and $10.75M in 2020. Using this year’s #s – those figures would put him as the 23rd, 18th and 15th highest paid LBer in the NFL. In 3 years (even making $10.75M) LD54 will not be within the top 20 highest paid LBers.
LVD is easily a top 10-15 LBer in this league. Probably top 3 if only looking at 4-3 OLBs. His contract is fair to both sides and was a good signing by Licht.
Unless his play drops off substantially – Lavonte David is very likely to finish his current contract IMO and will still be 30 years old at its conclusion 3 seasons from now…
Just sayin – Dude is one of our best and most consistent players in his 6 years as a Buccaneer. Seems like a bad assumption to me that Licht will not see the value in keeping Lavonte – even with good depth behind him.
June 16th, 2018 at 12:59 pm
Keep an eye on Cichy as well. I gotta good feeling about that guy.
June 16th, 2018 at 1:02 pm
If / when LVD does move on, I would think Kwon would take his spot.
Beckwith played great at MLB, and Kwon has experience at weakside…
June 16th, 2018 at 1:21 pm
Kwon isn’t going anywhere.
June 16th, 2018 at 2:37 pm
These are the types of players that can be the difference in a winning season and losing. Depth is paramount.
June 16th, 2018 at 2:45 pm
I think we have some talented linebackers that are going to be even better with more time together in the same system.
June 16th, 2018 at 9:30 pm
4-3 vs 3-4. There appears to be a lot of strength and speed on the line. Four good solid LBs. It sure would be nice if Mike Smith could expand his horizons and mix it up a little. If you want to throw Drew Brees off his game, just show the look. He’ll call time out, then switch it back. Last season the Bucs’ offense and defense were both very predictable. It just seems to be a waste when you put yourself in a box. Maybe it won’t work, but how do you know if you don’t try. Maybe they won’t need to, but we’ll see.
June 17th, 2018 at 1:07 pm
Give the underwear football thing a rest, in this case, Joe. You, I, and everyone else associated with the Bucs know Adarius Taylor did a good job for the Bucs when he was needed last year. Is he a Lavonte David or a Kwon Alexander, likely not. Is he a more than serviceable back up? Absolutely and I don’t need to see that PFF has him down for just one missed tackle to know that Taylor has value on the Bucs’ roster, no, but it’s still nice to read. Give the underwear football nonsense a rest, at least when it comes to a man like Taylor who has shown he’s got more to his game than he can show in OTAs.