Kevin Pamphile Talks About Moving On To Titans, Winning Atmosphere & The 2017 Bucs
August 17th, 2018
Bucs met a familiar face this week
Once upon a time midway through the 2016 season, Dirk Koetter openly praised starting left guard Kevin Pamphile as the top-graded offensive lineman on the team that year.
And somewhere general Jason Licht was beaming about his 2014 fifth-round pick.
A season later, Pamphile was in a bizarre and rare in-game rotation at left guard with Evan Smith until injuries on the O-line moved Smith to center and right guard and Pamphile settled in happily as a full-timer again.
Then came free agency in March and the Buccaneers passed, and the rest of the NFL wasn’t fighting to pay Pamphile like a starter. The Titans signed him to a one-year deal a couple of weeks into free agency worth up to $2.2 million.
This week, Pamphile was a popular guy on the Nashville practice fields, where the Titans practiced against his old teammates.
Joe caught up to Pamphile and was very candid that Joe was looking for answers to the mess that was the Bucs’ 2017 campaign.
Pamphile, 27, wanted to assure Bucs fans and Joe that he had no ill will toward the Bucs even if he thinks they made the wrong call.
“No hard feelings or anything like that. That’s the business of the game. It is what it is,” Pamphile said of the Bucs not re-signing him. “I cherish my time and friends in Tampa. But I’m very happy now. The food in Nashville is amazing, players, coaches the overall atmosphere. It’s awesome.”
Pamphile didn’t specify what he thought went wrong with the Bucs last year but he did say the Titans are a tighter group than Tampa Bay was and there’s a different atmosphere.
“I do love how close knit this [Titans] team is and how they really bring together a family feel. It wasn’t just talk when I got here,” Pamphile said. “As a new player coming in, you wanted to feel close quickly and part of the group and they really brought me in, welcomed me like I was always here and in the family. The winning feeling here is everywhere in the locker room. It’s nice to have that and you really want to be the guy who adds to that success.”
On last year’s Bucs, Pamphile said he didn’t think the injury and/or investigation of America’s Quarterback, Jameis Winston, dragged the team down. And he thought it was more a bad year that was highlighted by personal failures versus a team issue.
“Obviously everybody has a different reason they’re not at their best, family, personal, whatever. And we had some of that.” Pamphile said. “I’m just really happy to be here in Tennessee and I wish nothing but good things for my old teammates.”
August 17th, 2018 at 5:13 pm
So why did the Bucs pass on Pamphile? Seems like he was a “good enough” but not “star enough” player. Our O-line is not that strong. Course I said the same thing when we gave up Donald Penn.
August 17th, 2018 at 5:27 pm
Howard guesses that the Glazers constantly hamstring their GM’s with low budget numbers and whine about every dollar spent. Pamphile is just another quality player ina long line of quality players sent down the road by the dysfunctional Buccaneer circus.
one thing Howard knows for sure: The Bucs are, and have been, a running joke in the NFL since Gruden and the ONLY constant on the team since 2008 is….you guessed it…..Scheme Glazer
August 17th, 2018 at 5:59 pm
Hamstring their GMs? We’re at max cap as of right now for next year salary cap. We bring players in every year. We just haven’t always made the right choices,and we ignored the slime for years and made horrible draft decisions at the position.
August 17th, 2018 at 6:34 pm
Perhaps the bucs felt Pamphile was too soft. The bucs wanted an attitude adjustment along both lines. This is why they picked up center Ryan Jensen and drafted guard Alex Cappa. The same was done with the defensive line. Games are won in the trenches so I think it was a positive to redo both lines.
August 17th, 2018 at 6:44 pm
Just another player that is trained here for four years and yet the team gets nothing out of them. Another failed Licht draft pick. Why keep this guy around for four years and let him walk? He knew all positions on the OL. This team will be missing this guy by week 8. Instead of having a solid left guard with experience in Pamphile, this team decides it wants to train Marpet at LG for what reason? Because Marpet and Smith are friends? Lmao! If Marpet goes down we can put in Cappa with no experience. No one should ask why the fans have had to endure the “Lost Decade”.
August 17th, 2018 at 6:53 pm
Nashville is amazing, players, coaches the overall atmosphere. It’s awesome
Titans are a tighter group than Tampa Bay was and there’s a different atmosphere.
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Hmmmm 🤔
they really bring together a family feel. It wasn’t just talk
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Ouch!
#RunJameisRun
August 17th, 2018 at 6:53 pm
Pamphile had a bad year – a bad CONTRACT year.
The Bucs gave Kevin chance after chance after chance to show improvement last year and it never really happened. His run blocking was not good at all and his pass protection was spotty as well. Kevin was a bit better than Sweezy – but Evan Smith was better than both of them – so what does that tell you?
Pamphile wound up signing a 1 year “prove it” deal with the Titans – so 31 other teams saw the same tape as the Bucs when they decided not to re-sign him for the higher amount he was likely asking for prior to free agency….
August 17th, 2018 at 6:59 pm
@ Season is over,
You put Marpet next to Smith to upgrade one side of your line. When 3rd and 1 comes around you will want a stronger side rather than a balanced line. Think the mid 70’s Raiders. Shell, Upshaw, Otto. They ran behind that left side for years. I’m not saying the 3 Bucs will be the 3 Raiders but that’s the reasoning. The 2 TD rushes against Miami were left side runs.
August 17th, 2018 at 7:04 pm
“Jon Robinson>Forrest Gump”
Kobe Faker
#Kobe&Monk BFF
August 17th, 2018 at 7:24 pm
Keeping worthless Evan Smith and getting rid of Pamphile is one of the dumbest moves of this last offseason, however on the scale of dumb not getting a safety to replace Chris Conte and not doing enough to make sure Ryan Smith would not be on the team is about 100x worse. But I think Pamphile was a guy who wasn’t expensive and could have started, it makes little sense to let him walk unless there’s something we don’t know about that happened behind the scenes.
August 17th, 2018 at 7:30 pm
Pamphile seems like a really decent guy and so I wish him the best.
It seems Kevin is not really an impact player…but is perhaps a serviceable NFL player. I read guys here all the time who beotch about our “average” players claiming they should be cut if they’re not star material. Those folks got exactly what they wanted with Pamphile.
August 17th, 2018 at 8:07 pm
Hey, Joe, I am now accessing the podcasts through Google Play, but I cannot find anywhere to rate them or comment. All it does is let me listen.
How do I rate them?
August 17th, 2018 at 8:14 pm
The scale of dumb
August 17th, 2018 at 8:43 pm
Pamphile is up and coming like Donald Penn and Damar Datson. Big mistake to groom him and not keep Kevin Pamphile.
August 17th, 2018 at 8:50 pm
One thing about Phampile is that he wasn’t drafted for Koetter. His release could be a simple matter of him having different skillset then preferred. Well plus he was really kinda bad last year.
And did somebody call Evan Smith worthless? You must have been dropped on your head as a baby
August 17th, 2018 at 10:01 pm
You can imagine that Licht will be exploring the veteran RGs that don’t make final cuts. Let’s not eulogize Pamphile now though, he was average on his best days. No push in the run game at all. Serviceable pass protection. I will say though, too much of our season is riding on having Dotson back to last year’s form.
August 18th, 2018 at 1:59 am
JimmyJack – Evan Smith was a terrible center who lost his job, then was benched for over a year before literally everyone in front of him was injured and he played again, then he was mediocre at best. That to me is the definition of worthless.
August 18th, 2018 at 5:25 am
Rod you must have really enjoyed Ira’s latest article.
https://www.joebucsfan.com/2018/08/buccaneers-blog-ira-kaufman-evan-smith-column/#more-202959
August 18th, 2018 at 5:55 am
I like Pamphile , but his best work was basically as a swing blocker in 2015.
Not sure if injuries slowed him down but he just didn’t seem to take the next step. As for Evan Smith, he does the dirty work in the run game,and I believe that is his strength.
August 18th, 2018 at 8:15 am
From the grid iron to the battlefield, “Family ” that Pamphile mentions is a huge factor in success and survival. It’s what makes you go that extra mile for each other, having each other’s back, camaraderie etc. Also known as team chemistry, do the Bucs have it? Do they have enough of it? Time will tell.
August 18th, 2018 at 5:08 pm
Pamphile was a former basketball player with good flexibility to pass block against speed rushers; exactly the same background that Dotson has. Now if Warhop had let Dotson help train Pamphile to replace him when he retires we would be set at RG for many years to come, but Warhop’s passion is disrupting player’s progression at a position by moving them around to learn all the OL positions whether they have the skill set or not. It is why our OL has been a hot mess year after year Warhop is here. Look for Pamphile to become an All Pro at Tackle with the Titans in time.
August 18th, 2018 at 5:16 pm
Omameh was let go by the Bucs only to end up a starting NFL OL for another team, the N Y Giants, and just another example that Warhop just doesn’t have a clue how to develop the talent he keeps wasting and letting go.
August 18th, 2018 at 5:59 pm
You have to be able to develop and keep your talent. Pamphlie is young and healthy. Why would you let him get away?
August 18th, 2018 at 10:45 pm
Class act. Wishing him success.