Jake Plummer Lauds Byron Leftwich Playcalling
January 29th, 2019
Ex-Bucs quarterbacks Jake Plummer and Byron Leftwich combined to play just three games in pewter and red, but they have a connection.
Plummer is an admirer of the new Tampa Bay playcaller.
After an excellent college career at Arizona State, Plummer had great highs and lows starting for the Arizona Cardinals before becoming a winner and a Pro Bowler with the Broncos.
How talented was Plummer? A great illustration was the fact he was a 10-year starter and threw 161 touchdowns and 161 interceptions — and Chucky still was desperate to bring him to the Bucs.
Plummer kept ties to the Cardinals last year as a regular guest on the local FOX Sports radio affiliate. It was there that he lauded Leftwich for his first game as a playcaller for rookie QB Josh Rosen. Leftwich took over the gig in midseason.
“I got to tip my hat to Leftwich,” Plummer said after Leftwich’s debut in late October. “For a first time calling a game as an OC in the NFL, I thought, ‘Uh, oh, he’s abandoning the run in the third quarter.’ But he came back to it in the fourth in key moments. You have to run the ball in the NFL to live and to win, especially all these close games; you have to stay on schedule. And I thought he did a great job with that along with mixing up a lot of different looks on screens. Play-action screens are awesome when you’re running the ball minimally well. … I thought he did a great job of keeping that defense off-balance.”
Joe isn’t going overboard here. Leftwich is a young playcaller and the Cardinals offense was last in points scored and yards in 2018. They were a bad football team. Joe’s merely offering perspective from Plummer, who is not shy as a free-spirited analyst.
As Bucco Bruce Arians says, Leftwich was trained well by him and had preseason experience under Arians, plus what he got last season on his own.
In about nine short months, we’ll really find out what Leftwich is all about.
January 29th, 2019 at 12:37 am
Ok, who is proofreading/editing your stuff???
January 29th, 2019 at 12:51 am
New ideas / young minds is a good concept
The league has changed so much. Time for some fresh new ideas
January 29th, 2019 at 12:56 am
Jake Plummer NEVER played for us. He fkn RETIRED so he wouldn’t play for us the bastard!
January 29th, 2019 at 2:12 am
Good ol Jake the Snake. That dude was gritty as hell.
Leftwich is a huge X factor, I don’t think Bruce will let him steer too far off course. Hopefully he won’t have to rein him in at all because we are rollin.
January 29th, 2019 at 4:08 am
@Joe … “Leftwich is a young playcaller and the Cardinals offense was last in points scored and yards in 2018. They were a bad football team.” Now you’ve got me curious Joe; lots of JBFers have commented that ALL NFL teams have talent, and several seem adamant that coaching is the only real difference between winning & losing. So were the Cardinals “a bad football team” because of coaching or because the talent wasn’t there? Or because of BOTH?
Not the slightest bit concerned about the Bucs 2019 OFFENSE. But not because of Byron Leftwich; because of Bruce Arians & Harold Goodwin. Those two have been together a long time & have won a lot together. No doubt in my mind that they hand-picked Leftwich to be their protege & that he’ll be just fine under their tutelage.
The Bucs however do need to give him more to work with. We have an excellent base with Jameis (he’ll be fine under BA’s tutelage), surrounded by exceptional weapons in ME13, Goodwin, OJ, Brate AND Barber as well as an OLine ‘core’ of Jensen & Marpet (still convinced that DJax is gone because of his high salary & our other needs). The missing pieces stand out I think: a LT, RT, RG, slot WR and another RB (can’t survive with just 1 RB nowadays). Franchise-tagging Donovan Smith will happen IMO & hopefully we re-sign Adam Humphries. Grab an experienced, quality RB & OLineman in FA, then draft a starting-caliber Tackle in Rnds 1 or 2 and we could have the offensive juggernaut we’ve been searching for. That will however probably cost us around $35 mil in CAP space, leaving us at most $15 mil to ‘fix’ the defense. Yuck, BUT … Rome wasn’t built in a year.
January 29th, 2019 at 5:59 am
im not convinced..I want arians calling the plays. He cannot pull a lovie or a koetter if it doesnt work and I dont think he would, but its still gut wrenching having to worry about it now. I guess we will.see.
January 29th, 2019 at 6:28 am
when the twitch goes left…throw right 🙂
January 29th, 2019 at 7:31 am
You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey’s uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There’s pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich.
January 29th, 2019 at 7:33 am
Member when Plummer decided to retire instead of play for the Bucs? And then Gruden kept begging and begging him to play but he still wouldn’t? I member…
January 29th, 2019 at 7:35 am
I’ll be the judge of that
January 29th, 2019 at 7:40 am
D.R.
I’m one who believes all teams in the NFL have talent. Hence “On any given Sunday”. Obviously though not all have equal talent and if the disparity is significant at QB that can create mismatches.
Like you I believe football is very much a team sport…eleven guys. The league is set up to keep talent pretty even though again not exactly.
I look for every advantage and coaching can be a HUGE difference if the teams are well matched…which is frequently the case in the NFL.
And speaking of teams…the GM or Coach or whomever is deciding on how the team will be put together are also critical.
The salary cap keeps thing interesting and it’s really hard to have a dynasty in the NFL unless you have a GOAT QB who stays healthy matched with a GOAT Coach…but that is the exception. Other teams have to decide on when to ship old talent and sign newer young guys and their success tends to be cyclical. Some teams manage to figure a way to consistently suck….can you say Bucs…but it’s not just talent. I believe we do have talent with some obvious holes.
That seems to be as large a question for the Bucs this year as any scheme Bowles runs or offense BA may create. How many vets do we keep and how many young draft picks will we count on to start? How do we manage our salary cap. That will be as critical to our success as anything else.
January 29th, 2019 at 7:58 am
Play calling has not been an issue these past years….it has been execution
January 29th, 2019 at 8:39 am
“Kobe believes Leftwich is a great assest to the 2019 season. Having just recently played, Bryon has viewpoint and experience not only as playcaller but also a QB
I think it was great experience working under Mccoys scheme and system to get another point of view than from BAs system
Working with Josh Rosen and hardship last year is also a plus
TO ALL THE BA NUT HUGGERS-
Google and find the weakness, negative aspects, problems of BAs scheme and playcalling…
It got him fired”
Kobe Faker
January 29th, 2019 at 9:08 am
LMAO….Kobe almost…nearly managed to type something positive
January 29th, 2019 at 9:24 am
stpete
i agree…..
i believe every NFL team has talent and the difference maker is coaching…..
plenty examples to support that case…..bears had talent and we whopped them pretty good 2 years in a row….they got better coaching and embarrassed us, won their division and made the playoffs…..
on the flip side, i would say the chiefs and maybe the chargers had more talent than the patriots but the PATS have BB…..the GOAT at HC…..
cardinals were 8-8 last year…..they bring in a coach who isnt equal or as good as BA and look what happens…..cards imo still had at the worse 7-9 8-8 talent but they didnt have equal coaching(no disrespect to wilks)…..
#REALISTKNOWSNOTHING!!!!!….GO BUCS!!!!!
January 29th, 2019 at 9:31 am
“Kobe likes the BA and Bryon combo
Need BA to give Leftwich a pass catching #1 runninback to exploit the linebackers and setup the deep passing game
For 4 years, Kobe has not seen a runningback screenpass on first down…
dont know if my heart can take it”
Kobe Faker
January 29th, 2019 at 2:30 pm
Calling Jake Plummer an ex Buc quarterback is like calling Bo Jackson an ex Buc running back.
January 29th, 2019 at 2:59 pm
Kobe,
David Johnson is coming to Tampa…
January 29th, 2019 at 4:41 pm
“@E
You might be right. I think arizona is going total rebuild.
DJ all alone with a linebacker while OJ and MEME is deep will be illegal…
pickle in the middle all day
Its amazing that Klueless could never design the screenpass to the running back for 4 years. You watch Andy Reid and his screen designs and any runningback they have including in the PS can catch and run for TDS
DJ has 1k rec yards potential. DJ is a natural rb reciever
release Djax and Brate and get DJ and offensive line help
this offense should avg 30pts per game”
Kobe Faker