Morris Claiborne And The Bucs
February 19th, 2019
Dot-connecting.
With the exception of wily veteran Brent Grimes, Bucs cornerbacks have damn near been a nightmare as bad as kickers since inept Lovie Smith took over.
The list is long and sordid. Alterraun Verner, flopping Mike Jenkins, Ryan Smith, Tim “Loaf” Jennings, M.J. Stewart… it’s painful to think about.
Now Joe has been of the mind that under former Bucs defensive coordinator Mike Smith, a current book salesman and voice of the AAF, coaches simply did not know how to coach up young corners. This explains why veteran corners did OK under Smith but rookies grew progressively worse.
In recent years, the Bucs have spent a lot of draft capital on corners. Three premium picks, including two second-round picks, have been spent on cornerbacks in the past three years. Evan Silva of Rotoworld.com believes it is time for these young players to be developed.
The Bucs are long on youth but short on production in the defensive backfield, which is new DC Todd Bowles’ area of specialty. The 2018 Bucs permitted an NFC-high 8.2 yards per pass attempt and the third-most touchdown passes in the league (34). Ex-Bowles pupils CB Morris Claiborne, slot CB Buster Skrine, CB/S Darryl Roberts, and FS Marcus Gilchrist are free agent dot connections.
Joe believes the Bucs cannot spend another top pick on a cornerback this year. It would be crazy to spend so many valuable picks on the same position while ignoring other positions, most notably defensive end.
This is why Joe continues to state that if the Bucs need another corner (they do), then go out and buy one. That’s why Morris Claiborne makes sense for the Bucs. He’s a free agent and played two years for new Bucs defensive coordinator Todd Bowles in New York. Claiborne, 29, arguably had his best statistical season last year, and he’s missed just two games over the past two seasons.
Oh, and Claiborne is far from the next Mike Jenkins. And it is high time the Bucs start developing cornerbacks.
February 19th, 2019 at 9:09 am
I’d like to see us sign Claiborne and Mathieu and still draft Joejuan Williams in the 3rd
February 19th, 2019 at 9:15 am
Can never have enough CB’s in the same division as Ryan and Brees
February 19th, 2019 at 9:21 am
We absolutely need to pick up at least 1 good corner in FA, not the draft. Takes too long to get these kids coached up and Jason Licht is not capable of finding good draft corners. Even Greedy Williams(expected to go in the top half of the first round)has major flaws.
February 19th, 2019 at 9:39 am
we need trench play more than secondary imo….let bowles coach them up since thats what he specializes in…..
gotta go heavy trench play in the draft and in FA…..a good front 7 can mask some weaknesses in the secondary….doesnt matter if we get patrick peterson and the honey badger, if the dline aint right they’ll get exposed too….
#REALISTKNOWSNOTHING!!!!!….GO BUCS!!!!
February 19th, 2019 at 9:51 am
The dude that scored a “4” on his wonderlic test…. SMH….
February 19th, 2019 at 9:58 am
@Pickgrin
He had 14 passes defensed last year did any of our current cbs have even half that?
Dude can play in Bowles system
February 19th, 2019 at 10:12 am
Claiborne makes sense, which probably mean we won’t get him. No DB in draft worth #5 pick. Plenty of really good DL in draft but OL not so much especially T. I would probably go J Williams with 1st pick.
February 19th, 2019 at 10:39 am
Pickgrin-To be fair that was before he learned to read.
He was suppose to be our busted pick. I not going to name names but a lot of people around here wanted and expected him to be a Buc.
February 19th, 2019 at 10:42 am
Look if we are not talking Tyrann Mathieu then we ain’t talking DB. Make up for the Derwin James from last season. We don’t need anymore CB though because we no longer will be in majority nickel defense but 3-4 under instead which means just quality lockdown defenders who can capitalize off the blitzing. Safety is a huge need. I don’t think Evans can be depended on right now and imo I like Whitehead and Stewart over him. We need some hungry depth for special teams though.
February 19th, 2019 at 11:39 am
DE is not our most notable position in the draft, Joe. I know you want Allen but unless we trade into the top three, we’re not getting him. JPP had double digit sacks last year and is the leader of this team. He is good for at least two more years when his contract is up in 2020 so I have no clue why you would want to have him swapping time with a first round pick. Nassib has proved himself to be a strong starter. DT is number one priority when they send bubble butt 93 packing (which I have a strong feeling they will). Trade back and pick up Dexter Lawrence or Ed Oliver in the first round.
February 19th, 2019 at 11:50 am
Claiborne works! Cut bait and sign
February 19th, 2019 at 12:36 pm
Remember when Popstar GM Dominik traded down from the 5th pick in 2012 to the 7th and all he could get was a 4th from Jacksonville.
Remember how everyone laughed at Popstar as the Cowboys traded up to snipe/steal Claiborne at number 6? It’s okay, we got Mark Barron instead at number 7. That worked out great.
Pepperidge Farms remembers.
February 19th, 2019 at 12:50 pm
Geeee….
I WONDER where the @Joe’s learned of this exact information…to then wait a week, and post an article on around a week later on this here site?!?!?
Hmmm, wonder if any certain ya know loyal respondent happened to already volunteer this here info…maybe copied and pasted, and referenced, and other loyal respondent’s here commented on it as well??…a week ago?
Hmm…curious.
February 19th, 2019 at 1:15 pm
worth a stab. If he sucks in camp dump him. The biggest knock on him in Dallas was that he was a slow learner on their defensive playbook. Sort of what they’ve said about our own RoJo. So the fact he’s already played for Bowles should shorten his learning curve.
February 19th, 2019 at 2:38 pm
Made $7 million last year but after a couple of bad years his last two haven’t been bad. Trumaine Johnson was a dumpster fire for the Jets after getting the big contract. I would agree paying huge money for corners coming from other teams may not be so wise. I expect we will see a few of Bowles guys matriculate down to Tampa pretty soon.
FA right around the corner, can’t wait to see what direction we take.
February 19th, 2019 at 5:26 pm
I could give two craps what his “wonderlic” score is. We need football players, period! Some of of you people absolutely kill me..
February 19th, 2019 at 6:08 pm
Yeah who cares if it takes him 3 seasons to understand the defensive scheme that 4th year he’ll be great. It’s football not rocket surgery.
February 20th, 2019 at 8:46 am
Since he performed well with the Jets and will play in the same scheme here the wunderlick score has nothing to do with it. Sign him and get Honey Badger and BA’s OG too. That should be all we can afford with our cap and the players we trade or release outright. Can’t see us overpaying Turnstyle Smith if we go this route though. In the draft we will have to move down and pickup a LT, backup NT, a DE, a three down RB who can do it all, a LG to develop, a FB/TE, a backup DT. Stewart needs to be moved to Safety. I believe either Cappa or Wester can be developed to play RT and Dotson should be asked to play backup RT at a reduced rate, E. Smith retained as a backup C/OG, and Liedtke to start at LT til the rookie LT is developed up to NFL speed and then Liedtke is the backup OT/OG. Rogers should be cut.
February 20th, 2019 at 1:40 pm
Jason S. Mclaurin, “. We don’t need anymore CB though because we no longer will be in majority nickel defense but 3-4 under instead which means just quality lockdown defenders who can capitalize off the blitzing.” Just curious as to how you think changing base defense means we will not be running a lot of nickel packages. Bowles has already stated that with the way the league is trending teams run 70% nickel. Why would we be any different? What makes you think any coach in their right mind would roll out with such a minimal amount of secondary for most of their defensive snaps? Please, elaborate