Sweezy: Falcons Courted Me In Free Agency
March 25th, 2019
Joe heard a rare thing on sports radio last week, a J.R. Sweezy interview.
A Pro Bowl alternate for the Seahawks last season, the former Bucs free agent bust guard has a new team.
You remember Sweezy. The Bucs paid him $9 million in 2016 and he never practiced or played. In 2017, he found his way back to the field after back surgery and was nothing special while collecting another fat check. He kept rehabbing a late-season injury into 2018, and bonding off the field with his Bucs teammates, and then he was cut in late June when the Bucs apparently decided Caleb Benenoch was the man at right guard.
The rest is history.
Benenoch was brutal; Sweezy played through a broken foot in the playoffs last year and was honored by his peers with the Pro Bowl love.
Sweezy now will earn about $6 million from the Cardinals this year under a new deal in free agency. Joe was intrigued because Sweezy acknowledged on 98.7 FM in Phoenix that Atlanta was one of the teams coming after him in free agency.
That tells Joe that new Falcons offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter blessed Sweezy to the power brokers in Atlanta. And of course, that begs the question, why didn’t the Bucs see that Sweezy was ready for a good season when he was on their roster last June?
Also in the interview was the discussion how new Cardinals offensive line coach Sean Kugler is “a badass.” Kugler worked under Bucco Bruce Arians in Pittsburgh, and he visited Arians and sat in on Cardinals meetings in 2017. It was reported the Bucs tried to hire him this year but they ended up with the once-demoted Colts offensive line coach who was nearly responsible for Andrew Luck needing a new career.
March 25th, 2019 at 9:42 am
It’s a Bucs life!
March 25th, 2019 at 9:49 am
Its pretty obvious…..Licht wasn’t in unison with his coaches’ philosophies/needs. I can assure you, BA didn’t come here without final say…..its that simple. Koetter never had final say….he was forced to work with whatever Licht brought in but he wasn’t influential in the process. BA will be, he’s much more proven and the Glazers have seen enough of Licht’s drafting and free agent signings. 5 yrs….4 last place finishes….Licht is a puppet now that’s praying BA can keep him employed. If BA flames out….you’ll likely never see Licht as a GM again.
March 25th, 2019 at 9:50 am
The only good thing Licht has done in recent years is be friends with Arians.
March 25th, 2019 at 9:52 am
JoeCardsFan.com
March 25th, 2019 at 9:59 am
BoobyM totally right on as its obvious that licht’s theory on building a team is flawed and that koetter was not impressed with the groceries that licht was shopping for and then buying
March 25th, 2019 at 10:34 am
Hate sells and the Joe’s are the kings of Hate. It is low hanging fruit but what the heck. Offense, defense, veterans or rookies. rip ’em up Joe.
Awfully silly. Joe scours the globe for Bucs-related stuff. Joe listened to the Sweezy interview and shared thoughts. Fruit, hate, call it whatever you want. But it’s really nothing more than that. –Joe
As good as that is, management bashing is the best. They can’t, never have and never will, do anything right. Beautiful. You guys are masters. Any signed free agents suck. Any unsigned free agents are opportunities lost. All draftees are busts. We’re eating it up Joe. Can’t get enough of it. Hate, hate, hate, gotta love it.
March 25th, 2019 at 10:39 am
im not buying the whole, “dirk didnt shop with licht for the groceries” theory…..
one could argue licht let smitty pick last years 1st rounder in VV and let dirk pick rojo instead of guice…..
dirk was in over his head as HC….simple as that…..the man didnt even bother to provide input on the defense…..thought he’d “screw it up”….lol….
sweezy picked the cards because he’s already played in dirk’s outdated 4vert predictable passing offense….players were calling out the plays as soon as they broke the huddle……
licht picked decent players, but the coaches screwed him over by not developing them or putting them in position to be successful…..benenoch is a perfect example….the kid was never a G….he’s always been a T…..
#REALISTKNOWSNOTHING!!!!…GO BUCS!!!!
March 25th, 2019 at 11:19 am
phattitudes, its their blog and the Joe’s can run it any way they want. The comments section is a joke due to the negativity (and those who say why should we be positive, we are losing – get a clue, we are all aware, we are fans of the same team) but the negativity on this board starts at the top.
March 25th, 2019 at 11:21 am
Licht drafted Noah Spence, who wasn’t compatible with Smiths defense.
March 25th, 2019 at 11:49 am
I am 100% with your view Bobby M!!!!
March 25th, 2019 at 12:05 pm
“Phattitudes” is dead on. Joe’s love left when Manziel wasn’t drafted by the Bucs.
March 25th, 2019 at 12:07 pm
Gilligan looks good in cardinal red
March 25th, 2019 at 12:13 pm
SCBucFan, totally agree. It is their blog and they can post whatever they want. As a fan, I am personally looking for Hope for a brighter future. However Hope is not a place where the Joe’s want to go. This is not true BTW of other contributors on their site. So in that sense they do permit the other half of the story. Go Bucs.
March 25th, 2019 at 12:20 pm
Vintage Licht Weight…cut Sweezy when he was needed the most and after he was paid a King’s ransom.
March 25th, 2019 at 12:23 pm
“It’s s Bucs life” lmao!!! Good one!
March 25th, 2019 at 2:19 pm
low hanging fruit for sure lol
March 25th, 2019 at 2:46 pm
A guy like Benechot is a huge endictment on the prior coaching staff.
The freaking guy was on the team for three years. If you got a freaking player on your team that long the HCs job is to know exactly how good he is. If you don’t know if the guy is good enough to start or not after three freaking years you have failed at your job. PERIOD.
This is called evaluation. Light takes blame too but you can’t build a team if the coaching staff cannot do proper evaluation of their own freaking players. You get a Cappa(project) if the evaluation says Benechot can play on the first team……..If Benechot can’t then you can take a project-player until you get a starting caliber player!!!!!! The Staff obvisously bothed their evaluation and it ruined the work of other people around them.
Hey, mistakes happen. You can get over it if you don’t keep making mistakes. But noooooo…..We made the same exact freaking mistake with Kevin Phampile didn’t we?……….How about the C position? We both had that position too and developed nobody in 3 years……..How long was the OL coach here? 8?
How about T? Did we make less mistakes there? Nope. Smith regressed under the last coach and since they developed no one behind him we have to cling to a 40 year old JAG at RT.
Licht has done his share of damage but fact is if the HC staff did their job we wouldn’t ever needed Sweezy & still need a RG today & we wouldn’t need to buy the most expensive C in football & we would need a RT today.
What a horrible job by that staff which left Bruce with nothing but pure garbage to work with.
Worst HC in franchise history!!!!!
Let the Bucs get good first then we can be great.
March 25th, 2019 at 2:47 pm
**END RANT**
March 25th, 2019 at 4:43 pm
Bobby M, I disagree, I think Koetter and Smitty had no clue what they were doing here. Makes zero sense for Licht to bring in Sweezy and for Lich tot tell Koetter ” I don’t think this guy is working out” for nothing.
March 25th, 2019 at 4:47 pm
I agree with Jimmy Jack and BucBoi – The coaching staff had a ton of power being that Licht was a first time GM hired by Lovie and the fact that Smitty had already been head coach and EXPECTED TO BE A DEFENSIVE GURU!!!! Licht was told to pick who his coaches wanted all the way back to his first year with Lovie.
The early rounders have been Koetter, Smitty, and Lovies guys. The trades and mid to late rounders have been Lichts guys.
Pretty easy to see who the problem was. Licht is going to hit a grand slam with Arians.
March 25th, 2019 at 6:06 pm
Wring’em dry Sweez! Keep gettin your money for nothin and your
chicks for free!