“We Just Have To Deal With It”
April 23rd, 2019
Addresses absent GMC.
It was weird at One Buc Palace this afternoon.
For the first time, the local pen and mic club was allowed to watch a Bucs practice in 2019, and also the first practice under the Bucco Bruce Arians Administration.
The sights and sounds were odd. First was the total silence, save the barking of a coach or a whistle that pierced the warm air.
Not a note of music could be heard. Anywhere.
The odd sights were not so much football players practicing in shorts and no pads. But it was who wasn’t seen.
There was no Lavonte David. Joe hopes to have word about that forthcoming, but remember that these workouts are voluntary.
There was no sign of Jason Pierre-Paul either, but that was expected.
And there was no sight of Bucs stud defensive tackle Gerald McCoy.
All signs point to GMC being gone for good. The Bucs are in salary cap hell and GMC, who Arians has publicly admitted has slipped as a player, has a hefty $13 million salary.
Justin Evans wasn’t practicing. Perhaps it was to give the guy a break. He ended last season on injured reserve and has yet to finish a full season for the Bucs. Entering his third year, one could aptly describe the Bucs’ safety as a veteran.
So Joe decided to ask him about GMC not being around One Buc Palace. Evans admitted it was weird without their defensive leader.
“He is one of our biggest leaders,” Evans told Joe after practice. “I don’t know what the situation is that is going on [between the Bucs and GMC]. We just have to deal with it and do what we have to do.
“He is a great player but it is the NFL so, next person up.”
So that is where we are at with GMC and the Bucs. Next person up. Whoever that may be.
April 23rd, 2019 at 3:50 pm
BUST
April 23rd, 2019 at 3:54 pm
Bucs must be looking for best trade offer for McCoy leading right up until the Draft.
Teams are probably smart enough to realize that they can probably just wait until he’s cut and get him free and not having to absorb his overpriced contract anyway.
There’s just no way the Bucs aren’t drafting a DT at #5 to replace him. Williams or Oliver for sure. My guess is the Bucs have “fallen in love” with Oliver because they know Williams won’t be there anyway. If Oliver AND Williams both go in the Top 4 picks then the Bucs will be in a bit of a panic.
April 23rd, 2019 at 3:57 pm
I really wish they would just keep GMC around for one more year. If they kept GMC they could draft White in the first, Ferguson or Simmons in the second, and then address other areas with later picks in the draft. Creating another hole at the DT position hamstrings the Bucs in the upcoming draft. I agree with Beckles and Vegas that this is a bad football team. They went 5-11 last year and have less talent today then they did last season. I think 3-4 wins is likely and we will have a great position in the 2020 draft and can pick up DT next year to replace McCoy.
April 23rd, 2019 at 4:01 pm
If we go 3-4 wins we will be drafting a quarterback
April 23rd, 2019 at 4:03 pm
I thought you were making a typo with the word safety i read the whole article before i realized you didn’t ACTUALLY mean our wide receiver.
Though the picture makes more sense now.
Could we add a first name?
also was this “you get to make a lot of plays for each and every DB. They will put us in the best position to do so.” supposed to be part of the quotation in the article?
April 23rd, 2019 at 4:04 pm
love the site joe, not intending to be critical as much as asking for clarity!
April 23rd, 2019 at 4:08 pm
The Bucs were 31st in the league in points given up last year. Two of the better players on the defense were Gerald McCoy and Kwon Alexander. Both will be gone next year. JPP had 12.5 sacks, his second highest total ever. Can anyone tell me the defense is better on paper this year than last year even if the Bucs go to a MLB at 5 overall and take another couple of rookie defenders later?
Despite the overall unit being awful last year, you’re losing a DT that annually got you 6 sacks a season, a young, fast MLB that went to a Pro Bowl, a DB in Andrew Adams that managed 3 INT’s in a single game to help beat the Panthers and another DB in Brent Grimes that…well he’s getting replaced by more of VHIII and Ryan Smith, so be careful what you wish for.
April 23rd, 2019 at 4:13 pm
Only cahnce these young kids have is if cancer93 the undisputed face of the basement years and leader of more blowouts than any other captain in team history is eradicated from roster…. you cant win with soft mentally weak bums… lvd and cancer93 have proven this beyond a shadow of the doubt.
April 23rd, 2019 at 4:19 pm
Sounds eerily leaderless and empty ….save this article for after the last play of the 2019 season…foreboding ?
April 23rd, 2019 at 4:31 pm
the GMC trade will happen on friday, to move the bucs up in (or into) round 2 or 3…some team in the top 15 who missed the upper tier of d linemen will take GMC after the bucs eat some of the salary
April 23rd, 2019 at 4:36 pm
Fine by me because I’m definitely not interested in seeing more of the same we’ve seen for the last decade. Understand the veterans not being there but don’t know how wise that is for lavonte
April 23rd, 2019 at 4:40 pm
C’mon Joe you better than this. How many of these do plan to spin today. The narrative is for lack of a better term weak. “93’s replacement” when the our base defense doesn’t understand utilize a 3tech. He’s a has been,and the days of these gum showing do right types are over. Now I’ll excuse you ignoring me on the other thread. I guess it was bspn’s Adam shefty that broke word the Bucs offered Kwon a multi year deal to play a position you see no value in. So what’s the true BIGGER need??? A situational DT or Kwon’s replacement. A true need on this team.
April 23rd, 2019 at 4:41 pm
@Tom S, counterpoint
-only one LB has missed more tackles than Kwon since he entered the league
-andrew adams managed nothing notable when he wasn’t catching passes from a clearly injured cam newton
-a team is better off playing with 10 guys than with a player who won’t tackle or listen to his coaches (even as bad as they were)
-moving GMC and plugging in beau allen is not addition by subtraction on its own, but what the bucs do with any draft pick or salary savings may help shore up the roster.
-McCoy has somewhere between 0 and 2 seasons remaining before his productivity falls off a cliff. he is an expensive time bomb whose past production needs to be considered against his age and injury history
GMC hasn’t missed many games since the very beginning of his career, but he has owned up to playing while pretty badly injured for large stretches of the last couple years
April 23rd, 2019 at 4:43 pm
oh and if you were to break it down to missed tackles per game, kwon would be way out in front. he’s #2 in missed tackles in his career despite missing more than a season’s worth of games in his first 4 years
April 23rd, 2019 at 4:44 pm
Oh and let’s not forget you had your fingers cross they would somehow snag C.J Mosely ain’t that right Joe. I guess you truly see value in that position after all.
April 23rd, 2019 at 4:45 pm
So how hacked are posters going to be if we get Quinnen and still keep GMC?
Yeah looks like a long shot but that’s one of the things that would hack us off…hearing for weeks that GMC is gone only to find out it was all a smoke screen.
GMC represents just a year’s liability at a time. Other players will have contracts that require a little bit of gambling. Just imagine GMC…VV…and Quinnen alternating throughout the game. Kinda scary isn’t it.
With that up the middle would we expect JPP…Nassib and perhaps as many as three different LB’s cashing in on some sacks. Hard for a QB to step up into the pocket if you crush the pocket from the center. Stop the run with the big beasts and make the other team one dimensional. If only we can get Quinnen…then decide how to finagle 13 million for ONE season or perhaps get GMC to re-negotiate.
April 23rd, 2019 at 4:50 pm
Joe was Donovan Smith one of the no-shows? Wouldn’t doubt it
April 23rd, 2019 at 4:50 pm
Wouldn’t be surprised if David is quietly asking for a trade. He and McCoy are super close, as he was with Kwon. It’s one thing to be losing with your homies, it’s another to watch your defense blown up for the 7th time and being a loner
April 23rd, 2019 at 5:04 pm
Bucs need to draft a real left tackle who plays with passion
April 23rd, 2019 at 5:10 pm
By no means am I reserving a spot in Canton for Kwon but the guy was not this awful trainwreck that pick6 makes him out to be. He’s certainly not worth what Lynch gave him but for as bad as pick6 seems to think he is, it seems a little odd that he’d make a Pro Bowl and get a 4 year 54 million dollar contract by being awful. Licht was rumored to have offered/expressed interest in giving Kwon a big contract as well. He also had 6 INT’s in his first 3 seasons, not bad for a MLB.
Cam Newton-to-Andrew Adams was essentially the reason the Bucs beat the Panthers last year. The team was gifted a win by a broken QB who’s favorite receiver that week played for the opposing defense. The point is that it’s unlikely the Bucs are going to have another player pick off 3 passes in a month let alone a game next season, so despite that luck, it shouldn’t be expected to be repeated.
Licht would need to hit a grand slam with defensive players in the draft for there to be optimism that the defense will be better than the very poor one they trotted out last season. A unit that was pretty bad is losing some of it’s best players. Not exactly a recipe for improvement.
April 23rd, 2019 at 5:10 pm
“#GodhatestheBucs”
Tim Tebow
April 23rd, 2019 at 5:15 pm
Like it or not McCoy was the only player on this team consistent with losing. He may not have been THE PROBLEM but he was part of the ongoing problem and needed to go. Culture change is coming.
A good trade partner would be the 49ers! He will love the SF Bay Area and Lynch knows him.
April 23rd, 2019 at 5:25 pm
damn right next man up…..
Ed Oliver….c’mon down!!!!!!!
#REALISTKNOWSNOTHING!!!!!…GO BUCS!!!!!
April 23rd, 2019 at 5:35 pm
Lol joe saying stud defensive tackle Gerald McCoy … boy please …. you need some glasses … thick ones at that … and lay off the pipe
April 23rd, 2019 at 5:37 pm
Can’t wait for the Bucs to release McCoy …. end all the McCoy talk and put to bed the garbage we have seen here in Tampa for the past decade
April 23rd, 2019 at 5:52 pm
Joe Says : And there was no sight of Bucs stud defensive tackle Gerald McCoy
Got a typo there Joe, you spelled “DUD” S-T-U-D. Its D-U-D.
April 23rd, 2019 at 6:22 pm
Tom S, kwon made alot of plays and was a tackling machine many a game. i will always remember that ATL game after his brother was killed as one of the great individual defensive games in team history. My wife got a personalized #58 jersey with “KWON” on the back. I have no doubt that he will be less of a liability in a better defense, but between the injury, the salary, the scheme change (he’s small for a 4-3 MLB let alone 3-4) and the known lapses in his game it seems very sensible to move on without him and replace his production some other way.
for all the plays he made he was also one of the reasons that misdirection and playaction worked vs this defense. every. single. time.
i don’t blame the new staff for wanting to try some different core players rather than scrambling to be the 4th (in Kwon’s case) or umpteenth (in GMC’s case) Defensive Coordinator to try turn the same core into something respectable. Beyond JPP (for maybe 1 more year) and Lavonte i just don’t see any defender not on a rookie contract who deserves to be untouchable. there’s no equivalent to Lovie Smith cutting Revis here, nobody we are losing or have lost has done much in the way of winning or making the guys around them better
April 23rd, 2019 at 6:43 pm
I see Devin White essentially be a top 5 pick replacement for Kwon. Which is sort of a shame to burn through a top 5 pick to replace your 4th round pick from a few years ago. Not sure how much better White will be overall or that it would be worth that much draft capital for the difference.
April 23rd, 2019 at 6:58 pm
kwon’s original draft status doesn’t factor in (in my opinion). even if he was an undrafted FA, the relevant part is what he got paid to go elsewhere. you aren’t replacing a 4th rounder, you are replacing a guy who played a position that was valued above safeties, DTs, and i think even most CBs this past offseason
if he’s the patrick willis type of talent and leader that he is touted to be, then he is more than a replacement for Kwon’s athleticism and production, in addition to being described as a guy who brings leadership and supposedly is technique\assignment sound (important for a leader to be where he should be on plays)
will he actually do\be all that? i won’t really know for 2-3 years but what else am i gonna type about
Tom, I will certainly miss Kwon and who knows if the bucs will draft white let alone whether it will be a good or bad thing, but i get where you are coming from and i appreciate the healthy debate.
April 23rd, 2019 at 7:00 pm
incomplete sentence up above, meant to say “but what else am i gonna type about while i wait for thursday?”
April 23rd, 2019 at 7:12 pm
Tom it is not a shame when you show up at a program with intention of playing on one side of the he ball but someone has an epiphany and ask you to play on the other side of the ball. You accept (ultimate team player move) an not do well you excel at the move to the point folks hand you an award a few years later saying you are the best in the nation. That’s makes you an exceptional football player deserving to be drafted anywhere in the top 10.
April 23rd, 2019 at 8:13 pm
Linebackers can be had throughout the draft more than most positions. Lavonte David, Bobby Wagner and Eric Kendricks were all 2nd round picks. Kwon was a 4th round pick. The Jaguars Telvin Smith was a 5th round pick. Former Bucs LBers during the Super Bowl era Shelton Quarles, Jeff Gooch and Ryan Nece were all undrafted.
Unless you’re Jason Licht and drool at the thought of trading up for a kicker in the second round you at least consider the positional value of the player you are overdrafting.
April 23rd, 2019 at 9:12 pm
May I ask a logical question?
Why do we spend so much time talking about a player that has never made it to the playoffs? Consecutive losing and leader of historically bad defenses??
Should it really matter where he is given the resume and team status in the NFL?
Just wondering…
April 23rd, 2019 at 9:48 pm
BSPN mock draft has the Bucs taking Josh Allen with the 5th pick.
April 23rd, 2019 at 10:14 pm
Which one? Don’t they have like 300 spread out over five months?