Complete Back, Just “Not A Freakin’ Fast, Fast Guy”
May 2nd, 2019
One of Peyton Barber’s coaches weighs in
The man who says he’s in charge of fixing the Buccaneers’ running game was talking today at One Buc Palace.
“From what I’ve been told the running game hasn’t been that great,” run game coordinator/assistant head coach Harold Goodwin noted, adding he believes play-action pass will be a critical component to this year’s Tampa Bay offense.
The Bucs stayed status quo at running back and offensive line in the NFL Draft last week, so Joe particularly wanted to get Goodwin’s take on Peyton Barber — especially after Goodwin made it clear how much of a run-focused offense this will be and its complexity.
While talking about the offensive line, Goodwin said the playbook has a lot of variety. “There’s a lot of protections, there’s a lot of runs, there’s a lot of screens,” he said. “There’s a lot of new information coming at you.”
JoeBucsFan.com: Coach, you mentioned your role in getting the running game right. How versatile of a runner [is] Peyton Barber?
Harold Goodwin: A very good runner. You know, it’s just amazing. You sit there and you watch cut-ups. You know, obviously. we know he’s not a freakin’ fast, fast guy, but he’s efficient. And to me at the end of the day, and I said it earlier when we first had conversations with all you guys, ‘four yards or more;’ we don’t need a home run hitter every time. We can get home runs other ways. But four yards or more, be efficient. If it’s 3rd-and-1, just get the one yard. I think he’s a very good back, fast enough to give us splash runs, anything 10 yards or more. I like the way he works. He’s smart. He can catch the ball. Good job in protection. So he’s going to be alright. I like him a lot.
Goodwin added that newcomer RB, 30-year-old Andrew Ellington, who was out of football last year, adds a dimension in the passing game. As for the other running backs, Goodwin didn’t mention them by name.
Joe is a big Barber fan. What’s not to like. But at this point, Joe just hopes and prays the football gods smile on the Bucs and Barber stays healthy. That’s how thin the Bucs are at the position.
Barber grinded through some injury issues last year. Joe was in the Bucs locker room after the horrid loss to the Giants, and Joe waited and waited after the game for the then-third-year back to emerge from the team trainer. Barber was the last to dress and it left Joe with an appreciation of just how hard the Auburn product was pushing through the season.
Unfortunately, after that Giants game, Barber had 99 carries for just 328 yards to close the season.
Barber remains a massive X-factor to this Bucs season. If he can get to that 4-yards-per-carry mark coaches desire, then the Bucs offense should hum in ways we haven’t seen in years.
May 2nd, 2019 at 5:49 pm
Every year this time of year…every new coaching staff…same ole same… ole and then the regular season starts….and then the same ole..same ole…until the trend is broken the trend is intact…there are Bucs fans that were not born last time the Bucs were a relevant football team…and now those unborn Buc fans are driving cars around town….“From what I’ve been told”
May 2nd, 2019 at 5:51 pm
Was hoping this article was about RoJo looking like a good back. Barber is an adequate 2nd-3rd option RB. Bucs need a real playmaker. I am assuming Jones is just a bust, but willing to give it one more season to confirm that and hoping I am wrong.
May 2nd, 2019 at 5:52 pm
4 yard per carry avg??????????? That would mean a 5.5 yard avg after contact!!!!!!!!!!!!! And then take into account of playing defense after all of jw3 turnovers and that is one long tough season!!!!!!!!!!!
2019 will reveal answers to the sheep, that the “real” fans already know!!!!!!!!!!!!
GO Bucs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
May 2nd, 2019 at 5:58 pm
That Giants game was a lot of fun to watch because of how bruising Barber was……….I can still remember #35 trying to tackle him. Barber cleaned his clock several times……..One of the best performances by a Buc player last year.
Of of these days Barber will plow somebody over and step directly on their helmet en route to the endzone!!!
Physicality does impact games in it’s own way. Barber if defiently an asset for this team and is my personal favorite Buc.
I only wish he had signed a multi-year deal and I may have actually splurged on his jersey…….Plus it says Barber. Can’t really go wrong with a Buc jersey that says Barber.
It’s cool though the tee-shirt will do……Plus the tee-shirt is really the way to go for hot home game…..Screw the thick jersey, gimma that tee and the extra 5° of coolness.
GO BUCS!!!!
May 2nd, 2019 at 6:00 pm
Barber would have had more yards, but so many of his chunk plays were called back due to penalties
May 2nd, 2019 at 6:00 pm
I’m way more worried about our run blocking than the running backs.
Peyton Barber was in the 91st percentile of all RBs in broken tackles (i.e. top 10)
60% of his yards came after contact (about NFL average)
Ronald Jones got 104.5% of his yards after contact on his super limited bullsh1t sample size.
Rojo with just NFL average yards before contact vs after contact (ii.e. 40% of his total yards before contact) = 22 carries for 74 yards.
Not great but not the freakshow 1.9 YPC that this site and everyone else hammers home all the time regarding Rojo as a bust on his 22 carries.
My issue with Rojo is his hands more than anything. I believe in his ability to run between the tackles if the team actually ever got him going with a series of well blocked plays. He broke a lot of tackles in college. His tape vs Alabama/OSU and other solid fronts still holds up now if you go watch it.
We have to hope for this guy becuase they didn’t give us anything else
May 2nd, 2019 at 6:05 pm
I like Barber too. But the team did nothing to improve its O-line this year. I am not convinced coaching alone will improve the running game. I guess time will tell.
May 2nd, 2019 at 6:06 pm
Barber aren’t no #2-3 back. He’s a legitimate 1b back who can take the lead when your splash guy goes down.
And those quick little RBs go down all the time adding mega value to a guy like Barber.
Barber is the perfect foundation to build a RB room with. He just looks the mold of one of those ultra durable guys that is always dependable.
I could easily see Barber be a mainstay in Tampa for a long time and taking secondary roles when we get splash guys and stepping right in and carrying the load when they get injured.
He’s the kinda guy who could very quietly rush for 8k yards here in Tampa while the flash players take the spotlight.
May 2nd, 2019 at 6:12 pm
SKBucs……For what it’s worth coaching(Dirk) took over a top 5 rushing team and turned it into a bottom 5 team where we have stayed for 3 straight years.
I call BS on anybody blaming that sterp of a drop-off on one player(Logan Mankins). Other then that it was exact same team.
Stands to reason if coaching can ruin a rush attack it can also fix it.
Get us that famous OL coach Bill Bellicheck has and I bet we would see positive results……Not sure if Goodwin can do the same but we will find out.
May 2nd, 2019 at 6:15 pm
Arians has gotten unexpected production out of the likes of end-of-career Chris Johnson, unsigned-through-the-preseason Adrian Peterson, and fring players like Andre Ellington. I doubt the bucs send an RB to the pro bowl this year, but i feel like it’s safe to trust this staff to rotate RBs others don’t covet and give the offense what it needs. Other than David Johnson’s superb rookie season (which only got going after Chris Johnson went down after being the #2 rusher in the league), Arians has gotten it done with underrated players and an often poor OL
May 2nd, 2019 at 6:18 pm
as i type that, if there’s any reason to be optimistic about RoJo, it is what Chris Johnson did in his brief stint as a Cardinal after declining to non-factor status in Tennessee. that looked like a staff putting a limited player in position to have the most success he could
May 2nd, 2019 at 6:21 pm
Let’s hope coacjing can change it Jimmy Jack. I want to be proved wrong.
May 2nd, 2019 at 6:21 pm
Just look at Chuck Simms…….No, he wasn’t a world beater but he was a productive player under Lovie Smith.
Then Dirk took over and put him in poor positions and bad situations. He tried to turn him into a bellcow back at one point. It was a failure. Then he kept lini g him up in the slot where he was wildly in effective. This was bad coaching bad evaluation and bad run game coordination.
Never once did he go back to what worked with Simms which was working the flats…..and an occasional inside run which worked because of the element of surprise.
This is why I will be patient with Ronald Jones………His knock coming out was that he had bad hands as a receiver. Dirk used him as a receiver……..again lining him up in the slot just like he did with Simms…….poor management poor scheming poor evaluation and poor coaching.
May 2nd, 2019 at 6:29 pm
Feliz Cinco de Mayo y’all!
Now go buy some 🌮 shells.
May 2nd, 2019 at 6:45 pm
So, I want to hear Goodwin at the mid week after first game presser when the Bucs running backs combine for 50 yards total and are once again rag dolled behind the line of scrimmage.
May 2nd, 2019 at 6:46 pm
RoJo…will be fine once he gets past the LOS clean
May 2nd, 2019 at 6:54 pm
Unfortunately, after that Giants game, Barber had 99 carries for just 328 yards to close the season.
And I ask….why didn’t Koetter use Rojo more toward the end of the season….I guess he was holding out hope that with a win or two he could hang onto his job….the same goes for Cappa…..
May 2nd, 2019 at 7:08 pm
Here is what we will find out.
Almost Same players .same oline. Almost same receivers. Same running backs.
Two different coaching staffs.
Was it koetter ? Coaching?
Was it the players ?
May 2nd, 2019 at 7:09 pm
Love the interview and insight.
May 2nd, 2019 at 7:10 pm
And if it’s the players …that’s on Licht …the guy who drafted a kicker in the 5th round who would have gone undrafted
(Hunter renfrow) a Adams Humphries clone picked right after.
May 2nd, 2019 at 7:11 pm
And with the 3rd over-all-pick in the 2020 NFL draft, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers select…..
May 2nd, 2019 at 7:11 pm
Our new kicker will be a helluva fullback!
And Devin White will score five offensive touchdowns this year.
Screen shot this, boys!
May 2nd, 2019 at 7:13 pm
@Bird.. Offense was not our problem last season. We would all be thrilled if we had the same stats as last season for sure. I will take a more efficient offense in the red zone and a middle of the road defense that features White,Vea,and David making plays.
This season is more intriguing than most think. I know we’re not winning the Super Bowl this season. We’re gonna win some and we’re gonna lose some.
May 2nd, 2019 at 7:17 pm
The run play calling was somehow tipping off the D to the play call. First clue was the fact that the opposition was in the backfield as the ball was being snapped. This was not the O line this was the D KNOWING what the play was and where it was going. If the D had to play it honest the lineman would at least be able to slow them down. Every Sunday whoever we played would be in the backfield as soon as the ball was in play which means they absolutely knew what was coming.
May 2nd, 2019 at 7:26 pm
Run game helps our defense. They get that going and everybody looks better. Barber is Earnest Graham 2.0 to me, only he’s getting his shot earlier.
Cornelius, I love that Stat on Rojo. It sure as hell seemed like a defender was in his lap before he even had the ball secured on most of his carries, cool to see the numbers around it.
May 2nd, 2019 at 7:26 pm
@Joe … “If he (Barber) can get to that 4-yards-per-carry mark coaches desire, then the Bucs offense should hum in ways we haven’t seen in years”. 4 YPC? Me thinks that’s a pretty low bar Joe. Barber had 3.7 YPC last year running behind a horrible run-blocking OLine. In 2017 he averaged 3.9 YPC, and in 2016 he hit 4.1 YPC in spot duty.
Remember back in 2015 when Martin & Sims were both rushing so great? BOTH of them averaged 4.9 YPC rushing on the season. Martin wasn’t particularly fast (an understatement?) but our OLine that year did a great job of run blocking and Doug rushed for over 1400 yards, while Sims contributed over 500 yards rushing. Fix the run-blocking and everything else SHOULD fall into place.
Our OLine that year primarily consisted of LT Donovan Smith, LG Logan Mankins, C Joe Hawley, RG Ali Marpet & RT Gosder Cherilus. One elderly Pro-Bowler (Mankins), 2 rookies & 2 other OLineman who weren’t very well known. Under the OLine coaching of George Warhop. Hmmm, I wonder how they did it.
May 2nd, 2019 at 7:27 pm
While talking about the offensive line, Goodwin said the playbook has a lot of variety. “There’s a lot of protections, there’s a lot of runs, there’s a lot of screens,” he said. “There’s a lot of new information coming at you.”
This is exactly what I have been calling for
Lots of screens
May 2nd, 2019 at 7:29 pm
Chris k
Disagree completely. Cause we put up big yards that makes a great offense? We weren’t good at getting td. Settled for to many field goals attempts which more then a few were misses.
Plus the article is about the running backs. So I am discussing the offense.
May 2nd, 2019 at 7:29 pm
Screen passes make O-Linemen look like All-Pro material
Much, much better than the QB holding the ball for seconds
Waiting for a WR to get open 30 yards up field!!
And they keep the defense guessing
They’re also high percentage plays
May 2nd, 2019 at 7:30 pm
And a good run game takes up the clock and keeps the defense off the field.
May 2nd, 2019 at 7:34 pm
Bird,
That’s the balance I’ve been calling for
Running more and more screens
May 2nd, 2019 at 7:39 pm
Ellington is grooming Rojo. Barber and ALL of the backs will benefit from not playing 20 points behind from a crap coached defense. And when the bucs did run screens last season they were so poorly excecured and designed..The defenses always knew when they were coming which was hardly ever and still they knew. Too predictable and vanilla once koetter started being haunted by smittys awful defense he went vanilla and scared.
COACHING WAS ALWAYS THE PROBELM!!!!!
May 2nd, 2019 at 7:39 pm
My favorite coaches on this staff
OL Harold Goodwin
RB Todd McNair
I believe Todd McNair can get Rojo on track
Like he did with Reggie Bush
May 2nd, 2019 at 7:39 pm
@Bird.. I guess you didn’t read it up to the part where I did say we needed to be more efficient on offense especially in the red zone?
May 2nd, 2019 at 8:24 pm
i just don’t get it. Teams with good backs drafted more backs….meanwhile we remained stagnant with mediocrity.
May 2nd, 2019 at 8:32 pm
Its never to early to start the new Buc team chant, Tank for Tua!!
May 2nd, 2019 at 8:40 pm
Jameis will be the leading rusher again. Sad really……
May 2nd, 2019 at 9:31 pm
Does anybody else think Realist should change his name to twatwaffle?
May 2nd, 2019 at 9:58 pm
3-13. The optimism about coaching being the culprit is comical. Why pay the players more than peanuts if that is the case. This team has holes everywhere. If they are able to get 5 wins with this sht roster Arians should win coach of the year.
May 3rd, 2019 at 12:00 am
Skip B
I agree with your thoughts!!! And I was hoping for Henderson out of Memphis!! But we actually have a comparable back in Rojo!! I’m sure he has worked on his receiving skills in the offseason!! I just did rewatch his 2016 and 2017 highlights! He has great Burst and speed and good vision! Just needs some creases to have a chance! Between Peyton and Rojo the duo can create explosive plays as long as the OLine improves tremendously on run Blocking’. Not drafting an Olineman is baffling, but maybe our new coaches can coach what we have!
May 3rd, 2019 at 1:25 am
Defense,
2015 vs 2016 there were more changes to the offense than fans would care to remember.
Jimmy Jack thinks Logan Mankins was the only change , dares people to point to that loss then proceeds to fantasy land blaming gremlins and foo fighters before circling back to coaching. Must be dirk. Because nothing changed. Sound logic if there ever was…
Except….the premise is completely false and building upon it is a fools errand.
I know you’re an excellent researcher . Is it possible to compare the strengths of schedule for 2015, 16…and just for spits and jiggles. .17. I wouldn’t be surprised if 15 was the teams weakest sos. If it’s true….hopefully it will be a stake in the heart of a stubborn strain of disinformation, misremembering, lies and or cherry picked rose colored amnesia. ..
May 3rd, 2019 at 1:57 am
Defense,
Sorry to veer off….you asked a question to end your post. How’d they do it..
Great question…..and there’s no single answer. The running game was different and this is probably what Jimmy is pointing to and assigning all the blame on dirk. Simple doesn’t work in this case. Granted, simple minds yearn for simplistic explanations and this plays a part. But it’s not enlightened analysis and nothing is gained from it, knowledge wise.
But there’s another question that should be posed for discussion and it may or may not diminish any answers gareined from the first question.
The question is…..which offense was better in terms of total yards, points and league rankings 2015 or 2016?
I understand, no not really, the preoccupation with running the ball well one year then not the next. …who gives a ship if the team is more productive running ….Obviously a lot of fans. And they may be focusing on a singular component in a game that contains multiple ones .
Simple is soccer…..just saying
May 3rd, 2019 at 9:26 am
the reason for the draft is to upgrade your roster. We had a chance to grab a quality running back instead we got a kicker and a corner back that wont start. Good job Licht.
May 3rd, 2019 at 10:41 am
Enough with the BS. We’ve heard it all before. Isn’t that right Licht?
May 3rd, 2019 at 11:41 am
READ BETWEEN THE LINES – JOE IS SAYING BARBER HAS A LINGERING INJURY ISSUE
This is the set-up for a week-three “I told you so” article, linking back to this very webpage.
This is not good.
Not good at all.
May 3rd, 2019 at 4:59 pm
heard the press conference with McNair, I heard that he is actually coaching the RBs, even has ROJO doing some things to help his muscle memory in catching the ball. He talked about instilling confidence in the RB room. in the BA mode, don’t tell me what they can not do, but what they can do, i.e., we will see improvement, just based on coaching