No Takers
October 18th, 2019
Time has passed and three recent Buccaneers remain unemployed.
And no, Joe’s not talking about Jacquizz Rodgers, Charles Sims and Doug Martin.
Joe was waiting to see what happened after veteran defensive back Deone Bucannon, a former first-round pick, was cut last week, along with the launching of receiver Bobo Wilson and veteran linebacker Devante Bond this week.
What happened was nothing.
All three were not bottom-of-the-roster guys entering the season. They were expected to contribute and Joe would call them bottom third of the roster guys as the season kicked off.
And now they’re unemployed.
This doesn’t speak well for the offseason evaluation at One Buc Palace. Throw running back Andre Ellington into the same category.
Bucco Bruce Arians swore up and down that “talent” would not be an issue with the Bucs. They had enough talent to win, he said. He also called the 2019 Bucs a more talented revival project than his 2013 Cardinals, a team that jumped from 5-11 to 10-6 when Arians took over.
In case anyone was wondering, former Bucs turnstile guard Caleb Benenoch, a September cut, is on the Panthers but was inactive last week.
October 18th, 2019 at 9:43 am
I truly believe the fan base was sold a bill of goods by Licht/Arians. Coaching will fix everything on basically the same roster for the last two years.
BS…look at ATL with Koetter running the offense; disaster with HC Quinn on a really hot seat and look here; see any difference?
Coaching does matter and BA and co should ride off into the sunset and take Licht and JayMiss with him. That lake house in GA is sure looking good right about now.
October 18th, 2019 at 9:45 am
year in year out bucs go into the season with backups in key starter roles. hell the majority of the ring of underachievement is filled with backups… most of the current starters are backups on actual nfl franchises… is the piss poor off-season evaluation still confusing you after 17 years without a meaningful win… you can’t be this bad without trying to be this bad…. glazers have no intentions of fielding a winner…
October 18th, 2019 at 9:46 am
Still working off the wasted cap dollars spent in previous FA shopping sprees ….this past off season JL could only shop @ the NFL Scratch & Dent store…depressing state of affairs…the good talent on the team is suffering waiting for a competitive roster
October 18th, 2019 at 9:50 am
You may be overstating this Joe. Teams have already established THEIR GUYS by this point in the season. Players like Bucannon & Bond MAY get picked up at some point IF a specific team has injuries to their LB corps for instance that they can’t fill from in-house, but even then there’s no guarantee that OUR cut players would be a good match for their needs.
Still, players like Bucannon, Bond, Bobo and even Benenoch (the 4 Bees?) didn’t exactly light the Bucs on fire. Obviously not a good time for players whose name begin with B. If I were Barber, Barrett or Brate I’d be worried right about now.
October 18th, 2019 at 10:01 am
The Glazers gave Licht a five year multi-million dollar extension for the sole reason that Licht was able to sign Arians, who the Glazers were swindled into thinking was being chased by everyone. In other words, they rewarded Licht for what they believed was a monumental get. It will not be enough to fire Licht because the Glazers will not know who or how to hire. And putting Arians in charge would be completely idiotic given his age and health. And letting him pick a new GM would be even dumber. Someone within their inner circle needs to tell them to hire a CEO, otherwise we are fated to this ‘“,:$&) show for years to come. (My apologies for being broken record guy Joe.)
October 18th, 2019 at 10:09 am
BA is loyal to results. That’s refreshing. He will keep pressing until it’s right.
In BA I Trust!
October 18th, 2019 at 10:10 am
The hell….. they were all cut this is stupid article day? Everyone had cuts like this, you should take a break for the day
October 18th, 2019 at 10:11 am
I started to type out how we’ve seen this before with Buc players no NFL team wants.
But, the apathy made me stop.
October 18th, 2019 at 10:13 am
not surprised….
GO BUCS!!!!!
October 18th, 2019 at 10:14 am
Buccaneer Cove for the foreseeable future
October 18th, 2019 at 10:21 am
Don’t let this distract you from the growing movement across the bay to
FIRE 🔥 LICHT
October 18th, 2019 at 10:23 am
Its because Jason Licht doesnt draft NFL talent.
He holds onto these failed projects way to long too. (See. Kenny Bell)
October 18th, 2019 at 10:29 am
NPR nobody was sold a bill of goods. Any fan paying attention knew what was going to happen. A 5-11 team lost some decent players in the offseason. JPP, DJax, Humphries, etc. were all decent players (don’t give me that crap that we got better by getting rid of DJax). So we lost talent, found ourselves in cap hell and drafted 17 secondary players in the draft that look like utter garbage to this point in their careers. I ignored Arians comments because what else is he going to say? I am a 67yo coming out of retirement due to health concerns and I signed on be here long term to as we do a complete rebuild of this team?
I believe he came here for a paycheck, much like most of the bad free agents we get. I mean he is delegating every aspect of the coaching and we have an OC trying to learn on the job. All of this adds up to a bad team with mediocre to bad coaching. My prediction coming into the season was 3-13. If you thought coaching was going to turn this heap of dung into a winning team that is on you. My guess is you were reading all of these posters who were saying it was all going to be cured by a coaching change. That was fools gold my man!
October 18th, 2019 at 10:31 am
The Rams game proved the Bucs have enough talent to win, especially on offense. It’s all about #3. If Winston throws 4-5 interceptions and a few fumbles we will not win. Plain and simple…
October 18th, 2019 at 10:33 am
“This doesn’t speak well for the offseason evaluation at One Buc Palace.”
Neither does drafting 4 corners in rounds 1-2 and 8 total secondary players in rounds 1-4 while boasting the worst secondary in the NFL.
Neither does spending some of the most $$ on the O-line in the league while it’s nowhere near being one of the best O-lines in the league.
Imagine if we just drafted 8 players across the OL & DL and spent the Jensen/Suh/Dotson/JPP $$$ on 4 legit secondary players that were proven?
It’s not like Bucs fans have been advocating for building a team from the lines out or anything via the draft. I mean how crazy would that be. It’s not like the succesful teams do that. They draft heavy on WR/TE/Secondary all the time….
It’s like Jason LIcht got a $200 grocery budget to feed a family for a week and went to Publix and spent it all on some horrible expensive bottle of wine and some overpriced cheese & crackers while selling it as a wholesome meal.
ARE YOU LISTENING GUMP?
October 18th, 2019 at 10:37 am
Bucs Fan Since ’76 … Your scenario may very well have existed when Arians was hired, but I seriously doubt that’s still the case. The Glazer Boyz are businessmen … nothing more, nothing less. Right now their BUSINESS (the Bucs) is making them money, but not nearly as much as it could. And they’re well aware of that I’m sure. They strike me as being very cautious, slow-to-make-changes types, and I just can’t see them gutting this organization & starting over (with a different business model?). IOW, I think they’re too conservative to make wholesale changes that MIGHT really damage the bottom line.
I’m not a big fan of Jason Licht (to say the least), but in reality he’s relatively harmless RIGHT NOW. I’m convinced that Arians totally got his way in the draft, and largely let Todd Bowles fill in the blanks (maybe as a condition of getting him to sign on?). The FA players who were brought in (Ellington, Bucannon, Watford) were past players for BA (as was Mincey) who were signed for very little … and who are now gone. Most of the rest of our ‘holes’ were filled by guys already on the roster (Cappa, RoJo) or by draftees. The only REAL FA signings were Suh (a steal at $9 mil IMO) and Barrett, who pretty much fell into our laps ($4 mil for a starting pass rusher?).
Nah, we’re screwed (thank you JL) … for the time being. We have some decent STARTING players, just not enough. We don’t have any draft picks stashed for next year. Salary Cap space is minimal right now. We’ve got room next year BUT relatively few players are under contract (and many of those who are, like ME13/LVD/D Smith/Marpet/Jensen, are fairly high-priced). IOW we have a LOT of mouths yet to feed.
Bucs have no choice but to BUILD THROUGH THE DRAFT, and that’s actually a very good thing IMO. Well, good as long as JL isn’t allowed to touch it I should add. BA’s coaching staff will have an excellent idea by season’s end as to what we REALLY have (who’s a keeper) and what holes we REALLY need to address. I trust this coaching staff much more than I trust Lichtweight’s scouting staff.
And despite what BA says, he’s a realist. This team hasn’t got the horses this year to make the playoffs … UNLESS our youngsters ‘grow up’ rapidly, which is pretty unlikely. Personally think that BA & his merry band viewed this year as the YEAR OF EVALUATION. IOW, with all these massive changes (and there were), let’s first see what we’ve got here, develop what we can, and address the remaining problems next Spring. IF that’s the case, I can’t see the Bucs making any trades before Oct 29th, UNLESS something TOO GOOD TO PASS UP falls into their laps.
October 18th, 2019 at 10:46 am
imo, JPP and a player like yannick or michael bennett would improve our secondary MORE than a veteran CB….
imagine yannick or michael bennett, VV, JPP and shaq getting after the passer…..
QB’s will get happy feet worse than JW….lol….secondary wont have to cover as long…..
add a veteran CB without adding some pass rush, secondary wont improve….they’ll still have to cover for 10-12sec because of the lack of pass rush….
GO BUCS!!!!!!
October 18th, 2019 at 10:55 am
813
Whether it’s 12 seconds or 2 seconds, the current DBs can still not cover.
Hence why most teams like to throw short passes against the Bucs.
October 18th, 2019 at 10:56 am
In the midst of The Licht Years…the Bucs remain in the dark. So rare are cut Bucs that thrive elsewhere let alone find their way onto another NFL roster. At the very least, bring in Ronde Barber and let Licht go. BA can take it or leave it at that point. Of course I’m dreaming…but there is a magical place around these parts where gnomes & fairies fly free and carry the Bucs to the NFC Chimpionship Game.
October 18th, 2019 at 10:58 am
We need 33+ points a game to win. Probably around the 48 point range at our current state
October 18th, 2019 at 10:59 am
Problem is Defense, they have tons of holes on this team. At this point they have zero corners that should be starting in the NFL, they have one safety, a week D-line, a weak O-line, a weak RB group, and if the anti Jameis crowd gets their way QB has to be added to this list. That is a complete rebuild brother. Arians isn’t going to be here long enough for that so my guess is this team just keeps spinning its wheels and remains a 4 to 5 win team.
I do find it surprising that nearly everyone on this site wants to see Jameis ousted. I mean if he doesn’t turn things around you are starting from the ground up with a complete rebuild. Bringing in another McCown type guy won’t work and a rookie will almost certainly fail with the lack of a running game and weak offensive line.
IMO if you run off Jameis you bring in some scrub to play for 2-3 years while the team starts from the ground up. If I was the Glazers and that happens, I would go cheap. Fire Licht, go ahead and let Arians retire and bring in another cheap coach ala the Raheem days. Trade some of your players that have trade value and start all over. Once you feel like you have some important pieces in place draft a QB and bring in a real coach.
October 18th, 2019 at 11:04 am
We need a pro bowl defensive line? It’ll be a waiste because teams would throw the ball faster and we don’t have the competent secondary to do their part
October 18th, 2019 at 11:08 am
DR, I like some of your takes on our situation. You actually think things out instead of recycling old stuff you have said before.
I too don’t expect any major trades by the 29th. I would not mind being surprised under the right scenario as you indicated
What I am intrigued to see after the bye break is whether there will be any shuffling of current starters.
For example, is anyone going to bump Hargreaves as CB soon?
Will ROJO become the starting RB yet?
Also will Leftwich and Bowles show us any new wrinkles in their approaches in the next two games?
October 18th, 2019 at 11:14 am
Isn’t this normal for the BUCS?
October 18th, 2019 at 11:28 am
When shopping, you can only buy what’s available and hope for the best.
None of the names surprise me at all. I remember many people being on the Devante Bond bandwagon when I suggested he not make the team last year. My Roster predictions the past 2 years did not have Bobo making the team (again, people disagreed…and I suppose he did make the team but he should not have).
I don’t think ANYONE felt Caleb should have made the team.
Deone Bucannon was a bust elsewhere, and was getting an extended tryout, so that should not be held against anyone.
Rogers and Sims were Koetter guys, and Doug Martin was last on the Raiders. He DID get another job…so that’s not on us. We got rid of him!
October 18th, 2019 at 11:29 am
“Dont forget me Guys!
Every training camp I had all you naive Buc sheep believe im a football player”
Nowhere 10 sacks Spence
October 18th, 2019 at 11:30 am
@JimbobBucsFan
I also do not expect any major trades.
Every year, we see the media hype the trade deadline, and nothing happens.
October 18th, 2019 at 11:31 am
TDTB … I don’t disagree with your bottom line; we have ‘lots of holes’. But we also have some very workable pieces IMO … ‘keepers’. Guys like Vea, LVD, White, Davis, Whitehead, and yes, Edwards, Dean & SMB on the defensive side. Some just lack experience. IF we can re-sign Suh, Barrett & JPP, keep Gholston & Allen for another year, plus add a couple of experienced FAs (CB/Safety?) & a couple of good draft picks (DE/OLB, DT?) this defense could do OK I think.
The Bucs’ offense is actually more challenging IMO. Not sure what to do about re-signing Jameis AT THIS POINT, but a long-term contract for mega-millions is out of the question IMO (too inconsistent & that’s be too expeneive). Finding a quality veteran QB also needs to be a priority (he MIGHT end up starting IF Jameis doesn’t re-sign & we end up drafting a rookie QB, although I’d rather see us do that in 2021). D Smith, Marpet & Jensen are ‘keepers’ (for now), as is MAYBE Cappa, but we desperately NEED to find at least 2-3 quality OLinemen to start & back-up. Signing Godwin early should be a priority, as should finding a solid #3 WR. Also NEED a top-tier RB to pair with RoJo (Barber makes a good #3 but he’s no lead dog).
S/Ts looks to be adequate with Pinion & Gay, although we desperately need a bonafide return man.
ALL that COULD be done in one year IMO, UNLESS we pay our QB a gigantic salary. The salary Cap only allows you to feed so many mouths. Spend too much on one and the others go hungry … and you end up with too many ‘holes’ because the talent isn’t there. Sound familiar?
October 18th, 2019 at 11:33 am
This team sucks. The end.
October 18th, 2019 at 11:35 am
This is one of those petty articles to get clicks for bucs bashers.
You should have led with noah spence because couple of these guys we didnt draft and they were all cheap. At least Martin had two great seasons versus zero good seasons.
October 18th, 2019 at 11:35 am
RUN JAMEIS RUN
October 18th, 2019 at 11:40 am
“Is it true we can get a 4th round compensation for cutting the practice warrior Perrimen?
Son of Kobe Faker
October 18th, 2019 at 11:50 am
Trade Winston for Mahomes.
😂
October 18th, 2019 at 11:50 am
BA will get it turned around.
October 18th, 2019 at 11:53 am
Glazers running this thing in the ground intentionally?
🎼London Calling🎼
October 18th, 2019 at 11:57 am
JimbobBucsFan … “What I am intrigued to see after the bye break is whether there will be any shuffling of current starters.” Me too Jimbo, me too. I doubt that BA would TELL TB to change starters in the Secondary, but I also don’t think he’ll need to … TB will do that all by himself. I personally think that he’s a excellent DC, but he had ZERO choice about playing VHIII & MJ Stewart. UNTIL NOW. With Dean healed up, Ryan Smith back from suspension, and SMB getting more playing time (and probably feeling more comfortable out there), I think you’ll see those 3 on the field a LOT more this 2nd half of the season. VHIII & MJ Stewart will probably still get some time (more than likely at nickel) but that’s it. I doubt that EITHER will be here next year.
Getting JPP back COULD be a major advancement for our defense. Gut feel is that they’ll ease him into the lineup, to see how effective he is NOW if nothing else. JPP’s been out of football now for what, over 10 months, and will have to learn a whole different defensive scheme. Fingers-crossed that it works?
I think the biggest change on the offensive side WON’T be in personnel. It’ll be in USE of personnel. I’m not at all enamored with BL’s offensive’ game-planning or play-calling, and I don’t think that BA can be too happy either. The ‘Jameis Experiment’ is kinda floundering right now, and a big part of the blame should rest squarely on Byron Leftwich’s shoulders as the OC. I doubt seriously that’s been lost on BA. Pretty confident that we WILL see changes in this offense starting against the Titans. All of us already know what those changes will entail.
With 10 games left, and even with NO trades/pickups, I could see us going anywhere from 3-7 (for a 5-11 record) to 7-3 (for a 9-7 record) IF the defense ‘grows up quickly’ and IF our offense starts playing like it SHOULD be playing. This’ll be an interesting second half of the season far as I can tell.
October 18th, 2019 at 12:03 pm
I take issue with the scheme. Cant rush 6 and leave single coverage and expect to be a good defense. Best defenses in the league are able to drop into coverage and get pressure with 4. This scheme is same crap schiano did. You need tremendous corners to play this scheme.
October 18th, 2019 at 12:18 pm
Not rocket science on this article. One of the worst teams in the NFL cysts players and you think other teams would want them? Pretty odd to think that. Do you think teams would be lined up if the Bengals or Dolphins were to cut players? We could cut another 6-8 players on the 53 man roster and they would not be picked up either, not even on a teams practice squad.
October 18th, 2019 at 12:21 pm
On another point: why does the local media not start hammering Arians and Winston with tougher questions during pressers? We have some chick that sounds like one of the Disney kid stars asking lame questions.
October 18th, 2019 at 12:35 pm
If the corners played physical and Lefrwich stopped calling contstant first down runs up the middle with nothing but deep 5 step drops on 2nd and thrid downs….sometimes only 3rd downs wiyh another run up the middle on second down
FIX THOSE TWO ISSUES AND EVERYINE ON THE TEAM WONT LOOK LIKE THEY ARE ATTENDING A FUNERAL WHILE THEY ARE PLAYING!!!
ARIANS FOR PLAYCALLER
October 18th, 2019 at 12:41 pm
tbbucs3
the opposing QB has no pressure….
hard to cover when the QB has all day to throw….
GO BUCS!!!!!
October 18th, 2019 at 12:49 pm
Poor talent evaluation/development (secondary players, defensive lineman, running backs, free agency…need I point out how many former Buc throw-aways have rings with the Patriots)
+ Poor draft strategy (practically no depth at offensive line)
+ Poor team leadership (starting at QB… being first to show up, last to leave, being loud and getting “hype” isn’t necessarily leadership)
+Coaching Carousel
=’s Really bad football team for a really long time.
October 18th, 2019 at 12:52 pm
Poor talent evaluation/development (secondary players, defensive lineman, running backs, free agency…need I point out how many former Buc throw-aways have rings with the Patriots)
+ Poor draft strategy (practically no depth at offensive line)
+ Poor team leadership (starting at QB… being first to show up, last to leave, being loud and getting “hype” isn’t necessarily leadership)
+Coaching Carousel
=’s Really bad football team for a really long time.
October 18th, 2019 at 1:29 pm
Atleast Arians admits when something is not working and is willing to let them go.
Much like what will happen with Freeman 2.0.
October 18th, 2019 at 2:11 pm
FIRE 🔥 LICHT
and Leftwich
October 18th, 2019 at 9:28 pm
Can’t speak for deonne and Bobo. Although, Bond was just suspended so that would explain why a team didn’t jump to claim him.