Chemistry Experiment
May 31st, 2021
Missed new blood.
Just about everyone with a shot glass of common sense about the NFL is raving on the job Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht did in not just getting 22+1 starters back, but the luck of the Bucs bringing back all but one coach.
However, a man typing from the home of the Montreal Rays thinks Licht sort of blew it.
A French Canadian decided to reach out to hot-dog-eating-contest-protesting, mock-draft-scowling, L.L.-Bean-wearing, Second Amendment abolitionist, Mike-Florio-arguing, parrot-insensitive, chewing-with-his-mouth-open, soup-gulping, California-train-romancing, anti-football proliferation, outhouse-admiring, airline-napping, steerage-flying, Yogi Berra-worshiping, urinal-picture-taking, video-game-playing, Taylor-Swift-listening, pickpocket-thwarting, Bucs-uniform-frowning, Allie-LaForce-smitten, Big-Ten-Network-hating, pedestrian-bumping, olive oil-lapping, popcorn-munching, coffee-slurping, fried-chicken-eating, oatmeal-loving, circle-jerking, craft-beer-chugging, cricket-watching, scone-loathing, college football-naïve, baseball-box-score-reading, NPR-honk, filthy-hotel-staying, fight-instigating, barista-training, Budweiser-tolerant, baseball-scorecard-keeping, pasta-feasting, vomit-dodging scrooge, Kay-Adams-following, Coors-Light-souring, pineapple-upside-down-cake-eating social activist and NFL insider Peter King of NBC Sports claiming Licht has set up the Bucs to fail in their quest to “Go For Two” by not bringing in new blood.
This man believes the Bucs, as a result of being a carbon-copy team of last year, will be stale.
On Tampa Bay’s continuity. From Yves Lachance, of Montreal: “I always believed that bringing your good players back was of great importance and the Bucs did that, but I wonder if maybe they did too much of it in bringing back all their 22 starters from last year. I heard several times from football coaches and GMs that a team just cannot stay static and hope to be as good as the previous year, because everybody else is doing changes, adjustments, upgrades and adapt to a new reality and if you stay were you are you will not get better and maybe you’ll regress a little and your opponents will catch up to you. Should the Bucs have been more pro-active in bringing new blood to the team?”
Good point, Yves. The thing is, we just don’t know, because in modern football, I don’t think a team has brought back the 27 players who played the most at season’s end (including one who didn’t, O.J. Howard, but I count him because he was hurt but would have been in that group) plus specialists plus GM and all key coaches. It’s an incredible job by GM Jason Licht, super-glueing the team together for one more Super Bowl run. I tend to think you need a little new blood to freshen things up . . . but that can be a cliché too. This will be a fascinating chemistry experiment to follow this year.
Joe cannot believe a guy who hails from the home of the Montreal Rays, not to mention a long-time NFL scribe like King missed the forest for the trees.
Joe Tryon, hello? Is the first-round pick of an edge rusher not new blood? Joe sure never noticed him on the roster last year. You?
Jaelon Darden? Was he buried on the Bucs practice squad or something last season?
And then there is the signing of Giovani Bernard, who Hall of Fame general manager Bill Polian believes is something that Robert Oppenheimer hatched in a lab.
Joe gets it that people’s minds aren’t likely laser-focused on football during this three-day weekend, but geez. This is sloppy research.
May 31st, 2021 at 8:12 am
Not to mention the fact that this team was just starting to gel…,in the SuperBowl, during a pandemic, with a new QB.
This team hasn’t even hit its stride yet.
May 31st, 2021 at 8:12 am
Love Smith was “pro-active” bringing in a group of free agents. Wanted to be Tennessee ready.
May 31st, 2021 at 8:32 am
@Jmarkbuc
You beat me to it
My sentiments (almost) exactly
May 31st, 2021 at 8:36 am
Tryon, Bernard, Darden, and a bunch of new STers aren’t “new blood?”
May 31st, 2021 at 8:42 am
How much new blood did the Chiefs bring in by repeating as AFC champs other than CEH, maybe someone else, but they did not do a lot of tweaking in their back to back SB run, they just remained hungry until they ran into a hungrier team
May 31st, 2021 at 8:58 am
The 2021 “Chemistry experiment” at One Buc is going to result in an EXPLOSION of points and wins.
If Tampa Bay stays healthy and plays up to their potential game in and game out this season – the Bucs will literally be unstoppable.
20-0 is within reach for this team – this year.
Highly improbable – but definitely possible!
May 31st, 2021 at 9:08 am
I don’t think it’s so much ‘sloppy research’ Joe as it is Lachance & King just giving their opinions based on ‘gut feel’. Every media type is always trying to stand out from the crowd (and especially at this time of year when little’s happening from an NFL football perspective). Personally I like different takes like that; they get me thinking (which my wife says is always dangerous).
Admittedly my ‘gut feel’ is different than Lachance’s. We brought all our starters back because they’re awesome players who had great chemistry together (winning the Super Bowl so convincingly as a wildcard kinda feeds that ‘gut feel’). Personally I’m not all that excited about our additions via the draft in terms of how they MIGHT impact our 2021 performance, but my ‘gut feel’ is that several will pay off handsomely in future years. In the meantime, let’s let the big dogs hunt.
May 31st, 2021 at 9:08 am
Petyer King is way over thinking this. The Bucs were getting better and better and then won it all. They are set up to have an awesome year. Peter “The King of the Monikers” is absorbed in paralysis by analysis.
Very simple, the Bucs will be dominant game in and game out.
Not that complicated.
The 2021 version of the Bucs will be more consistent and better. With an offense that will be around 35 points a game, and an ascending monster of a defense. The defense will be well rested every game, because the offense is going to dominate time of possession.
Again, Peter “the King of the Monikers” is stuck in paralysis by analysis. lol
GO WORLD CHAMPION BUCS!!!! BACK TO BACK BABY!!!!! 20-0!!!!!
May 31st, 2021 at 9:19 am
I could see his point if this team nucleus had been together for a few years but they were and are just getting to know each other. They couldn’t even eat together. There’s still going to be that new excitement now that they will be able to actually interact on a team basis. I mean BAs wife met Brady on the Super Bowl podium. Only my opinion of course.
May 31st, 2021 at 9:21 am
I somewhat agree with King in the fact that no team in modern NFL history has done this. And you also make a good point Joe, the Bucs kept their stars AND brought in new/young talent via the draft and signing Gio. But, lets also point out what a “shot in the dark” free agency is. What if we signed a player like tree-loving Swaggy Baker? Or a Mal-content who now is with the Rams (thank you Rams for shooting yourselves in the foot)?
No, Licht deserves all the praise he can get by bring back the band.
May 31st, 2021 at 9:26 am
^^^ and let us also take notice that WHAT PLAYER would you sign over any of the Bucs players we resigned? I think I would take Suh, Shaq, Godwin, Gronk, AB, etc., over any other players out there. The BUCS are the team that signed a team of super stars!!!😍 Not the Chiefs, who King picked over the Bucs to win the next SB, who “replaced” OTs. That should be pointed out to Mr King.
May 31st, 2021 at 9:27 am
“The Band” is not back because of Licht.
“The Band” is back because” The Band” *wanted* to be back.
If that is not the very definition of positive chemistry, I don’t know what is…
May 31st, 2021 at 9:30 am
Pete King is the Rachel Maddow of football opinions.
May 31st, 2021 at 9:35 am
“A French Canadian”….
I think I’ve seen enough
May 31st, 2021 at 9:46 am
Just get read for the Bucs hate to intensify once preseason begins. And for once, I can say I love it.
May 31st, 2021 at 10:05 am
You can throw all logic or theory in the garbage when you have Tom Brady. Go Bucs!
May 31st, 2021 at 10:52 am
On Memorial I’ll share some thoughts about the French. My dad in World WarII fought in France ,Belgium and Germany. he was in Canon Company out of a Army Division from Kingston,Pa. As a kid we had a large grayish-thesedark blue book that showed the Division’s march thru France and all the towns they liberated from the Germans. In the back of the book was a listing of all the medals awarded and Purple Hearts. My dad got the Bronze Medal and silver Star. These World warII vets rarely talked about what happened. usually they’d have to have half bottle of scotch in them before they’d say anything. My dad told my sister his division was in the Schwartzen Forrest and surrounded by the germans and getting cut to ribbons, he thought it was the end. One of our other divisions broke thru and saved them. he told me sometimes the Germans fired so many rockets at them at nite that it looked like daytime. He told me the French women were pretty but half the French men hid in the hills during the war. he said we let DeGaulle march into Paris at the front only as a polite gesture. Gen. Patton said he would rather face a GERMAN DIVISION than be reinforced from his rear by the French. There are cemeteries in France full of dead American soldiers who if it weren’t for them the French people would be eating sauerkraut and speaking Deutsch. Yet during the First Gulf War France would not let us fly over their air space. I have no use for the French, their sissy boy president, or anything that comes out of their mouths. A side comment on the World WarII wall of names that Tom Hanks pushed for. These vets could care less their names are on a erected stone wall. All this wall did was fill an emptiness Tom Hanks had within himself.
May 31st, 2021 at 10:55 am
Well, Peter, what would you propose they do? Just not sign back some of their own vets in favor of inferior players? Or break the bank on a big name free agent just to say you got new blood… meanwhile blowing that big wad of cash just lost you 2 or 3 starters from a SB team? I’d be curious where exactly they could have improved the team at a price they could have afforded. As I see it, they pulled off a miracle bringing back their guys. I guess if I had not seen them win 8 straight and 3 consecutive road playoff games, I’d be worried about complacency or staleness.
This was a team rising at the end of the year. All appearances are they are a humble bunch of guys, led by a QB who inspires excellence and a top coaching staff.
What does “stale” look like on a football field?
May 31st, 2021 at 10:57 am
Who is the chick with glasses?
May 31st, 2021 at 11:02 am
I agree with the theory of the team not being as hungry. And when you bring in a few new key pieces they can invigorate the rest of the roster. And that is true of most teams. But we have Tom Brady, the best motivator in sports!
May 31st, 2021 at 11:25 am
“…the French people would be eating sauerkraut and speaking Deutsch. Yet during the First Gulf War France would not let us fly over their air space. I have no use for the French…”
could not let that go without saying, I agree. That Gulf war lack of support. will always piss me off.
May 31st, 2021 at 11:42 am
YVES = the snot nosed geek we used to bully in elementary school..lol Please tell the canucks to stick with masking up and hockey.
May 31st, 2021 at 11:44 am
To me it seemed like the team had so much potential to be even better.
Like most of the team was still learning and along the way they won a Super Bowl.
To me nothing stands in the way of them repeating cause I think some of them are still learning and striving for greatness….and…..and…
We’ve got TOM FREAKIN BRADY!!!
May 31st, 2021 at 1:29 pm
the thing is, wat every starting position.. where would we have even really upgraded? we have a good player at every starting position. we didn’t need to bring in anyone
May 31st, 2021 at 2:11 pm
Peter King doesn’t like the sport he covers and actively undermines it because of his ideology. The fact that the league still talks to this cancer is pathetic, and I include our GM for letting that loser sit in on his zoom sessions.
Bucs are repeating. Simple as that.
May 31st, 2021 at 2:13 pm
and didn’t we accidentally bomb the French Embassy something like that maybe it’s the French would have let us fly over their airspace Iour thought process wouldn’t be impaired by the longer flight,,agree, still pisses me off also
May 31st, 2021 at 2:15 pm
Cowards but I think they did train the Iraqi Army ,,,trained em how to surrender,,,ha ha ha ha
May 31st, 2021 at 2:20 pm
meanwhile every starter knows the play book better including Tom Brady, our backups are reinforced with better, peter King is going down the wrong path with his lame argument
May 31st, 2021 at 2:49 pm
^^^ lmao at Ne + Bucs
May 31st, 2021 at 3:26 pm
I’ll take our chances with Brady and crew over what some yahoo from Canada (love Canadians, so no offense intended) and King thought we should have done any day.
May 31st, 2021 at 5:04 pm
Señor Harry in Costa Rica Says:
May 31st, 2021 at 11:25 am
Yeah, cuz that Gulf War worked out so well, right? Oh, and where were those WMDs? Maybe the French knew it was a bullshyte operation and didn’t wanna be criminal assh0les like the U.S. Those freedom fries were really effective protests too, for the idiot caucus.
May 31st, 2021 at 5:33 pm
Last season’s done. forget about perfect season and playoff talk. Any team can get humbled on the field( Saints at Bucs last year ). focus and prepare for the Game in front of you and nothing beyond. and hope u stay healthy.
May 31st, 2021 at 7:52 pm
joe – i disagree with the guy’s comments but because he is from montreal he doesnt know anything? im canadian and bleed buccaneer as you know and all i do is follow them and the nfl
May 31st, 2021 at 7:56 pm
Let’s be honest: if the Bucs brought in all new personnel, Hack Peter King would have been pissed the Bucs broke up the team.
King is a hack, left wing SJW who only writes to generates clicks.
May 31st, 2021 at 9:30 pm
Gotta defend King here. He better get “clicks” otherwise he’s a waste.
Joe wouldn’t think of hiring anyone who doesn’t get “clicks.” If you are pumping out uninteresting copy, what’s the point? Do (successful) eateries put out meals that no one wants to eat?
June 1st, 2021 at 12:51 am
King made a good point though.
All those coaches who told the guy that were talking out their rears…because no one has every done it before.
Joe brought up what I was going to say, so no need for me to add more!
June 1st, 2021 at 8:43 am
…my implication being that Peter King doesn’t write these columns because he truly feels that way, as indicated by the example. OF COURSE a writer wants people to read this stuff, but King’s track record shows that he just pulls these stunts for attention.
Am I the only one who remembers that after Cadillac Williams’ fantastic rookie year, he was the vote that blocked him from being unanimous OROY? King picked Logan Mankins (Patriots). Why? Because FU, that’s why.
June 1st, 2021 at 9:52 am
“Joe gets it that people’s minds aren’t likely laser-focused on football during this three-day weekend, but geez. This is sloppy research.”.
Maybe it is sloppy because most folks do not have the Red Hyperlink ability or need to go back in time, and research the results of Mr. King’s older posts, at an accidental fat thumb moment on their phone of choice?
“hot-dog-eating-contest-protesting, mock-draft-scowling, L.L.-Bean-wearing, Second Amendment abolitionist, Mike-Florio-arguing, parrot-insensitive, chewing-with-his-mouth-open, soup-gulping, California-train-romancing, anti-football proliferation, outhouse-admiring, airline-napping, steerage-flying, Yogi Berra-worshiping, urinal-picture-taking, video-game-playing, Taylor-Swift-listening, pickpocket-thwarting, Bucs-uniform-frowning, Allie-LaForce-smitten, Big-Ten-Network-hating, pedestrian-bumping, olive oil-lapping, popcorn-munching, coffee-slurping, fried-chicken-eating, oatmeal-loving, circle-jerking, craft-beer-chugging, cricket-watching, scone-loathing, college football-naïve, baseball-box-score-reading, NPR-honk, filthy-hotel-staying, fight-instigating, barista-training, Budweiser-tolerant, baseball-scorecard-keeping, pasta-feasting, vomit-dodging scrooge, Kay-Adams-following, Coors-Light-souring, pineapple-upside-down-cake-eating”
All this sure does cover a lot and I mean ALOT of real estate on a phone screen of your choice does it not?
Nice photo of Peter King.