Bruce Arians Explains It’s Absolutely Critical To Play Starters In Preseason Finale On Aug. 28
August 20th, 2021
Bucco Bruce Arians put his foot down.
Do not even go there with Arians implying that preseason games are worthless and/or dangerous for elite veteran and players.
Arians was hit with this concept on WDAE Radio yesterday and was adamant that nothing could be further from the truth.
“We don’t need game experience against Dallas. We gotta get some game experience before we play Dallas,” Arians said. “It’s too late [on Sept. 9], they’re way too good to all of a sudden get [caught] up to game speed.
“Game speed is something different. You know what I mean? If you’re going full speed, you ain’t getting hurt. It would be a freak thing and a freak thing is going to happen. But them not playing and the all of a sudden playing game speed on Thursday Night Football in front of the world. That’s way too fast to find out all of a sudden.”
Earlier this week, Joe asked Ndamukong Suh about playing for Rams head coach Sean McVay and making it to the Super Bowl (Rams starters do not play at all in preseason), and also winning a Super Bowl last year with no preseason games, and now he’s back playing in the preseason.
Every player has a different opinion, and it’s obvious that there’s no consensus among coaches.
But you can take it to the bank that Bucs starters will be balling on Aug. 28 in Houston.
August 20th, 2021 at 11:02 am
With the newly truncated preseason I was wondering if game two was going to be the old game three, but apparently not. We are helped with a bit of time off between the third preseason game and the opener though. How long till we go to two preseason games and an 18 regular season schedule? I’m thinking it can’t be that long.
August 20th, 2021 at 11:57 am
This is the first year of the 17-game season and coaches are just feeling things out. If other teams sit their starters in Game 3 of the pre-season during the first couple of years, all the coaches will start sitting their starters in Game 3. It’ll just take a while before everyone settles into a “normal” pre-season routine.
August 20th, 2021 at 12:12 pm
Could we swap Texas teams in scheduling? LOL – playing against the hapless Texans is not much of a warm up game
August 20th, 2021 at 12:45 pm
After watching 60 yrs, i’ve always been against playing your best players ESPECIALLY your MVP. look what happened to Joe Burrow, Saquan Barkley. even Joe Theisman. These were all accidents. Everytime they snap the ball in pre-season, i hold my breath. If Brady was in his 2nd or 3rd year, yeah.
August 20th, 2021 at 1:12 pm
You simply can’t plan on injuries….they happen or they don’t….I’will defer to BA…..I think he’s earned our trust……
Like preseason or not….it’s there to be used as the coaches see fit….not the fans, not the players….and certainly not the media….
August 20th, 2021 at 1:57 pm
Earlier this week, Joe asked Ndamukong Suh about playing for Rams head coach Sean McVay and making it to the Super Bowl (Rams starters do not play at all in preseason), and also winning a Super Bowl last year with no preseason games, and now he’s back playing in the preseason.
Umm… So what was his answer? Or did I miss that somehow?
August 20th, 2021 at 1:58 pm
NO it’s NOT!!!!
August 20th, 2021 at 3:05 pm
Like TBBF, I’ll defer to BA on this. One of our biggest problems early in the season last year was that we started slow & too often were playing from behind by the 2nd qtr. But later in the season, Bucs were deadly when playing with the early lead. It’s not so much the defense that had trouble getting going early in games, it was the offense. Maybe all BA wants to do is get them stringing together a couple of solid drives against Houston early-on to either get their confidence way up or let them see what they need to focus on before Dallas comes to town.
August 20th, 2021 at 6:37 pm
Just f-in play and stop all the BS P/footing around. Let’s why are you get paid millions.
August 20th, 2021 at 6:38 pm
The Bucs have come a long way since the days of a Bucs squad playing most of their starters for most of preseason games so they’d “get a taste of what winning is like” (I think it was under Sam Wyche, but I’m not certain). Does anyone else remember something like this, or no?
August 20th, 2021 at 6:40 pm
I remember Alvin Harper getting hurt late in a preseason game and throwing his helmet, in the 90’s.
August 20th, 2021 at 6:48 pm
As a player, you can get hurt any time you’re on the field. Whether it’s during practice, pre-season, or the regular season. Players play!
August 20th, 2021 at 7:38 pm
Recently John Lynch was talking about his Bucs football days and he said, “I just loved the contact”.
August 20th, 2021 at 7:41 pm
I’m with you Jason! I thought I missed something. I am beginning to think that Joe’s first pick in a draft would be Big Storm..
August 21st, 2021 at 12:24 am
Why the hell did the NFL put an extra week between the final preseason game and the regular season start, it’s just stupid. Bring back 4 preseason games if you’re going to do that garbage.
August 21st, 2021 at 1:24 pm
Thank god, they still have preseason games! How else are coaches going to judge rookies, etc.? Injuries occur. NFL football is a rough sport. The vets always used the final preseason game to warm up. Just basic common sense.