Depth Awareness
September 13th, 2021
Bucs GM Jason Licht
So who led the Bucs in targets during the near upset to the lowly Giants last season? Yes, it was Jaydon Mickens.
Why does Joe bring up such worthless and bizarre trivia? Because NBC Sports super insider Peter King was pontificating about the Bucs’ incredible depth in his weekly Monday morning column.
King’s focus was on Tampa Bay’s array of pass-catchers and pouring cold water on those who might think the Bucs will burn out veterans Antonio Brown and Rob Gronkowski.
…[Cameron] Brate, [Scotty] Miller and [Tyler] Johnson averaged 57 combined snaps per game in the four playoff games last year. The fact they played only 29 against Dallas tells me they, plus [Jaelon] Darden and [O.J.] Howard, will have lots left in the tank when needed.
Aside from the snaps, it’s also worth noting that none of the above Bucs caught a ball on Thursday in the win against the Cowboys. (Darden was inactive.)
Yes, the Bucs are loaded with weapons, but Joe sees no need to spread the ball around just for the sake of getting guys touches. Go with what’s most effective. Get the backups more time when you’ve clinched home field in the NFC with two games to play.
September 13th, 2021 at 8:10 am
Mickens was a pro Thursday night, it’s good Darden get’s to see what one looks like. O.J. didn’t play because he’s behind HOFer Gronk who balled out Thursday. O.J. may never see the field, or Brate when you have the complete TE package in Gronk. This offense would rather throw to it’s wideouts anyway. Brate, or O.J. could be trade bait down the road.
September 13th, 2021 at 8:22 am
We have plenty of depth at WR, TE, OLine, RB……OLB…..but not CB…..
Evans, Godwin, AB, Johnson, Miller, Darden & Mickens 7 WRs….
Another position group has to be weaker.
September 13th, 2021 at 8:52 am
I´ve been saying this before being Super bowl champs……Our depth and quality on cb position is questionable at the very least….. Last week before the Dallas game, Joe´s wrote and article about CB stats……Even mora something about Carlton D saying he was the best CB on the league……And some of us, not all…said he was average at best, same as Dean and Bunting…… As I said it several times, if there is a flaw on this roster will be at CB………Repeat, average at best!!!!!
September 13th, 2021 at 9:02 am
zzbuc, I agree. The secondary, particularly at CB, is where our depth is suspect.
September 13th, 2021 at 9:13 am
We need to sign a legit CB asap.
September 13th, 2021 at 9:14 am
Doesn’t look like they’re gonna run much 12 formations anymore
September 13th, 2021 at 9:15 am
I keep thinking we best enjoy this while it lasts. Our starters have been staying quite healthy AND getting LOTS of snaps. In Thurs night’s game for instance, we had TEN defenders get 53 or more defensive snaps (roughly 2/3rds of the def snaps). Bowles did a lot of rotating of the big guys upfront (Vea, Suh, Gholston, RNR & McLendon), but not of our ILBs (both White & LVD were on the field for 100% of the plays), nor of JPP (92% of the def snaps) or Shaq (85% of the def snaps). Our offense was similar … our starters stay on the field.
Since the pass rush wasn’t very effective on the night, and our defense was on the field for almost 35 minutes, kinda wondering if age might be taking its’ toll in these long, summer games on these guys who stay on the field so much.
September 13th, 2021 at 9:23 am
King?
King who?
Shaun?
Peter?
Or some other “insider” named King?
It’d be nice to know who scripted the opinion …
September 13th, 2021 at 9:26 am
zzbuc is right–CB depth is the most notable roster issue.
Paging CJ Henderson…Richard Sherman…the future is now.
September 13th, 2021 at 9:29 am
Speed kills. So does size. My takeaway from the season opener was Dallas had bigger bodies in the trenches, and negated our pass rush because of it. Convincingly, the only Buc troubling Dak was 6’4″ 350lb VV. Yeah, size matters. Human wrecking ball Vita Vea bowled over Dallas Olinemen as though they were children, and both teams noticed that. Dallas tried doubling teaming him, Boles moved Vita outside to counter the Cowboy’s perimeter attack. To this fan VV underscores the obvious: it take big, quick uglies to dominate. Lastly, Todd Boles defensive braintrust got headslapped.
LFG Bucs!
September 13th, 2021 at 9:30 am
Ah, back in moderation.
It’d also be nice to see the code trigger that sent me there.
I wrote nothing profane, blasphemous maybe, but nothing out of the ordinary when compared to many other takes.
All I did was ask a simple question.
September 13th, 2021 at 9:32 am
Joe would like to see it too. Sadly, software code doesn’t talk to Joe nor does it field questions like Siri. 🤷♂️
September 13th, 2021 at 10:02 am
Code functions definitely appear to have a mind of their own.
The Washington Post has a “profane trigger,” even for boarder line infractions (try using ‘queer’ in a sentence when defining it as ‘odd’). Currently, that’s the only code trigger that appears well defined.
Makes one wonder if coding will ever unify and become free thinking.
The Terminator movies come to mind, especially the second one …
September 13th, 2021 at 10:05 am
NO 2,000 WORD MONIKER FOR KING!!!!!!!!!!
AWESOME!
September 13th, 2021 at 10:07 am
I’d love to see a solid veteran CB join the mix. But for that to happen we would have to free up some serious cap space.
September 13th, 2021 at 10:22 am
Agreed about CB, those guys are mediocre at best. The Rams are going to be a huge test for our CB’s.
September 13th, 2021 at 10:48 am
If we just had something like that with defensive backs, we would be set.
The defensive secondary needs some help, they are drowning already.
September 13th, 2021 at 10:50 am
Tackleblock–CJ Henderson’s salary is only $1.5 M due to big bonus money.
September 13th, 2021 at 11:38 am
I think Darden should be hyped up and heralded as the second coming of Larry Fitzgerald.
And then traded for a CB.
September 13th, 2021 at 12:06 pm
Our depth WILL be tested, it already is. Injuries are going to happen. Whether a more frequent rotation is beneficial or not, I’m not sure. But, we didn’t put much pressure on a QB who dropped back 58 times.
With our secondary, the pass-rush needs to be better.
AND, you can never have enough competent DBs. It’s the Fanman’s family motto!
September 13th, 2021 at 1:45 pm
Prince Amukamara is available and has 10 years experience , bring him in and work him out , if you do not like what you see , don’t sign him.
September 13th, 2021 at 3:39 pm
It will be interesting to see how it all unfolds. I think all of our weapons will contribute soon or later. It’s awesome we have so much depth we can afford not to use legitimate playmakers. I just wish he had more depth at cornerback.
September 13th, 2021 at 5:30 pm
“ Get the backups more time when you’ve clinched home field in the NFC with two games to play.”
Going undefeated talk. X2 in a row.
I was really hoping I’d stop seeing stuff like this after barely squeaking one out against the average team like the Cowboys. Saints and Panthers looked good too. Let’s just try and win the division title and win one at a time.