“Feeling His Way Back Through”
November 18th, 2021
Vita Vea’s position coach opens up
Some claim Vita Vea is the greatest nose tackle in football and a true Pro Bowler at defensive tackle.
His position coach painted him in a different light this week.
Regular readers here have long been flummoxed by Vea’s part-time status. That’s not Joe’s opinion. That’s the story of the snap counts. A lot of guys at Vea’s position play a lot more than he does.
Buccaneers defensive line coach Kacy Rodgers was on the Buccaneers Radio Network this week reflecting on Vea taking a type of step backwards this season while maturing rapidly at the same time.
“Before the [broken ankle] injury last year, I think he’s was really, really about ready to take off,” Rodgers said of his prized pupil. “This year, I think he’s kind of just feeling his way back through, but we definitely see the arrow going up.”
That sounds a lot different than Bucco Bruce Arians calling Vea a Pro Bowler yesterday.
Rodgers went on to glow about Vea’s work ethic and how he’s matured his football mind greatly over the past few seasons.
Joe sure was intrigued by Rodgers strongly implying that Vea is still recovering from his 2020 injury. And now Bucs fans know Vea is dealing with a bone bruise a torn knee ligament (MCL) suffered Sunday at Washington.
Derrick Brooks Talks Effort, Demoralizing Moments, Assessing Brady & More
Buccaneers legend Derrick Brooks dives deep into the brutal Bucs loss on Sunday with JoeBucsFan.com columnist Ira Kaufman. Great insight from The Identity Tampa Bay and Joe.
November 18th, 2021 at 11:26 am
Hurry back big guy! We will miss you if you don’t
November 18th, 2021 at 11:26 am
Hopefully Bruce doesn’t rush him back smh
November 18th, 2021 at 11:56 am
We need him back ASAP.
November 18th, 2021 at 12:05 pm
I must be as medicated as Pete right now, because I’m also hoping that the Bucs don’t rush him back. Bucs defense is badly beaten up, but we’ve got a relatively strong offense that SHOULD be able to carry us through our remaining games. Even if we end up losing another 2-3 games, we should still be able to win the NFC South. More than likely we won’t get any 1st-Rnd BYEs or home-field advantage, but hey, at least we’ll be in the playoffs.
The whole objective in my book should be to get into the playoffs HEALTHY. Injuries in last season’s playoffs killed Washington, the Packers, Saints & Chiefs. Meanwhile, we were HEALTHY, and it paid off big-time. This year we’ve got a lot of healing-up to do first if we expect to go anywhere in the playoffs.
November 18th, 2021 at 1:04 pm
Bucs out to draft Jordan Davis that big nose tackle fron Georgia. Hes about the same size. Both get 50% of snaps.
November 18th, 2021 at 5:07 pm
Allbuc, that kid is a top ten pick. I doubt he slips all the way to where we’ll probably be picking.
November 18th, 2021 at 7:01 pm
“torn knee ligament”
I heard or read MCL sprain…. Did Joe hear differently?
There is definitely a difference between ‘sprained’ and ‘torn’ when describing the severity of a knee injury.