Cam Gill “The Ultimate Professional”
August 14th, 2022
As for the Bucs defense last night in the preseason opener, the thing that jumped out at Joe — other than being stout against the run, what’s new? — is the Bucs may have strong depth at outside linebacker/edge rusher.
Anthony Nelson was Anthony Nelson. The former fourth-round pick is sneaky good. Even had more sacks last year than Joe Tryon-Shoyinka — and yes, Joe is fully away JTS was a rookie and Nelson was in his third season.
So last night Joe saw veteran backups Cam Gill and Nelson get sacks. Gill is one of those guys that seems to get a little bit better every year. Bucs coach Todd Bowles is a big fan.
“Cam has been the ultimate professional,” Bowles said. “Every year he’s got something different that he learned from the year before that he added to his game. When he first got here, he was strictly power. And he didn’t know how to play it.
“Each year his technique has gotten better and his awareness has gotten better, his drops have gotten better. And he is a tenacious rusher. We don’t mind putting him in there. We don’t think we are losing anything when he goes into the ballgame. He has become very trustworthy.”
So it seems with the results Nelson gets quietly, and the way Bowles trusts Gill, the Bucs ought to have decent if not good depth at outside linebacker.
Both outside linebackers had a sack along with two tackles for loss last night.
August 14th, 2022 at 8:11 am
I’ve been calling him out as one of my breakthrough candidates. I hope his injury is minor.
August 14th, 2022 at 8:11 am
Still would like to see us bring in a FA vet…….but, yes…..Nelson for sure & probably Gill are good backups….
August 14th, 2022 at 8:12 am
Gabbert looked very good in limited action last night…..
August 14th, 2022 at 8:16 am
Nothing has changed in this defense. Good front 7, shatty secondary. It has to be the schemes, it’s impossible to have that many bad DB’s.
August 14th, 2022 at 8:16 am
This is the kind of depth it takes to be a contender. Nice job by Gill and Nelson both.
August 14th, 2022 at 8:30 am
Listnfrfmalafar – I think you make a good point. Hope Bowles is listening.
August 14th, 2022 at 8:34 am
Bowles can’t teach zone coverage.
August 14th, 2022 at 9:03 am
Yeah Gil has been my dark horse guy for a couple years now
August 14th, 2022 at 9:03 am
Cam Gill reminded me of Shaq Barrett in his 1st preseason game with us in 2019 vs the Cowboys. Shaq had a hell of season! Sack king
August 14th, 2022 at 9:28 am
Gill went into a game for JPP and showed out and then JPP put himself back into the game. That was the first time I thought he may be something special in our future.
August 14th, 2022 at 9:53 am
I like when a plan comes together.
August 14th, 2022 at 10:11 am
Cam Gill looked good, and so did Elijah Ponder
August 14th, 2022 at 11:14 am
I think from what I see, our pass defense will be better.
Got rid of Pierre Desire and Jordan Whitehead but gained Ryan Logan and Kneau Neal. That is a huge upgrade of ability. Zyon McCollum is a good depth piece that should get better with our good coaching. Plus, last year had a lot of injuries.
Good of Bucs Pass Defense last year:
Good: Allowed only 5 passes over 40 yards. 3rd best in league
Good: Allowed a 1st down on only 31.5 percent of passing plays. 4th best.
Good: 17 interceptions. Tied for 7th best in the league.
Good: Allowed 6.4 yards per pass attempt. Tied for 2nd best in League.
Good: Passer Rating: 85.6. 8th best in the league.
To the comment about Bowles can’t teach zone coverage. We play zone over 50 percent of the plays and had the 8th best passer rating in the league. Not sure the basis of that comment. All kids coming out of college know how to play man, none of them are really good at zone. It seems that Bowles has done a fine job.
August 14th, 2022 at 12:52 pm
geno, your stats are all well in good, where is the 3rd down completion percentage. Also, did you watch the same games I did last season? I am so tried of the injury excuses. Almost all if not all teams had injuries in their secondary. Buffalo lost their best DB. Lenny went out, Gronk was out, Godwin, AB gone, Evan’s went out and the Bucs still scored 30 points/game. Screw the injury excuse, the secondary wasn’t good in 2020 either.
August 14th, 2022 at 2:29 pm
Listnfrmafar:
The secondary is fine. Not great.
It is a passing league. All teams’ secondaries look bad 10 or more games a year because it is a passing league.
My stats are not meant to give everyone in the Bucs secondary a “pass” all the time. It is just meant to give comparison or context to other NFL teams through a whole season.
To your question about where the Bucs defense rated on 3rd down completion percentage, I DO NOT KNOW and could not find that.
I did find stats regarding 3rd down conversions. The Bucs were 10th best in the league last year. They allowed 1st downs conversions only 38.25% of the time. The best was Buffalo at 33.61. The worst were the LA Chargers at 49.54% of the time. Again, much closer to good than bad or awful.
August 14th, 2022 at 5:22 pm
Gill and Nelson both showed talent.
But like everyone else- it was against The Dolphins 3rd stringers.
I think they will contribute this year- especially Nelson. Great size and speed.
Another player looked like he might be a pass rusher- even though he didnt make the box score.
Andre Anthony applied pressure on several occasions.