“The Smaller Tazmanian Devil Type”
May 2nd, 2023
NBC NFL film guru analyst Chris Simms, the former Bucs quarterback, liked 14 teams’ drafts last week.
Really 15 if you count how Simms appreciated the way the Cardinals loaded up on 2024 draft picks.
One of Simms’ teams with positive drafts is Tampa Bay. He’s a big fan of first-round pick Calijah Kancey, the undersized but wildly explosive defensive tackle out of the University of Pittsburgh.
Simms noted how last season the Bucs sought the services for 6-5, 335-pound manbeast Akiem Hicks, but now they’ve switched up and will roll with 6-1, 280-pound Kancey. Simms thinks it’s very cool that Todd Bowles is making the adjustment.
“I love that pairing [of Kancey and Vita Vea,]” Simms said. “They’ve kind of gone that route of bigger people on the inside the last two years. … This is where it was a little surprising to me that they went this route because I didn’t know if the smaller Tazmanian Devil type would be their kind of guy.”
Simms speculated the Bucs wanted more disruption and acknowledged, “We can’t always be like, ‘We’re holding our line and here and not letting you move us in a double team.’ That’s where I love [the pick].”
Smart observation by Simms. The Bucs will have a very different look and feel with Kancey.
Joe had a similar thought, especially when general manager Jason Licht’s right-hand scouting man John Spytek said Saturday that Todd Bowles long has been seeking that a complement to Vita Vea who could run all game long.
“I’m sure he’d prefer that Calijah were 310 pounds or something like that, but at the same time, he’s undeterred,” Spytek said of Bowles.
May 2nd, 2023 at 10:32 am
He’ll put on some more muscle.
May 2nd, 2023 at 10:33 am
Speed Kills, and it is very good that we have gotten a lot faster in this draft.
The Bucs were slow, and how many times did we see our pass rush ALMOST get there, but did not due to a lack of overall speed ?
Hopefully, this will change this year
May 2nd, 2023 at 10:39 am
Hopefully hall takes a step forward this year as well. Going to be fun to watch a more athletic dline this year. Although I expect the run defense to suffer a little.
May 2nd, 2023 at 10:45 am
Pick your poison with Kancey and Vea. Thunder and lightning. If Hall steps up … maybe too much to ask.
May 2nd, 2023 at 10:54 am
We need guys who can play more than half the snaps. Hopefully Kancey is one of them.
May 2nd, 2023 at 10:57 am
D White will be inspired and have a monster season.
May 2nd, 2023 at 11:13 am
the Logan hall pick looked like a reach on draft day and continues to
May 2nd, 2023 at 11:14 am
The Bucs have been saying for two years that they wanted to get faster on the DL. I’m not sure Hicks was much faster than Suh but there’s no doubt with Kancey.
On another note… Chris Simms is a huge fan of… Sean Tucker. He really loves him.
BTW, another UDFA of note, Christian Izien, he of 5’8 199 lbs, a 4.42 40, 41.5″ VJ, and 20 reps of 225, also started 41 games in college and was featured on Good Morning Football recently. There’s a video of it on YouTube. I feel he is a lock to make the team as a special teamer and backup safety. He brings a Bob Sanders vibe to the D. He could see some SS and nickle safety reps this season.
May 2nd, 2023 at 11:23 am
Bucs thought they could get a better interior pass rush with Hicks.
See what happens when your edge rushers aren’t getting the job done? You start sacrificing other areas of your defense in order to try to make up for lack of quarterback pressure production. 🙁
May 2nd, 2023 at 11:40 am
The front alignments are going to be ridiculous. I can see sinking Kancey into that shallow zone in the middle of the LOS like Vita has on a few occasions. I could see Kancey/Diaby being sent from anywhere when we trot out that 3-3 stack and everybody is in a 2-point stance standing in the box.
We face a lot of young QBs next season, so I expect to see a ton of pre-snap shenanigan’s w/the new talent fully involved. What helps, is we’ve got a pretty good amount of vets getting carried over, who can serve as extensions of the staff so guys can get as many reps as possible while the players can help fast track some of this newly acquired talent.
With all the talk of the rookies I’m still interested in the what we can get out of players like Mike Greene & Charles Snowden, as both are 2nd year players with limited experience and now, plenty of opportunity to earn some reps whether it be in the rotation on defense or special teams.
May 2nd, 2023 at 11:43 am
Taz Kancey!!!
May 2nd, 2023 at 12:16 pm
Don’t fall asleep on Cam Gill.
May 2nd, 2023 at 12:46 pm
Hopefully, The new head Coach next year will get the most out of them.
May 2nd, 2023 at 1:37 pm
Prisco liked the pick. I generally agree with his analysis. Kid needs to get on the program, and gain some weight. Hopefully it doesn’t mess with his speed and explosiveness. They did think hicks would provide that inside pressure. My concern is his tendency to get caught up inside.
May 2nd, 2023 at 1:59 pm
DA BUCS GUY if any coach is going to get the most out of this defense it’s going to be bowels. He might not be HC material but he’s dam good DC that we won a SB off of that defense and that defense kept several games close last year for us to make it to the dance. Brady doesn’t have some of those comebacks if the defense didn’t keep us in games
May 2nd, 2023 at 2:03 pm
The game is constantly evolving in a quicker rather than power game, don’t forget these new quicker players are still rookies and that in itself is a massive adjustment that humbles 95% of every rookie no matter their college bag of tricks
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Ronnie Brown a small school RB & UDFA is my underdog for this year.
Great story just getting to his UDFA status.
Devin Thompkins was my guy last year so here’s hoping for 2
You’ll have to seach YouTube and include his college Shepard along with his name to find him
May 2nd, 2023 at 2:15 pm
It doesn’t matter where the pressure comes from outside, inside just as long as it doesn’t get there late. Love what the bucs are trying to do they needed to get younger and faster and that’s what they did in the draft.
May 2nd, 2023 at 3:26 pm
When Simms isn’t getting high or being a SJW warrior with the fake news king, Florio, he can do a really good show.
Before the draft, Simms said only teams that run a 4-3 would have interest in Kancey – which wasn’t a knock at all as he had him as his 2nd best DT in the draft, in a separate tier above the next group.
Of course, as pointed out, teams spend most of the downs in nickel and dime now, so the base defense doesn’t matter as much as it used to, but Kancey, Hall, JTS, all profile as guys would you’d want in a 4-3.
Also Simms said it would be incredibly stupid to move Kancey outside, you want him inside where he’s going to be a terror and disrupt things. Also he said Kancey is ridiculously strong, don’t focus on his weight, he’s a good run stuffer.
I hope he’s right, because if so, you just go a hell of a player to build around, and unlike Vita, Kancey should be able to be more than a part time player.
May 2nd, 2023 at 4:54 pm
He doesn’t have to be a hand in the dirt DT – let him game with Vea and Gaines at DT – let him stunt, slide, swim his way into the backfield play after play
I think we did a very good job at aggressively addressing the pass rush issues – yes they are all rookies and will need time, but I can’t recall a draft with this amount of speed across the board in the recent past
May 2nd, 2023 at 6:56 pm
@Joe
Off the subject of this post, but has anybody checked to see how it is that the NFL allowed Philly and Arizona to negotiate their own draft compensation penalty for tampering, meanwhile Tampa Bay and New Orleans got nothing in exchange for Miami’s tampering with Brady and Payton?
May 2nd, 2023 at 9:07 pm
Jason Light says he wants speed, but speed with power. And that’s what they see in Kancey.
May 3rd, 2023 at 1:59 am
Jury is still out for me on Todd but…. I am excited to see what kind of stunts and games he will run with Kancey, Vea and others. Should give Opposing O line nightmares!
BTW they should bring Hicks and Golston back if they can.