Jamel Dean: Teammates Change, Job Doesn’t
May 28th, 2024
Job remains the same.
For Jamel Dean, this spring’s OTAs have been way different for him.
Oh, he’s still on the only NFL team he has known, the Bucs. He’s still the starting corner. He still has the same defensive coordinator and the same coach. Yet for Dean, there is like a big hole on the roster.
No Carlton Davis.
With the exception of 2018, Davis and Dean had been teammates since 2015, most of their adult lives.
So with Davis shipped off to Detroit in March, Dean admitted today that it sure feels different at One Buc Palace without his long-time friend and teammate.
Dean was asked if he feels additional pressure now that he is the veteran of the Bucs’ cornerback room and the lone starter returning (yes, Christian Izien started at nickel corner last year), Dean said he didn’t feel it.
“I still have a job to do,” Dean said.
And that’s true. Whether a rookie fills the void of Davis or, as expected, veteran reserve corner Zyon McCollum takes over, Dean still has the same job.
Defend wide receivers. That would be the same with or without Davis.
May 28th, 2024 at 1:51 pm
He will need to train Bryce as his replacement for game 2
Vs the Lions and maybe for the rest of the season. Maybe we’ll have a pass rush and Dean gets a pick! Despite my pessimism, I hope
Dean balls out this year!
May 28th, 2024 at 1:59 pm
Dean knows. Step up or ship out. He needs to get with Todd and provide the feedback as to what is necessary to improve a pass defense that gave up more yards than all but 3 teams. Points, blah blah blah. Points given up and yards given up are strongly correlated . Last year was an anomaly. Bend but don’t break turns to bend and break real fast.
May 28th, 2024 at 2:09 pm
WHAT AN UNCOMFORTABLE FEELING …
The Bucs made it no secret CDIII AND Dean were available for trade, but the Bucs would only trade one of them. Obviously, they got a better offer for CDIII.
Dean contract is a $15M cap hit but a $6.8M in dead cap next year. I’m guessing he’ll get cut or traded next year.
May 28th, 2024 at 2:16 pm
Even in an off year, Dean was the 2nd best press man CB in all the NFL and while in press man allowed a 34.8% completion pct. Probably one of the best tackling DBs in all of football, still runs like a gazelle on hot sand, & QBs stopped picking on him post-2020. PFF has him projected in their pre-season rankings as the 20th best CB in the NFL based off last season, Carlton Davis is 32nd.
Don’t make a scene.
May 28th, 2024 at 2:31 pm
Armed with the data that Dude provides (and abides), it puts the Bucs DC/HC/Chief Life Counselor in focus to ask the question
You had two CBs whose strengths are press man – hard to bust that assignment – and yet played zone the vast majority of snaps. WHY?????
Inquiring minds want to beat themselves in the head with a scotch bottle after properly emptying it.
May 28th, 2024 at 2:50 pm
@Dave Pear: Bowles already answered this question: “Some of the guys we had were not capable of playing press”… since we know that AW, CD, JD and ZM were all able to play press, I’m assuming it was the other safety who was such a liability that he prevented the whole defense from running press. And possibly some of the linebackers as well… would be my guess.
May 28th, 2024 at 2:57 pm
“You had two CBs whose strengths are press man – hard to bust that assignment – and yet played zone the vast majority of snaps. WHY?????”
We play zone because we like to blitz. So, when you saw White, David, Winfield, or anybody else on our defense that isn’t listed as a DLmen/OLB blitzing you call it out of a zone defense because you want to take away the deep shot and force passes underneath. When it’s really effective and the DBs can get into their zones as fast as the blitzer can breach the pocket you up your chances at a erroneous pass being thrown.
Same concept for the pre-snap cushions you do that to eliminate the threat of the big play, and as long as a WR is in front of you he cant get on-top/run away from your coverage, which calls for things to be funneled to the underneath/secondary routes. For the most part, it works we haven’t been beaten deep badly in multiple games in 1 season since 2020.
May 28th, 2024 at 3:55 pm
Thanks boys. So Bowels likes to do his thing in spite of his players’ strengths. There are such schemes as blended press man / zone. But since Ryan Neal can’t play man (or anything else), we’ll make everyone play zone even though they don’t know what they are doing. But, we won’t coach the mistakes out of them. We’ll just keep calling the cover 3 zone bust every game so even Desmond Ridder can look like John Elway
Classic.
May 28th, 2024 at 6:31 pm
“But since Ryan Neal can’t play man (or anything else), we’ll make everyone play zone”
That’s pretty much how I saw it
May 28th, 2024 at 7:30 pm
Did Dean get injured during his press conference?
May 28th, 2024 at 8:23 pm
Catch the ball.
May 28th, 2024 at 9:07 pm
LOL Red Pen
May 28th, 2024 at 10:14 pm
“That’s pretty much how I saw it”
It’s not really some Bowles specific thing, just how blitzing works. You send an extra guy w/o giving up blades of gross being your not play man specific defense and just covering area. Any great safety you know to be a great box player, made his living being sent on zone blitzes, it’s just smart football.