Big Vita Vea Nearing Big Career Year
January 5th, 2025
“Lavonte, watch me set some records today.”
Now Joe doesn’t know if it was the Bucs’ sports science people or the trainers or analytics specialist Jackie Davidson or if it was intuition from Bucs coach Todd Bowles.
Last offseason, the Bucs (you pick who) ordered/pleaded with Pro Bowl nose tackle Vita Vea to drop some weight.
When he was shown at Washington’s spring game, Vea almost looked like a different person.
Well, Vita is “this close” to having a career-year in several categories, even though he missed a chunk of the Lions game and all of the Broncos game with a sprained knee.
Here is where Vea is about to have a career-year:
• Needs a half-sack to tie his personal best of 6.5.
• Needs one quarterback hit to tie his personal best (13).
• Needs four tackles to match his career-high (43).
• Needs two solo tackles to tie his personal best (28).
Just based on how well Vea has played this year with all of these season marks about to fall, whoever hatched the plan for Vea to shed weight knew what the hell they were doing.
January 5th, 2025 at 1:33 am
We were all worried that shedding of weight may hurt his game and it hasn’t at all thankfully. Joe any idea what percentage of snaps he has played this year? I am assuming it went uo over the past few seasons where it felt like he was on the field less than 50: of snaps!
January 5th, 2025 at 2:07 am
Snap counts by year broken down here.
January 5th, 2025 at 5:25 am
As an out of work former coach/GM/trainer like everyone else here, I thought he was too big and that losing weight would extend his career. In addition, a couple percentage points of his strength is no longer dedicated to moving him around and can now be applied to the opponent.
January 5th, 2025 at 7:57 am
Thanks for offseason training with “the real 93” Ndamukong Shu, Vita Vea. Could you please book a flight for Vita Vea for another offseason workout session. You could get a deal by booking early. Great to see 50 out on the field more often and causing havoc. Keep on working it Vea.
GO!!!!!BUCS!!!!!
January 5th, 2025 at 8:19 am
@JackBurton
Excellent observations from someone with a background who knows. I’m just an avid enthusiast of physical fitness generally. Brad Culpepper is a very smart guy. Once he retired he shed all of that weight. There is no doubt the additional weight is NOT good for Vita’s health! As to his playing I’ll let the experts decide.
Simply adding mass may help force the OL more difficulty in moving you out of the way but as you point out it also forces you to waste your own energy and speed moving the mass chasing a fleeing QB.
One of the things I enjoy most about physical fitness is all the various adjustments from diet, sleep, and exercise. I take periods through the year to write that stuff down and see what happens to my body.
If you have Netflix Jack try and find “Don’t Die, the Man Who Wants to Live Forever”. A wealthy multimillionaire is doing everything possible to extend his life span. Perfection in his workouts, diet, supplements, gene therapy, carefully monitored in ways far too expensive for us. The dude looks awesome and is incredibly healthy and fit and his aging according medical markers has slowed down.
While I found it interesting my desires and his motivation are not the same.
He want to live forever. I OTOH simply wish to enjoy however long I do live.
One of the greatest challenges for me personally turning 77 last month and realizing how OLD others must perceive me is the fact that I struggle to find other “healthy” people. I’m getting ready to walk Weedon Island, I’ll take about 90 minutes. Nothing dramatic but you would be shocked to realize how many dudes over 40 can’t even do that, much less swim 10000 yards in a week, lift weights and other things.
Sorry for going off the deep end. It’s not about ME it’s about YOU. I simply wish to share my awesome luck and experience. If you exercise regularly and watch your diet you’ll simply have more and more opportunities than your peers. Good luck to all and I hope everybody has an awesome and HEALTHY New Year!
January 5th, 2025 at 8:27 am
Losing the weight was the best thing for Vita’s health and for his football career. Guessing that Bowles and others encouraged it. A big thanks to Suh too.
January 5th, 2025 at 9:19 am
What the hell is up with the Jordan Whitehead news??!! A frickin wreck on Saturday and no update here?? This seems concerning
January 5th, 2025 at 9:41 am
As of right now it looks like Vita found all the weight he lost.
January 5th, 2025 at 9:52 am
stpete, you’re not the only golden goodie, oldie Buc fan on here. 🙂 I’ve been into exercise and healthy eating my whole life. VV is a consummate pro football player. His health regimes are totally different from a mere fan’s. He’s upped his game this season. It’s a shame the D has been so injury-plagued that it hasn’t been more apparent. Go VV and Bucs!! Shaq Barrett, bring us some luck cos the Bucs deserve it.
January 5th, 2025 at 9:57 am
I’m with you BA’s Red Pen.
He looks like he did last season, about 360 or so
January 5th, 2025 at 10:01 am
stpetesbucsfan alot of 77 year olds are dead. Much less maintaining a mind that is obviously a steel trap. Way to go! You’ve got about a decade on me but I’ve found that the best way to good health consists of 2 core principles- 1. Eat Good 2. Sleep Good. Like they say nobody lives forever. And like I say “I ain’t dead yet!).
January 5th, 2025 at 10:10 am
VV could lose an additional 35 lbs without hurting his effectiveness. It would be good for health and prolong his career.
Upon retirement he should consult HOF OT Joe Thomas who dropped 70 lbs after retirement. Joe looks great. He did it by swimming laps daily. Not trying to swim to break records, just easy on joints, relaxed swimming for muscle tone and weight loss.
January 5th, 2025 at 11:14 am
Wish he would’ve done that sooner.
January 5th, 2025 at 11:48 am
Vita has some great numbers this year. Hope he tops his personal best in all of those categories against the taints.
Good show, stpete! I’m a quarter of a century behind you but am determined to be fit and active when I catch up. This year I’ve dropped 25 lbs, changed my routine from straight weightlifting into a routine that follows my heart, in a manner of speaking. Calisthenics kettlebells and nice long jogs/walks are my go to at this stage of life. I feel great.
You rest, you rust!
January 5th, 2025 at 12:06 pm
Ryan Jensen just walked into the stadium carrying a duck!
January 5th, 2025 at 12:10 pm
VV50 said him a Todd talked about for a couple years now and this last offseason he finally took it seriously VV50 also said that SUH tried to get him to do this Super Bowl year to and VV50 couldn’t stick it out eat food that almost made him shat himself the day of chasing Mahomes
January 5th, 2025 at 12:33 pm
Great Question. That was the first thing I was wondering and was going to ask while reading the article… Snap Count Percentage for this season. You hate doing it, but this right now, is the time to trade him. His ‘value’ will never be higher, than what it is right now. He’s really expensive and starting to get up there in age. It’s time. It’s a TOUGH Position to play, & the ‘injury risk’ is HIGH. And, what if he lies down and puts all that weight on again, after getting PAID. He knows this one (contract), will be his LAST major ‘big-one.’ Go ahead, & get the value for him… Deone Walker is dropping & he is a MONSTER. Would be nice having them together for one year, along with Kancey! BUT, ya gotta do what ya gotta do. It’s a business first and foremost. Time to move-on. I approve of the “Belichick/Patriots-Way” of it being much better to move-on from a guy a year early, than a year too late (and destroying your CAP). So, I would also, ‘move-on’ from RWhite… He should have decent value (Cowboys!?). He’s still cheap going into the final season of his ‘rookie’ deal, & I cannot see ‘re-signing’ HIM to a longterm deal… Especially now, that we have Bucky (and Tucker)! Baker will be inline for a HUGE pay raise & we’ll have to do it. Though, I would absolutely, NOT be held hostage by HIM. If it doesn’t make sense, you have to be willing to walk away. Especially now, with Cohen here, as our HEAD Coach… You have to at least ‘feel-like’ you have enough confidence in HIM to be able to ‘plug-n-play’ a different QB into HIS Offense, as long as we still have the WEAPONS to do so. Hopefully, Baker is smart and makes the best decision for himself, AND the team and organization. As of right now, this moment (for me), I’m NOT willing to go north of $50-MIL per season for the “Ol’ Bake-Show.” The FO has A LOT of big important decisions ahead, & they’ve GOT TO play-it smart. Hopefully, they get-it right! Though, it would not surprise me one BIT to see them ‘run-it all back’ with all of these same guys, & going ‘ALL-IN’ for BOWLES, giving him one last try!!!! I could definitely, see them doing that. Though, I think it would prob be a mistake, we should be able to recover from it quite easily, just as long as they DON’T allow Cohen to walk-out that door. It might be hard getting ANYTHING in return for Dean now, given his injury history (and production AND $$$).
January 5th, 2025 at 12:35 pm
Joe is out sweeping Ray Jay fort Voo Doo Dolls
January 5th, 2025 at 6:14 pm
stpete, I’m 65. I get significant cardio every day and have for my entire life. My weight and waist are the same as high school. I too like to swim. I swim a mile in the Y pool most days. I still like to climb Colorado 14ers. I am an Adirondack 46er and continue to climb those mountains every summer. If everyone in this country would understand the benefits of regular exercise, it would be a much better place to live. Go to Europe, and Americans stick out like a sore thumb due to obesity.