A Reunion?
January 21st, 2014
Could Michael Bennett return to Tampa Bay?
Yes, yesterday Joe went off (again) about how angry he is at the Bucs for letting solid defensive end Michael Bennett walk away for no good reason. Adding salt to Joe’s wound is watching Bennett help lead the Seahawks to the Super Bowl.
How angry is Joe about this? Joe wants to throw rocks at joggers down Bayshore Boulevard.
But reading Pat Yasinskas of ESPN is a salve for Joe’s outrage. Yasinskas seems to think the Bucs (whoever the new general manager is) just might make a play to get Bennett back in Tampa Bay.
Barry in Silsbee, Texas wonders if the Bucs might try to bring back defensive end Michael Bennett in free agency.
PY: That’s one I wouldn’t rule out. The Bucs clearly need a pass-rushing defensive end. For reasons I can’t put my finger on, the old coaching staff wasn’t sold on Bennett. But the new regime realizes it needs to improve the pass rush and adding Bennett might be one of the best ways to accomplish that.
Look, Joe knows that Bennett was not and will never be mistaken for Deacon Jones. But, damnit to hell, You. Do. Not. Let. Your. Sacks. Leader. Leave. You don’t!
In retrospect, this decision by then-Bucs commander Greg Schiano was the beginning of the end. Getting Bennett back would be a big step toward getting heat on opposing quarterbacks.
January 21st, 2014 at 11:07 am
Forget it. He’s having fun in Seattle. Bet he will take a lesser paycheck to stay there
January 21st, 2014 at 11:09 am
So if that’s the case, Minnesota shouldn’t let Allen go, or Carolina should have never let Peppers go, and now Chicago shouldn’t let Peppers go. How about Cliff Avril leaving the Lions or John Abraham leaving the Falcons. How does Joe know definitively that the Bucs let Bennett go? He may have decided to leave on his own looking for his weight in gold. A 9 sack season is hardly elite and Dominik wasn’t going to pay him elite money.
January 21st, 2014 at 11:10 am
“How angry is Joe about this? Joe wants to throw rocks at joggers down Bayshore Boulevard.”
Ahahahaa, smh classic
January 21st, 2014 at 11:11 am
I am pretty sure Bennett asking price went up a lot more, than what he was asking last year. He was a solid LDE, and now that other teams have seen him they will go after him too.
January 21st, 2014 at 11:19 am
Another thing, Bennett only has 8.5 sacks this year. LVD has 6 and he’s a LB. Clayborn had 6 himself, only 2.5 behind Bennett and we can’t wait to run him out of town.
January 21st, 2014 at 11:20 am
Not going to happen. Lovie won’t bring him back and Bennet will not leave a superbowl team behind. He’s fulfilling hiss dreams now.
January 21st, 2014 at 11:23 am
Yet one more Michael Bennett piece….a daily dose….it’s becoming comical. Does he have to lose a leg…pull an Aaron Hernandez or Ray Carruth to drop off the radar screen?
Joe, if you continue to get angry over this, perhaps you need some therapy.
January 21st, 2014 at 11:25 am
To fools that keep saying Schiano may not have been responsible for not bringing back Bennett: Do you honestly believe if he said “Get me Bennett re-signed, he is an integral part of our defense”, Dom would not try to acquire him?
Remember how Dom loves to jump on FAs of interest by approaching them right away and offering them more money than they are actually worth? Jackson, Goldson and effing Eric Wright were approached that way. He also overpaid our own soon to be FAs like Joseph and Mike Williams. And please stop bringing Glazers into the argument that they did not want him. Glazers have never been micromanaging owners like Jerry Jones where they comment on who to acquire and who to let go.
January 21st, 2014 at 11:33 am
To quote Hillary Clinton “what difference does it make now”?
January 21st, 2014 at 11:33 am
The sad thing is we let him go and we had the salary cap room to pay him/bring him back. It was refreshing to hear that Lovie doesn’t want to leave salary cap room for the hell of it. My question is, why have we been doing that for the last ten years or so?
January 21st, 2014 at 11:36 am
Too bad we’re going to have to pay him a ton now that he’s coming off a super bowl where he’s been a significant contributor
January 21st, 2014 at 11:37 am
Bennett again? Stay tuned, there’s probably another Johnny article being put together right now as we type. Are you bored Joe?
January 21st, 2014 at 12:01 pm
I remember when everyone said that Bennett was damage goods and that the “Rock Star” made a great move. What does that say for a franchise that has a player play through injury all year and excels, but does not reward him for his sacrifice. But you pay out the butt for a injured free agent from another team. That makes not darn sense and it sends a bad message to your team.
January 21st, 2014 at 12:02 pm
Hopefully the Bucs sign him back so he can come back to Tampa and get the dog he abandoned at a kennel here and never paid his tab at.
January 21st, 2014 at 12:11 pm
I the Schiano apologists can shut up now!!!! A credible reporter just said the coaching staff did not want Bennett back.
It is amazing how people just defend this clown.
January 21st, 2014 at 12:27 pm
Jonny 2.3
Williams is not overpaid. He earned that paycheck by working his tail off. In order to be great, a WR needs a good QB to throw to him, which is why our WRs looked bad this year.
Jackson passed 1,000 yards with a bad QB. Imagine what he would do with a QB good enough to beat the best in our division (Brees).
The top 3 QBs in the nfl are Manning, Brady and Brees. We are unlucky enough to have one in our division. So we need a QB who has the potential to become elite. Glennon is not that.
Until the Bucs have an above average QB we will not even make the playoffs.
Name the defensive team that doesn’t have an above average QB that made the playoffs. Defense still plays a role, but above average QB plays a huge role as well.
January 21st, 2014 at 12:42 pm
Joe called it with Bennett. I can remember Joe going off when he left and wondering if Joe was overreacting. Turns out Joe was right on the money. It’d be good to see him come back – at the very least, he’s better than any end we have right now.
January 21st, 2014 at 12:43 pm
Dr Miguel prescribes the Clowney cure. Draft Jadaveon and Bennett becomes a “Who’s That?”
Actually, I’m very happy that Michel Bennett went to the Seahawks. If he had stayed, Schiano and Dom would still be here.
A respected veteran was the Little General’s worse nightmare. Remember how Schiano sided with the young rookie, Barron, over the respected team leader, Price. Then, Greg destroyed Brian’s career?
A mediocre college coach turned the Buc’s locker room on it’s ear and tried to destroy the veteran leadership by running off the team’s leaders.
All before the 1st game.
How butch was that?
January 21st, 2014 at 12:57 pm
@Buc1987, just what I was thinking. Good post.
January 21st, 2014 at 1:03 pm
After several years of reading him, I am not sure Yasinskas is in the ”know,” or is just expressing an opinion. Or guess.
January 21st, 2014 at 1:07 pm
@Clowney: I agree that Schiano was and is a Clown like you have in that pic. But you are wrong about Price. May be Price was a leader, but he was a bad, injury prone player that got overdrafted. Price was one of the biggest culprits of the 2011 debacle where teams could run over us at will.
January 21st, 2014 at 1:15 pm
Anyone ever consider that Bennett is playing in one of the leagues best defenses now and not here in ours? He’s never coming back here.
Sorry Joe, I’m not buying in that this was all on Schiano either. The Rockstar wasn’t willing to give Bennett a long term deal anyway.
January 21st, 2014 at 1:29 pm
Thank/Blame Dominick for not having Michael Bennett on the Bucs.
Schiano mentioned Bowers as a 10 sack guy, because his GM undercut him and got rid of his best (only DE) passrusher!
January 21st, 2014 at 1:36 pm
Think about it this way. If we had kept Bennett we may not have Lovie right now. One player cant win games but one player could change a close loss to a close win. Hypothetically, say we won 2 games out of that 0-8 start. Schiano might still be here, and no Lovie.
January 21st, 2014 at 1:50 pm
@Chef Paul: Good one. I am glad Schiano dug his own grave by not wanting Bennett back as much.
January 21st, 2014 at 2:02 pm
Sorry Clowney, I swear I read the comments before I posted, but didn’t see you already said what I posted.
January 21st, 2014 at 2:39 pm
Im happy for Bennet. No way he leaves the Seahawks..I’m happy for Blount and Talib. The past is ashes..forget it..
January 21st, 2014 at 2:49 pm
Not to mention that Bennett was signed by Dominik in the first place. Bennett, like Donald Penn, was one of his guys.
January 21st, 2014 at 2:50 pm
@Jonny 2.3
“May be Price was a leader, but he was a bad, injury prone player that got overdrafted.”
I often look to the movies for lessons we learn in life. The Brian Price story is similar to one of my favorites, “Cool Hand Luke.”
Remember, Robert Newman, getting that beat down. He kept getting up to fight more. The other prisoners were against him, but he kept getting up, kept fighting. He became their unspoken leader that day, leading by example and indomitable spirit.
Brian Price was Cool Hand Luke. Kill his brother, he still got up. Kill his other brother, he still got up. Tear the tendons off his bones, he still got up. Kill his sister, Dude still got up.
The other prisoners were shocked and dismayed at the horrific beating but eventually cheered him on. Though they implored Luke to just stay down, just give up, just quit for God’s sake. Dude still got up.
Brian Price became a leader by example just like the fictional character Robert Newman played except it was real life, where the repeated body blows really suck the life out of you.
Schiano was the prison warden, the “man with no eyes”, the coward who hid behind the reflective aviator glasses and his bolt action rifle.
Luke/Brian was the unspoken leader, the man who the players would look at when the odds were against them. They knew he would never quit, he would always keep fighting. He was their source of courage.
Warden Schiano knew that he would have to destroy Price, to enforce the total police state that was Rutgers. He used Brian’s indomitable spirit against him knowing that he could never survive the brutal and unnecessary 16 X 110 yards gauntlet sprints.
Like Luke running for freedom, with a ball and chain around his ankle, Brian ran as hard as he could until the 4th sprint when his leg popped audibly.
Like the bullet the warden put in Cool Hand Luke’s brain, the coward shipped the team’s spiritual leader off to Chicago, where grit and determination are still revered.
Luke’s legend lived on, as did Brian’s, the Buc’s would not quit but the “man with no eyes” had sealed his own doom.
January 21st, 2014 at 3:53 pm
Bennett, Blount and Talib are gone and will not be back. Bennett being the biggest lose. Both Talib and Blount tend to fade away in big moments. Talib always gets hurt in big games or crucial situations. Blount is a beast in short stretches then is a non factor.
January 21st, 2014 at 4:25 pm
“Like the bullet the warden put in Cool Hand Luke’s brain”
SPOILER ALERT!!! Some of us haven’t seen it yet. Jeeze!!
January 21st, 2014 at 5:10 pm
Chef Paul, the film has been out since Johnson was prez–how long does it take??
Or did they re-make it??
January 21st, 2014 at 5:40 pm
@Clowney: Wow, did not know Luke dies at the end. Nice comparison for lolz, especially the Schiano-Warden part.
January 21st, 2014 at 8:37 pm
MikeJ, No they didn’t remake it. I’ve just been busy lately.
January 22nd, 2014 at 7:34 am
Smoke it up here boss man?