It Takes Blocking, Too
August 14th, 2014
Ornery Alan Dell of the Bradenton Herald believes the Bucs sorely need Austin Seferian-Jenkins to block.
One cool things about this past training camp — Joe let his baseball fandom get the best of him yesterday while appearing with his good friend, “The Big Dog,” Steve Duemig of WDAE-AM 620, and slipped up calling training camp “spring training — is the impression tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins has made on everyone watching.
With apologies for being repetitive, ASJ is a freaking monster. He is a complete and total mismatch over the middle. But it isn’t just his hulking physical size that has won Joe over. No, Joe is more than impressed with ASJ’s attitude.
No, Joe is not referring to “‘tude,” where posers act like the toughest guy on the block when they haven’t done squat in the NFL, whoofing all the time. No, ASJ has standards. And blocking is one of them.
As far as blocking is concerned, ornery Alan Dell of the Bradenton Herald believes ASJ better learn to block if he is going to help out his teammates.
After what we saw in the Bucs’ preseason opener last week at Jacksonville, Seferian-Jenkins might need security clearance to block for McCown because it looked as if the Bucs offensive line was working for the enemy.
Seferian-Jenkins has a nice touch of finesse and athleticism to go with his man-beast look. The rookie from the University of Washington just needs more reps.
He is a big guy with soft hands, the type that is making the NFL tight end pay scale rise to new heights.
More impressive than ASJ’s pass-catching ability is his standards. One day last week after practice, Joe talked to ASJ after a decent practice, with some nice catches over the middle against hopeless linebackers. ASJ would have none of it. He griped that his footwork was terrible and that was why he had a bad day blocking. When Joe said he thought ASJ had a good day catching the ball, ASJ looked right into Joe’s eyes and firmly said, “I didn’t come here just to be good.”
Damn! Joe just loved that!
This guy, ASJ, has some serious expectations of himself. Good is not good enough. Love it! If ASJ becomes the well-rounded player strives to be, and what the team could sorely use, then fans absolutely are going to fall in love with this guy.
August 14th, 2014 at 8:06 am
The first two rounds of the draft went exactly how I wanted them to, I was telling my co-worker before the draft how I wanted Evans in the first, ASJ in the second, too bad we couldn’t land a guy to develope at QB like Murray or Logan Thomas.
August 14th, 2014 at 8:07 am
Develop*
August 14th, 2014 at 8:08 am
Pretty sure there is no game tape of Jimmy Graham ever blocking in line…
August 14th, 2014 at 8:14 am
@flmike I think Wright will play more of the Graham role. We are looking for ASJ to be Gronk. He has the potential
August 14th, 2014 at 8:25 am
They’re not going to be able to keep this guy off the field. Tim Wright is not a blocker…and for those of you who don’t already know…being a slow white guy doesn’t mean you’re a good blocker. Brandon Myers is an awful blocker. So what are they gonna do? Keep ASJ off the field and play Stocker? I think not. ASJ will see the most playing time out of any of the tight ends this season. He has the tools to be a good blocker and frankly he can’t be worse than our other two options.
August 14th, 2014 at 8:26 am
Nice to see that “absence makes the heart grow fonder for somebody else….” as it is now apparent that Johnny Football is a distant glow in Joe’s heart and that his new “mancrush” is in full bloom with ASJ, and why not? The dude has three names!
August 14th, 2014 at 8:31 am
Right on joe!
August 14th, 2014 at 8:34 am
ASJ will improve his blocking as I suspect everything else will improve….because that’s who he is……when that happens, we’ll have a top notch starter. We need some blocking from our TEs & WRs because I suspect we will try to run outside and have a lot of RB & WR screens……
August 14th, 2014 at 8:41 am
Please don’t forget that ASJ got a late start and missed all his OTA training, so just learning our playbook is a big accomplishment for him. He will be one of the top TEs in the NFL eventually.
August 14th, 2014 at 8:59 am
Now that’s a Buc player to be excited about with all the others. Everyone is so anxious for a winner here, with all the changes and optimism, that anything less than success will bring the negative pile on after last weeks example. That pothole will be patched. Go Bucs!!
August 14th, 2014 at 9:09 am
“I didn’t come here just to be good.”
LOVE this!! This is the mentality we need! All the talk about how Lovie preaches greatness and perfection, ASJ fits that mold. Can’t wait to see him on Sundays when it counts.
August 14th, 2014 at 9:36 am
Here’s the weekly stupid obvious article and it’s not Joe fault for the predictable but seriously I think if our horrible o line is still learning to block and that’s all they do surely we can give this rookie a break considering the time he missed in the off season. No one even some of Tim Wright’s blocking ability, he’s gonna be the man in Tampa
August 14th, 2014 at 12:21 pm
At what point will the ASJ man love surpass the Manziel man love?
Or has it already?
August 14th, 2014 at 2:38 pm
buc4lyfe. I cannot make any sense out of your last sentence at all. Please edit it.