Disturbing “Lack Of Effort”
November 26th, 2014
Former Buccaneers quarterback Shaun King wagged a very firm finger of shame at two current Bucs veterans.
One of three QBs to lead the Bucs to the NFC Championship game, King hopped on the WDAE-AM 620 airwaves today and blasted two of the Bucs’ big-money free agent signings for not trying regularly.
“I understand why [Lovie Smith and Jason Licht] like Anthony Collins and Michael Johnson. And I do think it goes down as a miss in their book from an evaluation standpoint, but I think it’s more on the player. The one thing that has really disturbed me about Collins and Johnson is their lack of effort,” King said. “They haven’t played with a high motor. They haven’t played with great energy and effort down in and down out. And that’s what’s disappointing for me.
“The physical aspect of the game, listen, the other guys on the other side of the football get paid. You’re gonna win some; you’re gonna lose some. But I challenge the Bucs fan base this week, just watch Michael Johnson every snap, and you’ll be extremely disappointed in his lack of effort from series to series.”
Johnson, especially, has been extraordinarily inconsistent and invisible, and that dates back to training camp. Joe has a feeling Collins will have his arrow reversed and pointing up by the end of the season, but his performance in Chicago didn’t offer much hope.
You can enjoy all of King’s Bucs takes today below via the 620wdae.com audio player.
November 26th, 2014 at 4:03 pm
Yeah, I’ve seen Michael Johnson give up on numerous plays this season. Which sucks because I was counting on him to provide some extra juice to our pass rush this year. Oh well, hopefully L&L be more wary of signing one season wonders after all of the fail signings this year, looking at you McCown and Collins.
November 26th, 2014 at 4:05 pm
Oh and Deitrich-Smith
November 26th, 2014 at 4:13 pm
i thought these guys were graded on effort on every snap. it’s even more disturbing if they are getting alot of loaf grades but still are entrenched as starters (in Collins’ case; thank goodness they rewarded J Smith’s effort at DE)
November 26th, 2014 at 4:20 pm
I gave Johnson the benefit of the doubt early on, but no more. I always watch our defensive line instead of the QB, because I believe that if we can get push, we will be dominant defensively. I always start by watching McCoy, but my eyes kept being drawn to Johnson, due to the fact that the QB is often times being pushed towards him by McCoy, but he has absolutely no sense of urgency to get to the ball. He’s getting sacks handed to him, but he’s putting forth piss poor effort. Also, when the ball gets by him, he does a half jog after the ball. There are literally 2-3 plays PER SERIES where he should be benched for lack of effort. I can’t think of any player I’ve ever seen give a lower effort than Johnson. It is on Lovie and the rest of the coaches to sit his arse down and let him know this is not acceptable.
November 26th, 2014 at 4:22 pm
blakejohnson
deitrich-smith and mankins are just used to getting ref love. when you come and play for tampa, you wont get away with all the blatant holding and blocking in the back calls that you got away with in new england and greenbay.
but there both good linemen.
November 26th, 2014 at 4:23 pm
As for Collins, I don’t see a lack of effort, I just see a bad football player. He appears to be trying to me, but he appears to have about the same talent level as me (to be clear, I don’t have much talent). He gets beaten nearly every play, as does the rest of our OL.
November 26th, 2014 at 4:38 pm
Just cut these clowns and cut are loses they stink
November 26th, 2014 at 4:41 pm
“Shaun King, one of two Buc Quarterbacks that lost a NFC Championship Game when his defense gave up 11 or fewer points.”
November 26th, 2014 at 4:51 pm
They’re going to be here next year at least. Would be pretty humiliating for Lovie and Licht to cut their top two FA acquisitions after a year (plus the dead cap space element)
November 26th, 2014 at 4:54 pm
I don’t see how you can be optimistic about either of those guys.
Bust and bustier.
November 26th, 2014 at 4:55 pm
Johnson is an expensive disappointment. JSmith is a pleasant surprise. Love to see AC come back. At least we’d see some effort on DE.
November 26th, 2014 at 4:55 pm
EDS is bustiest.
November 26th, 2014 at 4:58 pm
How much did our OL improve? Is Collins > Penn? Hmmm! Is EDS > Zuttah? Hmmm! Is Omameh > Joseph? Hmmm!
Not for nothing but I’d take all three back, yeah including Penn, over what we have.
Johnson has been a colossal waste. That about sums it up!
November 26th, 2014 at 5:16 pm
people talk about finding gems in free agency and on practice squads but everybody is killing lovie because he missed on Anthony Collins and Michael Johnson guys who were being pursued by other teams and considered top free agents by most. they got here and disappointed ok it happens to every team.
the only knock on Anthony Collins even one I heard joe say was that he wasn’t an every down player and only had limited snaps, if your playing good in limited stats why should you be a huge failure if you start. I think the reason you miss on free agents is the same reason you miss on players in the draft you cant measure their desire to be great and the want to, you cant measure their personality and work effort from one free agent visit knowing the teams don’t want them to leave town when they come. it’s on Michael Johnson and Collins more than anyone else evaluating, they went jamarcus Russell on lovie got money and got complacent. those are players you would take a chance on but everyone else is judging hindsight now and all of a sudden are smarter than lovie and licht because you get to judge what they did after but no one was complaining much in the beginning. but fans forget they wanted the oline we had last year gone. where he gets no pass is zuttah because if nothing else the guy was depth and played just about every position on the line
November 26th, 2014 at 5:25 pm
So Collins has no effort and no motor….hmmm
Meanwhile, Brandon Scherff pushes guys 15 yards downfield with one arm like they are a gawd damn tackling sled on wheels!!
November 26th, 2014 at 5:26 pm
Why wear themselves out, they have guarantee contracts.
November 26th, 2014 at 5:45 pm
I want to see every Black coach succeed but I have to admit that coach Warhop has been a big disappointment for this staff. I want him to try something because he is fighting for his job/career. Try something like move Collins to LG, Mankins to C, EDS to RG, and start the rookie Kevin Pamphil at LT. Every player on this O-line can’t be terrible, can’t be. The defense has improved all season and the special teams needs a punter so it seems like every coach is trying to do his job but Warhop is just not that good. I read an article that proved that Warhop has sucked at every team he coached for, DO SOMETHING MAN!!!!!!!!
November 26th, 2014 at 5:50 pm
I thought Lovie was suppose to alleviate these type of issues???
November 26th, 2014 at 5:57 pm
I agree with the Johnson lack of effort. I DID watch him and noticed that after the initial rush he stopped to look where the play was going and if it was going away from him he just stopped and watched. Not one little bit of explosion in him.
November 26th, 2014 at 6:03 pm
I think both those guys are battling injury. Sure the team can say they are healthy, but that’s a relative term. I’ve seen plenty of players play like garbage, which these guys are doing no doubt, only to find out after the season that they had really tough injuries they were playing over. If they are just good enough to play, the team certainly isn’t going to advertise that they are nursing an injury.
And with no depth on the team, you still might take one of these guys at 50% of their potential effectiveness, but they are going to look like garbage. Better than hot garbage.
Or maybe they are busts, time will tell.
November 26th, 2014 at 6:16 pm
Shaun King, one of three QBs to be dragged by the Bucs defense, kicking and screaming, to the NFC Championship game.
November 26th, 2014 at 6:21 pm
@Zam Excellent point. We don’t know the severity of their injuries.
Lack of effort is the most serious charge you can make. I find it even worse than choking.
Imagine though how hard you’d be motivated to work if you just cashed in ten million in guaranteed money. Would that be a distraction? How much would you be focused on your job if you had that ten million in the bank and it was too late for anybody to take it back from you.
This is what I hate about today’s professional sports scene. I don’t mind players making HUGE salaries. However I wish it was more like golf or Nascar where the athletes pay was dramatically effected by performance.
If it’s a players UNION why don’t they act like a union. They should be bargaining for everybody not just the stars. I wish a significant % of all players salaries came from the playoff pool. The farther you make it in the playoffs the more you make. And I mean it should be substantial and relative to what the players normally make. Giving a guy with a ten million annual salary 92,000 for WINNING the Super Bowl and 49,000 for the loser is a joke. The fine for not speaking the media is larger than that!!!
Winning in the NFL is largely irrelevant when it comes to players salaries.
November 26th, 2014 at 6:26 pm
There’s Mike Evans and then there are a lot of swing and misses for L & L. That’s fact. I hope for some home runs next year. I’m a Lovie fan and I know he is better than this. If we don’t see drastic improvement next year then I will jump on the Fire Lovie bandwagon but I’m not going to overreact to Lovie’s first year. My money is on this being a way better team next year.
November 26th, 2014 at 6:35 pm
@ “that guy” i don’t buy that at all, I’ve seen much fail from EDS, everything from low/high snaps, having a mental breakdown in ATL, and absolutely getting man-handled by scrub d-lineman. He gives our running game Zero push and is barely service-able as a pass blocker. To me his been a huge bust of a FA.
November 26th, 2014 at 6:50 pm
I have little to no confidence in Lovie when it come to personnel decisions. Lovie is having the same issues with the Bucs that he had with the Bears, he has no clue when evaluating quarterbacks and offensive linemen. Look back at all those teams in Chicago while the defense was great and they had good skill position players he could never find good O-linemen or quarterbacks.
November 26th, 2014 at 6:51 pm
Not only does Sherman Klump get paid to judge BBQ competitions but he also gets paid to talk garbage. He should put the ribs down and put some effort into what he’s saying. An analyst putting zero effort into his work just like EDS MJ Collins etc…
November 26th, 2014 at 6:54 pm
Perhaps the worst single group of free agent signings by a team in the history of the NFL.
Also, is that Shaun King or the guy that ate Shaun King?
November 26th, 2014 at 8:03 pm
Chef Paul, did I read somewhere that Scherff had knee surgery & played the next game anyway, or something like that??Oh, here it is:
”Scherff injured his knee in Week 2 against Northern Iowa and had a minor surgical procedure a few days after the game. He was expected to miss a few games, but Scherff didn’t miss one as he played in Iowa’s loss to Iowa State. ” http://walterfootball.com/draft2015bigboard.php
But he looks like an ORT.
November 26th, 2014 at 8:51 pm
I challenge buc fans to look to the left of johnson on every play and see what you see. The only DLs who fight until the whistle blows are McDonald smith and gholston.
November 26th, 2014 at 11:31 pm
Thank God!!!someone who actually WATCHES the game and occasionally rewinds to watch again!!! Johnson notoriously takes plays off !!!
I used to think he had containment on the flats when he was looking like he was making out with the tight end or tackle….until week 5 where I finally realized NO, he just doesn’t give a sh-!!i
I would pay triple the season ticket price if I could just sit in the tape room ONCE after a typical game where this clown plays patty cake with a lineman and major wright fails to cover anything….
November 27th, 2014 at 9:40 am
This is looking like a really strong draft in 2015 for edge rushers.
November 27th, 2014 at 7:15 pm
King talking about effort is laughable. As if he knows anything about it. If only the Bucs showed the same effort that King does getting through the buffet line or the drive-through.
November 28th, 2014 at 2:17 am
why work hard for your money this pinhead coach doesn’t