Koetter: Bucs Hit “Jackpot”
November 18th, 2015
Bucs rookie left tackle Donovan Smith gets love from Dirk Koetter.
Virtually anyone who knows the difference between a goal post and a down marker knows Ali Marpet has exceeded expectations for a rookie from a Division-III school. Joe suspects even the PFF crowd can see this.
But the play of fellow rookie Donovan Smith has come along as well. The left tackle held his own against that piece of human debris Greg Hardy last Sunday.
Smith’s play had Bucs offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter crowing today. When referring to the two rookie offensive linemen, Koetter said the Bucs “hit the jackpot.”
Joe can’t disagree. In an era where NFL sophists like Pat Kirwan and Bill Polian rail at how current practice rules prevent the development of young offensive linemen, the Bucs have bucked the trend.
Joe suspects if not for Marpet and Smith, the Bucs wouldn’t be sniffing a potential playoff run.
November 18th, 2015 at 1:42 pm
Licht for GM of the year. Maybe it’ll help him get an endorsement deal with a local dry cleaning service.
November 18th, 2015 at 1:45 pm
Agreed! And I stand proud, like a Father in watching Ali Marpet….the Don of the O line. I was beating this forum down in campaigning for us to draft him lol. And heres your results….you’re welcome Mr. Licht. Now keep paying attention to me. Spend that 1st on a WR….the rest on D.
November 18th, 2015 at 2:07 pm
That’s just fantastic! Now we’ve hit the bigtime in the USA. The bandwagon will be overflowing.
November 18th, 2015 at 2:17 pm
With anything of importance in life you want to do your best to protect it. Well jaboo is our biggest responsibility and we must do our best to protect him . That is why i believe the bucs will draft a true left tackle and slide d.smith inside to left guard and release mankins. Then i think the way that will be done is drafting a defensive player 1st at their draft position and then trading their 2nd and mike glennon to get back into the 1st and draft a real left tackle. Im not taking anything from d.smith, just think our line would be much much better with him inside and someone with better feet outside
November 18th, 2015 at 2:18 pm
Pretty good job for a “lapdog GM” right DallasBuc?
Oh wait they had #1 pick so it was impossible to screw up the draft right Realist? Having the first pick obviously made the decision to jump up and grab Ali Marpet easy. It obviously is why we got Kwon in the 4th.
Winston,Evans,Marpet,Sims,Smith,Kwon in 2 drafts. ASJ still could come through. Kenny Bell may even have chance next year. 6-7 impact players; half of which look like future probowlers already. It really doesn’t get much better than that
November 18th, 2015 at 2:23 pm
If he gets a 3rd draft in a row like the first two, I say we rename Dale Mabry to Jason Licht Highway and make the day he was hired a local holiday complete with a parade of all of the great draft picks he’s brought to Tampa.
November 18th, 2015 at 2:51 pm
Playing all these rookies is the absolute best thing for them and the team……Smith, Marpet, Winston, Kwon….all have to be gaining confidence with every game.
I’m not sure whether our 1st pick should be WR…..I’m thinking DE, CB, S….and pick up an experienced WR in FA…
I’m also for spending later round picks to move up.
I think we have the money and can keep Mankins for another year or restrucure him for 2…..pick up a 1st round Olineman in 17.
November 18th, 2015 at 2:53 pm
restructure Mankins 2yrs…..8mil….or let him go…he won’t get $4mil on the open market and I think he knows it…..he is set to make $7….but it is not guaranteed.
November 18th, 2015 at 3:18 pm
And yet there are people on here that keep bashing young Donovan Smith for bad footwork and blah, blah, blah. He is a rookie out there on an island at left tackle and held J.J Watt and Greg Hardy sackless, this guy has attitude. It may not be pretty all the time, but he keeps guys off his quarterback and that is all that matters.
November 18th, 2015 at 3:19 pm
@ Patrick in va, how was lichts first draft good? Asj, heron, pamphile, Edwards? Only 1 player has done anything. Pamphile and him barely. This years draft a+ so far.
November 18th, 2015 at 3:45 pm
Ever heard of Mike Evans? Charles Sims?
November 18th, 2015 at 3:47 pm
@Brent – i guess mike Evans doesn’t count. Sims has been solid this year. Asj was not a bad pick. Biggest knock on him is that he can’t stay on the field. When he plays he’s a factor. Can’t knock licht for that.
November 18th, 2015 at 3:47 pm
Licht needs total control of all roster moves and Lovie should focus on winning.
November 18th, 2015 at 3:49 pm
Licht is the man ! he knows whats up
November 18th, 2015 at 3:56 pm
@Brent, I like how you left out Evans and Sims.
November 18th, 2015 at 3:58 pm
If my comments are indirectly being targeted let me clarify…
Your goal as a gm is to always put a productive product on the field year to year . Then you must keep the budget correct. Then draft well etc… Im not bashing d.smith by no means . Actually love the way he plays . im just saying if you move him over to guard and draft a left tackle you can dump mankins 7mil and let your line grown together for years on top of years. Could you imagine…
Lt. 1st pick
Lg. D. Smith
Center. J.Hawley
Rg. Ali Tron
Rt. K .Pamphlin
Thats a all-star o-line that wont cost us more than 7mil a year for the next 3 to 4 yrs
November 18th, 2015 at 4:13 pm
@Tampabaybucsfan … “I’m not sure whether our 1st pick should be WR…..I’m thinking DE, CB, S….and pick up an experienced WR in FA.”
Totally agree. Our biggest weakness right now is at DE. We’ve got no option but to pick up a beast to pressure QBs; maybe 2 DEs. Next year at WR we should have VJax, Evans, Murphy, Bell and several others (I still love Humphries). That’s not our greatest need. At CB we’ve got Moore (only 26), Jude AB (only 23), Verner (26) and Banks (26) … we could use another CB for sure, but not with a high draft pick. Conte (26) and McDougald (25) are both keepers at Safety, but we could certainly use to draft another and maybe pick up one more in FA. Now that many of these guys have got 1-2 years under their belt, the quality of their defense should continue to improve rapidly.
Picking up another OLineman in the 2016 draft is a good idea, but defense has to be our focus on days 1 & 2 especially.
November 18th, 2015 at 4:40 pm
@Brent
Don’t forget about Simms…
November 18th, 2015 at 5:08 pm
If be happy with DE/DE in rounds 1/2 honestly lol.
November 18th, 2015 at 5:49 pm
True Evans is good. Simms I left out but is he good? I’d say average. Pamphile has potential but hasn’t played much. Asj I’m gonna say he’s a bad pick cause I don’t think he’ll ever be a durable pick. That was the knock on him in college. I’d give that draft a c. Evans only good player. Simms and pamphile seem average. Nobody else made the team.
November 18th, 2015 at 6:38 pm
Just think because of David Carr and the Texican’ts everybody was saying ‘ ooooh you can’t throw a rookie to the wolves, it’ll stunt his growth’ . How many times did he get sacked like 200 times???Now look at our Bucs sitting not half bad with rooks & 2nd year players heading our offense. If ASJ can finally stay healthy and we get a speed burner who can catch, this offense can grow to be electrifying. The Best Show On Grass! One advantage Lovie has over Chucky is he has no problem with trusting and coaching up his rookies.
November 19th, 2015 at 5:37 am
Props to George Warhop. Having an offensive coordinator and actual gameplan on Sundays surely helps also
November 19th, 2015 at 8:40 am
That’s real talk Warren,Warhop caught quite a bit of flack after last season good to see him as his “Warthogs” redeem themselves this season. Salute-George Warhop.
November 19th, 2015 at 6:26 pm
Yeah man…credit where it’s due…I was one of those blaming Warhop for our sieve of an O-line last year so the guy deserves a ton of credit