“We Struggled Through It”
June 7th, 2016
Guard Ali Marpet speaks
Is it reasonable to expect a first-year NFL player to make a massive leap in his second season?
The Bucs would be one scary-good football team if that holds true in 2016, given all their rookies that contributed last year.
There’s always a lot of buzz about how players enjoy their greatest development from Year 1 to Year 2 in the league. The Bucs’ stud young offensive linemen, Ali Marpet and Donovan Smith, might be primed to join that club.
Per Marpet’s comments on the Buccaneers Radio Network late last year, he and Smith didn’t have it easy when it came to learning the offense.
“We struggled through it. It’s lucky that we did, because we’re starting to get it down now [in mid-December],” Marpet said.
Joe admits to salivating. Smith and Marpet did damn good jobs for guys who “struggled” and were beginning to get a good feel in December. That sure bodes well for 2016.
Marpet went on to say center Joe Hawley was a such an impressive communicator on the line, it kept Marpet focused and helped him adjust.
June 7th, 2016 at 5:46 am
Great stuff. I really like our o-line regardless of what the spreadsheeters say.
June 7th, 2016 at 5:49 am
The O-Line should be a strength this season, with the steady progression of Smith & Marpet, Hawley’s a vet, Sweeney’s a vet, if we can get one of those rookies to take the right tackle job in training camp, this line could be a Punishing Factor for years to come!
June 7th, 2016 at 5:56 am
I’m as optimistic as anyone about 2016 Joe, but these anticipated “massive leaps” in productivity are getting a tad over-the-top. I keep seeing that Jameis is poised, Marpet is poised as is Donovan Smith. The list goes on and on, with Kenny Bell and Mike Evans hopefully catching everything thrown their way, and oh can’t forget ASJ’s rebound. And that’s just on the offensive side of the football.
On the defensive side everyone seems to expect that CBs Verner and Banks are going to show massive improvement over last year … for starters. Add in that we’ll have at least 2 rookies in starting slots (maybe more) plus several key players returning from injury. Throw in a very tough schedule and HC Koetter has a lot on his plate. As I said, I’m optimistic, but don’t want to see fans and writers turn on Coach if the Bucs don’t win handily right out of the gate. Chemistry takes time to develop in my experience, and a lot of new pieces need to fit together.
June 7th, 2016 at 7:00 am
It’s a good day to practice outdoors today. The whole weather is an advantage thing …
June 7th, 2016 at 7:43 am
Donovan Smith with all his apparent short comings seems to be WAY better than Kenyatta Walker was… Still early, but the guy seems to be playing like a vet and dosen’t ever seem to get flustered. Both guys have maturity beyond their years, and that seems to be a trait developing under GM Licht with the players we have drafted during his tenure.
June 7th, 2016 at 7:48 am
Projected Depth
LT Donovan Smith | Kevin Pamphile
LG J.R. Sweezy | Ben Gottschalk
C Joe Hawley | Evan Smith
RG Ali Marpet | Caleb Benenoch
RT Demar Dotson | Gosder Cherilus
Practice Squad
61 Josh Allen C (24) 6-3 315 1 Louisiana Monroe
60 Dominique Robertson OG (21) 6-5 324 R West Georgia
72 Garrett Gilkey OG (25) 6-6 315 4 Chadron State
Tha Youngstas’
74 Caleb Benenoch OT (21) 6-5 305 R UCLA
76 Donovan Smith OT (22) 6-6 338 2 Penn State
74 Ali Marpet OG (23) 6-4 307 2 Hobart
72 Ben Gottschalk C (24) 6-5 293 1 SMU
64 Kevin Pamphile OT (25) 6-5 310 3 Purdue
Tha Vets
64 J.R. Sweezy G (27) 6-5 298 5 NC State
68 Joe Hawley C (27) 6-3 302 7 UNLV
62 Evan Smith C (29) 6-2 308 7 Idaho State
69 Demar Dotson OT (30) 6-9 315 8 Southern Mississippi
78 Gosder Cherilus OT (31) 6-7 316 9 Boston College
June 7th, 2016 at 7:55 am
Can someone point to a more talented, deeper OL group in Bucs history?
June 7th, 2016 at 8:12 am
Cobraboy
2008 is the only one – that comes remotely close
2008
LT Donald Penn | Anthony Davis
LG Arron Sears | Jeremy Zuttah
C Jeff Faine | —
RG Davin Joseph | Sean Mahan
RT Jeremy Trueblood | James Lee
Side Bar: One of the saddest things in Buccaneer History.
Was to see Arron Sears – Robbed of his mental faculties.
Too young & Talented
June 7th, 2016 at 9:37 am
:sigh:
Aaron Sears. What a sad case…
I liked Trueblood, but wasn’t he like Mr. Inconsistent? Mr. Illegal Procedure? Most Buc fans ran him out of town on a rail…
June 7th, 2016 at 9:51 am
I think there might be a temporary drop off on the O-line. They did loose their veteran leader and I have not seen who on the OL is picking up the slack.
I do like the cross training along the line, when the injury bug hits, and it will. It will negate a big drop off in performance.
Even with a small temporary drop off to start the season, I still think O-Line is one of the strengths on the team. I just want to see the penalties go away. Most of the hits Jameis took last year was on him being a rookie and overthinking. As Jameis gets better the O-line and their pass protection gets better and vice versa.
June 7th, 2016 at 10:24 am
I always thought the biggest jump was from year 2 to year 3.
June 7th, 2016 at 12:10 pm
I became a huge Mongo fan during last year’s pre-season game against the Bengals. Geno was feeling him out,Mongo was holding is own. Geno decided to Bull Rush with everything he had on one particular play. He collided into Mongo like a sumo wrestler,Mongo’s slid back a step or two before his strength took hold. He stood Geno str8 on that play until JW released the ball. I was d@$! this boy raw as hell.
June 7th, 2016 at 12:28 pm
Its hard to believe that OLine was such a concern/question mark just one year ago at this time. Between Licht finding talent and Koetter/Warhop coaching them up – the turnaround from bad Oline to pretty good Oline in just a few months time is rather astonishing.
If the the same transformation happens on the other side of the ball and the DLine changes from inadequate to pretty good this year – this team is on its way to great things!!
#EXCITED
June 7th, 2016 at 1:53 pm
I concur Pick.