One Defensive Snap For Alterraun Verner
October 12th, 2016
The Alterraun Verner story is writing its final Tampa chapter.
Verner had just one snap on defense on Monday night — the Bucs’ season saving effort. That’s a quite a freefall for the former Pro Bowler signed by the Bucs to replace Darrelle Revis in 2014.
This season, Verner lost his outside cornerback job to rookie Vernon Hargreaves, and then he lost the nickel corner battle to Hey Jude Adjei-Barimah. With a $6.75 million salary, Verner represents the opposite of whatever good roster value is.
Obviously, Verner will have a new team or a new career next season. It just hasn’t worked out here.
In some ways, this is great news. Adjei-Barimah appears to have made that Year 2 leap coaches hope for from all rookies, and he earns about $6 million less than Verner. Plus, Verner’s salary will free up significant Team Glazer loot to attack free agency.
October 12th, 2016 at 5:30 am
Hopefully he benchs Chris Conte next. Playing as bad as verner, if not worse.
October 12th, 2016 at 5:56 am
With his 6.75 mil and VJax 10 mil coming off the books, that money could be used to bolster the D line, secondary, or WR slots.
October 12th, 2016 at 6:52 am
Joe, I’m not sure how you find good news in this. Bucs secondary has been woeful this year, and not just the safeties. VH3 is playing great I think … for a rookie. He’s still got a lot of learning to do though to become a shutdown corner. He’s been in on over 95% of the snaps through 5 games, has done really good at tackling (over 4 TKLs/game), but still no INTs. Grimes has also played nearly every snap, and has a grand total of 1 INT … a game-saver to be sure. He seems to get picked on more than VH3, and for good reason I think. Right now the Bucs don’t seem to have anyone ‘waiting in the wings’ to replace him though.
Personally think the reason Jude eclipsed Verner over these last 2 games is because he’s a much better tackler and covers just as well. Alterraun played about half of each of the first 3 games, and had a grand total of 2 tackles. Jude has doubled that in these last 2 games, and seems better suited for the nickel position. But reality is that the Bucs have short CBs who lack elite speed … not a great combo. I’m sure that Mike Smith’s getting the most he can out of this group, but it’s not a Top-10 secondary by any means.
October 12th, 2016 at 7:02 am
Attack free agency? That’s worked out so well with Licht in charge. Would still like to know the truth behind IR Sneezy. My guess is the facts cast our fragile and fevered ego GM in a poor light and he can’t take it. So we are just not gonna talk about it because that’s how healthy adults manage problems.
October 12th, 2016 at 7:46 am
thunderchunkyPA Says: great perspective, would love to have about $17MM to chase WR2(speed), safety thumper and DE sack master.
October 12th, 2016 at 7:53 am
DallasBuc – Thats just silly and obnoxious. The season is young, Bucs are 2-3 with a very difficult part of the schedule behind us and the bye week comes at a perfect time to get a break and get some guys healthy. We are 2-0 in the division and still in the thick of it. The glass should still be half full man.
October 12th, 2016 at 8:02 am
Dreambig- which part is silly and obnoxious…the sarcasm or the facts?
October 12th, 2016 at 8:15 am
Dallasbuc way to start the day under a positive light…..you would think ppl would be less stressed first thing in the morning
October 12th, 2016 at 8:18 am
Bench Conte and have happened when he stepped off the field for a minor injury and his backup got torched by the Rams?
October 12th, 2016 at 8:25 am
THE Bucs have the most cap space in the NFL for 2017. The Bucs need to really build some depth and a few defensive impact players with the upcoming free agency period.
October 12th, 2016 at 8:26 am
man, what happened to this guy?
October 12th, 2016 at 8:48 am
Quality depth or average starters is the most you usually can get in free agency, not Pro Bowlers. I don’t care how much cap room the Bucs have next year. Chasing the big names doesn’t usually work out. It’s the second wave of free agency where teams get the most help. And that’s relatively cheap.
October 12th, 2016 at 9:11 am
We have the depth….if we can save some money, go ahead and cut him now…..we have Banks & Robinson riding pine.
October 12th, 2016 at 9:16 am
Many of you thought Verner and Banks’ regression were solely because of the previous coach. Turns out neither of them are good enough to play on this team and, very likely, the NFL.
October 12th, 2016 at 9:23 am
Banks has hardly played this season so jury’s out on him. I remember his rookie season. He was just as good as Mark Barron. I hope Smith plays every player he inherited. Sure that’s on the agenda. Kudos to him, DK and the defense for the win Monday night. Go Bucs!!
October 12th, 2016 at 9:24 am
I felt terrible for our secondary watching that Monday night game. If they don’t do something drastic to improve the pass rush this offseason heads should roll. I don’t care if Spence is developing, let him develop behind somebody that can get close enough to a QB to at least reach for him.
Pass rush and recievers, we need alot of both.
October 12th, 2016 at 9:45 am
It’s ok Dallas, in an insane world , the sane must appear insane.
October 12th, 2016 at 9:46 am
Why not train him these next two weeks during the off week at safety?
Worth a shot
October 12th, 2016 at 9:58 am
Not surprised, said he would lose his job to VG3 by week 4 or 5 a few months ago. Verner is overpaid and frankly, not very good. We could use his depth on the roster but I wouldn’t resign him for the money comparable to his current contract.
October 12th, 2016 at 10:16 am
I just think this is a matter of Jude quietly playing great ball in the nickel.
October 12th, 2016 at 10:17 am
gotbucs:
You are 100% correct.
2017 free agency at this point does not have a ton at WR, but does have some impact defensive backs and defensive lineman.
I said this before the season started.
The Bucs have playoff caliber starters but the back half of roster is in the bottom five of the NFL.
Unfortunately for us we have had a ton of injuries already and this has exposed this problem.
Luckily most of the Bucs injuries are not year ending.
Players like Stephan Gilmore CB for the Bills
Eric Berry FS for the Chiefs
Matt Elam SS for the Ravens
Marquise Goodwin WR for the Bills(has world class speed)
and
JPP DE from the Giants
all could be potentially good fits for the Bucs.
October 12th, 2016 at 10:18 am
I was really hoping Mike Smith could bring him back to form. Oh well. Best to save space and keep going.
October 12th, 2016 at 10:34 am
How, How, How can it be that a opponent player gains 181 yards in 9 catches and our player be not ridiculed and scrutinized?
Can this actually happen?
Greg Olsen caught 9 catches for 181 fken yards and our beloved LVD and wait……
the greatest present linebacker in the NFL….wait…..
GREAT KWON!!
Nothing on these 2 BOZOs?
OMFG!!
It starts with accountability
October 12th, 2016 at 10:43 am
If I’ve said it once, I’ve repeated it a zillion times here. Verner, banks and Conte should be working at McDonalds along with that wide receiver Bell. They should have gone last year.
October 12th, 2016 at 10:59 am
Just like you said on Jeff Cameron, Joe… I think there is a major roster turnover coming this offseason. Verner, Banks, Conte, Jackson… all likely gone. Not sure about bigger names, like McCoy or David, but I wouldn’t be shocked at this point if they drop one of those names, too. The Great Loser Purge is nigh!
And, to think, if only Lovie Smith was able to nab Rod Marinelli from Dallas… laugh if you want, but he likely would have left the defense to his good friend Marinelli, and all these guys may still be here in 2017. Oh well!
October 12th, 2016 at 11:10 am
Verner looked solid bordering sharp in OTAs, training camp and preseason.
I wonder if he regressed since then – or if Hargreaves and Hey Jude are just playing better in the coaches eyes?
October 12th, 2016 at 11:27 am
Pickgrin, I thought the same thing about Verner in OTAs and preseason. He played over half of the snaps in the first 3 games, but we all knew that VH3 & Grimes would end up being the outside starters once VH3 was ready. Jude’s the one who’s come on strong it looks like, and a large part of that I think is that he’s a better tackler than Verner. The kid’s hung in there from Day One and improved steadily I’ll give him that. I trust that Mike Smith, Jon Hoke & Brett Maxie have seen something in him that they really like. Looks like VH3 & Jude are players to build around, but we’ve got to find some height & speed for that secondary from someplace or the bigger WRs & TEs will continue to burn us.
October 12th, 2016 at 11:34 am
The Bucs are paying Verner $421,000 a game to sit on the bench and watch the game. The hardest part is watching the garbage on the field, that’s a hard way to make $421,000. It must be torture to have to sit and watch this crappy team play.
October 12th, 2016 at 11:40 am
Be awesome if we could trade this guy, but that dumbass contract makes it impossible. Perhaps a desperate team with a ton of secondary injuries?
Licht needs to get as many picks as possible and they have to go strong in free agency again. Gotta continue to swing the bat as the draft won’t plug all the holes. Not even another grand slam.
#jasonlichtmyballs.
October 12th, 2016 at 12:03 pm
It’s annoying that it seemed so clear that players like Verner or ASJ were not going to work out this preseason, and now here we are…. One gone and the other might as well be. For the record, I strongly hope VJax comes back to a hometown discount. He is the type of person we need to stick around.
Dallasbuc…… I’m with you on Sweezy now. What is going on?? It’s like we have another Aaron Sears on the team!!
October 12th, 2016 at 12:56 pm
Did Bucs really miss McCoy on Monday??
October 12th, 2016 at 1:37 pm
@BFFL
McCoy needs to be traded this offseason.
October 12th, 2016 at 2:10 pm
Did Bucs really miss McCoy on Monday?
YES!!! X a million
Did you watch the game? We had one of the worst pass rushes I’ve seen from a front 4. No interior disruption. All the good plays we made were due to good calls for pass blitzes / run blitzes and we still never hit Derek Anderson the whole f*cking game. We didn’t touch the QB. We need him BAD
October 12th, 2016 at 6:36 pm
Verner actually had an amazing game against Cardinals and the long TD he allowed against the Rams was because the safety fell for the play action and left Verner on a huge island.
October 12th, 2016 at 7:48 pm
Move him to Conte’s spot. That dude is BAD!
October 13th, 2016 at 1:15 am
How does that song go?
Go on take the money,and run… Whoa, Whoa
Verner needs to do that