The Bucs & DeShawn Shead
January 21st, 2018
Your Bucs need help at cornerback and the need could be dire in a matter of weeks.
Forget for a minute that Tampa Bay had the NFL’s 32nd-ranked defense. (Hey, at least try. It can be healing.)
Old man Brent Grimes is their best corner buy a wide margin and he could retire or demand a massive payday in free agency. Vernon Hargreaves, at 22 years old, was benched by a defensive coaching staff that just got passing grades for its stellar work last season. Surely, they’re not banking on Hargreaves being more than a No. 3 corner. Right?
Versatile journeyman Robert McClain turns 30 this summer and might have had a career year (three interceptions) last season. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent and Tampa Bay might actually have to bid to retain him.
Ryan Smith? He tries real hard but he has a long, long way to go.
Yes, the Bucs need more depth and quality at cornerback. Joe’s been eyeballing Seahawks pending free agent corner DeShawn Shead, who appears ready to hit the market, per his Instagram musings.
In 2016, Shead, 29, was a 15-game starter but blew his knee out in the playoffs. His comeback after ACL surgery this season didn’t come until Week 16 when he was taken off the physically unable to perform list. Shead played special teams for two games without a hitch.
Seahawks coach Pete Carroll has been over the top with his love for Shead through the years.
This was a quote from The News Tribune just after his injury.
“I thought he had a very, very good year. He was challenged a ton. Being on the other side of [Richard] Sherman can wear anybody out and he hung in there tough throughout the season, made a considerable amount of plays and all that. He’s a terrific team guy so if he is not available, we’re going to really miss him but we’ve got to go for it with the other guys.”
Undrafted in 2012, Shead caught on with Seattle, earned a Super Bowl ring and played in every game of the 2014 and 2015 season, making six starts over those two years before getting the full starting nod in ’16.
General manager Jason Licht seems to have a thing for Seahawks free agents, so maybe Shead will catch his eye. And it’s always a good thing when a guy comes from legit team.
Joe generally really likes the hungry, undrafted guys who have grinded their way through an NFL career. However, Joe was scarred a bit by the Chris “Swaggy” Baker experience. Regardless, Shead certainly would help.
January 21st, 2018 at 8:55 am
Tampa, where players come to die.
January 21st, 2018 at 8:59 am
LMAO! Didn’t Pete Carroll have the SAME love for our boy Sweezy?
January 21st, 2018 at 9:03 am
Don’t know how to take this Joe, but Walter Football only shows Shead with 1.5 stars out of 5 stars. He’s listed about the same as Robert McClain (who I’d re-sign quickly if I was Jason Licht). Lots of CBs hitting the FA market this year, but almost all of them seem to have ‘issues’ one way or another (age, injuries, only 1 productive year, etc). Two CBs stand out to me right now: Malcolm Butler (Pats) & Bryce Callahan (Bears). Cockrell (Giants) is a possibility also it looks like. In any event, Bucs need to re-sign Grimes and McClain, plus draft (or trade for) an excellent outside corner.
January 21st, 2018 at 9:06 am
BTW yes i fully expect them to believe Hargreaves is one of their outside starting corners. After all these are the same yahoo’s who picked him to do that in the first place. What he has done with us is no different than what he did against elite talent in college and they saw that and still drafted him so what has changed?
January 21st, 2018 at 9:08 am
I like that everyone drools over CB that have taken 4-5 years to develop into good players but have not patients to allow our own players to develop!!!!!!!!!
Go Bucs!!!!!!
Don’t see drool anywhere. –Joe
January 21st, 2018 at 9:11 am
With the holes on this D, one or 2 players will not make a difference.
You need to start from scratch and look out 5 years. Ala the Jacksonville Jags.
You need 3 corners
2 safety’s
4-6 D line
2+ Oline
1- running back
1 Q-Back
and where will you get the picks, you need to shed some stars to get’er done.
Evans will bring 2 high picks and although he would be missed, You still would have a very good receiving corp..
JW would bring 2 high picks and one middle round
McCoy would bring a 2nd and a 4th. With 6 pr 7 picks, plus the draft, you could start over and look to a bright future. Or, we just continue where we are and no pass rush will defeat and good CB and Safety drafts. The RB;s will get eaten alive with no protection and JW will continue in mediocrity, Along with this, you will lose another 15% of your fan base until the Glazers move the team to England.
January 21st, 2018 at 9:12 am
I dont know. Maybe, according to how he’s healed and how he tests. They could bring him in for a look.
Or
Iman Marshall CB USC, maybe a 3rd or 4th.
http://www.draftblaster.com/2018-nfl-draft/cornerback/iman-marshall-cb-usc/
January 21st, 2018 at 9:26 am
Really ???
January 21st, 2018 at 9:35 am
You do understand why each team has 7 draft picks ?
Every team gets four chances to make up for a miss in the first 3 picks
January 21st, 2018 at 9:43 am
Tired of OLD FA, build our own team through the draft, i could easily see another GM failure
January 21st, 2018 at 9:44 am
We need sooooooooo much help
3 d lineman
3 o lineman
2 corners
2 safteys
2 backs
January 21st, 2018 at 9:50 am
Realist you have to actually have coaching to develop players and we don’t have that here despite what you spew on here daily.
January 21st, 2018 at 9:51 am
passthebuc
you either need a new crack pipe or are seriously in need of mental health treatement…
First off McCoy will not bring anything in a trade… NO nfl gm will give up anything of value for 30 year old career loser who is often injured and currently injured and has NEVER WON a single meaningful game in his career. Getting rid of mccoy is essential for the team to succeed but they will be lucky to get a 6 or or conditional 5th for the most overrated buc in history
second, jameis is already the best qb in franchise history and will go down as the greatest buc of all time… obviously outside of leroy selmon the rest of the so called great bucs were nothing more than underachieving has beens that could not get the job done in the playoffs because of the one dimensional ignorant fool dungy the clown running the show. buy you are probably one of the low standard fans that consider 2 playoff wins in 6 years glory years… just down right laughable.
January 21st, 2018 at 9:59 am
@tmaxcon
I’ll go get a new crack pipe if you give me some of what you are smoking.
I see where knowledge is not your strong suit.
January 21st, 2018 at 10:03 am
Joe, why replace an aging CB with another aging CB?
January 21st, 2018 at 10:13 am
IMO….smart move is to solidify one side of the ball. To me that is offense. An offense that can control the clock can make a defense look better and stay fresh. Thinking we can fill all our holes in one offseason is not realistic BUT just through the draft we can solidify our offensive line and running back position. I think THE only defensive player i would take at 7 if available is Chubb….that’s it. Use free agency to find some value players on defense with the vision of bending but not breaking….for now. Protecting Winston and taking pressure off of him with a run game will go along ways in controlling field position. We simply gave away points last year from our offense turning the ball over in bad field position and not getting TDs when in the red zone. Focusing on o-line/RB in this draft can change many of our issues.
January 21st, 2018 at 10:21 am
Vernon Hargreaves was not benched…he was moved to the slot. Demoted maybe, not benched.
And the next week he was moved back due to injuries, wasn’t he? (honestly do not remember in my old age)
January 21st, 2018 at 10:23 am
I have nothing against Shead, but I don’t think he is the solution to our CB woes. I don’t know who the solution is, but I don think its him.
January 21st, 2018 at 10:29 am
passthebuc Says
“You need 3 corners
2 safety’s
4-6 D line
2+ Oline
1- running back
1 Q-Back”
I disagree with this.
I don’t feel we need a safety at all, unless it is to compete. Even getting rid of Ward, we have talent to replace him.
On the Dline, I pretty much agree. Dump everyone but McCoy, Spence and McDonald. Start over.
Outside of depth, we only need on offensive line guy…right tackle. Everyone else is fine.
We need 2-3 running backs. I don’t see us dumping Chris Sims. People seem to like Barber (I don’t). Rodgers and Martin should be axed.
And ‘Q-back’ is a pure joke…unless you mean depth.
January 21st, 2018 at 10:31 am
Grimes is SEVEN years younger than Darrell Green when he played his last season.
SEVEN years!!! Green was exceptional! I get that. But there is no reason to believe that Grimes…not to compare Grimes physical talent to Green who again had exceptional physical ability…simply to compare his longevity doesn’t have a few more years in the tank.
SIGN GRIMES NOW!!! Pick up one decent FA and our defensive backfield is OK and in fact if the FA was Talib and we finally fix our pass rush Grimes/Talib would be excellent!!!
It’s hard to really know how bad our DB’s are until we are fair to them and give them a pass rush.
FIX THE TRENCHES!!
January 21st, 2018 at 10:34 am
Grimes wants a SB ring and who could hold that against him….ain’t happening here soon enough for his career
January 21st, 2018 at 10:40 am
I hate looking at free agent lists this time of year.
Because you know a bunch of the names you see listed now will get re-signed by their current teams. And the most viable and exciting names you see are exactly the ones who won’t be available.
Unless its your job to do so – Its basically a big tease and largely a waste of time to even look much at options until a week or 2 before FA starts.
January 21st, 2018 at 10:52 am
Bonzai says:
“we only need on(e) offensive line guy…right tackle. Everyone else is fine.”
Dude – do you even watch the games?? Dot was our best lineman last year. Yea – he’s getting old and needs replacing very soon – but our GUARD play last year was horrible. Pamphile was bad and Sweezy was terrible. Evan Smith looked like a huge upgrade whenever he was out there – so that tells you all you need to know.
Marpet and Smith are the only true building blocks we have other than Pamphile if they even bring him back. And Smith is currently the 25th best LT in the league according to one of Joe’s articles from yesterday. Jameis deserves better.
Quinten Nelson in the 1st would be a huge step towards fixing most of what was wrong with our offense last year….
January 21st, 2018 at 11:05 am
@ Realist
Some of our CBs were patients if they were injured….and yes, your point is well taken…..we should have more patience with our players.
January 21st, 2018 at 11:17 am
Anybody else not feel so bad no more we got torched by the Viking’s Stefan diggs?
January 21st, 2018 at 11:43 am
I agree with a lot of things Munch, Defense and NFL Nut said in the main thread yesterday. If a top five pick other than Barkley is available, take him. Right now that’s Duncan, Fitzpatrick, Chubb. We may find out at the combine that Duncan’s arms or hands are an inch shorter than we thought, or it turns out that Fitzpatrick isn’t as fast as we the tape indicates (think VH3 level speed).
I’m assuming that workouts and tests indicate that evrything is “as advertised” with those guys. Then, As Nut noted, a lot depends on the quarterbacks. If there are 5-6 first round QBs, and Chubb, Barkley, Duncan and Fitzpatrick are gone, the axioms of mathematics tells that 3-4 first round QBs are available. We can trade down and get really good value (Lynch’s fleecing of the Bears comes mind). It’s virtually guaranteed that one of Miami, Buffalo, Cousinless Washington or even a Denver, San Diego, Arizona, KC or Jacksonville will want to trade up. The specific QB may be different for each team, and a team that covets a certain QB won’t care that the draft gurus rate him lower.
The key is to start working early. Let Buffalo, Miami, Washington, San Diego know we’re looking to trade down. Like Lynch last year, get each of them thinking that if they don’t trade up, we’ll make a deal with someone else and their guy will be gone.
The corollary to this is that if it gets to 7 and four QBs, Barkley and an OT were drafted ahead of us, trade down to Miami, Washington, San Diego. You’ll still get one of your key guys and you use the extra picks to plug more holes.
January 21st, 2018 at 11:50 am
You guys seriously need to stop scouting unless you do this so real scores can make jokes. Are you saying address depth before starters? I say key corners this year go to back up and you go get started not a 29 year old dude coming off ACL surgery, you don’t even head the same at that age in football. Besides every corner to leave Seattle sucks.
January 21st, 2018 at 12:20 pm
Grimes is not coming back to the Bucs. Whether it be retirement or leaving in FA. Miko pretty much said it and what Miko says Brent does. Pick up a nice CB and Safety in FA and draft a CB in Round four (Round three if we trade down and get more picks) and Round six. Really wouldn’t mind trading down either.
1. Quenton Nelson
2. DE
3. DT
4. CB
5. RB
6. DE
6. CB
January 21st, 2018 at 12:23 pm
IMHO FA’s are necessary but very dangerous moves. They are tainted by definition. Why are their teams giving up on them?
Now there are two legitimate reasons for a decent player being allowed to walk from their team. Actually ONE…$$$
There are a few legitimate cap casualties…whose teams want them but can’t squeeze them in under the cap.
And then there are some decent players who are made available because their team drafted really well and the new guy is terrific and there is no need other than backup duty.
So you almost need to examine the team an FA is leaving to determine why.
Remember all the preseason bad reports coming out of DC on Swaggy. Hard to believe Buc management didn’t know this long before us and long before they signed him. Desperation can produce really really bad choices.
It’s kind of funny…as bad as Licht/Bucs record has been with FA’s…Licht has done very well with UDFA’s. He just seems to have a far better feel for college players than the NFL players on the 31 other teams.
January 21st, 2018 at 12:34 pm
@SOEbuc
Agree with your draft list completely. I’m on board.
As for Brent Grimes I certainly accept your point but I haven’t totally given up.
First…how many teams can give Brent a guaranteed appearance in a SB?
N.E…major upgrade for him…Pittsburgh…maybe…a young and up and coming team like the Rams…maybe. But it is still the NFL where parity reigns supreme.
So let’s look at money. Some think Miko is greedy and wants every last penny.
Clearly the Grimes family is very, very wealthy already. I think what Miko wants more than anything is RESPECT! Her husband is tied…or was until this year with Richard Sherman (I haven’t looked lately) each leading the league with 20 ints over the past five years. Sherman makes FOUR times what Brent makes and there are other CB’s making way more than Brent who don’t outplay him.
She feels her husband has gotten no respect. I understand her opinion.
So it’s time to become obsequious and suck up to Miko. Brent is already on the record as saying he really enjoyed this past year and his teammates. If he can enjoy them at 5-11 he’d have a blast at 10-6.
IE Brent is not the issue. We need to be courting Miko to get this signing….suck up to her…come up with a decent as in respectful offer..and who knows. Brent likes the team…I suspect Miko likes Tampa.
Just break out Aretha Franklin…R E S P E C T…find our what it means to Miko.
What if for example we told Miko we are such believers in Brent’s ability that if she signs we plan on making him one of the four Bucs on the Stadium?
What if we got a spot on a TV show or as guest columnist for JBF?
January 21st, 2018 at 12:34 pm
This unit was ranked last in the league. These are all nfl.players trained athletes. I don’t care how many holes are on a team every real has holes. Anyone who doesn’t believe that good coaching alone can improve the same players that are already here blow my mind. Yeah there is a need upgrades there always will be but 32 ranked is on bad coaching period
January 21st, 2018 at 1:02 pm
Why the hell is Joe figure grimes is done !! Uh he was one of top corner in league this year , who cares about age if performance is still there. You would have had Brady out of league 7 years ago if you qualify how good someone is by their age.
Podcast always mentioning his age , pay the man and put him in field till you see him drop below top 20 in league. That way we don’t need 2 guys for CB and can focus on just drafting or FA signing of one to help grimes.
People call for paying gholston and keeping smith for DE last year to resign cause they are young and they both were average at best and hurt all the time. In otherwards didn’t perform to keep or get paid , where grimes is performing and when off field we are done. We need to sign him yesterday
January 21st, 2018 at 1:12 pm
Why isn’t vh3 along with all of our dba more aggresivly up on the line line he did in college and also why have we not see vh3 doing return duty? I would absolutely love to see him returning kickoffs and punts
January 21st, 2018 at 1:27 pm
BucEmUp Says:
January 21st, 2018 at 1:12 pm
Why isn’t vh3 along with all of our dba more aggresivly up on the line line he did in college and also why have we not see vh3 doing return duty? I would absolutely love to see him returning kickoffs and punts
I think that is a coaching decision (Smith’s Decision) because Grimes plays better when he is not pressed on the WR. Seemingly the only one of our corners who can play better this way…
January 21st, 2018 at 1:39 pm
Bobby M … “IMO….smart move is to solidify one side of the ball. To me that is offense.” Uh, New Orleans tried that for years (outstanding offense … zero defense). Typically got them a 7-9 record over & over & over. IF you’re going to focus on JUST one side of the ball, make it the D-E-F-E-N-S-E. Jacksonville, Minnesota, etc … defense still wins championships (And before you say that the Patriots have a lousy defense, keep in mind that they ranked #5 this year in POINTS ALLOWED, the only meaningful defensive stat). Sorry Joe, couldn’t resist.
January 21st, 2018 at 3:11 pm
Dign Deon Sanders and Darrel Green if you like.
But until we get a pass rush, it wont matter.
VH3 was too short and slow when me drafted him.
He hasnt grown or sped up since then. He is another bust.
The Bucs failure to develop a pass rush has them in an almost unfixable dilema.
We suck so bad, no decent FA will want to come here. Especially knowing that our coaches/Gm will almost certainly be fired at seasons end.
That leaves building thru the Draft.
Problem there- it takes Most DEs and CBs a couple years to develop.
By then- we’ll have a new DC, who may want to go in a different direction.
And that doesnt even factor in- if our leader in bad decisions keeps groping women.
Looks like we are destined to suck for another few yeats
January 21st, 2018 at 3:31 pm
This site just keeps proving that Tampa has the DUMBEST fans in the league lol.
January 21st, 2018 at 4:21 pm
Mike…Dumb fans? Dumb organization and among the worst teams. So how are the fans a problem? 5-11 baby.
January 21st, 2018 at 4:55 pm
Because we have morons on here saying JW isn’t the right guy, trade him and GMC away. Lol this fan base oozes stupidity. The ownership and coaching staff oozes stupidity. Scheme over team, give belicheat this roster and he will win the super bowl
January 21st, 2018 at 5:11 pm
JW and GMC are NOT the problem. There are tons of problems… and JW needs better coaching among them. But these guys aren’t the problem.
January 21st, 2018 at 5:29 pm
That’s what I’m saying. That’s why this fan base is garbage. They want to get rid of our best players
January 21st, 2018 at 7:24 pm
Scott in Fat Antonio….Dilly Dilly!
January 23rd, 2018 at 1:45 am
IMO the Cornerback position group is as important, if not more than the defensive line, to a successful defense. One can talk all you want about if you can’t put pressure on the QB you can’t stop an offense. Think about it. Most NFL QB’s throw the ball in two seconds or less on most or the majority of passing plays. So if you have CB’s who either play 10 yards from the LOS or simply can not cover, it is irrellevant how much pressure the DL puts on the QB. Last year, when the Bucs defense had two former All-Pro’s and a first round pick at CB, they played very well. Licht must re-sign Grimes and either draft a CB in the first round or try to sign one of only two or three shutdown corners available in FA. Draft Denzel Ward, move Hargreaves to the slot and the secondary will be good to go. Shead is not that guy.