Can The Bucs Cure A “Cancer?”
February 14th, 2018
Talented headcase.
The pass rush of the Bucs is godawful but can the team be this desperate?
To anyone who monitors the NFL, the following is hardly a surprise: Per Ralph Vacchiano of SNY, the Jets plan to unload one of the most talented defensive tackles in the game, Muhammad Wilkerson, who also happens to be one of the biggest clowns in the NFL.
So why would the J-E-T-S… Jets… Jets… Jets unload one of the more skilled defensive linemen in the game? Because they are tired of playing kindergarten cop with the fool, Vacchiano writes.
The only question is whether they designate him a pre-June 1 cut (clearing $11 million cap space) or a post-June 1 cut ($17 million in savings). His lack of production and bad attitude makes this an easier call than when they benched him for the final two games of the season for, among other things, his chronic lateness. They have to do it before the third day of the league year (March 16), otherwise his 2018 salary becomes guaranteed. But don’t worry. They will.
Wilkerson has been a chronic pain-in-the-arse for a couple of years and Joe knows for a fact the Jets were shopping Wilkerson hard last year to other teams hoping to find some sap to stick up — if Joe told you the asking price he heard, you’d need a paper bag to prevent hyperventilating.
Mansih Mehta of the New York Daily News wasn’t as kind as Vacchiano when describing Wilkerson after yet another stunt the Temple grad pulled, writing Wilkerson’s “selfishness, stupidity and unprofessionalism resurfaced for unofficially the millionth time.”
Mehta, in the story linked above, referred to Wilkerson as a toxic combination of “fat” and “poison.”
Wilkerson evidently wants to remove all doubt that he doesn’t give a damn about anyone other than himself. Maybe he’ll skip next week’s practices altogether (if the Jets actually permit him to be a part of the team). Either way, the Jets need to rid themselves of this locker room cancer after the season.
The way New York writers describe Wilkerson, he’s a combination of Josh Freeman (struggles with reading a clock) and Swaggy Baker (thieving millions from an NFL owner).
If the Bucs couldn’t motivate offsides-jumping, belly shirt-wearing, practice-hating, kicker-heckling, tree-grinding , non-contact-football-loving, chicken-wings-grilling, playing-time-squawking, TV-cooking-star, half-sack Baker, then why on earth would anyone believe the Bucs could work some psychological voodoo on Wilkerson?
February 14th, 2018 at 12:19 am
He will go to the Patriots and be an all pro
February 14th, 2018 at 12:20 am
The last thing this coaching staff need is another headache. They are already on thin ice. They don’t need to add fuel to the fire, by adding Muhammad Wilkerson to their problems. If a 5-year $86 Million contract don’t motivate a person, they can’t be motivated.
February 14th, 2018 at 12:28 am
Safe bet.
February 14th, 2018 at 12:33 am
No..This Bucs coaching staff wouldn’t be able to handle Mo..and either way, we don’t need another diva..
February 14th, 2018 at 12:35 am
That’s the problem with having these nutcases on your squad. You can’t properly prepare and coach your team. Coaches need a mature drama-free environment with mature, responsible players. As long as you have these high paid Prima Donnas on your team. The team will always be in turmoil and never succeed. One bad apple will spoil the whole barrel. The Bucs need high character, hard working, responsible players.
February 14th, 2018 at 12:37 am
That’s a helluva good point.
February 14th, 2018 at 12:40 am
is mike evans not negotiating his contract this year a good or a bad thing?
February 14th, 2018 at 12:45 am
The Bucs are not the Patriots, the Patriots are an established powerhouse. These crackpots can’t go to powerhouse teams with that nonsense. They can take it to the bottom teams like the Bucs. Successful teams and their coaches demands respect from their players. And they get that respect, but the players don’t respect the lower teams or their coaches.
February 14th, 2018 at 12:56 am
Not sure what this has to do with Wilkerson, but…
It’s a nothing-thing.
Bucs can tag Evans — twice. He’s not going anywhere.
February 14th, 2018 at 1:06 am
Belicheat did sign noted “distractions” like Randy Moss and Albert Haynesworth. And did acquire “distractions” such as Aqib Talib and LeGarrette Blount.
February 14th, 2018 at 1:12 am
Yeah Joe, he did sign them and they respected the Patriots organization and Belichick authority. They were model citizens off the field and good players on the field. They knew the Patriots way before they even seen the locker room.
February 14th, 2018 at 1:14 am
Baker was enough of a turd. No more locker room turds. I don’t care if they’re turds away from football, but they gotta have everybody fighting for the same thing in the locker room, on the practice field, and on Sundays.
February 14th, 2018 at 1:25 am
“The Bucs need high character, hard working, responsible players.” yes!! because that has been working so well… they need talent and more importantly good coaching… period
February 14th, 2018 at 1:31 am
grafikdetail
The Bucs has the opposite of high character, hard working, responsible players. They have a roster loaded with loafers, slackers, unmotivated players.
February 14th, 2018 at 1:35 am
They definitely need better coaching. They need Mike Smith on the sidelines next to Dirk Koetter. It seems like the Bucs coaches has no fire.
February 14th, 2018 at 1:41 am
Pass.
As for the Pats … they traded for Kony Ealy and then cut him and he signed with the Jets … the Pats screw up too …
February 14th, 2018 at 1:44 am
NFLNut
They cut their headaches, they don’t hang on to them
February 14th, 2018 at 1:51 am
This is from an article I was reading the the night. From Basketball Coaching
High character players are a must for any team that has championship goals. It takes players that are willing to step up and lead and get everyone moving towards one common purpose. Players like this are invaluable to a team. Here are ten characteristics of a high character player.
No Plays Off
The temptation for players is to take possessions off when they are tired or mentally fatigued. This usually happens on the defensive end of the court. High character players stay mentally engaged when they are on the court, and they recognize that they have a responsibility to the team to be locked in on every play.
Leads by Example
We have all heard the phrase, “talk is cheap.” This is especially true when it comes to leadership. Anyone can talk about doing the right things, but it takes a special player to stay committed to doing it the right way day in and day out, regardless of how they are feeling on a certain day. High character players lead with their actions on a daily basis.
Holds Teammates Accountable
Great teams are players led, and that means that the leaders of a team need to make sure that they are holding their teammates accountable. If a teammate is acting in a way that hinders the team’s success, there needs to be leaders on the team to step up and say something.
High character players are able to lead their teammates because they have already been modeling the team first attitude. They don’t allow anything or anyone to take away from the team’s success.
February 14th, 2018 at 1:52 am
This is from an article I was reading the other night.
February 14th, 2018 at 1:56 am
Invested in Teammates
Getting in the gym and working on your individual skill development is great. However, the next step and a sign of a high character player is bringing teammates with you when you go to the gym.
High character players are invested in their teammates and they understand that they can’t do it all on there own. They recognize that it takes a great team to win games and ultimately championships.
February 14th, 2018 at 4:06 am
I would support bringing him aboard if the locker room could hold him accountable, as Lakeland indicated. That’s just not going to happen at this time, and Swaggy is a good case in point. I could see Wilkerson bolt to Seattle or New England.
February 14th, 2018 at 5:29 am
@Lakeland … “The Bucs has the opposite of high character, hard working, responsible players. They have a roster loaded with loafers, slackers, unmotivated players.”
Interesting couple of comments after this Lakeland. You indicated (above) that the Bucs are composed of a loafers, that they aren’t high character, hard working PLAYERS. Then you list what a high character player looks like: (1) No plays off; (2) Leads by example; (3) Holds teammates accountable; (4) Invested in teammates. And I agree with ALL those characteristics, but a 53-man team composed of strictly ‘high character guys’ won’t necessarily win on Sundays. Little things like T-A-L-E-N-T are important too, and C-O-A-C-H-I-N-G.
Bucs have a lot of high-character players IMO, but our talent level is obviously not even close to where it needs to be. A number of starting positions desperately need upgrading, as well as most key rotational positions (DLine & Secondary in particular). Beyond that, the Bucs lack L-E-A-D-E-R-S-H-I-P on the field. They’ve ‘anointed’ 3 players to be leaders: (1) GMC; (2) Kwon; (3) Jameis. None of the 3 IMO are getting the job done. GMC is an excellent DT IMO, but he’s not the DLine leader that we need. Kwon is a decent player (no, he’s not even close to GREAT IMO), but he screws up much too much to be the one ‘leading by example’ and holding everyone else accountable (accountability has to start with YOURSELF). And Jameis just has me shaking my head when it comes to leadership … I hear the right words, but then he goes & does something stupid that leaves me bewildered.
And and Joe, in regards to Wilkerson. Impressive player IMO. Mehta’s description of Wilkerson’s “selfishness, stupidity and unprofessionalism resurfaced for unofficially the millionth time” kinda says it all. Pass, big-time.
February 14th, 2018 at 5:30 am
Draft a pair of DE’s. Chubb might still be there at 7….if not get Hubbard or Davenport and grab another young guy in the third or fourth round. Grab Sony Michel in the second! We don’t need a hard-ass head case on this team.
February 14th, 2018 at 6:30 am
NOPE! NOPE!
February 14th, 2018 at 6:43 am
Bucs turn around a “cancer” player? Since when…like…NEVER.
Probably the closest, not cancers but headcases, would have been Rice and Sapp…and both guys always put it all out there on the field….100%…every day.
So the answer is…NO…
February 14th, 2018 at 6:45 am
But honestly, you have to have strong and respected coaching, and multiple successful leaders and respected players on a team do do so. That is why teams like the Pats can do it.
Please Joe…thinking this team could do it is pretty far out there.
February 14th, 2018 at 6:50 am
Please guys…the way we do with FA’s, we might as well throw darts at a dartboard. There are some exciting talented FA’s every year… one or two a year. The others are fillers, and we do need some of those. But to expect that come game time, we will see a Campbell type guy or impact guy in a Bucs uniform? Pass on the pipe, man.
February 14th, 2018 at 8:16 am
Joe, tell us last years’ asking price. We’re Bucs fans; we have paper bags…covering our heads, generally.
I guess Wilkerson couldn’t follow the fine leadership ASJ displayed!
Like many here have said, our organization is not strong enough to handle a personality like his and that is sad.
February 14th, 2018 at 9:43 am
My oh my what short memories we have. The Pats LOST this year’s SB getting torched by a backup QB for record yards. Foles destroyed the Pats secondary and who was on the sideline? Butler had played more snaps in that defense than any other Pat and many NE fans think sitting him was a prime reason for Foles unprecedented success.
Bill Belicheat does not walk on the Charles river!
So he had Legarrette Blount and how did that work out? He cut him and Blount came back to have a big game in the SB as well.
He had Talib but if he turned him around why did he cut him?
NO to all cancers! Even the successful ones pull our team down. Do we forget Kellen Winslow…an incredible talent…and major head case…we had a good season with him and then what. He want to the parking lot to jerk off…which is a good description of Winslow….a “jerk off”.
FA’s are AWAYS a big risk because we don’t generally know why their team is letting them go. Sometimes they are cap casualties…sometimes a young draft pick blossoms into a star and makes the vet expendable…two reason that make an FA reasonable and maybe even desirable.
Sometimes a player is cut because he’s a jerk or as Joe says a cancer. Why would we pick up a loser like that?
February 14th, 2018 at 9:58 am
I would be against signing him to more than a 1 year deal, or 3 years with only the first guaranteed. They can also make it very incentive driven so that he has to show up at all practices, play X number of games, get X number of sacks…
Really, it depends on who the new DL coach is. If he’s a tough guy, then he could probably handle this player. And the player does have a history of being good.
Kung Fu Kenny Says
is mike evans not negotiating his contract this year a good or a bad thing?
It’s a good thing. Although fans like to see early contracts signed, from a business point it is a horrible idea. The Bucs would spend millions more this year and Evans new contract would expire a year earlier.
As Joe mentioned, Evans can be franchised if needed, assuming we don’t have to do that to Winston.
Mike Evans knows he had a bad year. He likes it here and he wants the best contract possible. So he’s more than willing to prove himself this year.
That means he’ll probably have an amazing contract year.
Of course, according to most Tampa fans, there’s no way anyone in the Bucs organization can do well this year…
February 14th, 2018 at 10:01 am
@StPeteBucsFan
I am thoroughly convinced Legarrette Blount is a good luck charm. I would love to have him back, so long as he isn’t the only new RB we get this season. Plus, he is great for short yardage situations…which we have a lot of and have been failing to get in the run game.
February 14th, 2018 at 10:29 am
@Bonzai
I no longer have a problem with Blount. He’s a much older dude right now and has been around the block more than once. I think he’s figured out the NFL.
Don’t know how much tread he has on his well worn tires though. But he should be ok as part of a rotation. He didn’t appear to look slow in that SB that’s for sure.
February 14th, 2018 at 12:13 pm
Fat and lazy? Great! Baker needs a soulmate.
February 14th, 2018 at 12:57 pm
Where is TMAX
Joe left the door wide open with this headline
This is the Original ATrain
February 14th, 2018 at 2:36 pm
This isn’t the type of guy the Bucs would go after and I doubt he’d come here in any case so I don’t think it will matter. Not sure he’d be a good fit in any case and his production over the last 2 years hasn’t been very good in any case.
As for Baker, the more I think about, the more I go back and read everything said about him last offseason and how great of a pick-up it was by the Bucs, which was the overwhelming commentary at the time the deal happened, the more I think he’s back next year, and yeah, I know that will cause all the ham and eggers to get upset, but perhaps with some proper motivation he’ll perform, and if not they can cut him. Despite what you might think when you hear “big money” $5m is not starter money for a DT, so you might as well keep him around and see if he comes back with a different attitude or not.