Forget The Defensive Line Rotation
September 6th, 2018
It’s not happening!
Not now anyway.
The Bucs’ master plan bringing in former defensive line coach Jay Hayes was to duplicate the great success he had rotating linemen with the Bengals, often a true eight-man rotation.
After booting Hayes, the plan resurfaced again with the Bucs adding five D-linemen this offseason and Bucs officials fantasizing about reviving the eight-man plan with a nod to the Eagles’ success in February’s Super Bowl.
Well, it’s sort of fallen apart. Vita Vea and Mitch Unrein won’t play Sunday and defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul has been such a hungry force that defensive coordinator Mike Smith largely admitted yesterday that rotating with JPP might not be possible.
“Yeah, Jason, he’s got a real drive to be a great football player and he has a real drive to understand what we’re trying to do on defense. That’s the thing that’s been most impressive. The second thing is the guy doesn’t want to come off the field. He’s a guy that’s played, when healthy, 90-plus percent of the snaps on defense. That is unheard of a lot of times in the NFL,” Smith said.
Joe followed up to ask Smith whether the coveted rotation plan is out the window at this point.
“Well (laughs) if [JPP] is out there playing, playing at the level that we know that he’s capable of playing at, it’s gonna to be hard to get him out,” Smith said. “But I think in the long run playing 90 percent of the snaps is probably not the most advantageous situation for a player on the defensive line.
“But I promise you this, when it’s third down and it’s time to make plays, we’re gonna make sure we got our best and freshest players out there on the field.”
Look, Joe gets the rotation goal, but focusing in September on preserving JPP and Gerald McCoy might be a great way to get a lot of people fired at One Buc Palace.
Former Rays manager Joe Maddon used to drive Joe nuts when he sometimes would give star players the night off and talk about preserving them for the big games in October. Well, you’ve got to get there first, and the Rays, at the time, weren’t sitting in first place with a big lead.
Joe just wants to see the Bucs play the first four games with an all-in mentality. They must do everything in their power to avoid a deadly 1-3 start.
Joe hopes Smith and Dirk Koetter ride their big D-line horses hard to the bye in Week 5. There’s no reason to hold back.
After the bye week, assess their health and craft a plan going forward. Maybe Vita Vea can be a contributor by then.
Gerald McCoy, for those wondering, played about 80 percent of the snaps in the 15 games he was available last season, pretty typical for him.
September 6th, 2018 at 6:18 pm
that apparent depth evaporated fast with Vea hurt, Unrein on IR, and Spence being a non factor. Fortunately the consensus most talented + proven guys are the ones still standing so it’s not like last year where the injuries sent the team scrambling to the waiver wire for starting D linemen
September 6th, 2018 at 6:18 pm
We gonna shock the world
September 6th, 2018 at 6:40 pm
I like our DL right now JPP Curry McCoy Allen Worthy Gholston Nassib Spence an when Vea gets back disappointed Unrein is out so long kuz of a concussion
September 6th, 2018 at 6:52 pm
jpp has never played alongside the life-sucking tinker bell 93… good luck jpp you would be the free agent to survive on the dline playing alongside captain blowout.
September 6th, 2018 at 7:01 pm
Man I’m glad McCoy’s on our side!!
September 6th, 2018 at 7:08 pm
I look forward to seeing what Derrick Brooks would have to say to the eggplant brained posters who call Gerald McCoy life sucking tinker bell. Or what Gerald would do to said eggplant if said eggplant had some nerve to say it to his face.
September 6th, 2018 at 7:25 pm
Andrus Peat is the only LG listed on the Saints Depth Chart.
LMAO
Good luck against GMC and Pierre-Paul.
September 6th, 2018 at 7:34 pm
Peat, while a huge disappointment at tackle (the position he was drafted to play), he was one of the better guards in the league last year. And the Saints as a whole have one of the best O-lines in football. So opening day will serve as a really good measuring stick for our new D-line and whether or not it looks as good on the field as it does on paper.
September 6th, 2018 at 7:35 pm
microphone check 1212
September 6th, 2018 at 7:47 pm
who cares what 55 has to say he has not won a meaningful game in 16 or 17 years either…..
September 6th, 2018 at 7:55 pm
This will be a good test for our DL as the Saints form one of the best NFL Offensive lines.
September 6th, 2018 at 7:56 pm
JBF Pickem league. We won’t count tonight’s game as I dropped the ball this yr
Tell Everyone that would like to play
http://fantasy.espn.com/nfl-pigskin-pickem/2018/en/group?ex_cid=pigskin2016_email&groupID=99276
September 6th, 2018 at 7:58 pm
Yay! Tmax joined. Hopefully he picks against the Bucs Every single game!
September 6th, 2018 at 8:07 pm
Here comes GMC fanboys coming with excuses of why GMC is medicore.
September 6th, 2018 at 8:27 pm
6-10
September 6th, 2018 at 8:30 pm
Tmax oops I mean riab, you suck and a loser for hiding after getting booted.. But only after you made a promise to never come back and then you came back.. Got the boot anyway! With all the pieces we have and mind set, this team can even overcome tmax’s negativity
September 6th, 2018 at 8:35 pm
It has become painfully obvious Troll max/Beatch is a mental midget. He/she shows nothing but hate to the team and players all of us in here that are fans of. @Joe, why should we keep tolerating that kind of nonsense and hatred for the team this site is named for. Cut the troll loose already please. Please! I’m responding to his trollhood yes, but I promise I peek in here less and less because of losers like him. It’s not worth it Joe, let him go please.
September 6th, 2018 at 9:40 pm
Chris K
Certainly understand your disgust. Most of us feel like you. Depending on your device…I mostly read on a laptop so I just scroll…if I’m on my phone or tablet I take my finger and wipe down.
There is a democratic solution to the problem that doesn’t require Joe to run him.
The WAPO blogs all have an ignore feature. You simply click the button on certain posters and you never see them again. It’s awesome. Trolls have to desperately come back with sock puppets and it takes about five minutes…a post or two to click and ignore the new sockpuppet. Life as a troll on the Washington Post blogs is tough.
But others have said this and it’s true. Trolls get their name not because they live under the bridge…but because they are trolling for attention. If everybody simply ignored them and didn’t respond they’d lose their most important goal…attention.
September 6th, 2018 at 10:47 pm
Chris K, you can’t really ban someone from a website like this, as long as joe allows new users and new emails, max/biatch can make as many usernames as he wants under different IP’s
September 7th, 2018 at 8:01 am
Hey Joe,
Whats the word on Carl Nassib, havent heard much since we signed him from the Browns.
September 7th, 2018 at 9:52 am
I’m thinking the best thing for the Bucs’ defensive line is to let those guys play in their comfort zones. If JPP is most comfortable playing 90-percent of the snaps, let him, as long as he remains effective. Maybe he knows himself better than the coach and perhaps he knows that once his motor is running at 100-percent efficiency, if he takes a break, the motor winds down and it takes a few plays to get back up to speed. Same thing with McCoy. If his body is used to playing eight out of ten plays, then his body is expecting to do that and is ready for that so let it do what it’s conditioned to do.