Finally Clicking For Ryan Smith?
October 5th, 2018
Shocking statistic.
Joe admits to doing a double-take to check and see if his Coke Zero was not-so accidentally spiked with Crown Royal.
Joe is no fan in any way of the grades of the PFF tribe. But Joe does appreciate when their guys document stats, not that a well-trained orangutan couldn’t do it, but Joe likes their time and effort with that.
Well, apparently they have charted all passes defended by cornerbacks through four games and the number of times the same corners have been targeted. And take a guess who has the most passes defended per times targeted?
That would be Ryan Smith.
Now Joe has been harsh on Smith in the past because Joe thought he was useless at corner. And he was. But this season, it seems Smith has turned the corner at corner.
Joe spoke with Smith back in September and he sort of confessed he is finally getting things down. Remember, Smith was originally converted to safety but didn’t play a defensive snap as a rookie in 2016, and then he got hurt.
Smith was moved back to corner last season and it was basically his rookie year at the position, Smith said, so everything was new to him.
The last couple of weeks have given Bucs fans nausea the way things have turned out. But it seems Smith is (finally) getting the hang of things at cornerback this season.
Smith has three passes defensed, per NFL.com, all in the first two games. He had five all of last season.
Hat tip: @8One3hree.
October 5th, 2018 at 2:30 pm
Told you so
October 5th, 2018 at 2:33 pm
wow
October 5th, 2018 at 2:39 pm
#weaponsformikesmith
October 5th, 2018 at 2:42 pm
told yall to let grimes walk and roll with the youth movement…..the best way for him to gain experience is to play…..and in those games he played to his strength….close to the LOS……
start ryan smith from here on out….
#NOEXCUSESIN2018!!!!…#PRESSURESONTHECOACHES!!!!…GO BUCS!!!!
October 5th, 2018 at 2:45 pm
And kid gets zero snaps following the bests game of his career. What an absolute joke. #FireMikeSmith
October 5th, 2018 at 2:58 pm
the young man has been sporting that fierce looking mouthpiece and it has entirely uplifted his game – it’s all in the mouth piece…that magical mouth piece…even carlton davis the 3rd is sporting the same one now
October 5th, 2018 at 3:01 pm
maybe mike smith will wear one of those mouth pieces in the cushy booth upstairs…like a good luck gadget…
he is known to rock a judges gown up in there, and no undies…
#DontFidgetOverAyeWidget
October 5th, 2018 at 3:06 pm
Problem is Smith has to play him and he doesn’t very often.
October 5th, 2018 at 3:07 pm
Smith has good speed and can close to make tackles. His slow growth is a combination of getting his responsibilities an Jason ‘s miscasting in his rookie year. Grimes has been a liability.
October 5th, 2018 at 3:15 pm
Another in a long line of over hyped players, ryan smith is still terrible, because how would these crappy bucs DB coaches all of a sudden coached up one horrible DB to some future all pro? NAW that bird dont fly a HARD PASS, mr jones meet mr smith, 260 yds later
October 5th, 2018 at 3:29 pm
@Joe … “But this season, it seems Smith has turned the corner at corner.” Great play on words Joe. I was down on Ryan last season too, but hanging tough so far this year. He played an average of about 80% of the defensive snaps in Games 1 & 2, but nada in Game 3 (Grimes back) & only 30% in Game 4. I don’t get it.
This is painful, but I agree with bucboi … “roll with the youth movement.” (Wrote that the other day BTW bucboi … and releasing Grimes is not going to happen; he’s got a $10 mil contract). But if Allen makes it back after the BYE, and Vea & GMC can stay healthy, our DTs along with JPP & Curry, should be able to put more pressure on opposing QBs. That should open lanes & help our LBs to play better. And if our Front-7 manages to do that, our young Secondary could afford to be a lot more aggressive (in line with their talents). We can only hope. Personally would like to see Evans & Whitehead at Safety from here on out, with Carlton Davis & Ryan Smith outside & Stewart at nickel. Still wondering about Williams though (at one point in his career he’d shown a lot of promise supposedly).
October 5th, 2018 at 3:43 pm
Grimes literally GAVE away two first downs on Sunday because he’s playing FIFTEEEN freaking yards away from the receiver in MAN coverage. He’s more worried about getting beat deep and looking bad instead of actually defending. Grimes is done. Shot. Old Yeller time.
Ryan Smith is still green and still a liability but at least he will play physical and make some tackles. Grimes should go play soccer the way he avoids any and all contact. Makes me sick. Cause he knew how much we were leaning on him and he’s just playing it cush to keep getting paid.
October 5th, 2018 at 3:48 pm
Now that he’s turning the corner JOE how about we hand that 2nd and Grimes to the Steelers for Bell? Grimes has been invisible for this defense so far this year. The way I see it is either our defense or offense is getting us to the playoffs. I’m willing to bet it’s the offense so why not add that missing piece to the puzzle. Bell will complete the offense and.make us the true #1 offense in the league. We stay still and keep Grimes and we probably won’t even make the playoffs.
October 5th, 2018 at 4:20 pm
I guess the problem is that Smith hasn’t seen much of the girls since Grimes came back and looks like Smith did last year. Hey had anyone checked to see if they swapped numbers?
October 5th, 2018 at 4:31 pm
I have been saying this all the time….the Bucs defense really had one bad game, and that was against the Bears.
October 5th, 2018 at 4:36 pm
They wasn’t great during the first 3 games, but they wasn’t bad either. The Saints scored most of their points in garbage time. They held the Eagles to 21. They held Pittsburgh to 23 ( not counting the pick 6), this despite the Bucs 4 offensive turnovers. They held the Steelers to 3 points after the half, when the offense quit turning the ball over.
October 5th, 2018 at 4:47 pm
Ryan Smith has really played well on special teams and may even be “clicking” at corner, but there should be no illusion that he is a starting, shut down CB. Without better coaching and pressure on the QB, I’m afraid that any CB won’t perform well. The front office will select (yet another) CB early in next year’s draft or bring in another vet opposite Carlton Davis, who, I hope, will develop into a solid contributor. With this coaching staff, however, I have “little confidence”.
October 5th, 2018 at 4:59 pm
DR
LOL…
what happened to javion Elliott?….he was playing well in the nickel role?
#NOEXCUSESIN2018!!!!…#PRESSURESONTHECOACHES!!!!…GO BUCS!!!!
October 5th, 2018 at 6:18 pm
That is a pretty small sample size. He is playing better, though (when they play him).
Joe, diet sodas (all sodas for that matter) are poison! You are aware of the harmful effects of aspartame, right? Also, don’t drink your calories!
October 5th, 2018 at 6:46 pm
Yeah i used to buy into the corners kinda sucking too. Only taken Ryan Smith 3 years to improve in this defense. So the rookie dbs should be improving by 2020. I’m convinced all the guys would improve dramatically with the firing of one clown. I used to love corner and safety blitzes growing up. Well i still do actually. I just forget wtf they are because we never see them around here. If your dam safeties arent gona be in position to cover a deep ball how about u blitz them both smith? No idea why this guy coaches so scared. Its pathetic. Coaching to not give up the big play and they give up the big plays. Mike Smith has Low T!! Get Smitty some testosterone replacement therapy please Glazers if youre not gona fire him!!
October 5th, 2018 at 7:02 pm
I like the young CBs and safeties.
They need experience. As usual, the D line needs consistent pressure. Last week there were literally about five completely blown assignments.
Sometimes that could be execution but it’s starting to scream towards coaching to me.
Mike Smith has not shown a thing.
I don’t think you fire him in mid season though. They have talent, they can turn it around in one year if they get the right defensive coordinator here
October 5th, 2018 at 7:16 pm
It’s because you all have no patience and think somebody’s a bust after one or two years sometimes it takes a third-year for things to click with certain players in certain positions
October 5th, 2018 at 10:41 pm
There’s no excuses on this defense. JPP, McCoy ( I know), Vinny Curry, Vea, Gholston and Nassib. Collectively these guys have been a disgrace. Individually JPP has been as advertised but nobody else is worth a spit so far. They are making the secondary’s job too difficult. Carlton Davis and Ryan Smith have impressed. MJ Stewart hasn’t looked the part and Grimes has been hot garbage. There is simply no excuse for not squeezing the most out of these players. It’s too good of an overall team to have such an embarrassing defense. Mike Smith should have never been hired. Hello Jim Schwartz. But, at the very least should have been fired after last year’s debacle. It’s inconceivable for him to survive one more week if the defense gets roasted by ATL and I have no doubt they we probably will.
October 5th, 2018 at 10:42 pm
…they probably will.
October 6th, 2018 at 1:40 am
Being the least smelly piece of poo in the toilet, doesn’t mean you’re not a piece of poo.
I however haven’t seen much that makes me think he’s turned a corner. In that game against the Eagles people claimed he played well – when I watched the game I saw a guy getting beat all over the place and Foles just flat out missing them. Smith did make a couple of good plays in that game, but he generally makes a good tackle or two, then gives up 8 bombs in a row.
But if he has slowly (very slowly) gotten better, then great, but going from the worst in the NFL to like the 3rd worst, yeah, that’s better, but it’s still an incredibly low bar.
October 6th, 2018 at 7:14 am
@Rod … “Being the least smelly piece of poo in the toilet, doesn’t mean you’re not a piece of poo.” LMAO Rod. I feel the same way about almost every election we have.
October 6th, 2018 at 8:10 am
As stated by a few already…stick with the youth movement…
Grimes was done last year, it’s time to move on…At this point of his career he’s actually a liability against the run and the pass…
October 6th, 2018 at 8:36 am
You know guys & gals, it really Sux that we sit at 2-2 yet because of Mike Smith alone it feels more like 0-4 ! You would think the Dt’s would have better run gap integrity ! You would think if we played more press mixed in with zone & blitzes with what we have to work with and do it at the right time to mix it up, we would have better control of our communication on defence. But for whatever reason when we lose a lead, these guys most anyway basically quit on Mike Smith! Watch our linebackers just give up chase! I can not stand it! And now we are going to be putting the pressure on jw3 like never before to always out preform the other team week in and week out… I just want balance so bad! I think our GM has done a fair job in most areas except 1 …BALANCE… go bucs
October 6th, 2018 at 9:18 am
I think I was one of the toughest critic of Ryan Smith here on Joebucsfan. I am pleasantly surprised he is doing well and hope he continues and molds into an outstanding CB. Now we just need a good DB coach and D coordinator to further develop him and our other young CBs.
October 6th, 2018 at 12:33 pm
I’ve been harsh on him too, but have been saying since week 2 this year that he actually looks greatly improved.
He looks 100x better than Brent Grimes has so far. Father Time has caught up with it seems. So now we have to see if the coaches have the sack to put him on the bench? Prob not.
October 6th, 2018 at 6:11 pm
Makes sense that they happened in the first two games. In games 3 and 4 I don’t think the team has a single defensed pass.