Could Jeremy Trueblood Be Hard Of Hearing?
May 12th, 2010
As Joe is wont to do in an effort to hypnotize himself that he’s not stuck in a soulless cube at work, bogged down with mindless duties, Joe slapped on his earbuds and fired up Sirius NFL Radio.
Joe heard Ross Tucker, co-hosting “The Opening Drive” with Peter King, talk about offensive linemen and false starts. Tucker, who logged seven years as an offensive lineman in the NFL, currently is an SI.com columnist and is also a graduate of no less a higher institute of learning than Princeton University.
He had the following to say about offensive linemen and false starts:
“If a lineman is getting called for a lot of false starts, that tells me either he can’t hear, he doesn’t have the passion or the desire to play, or he is just dumb.”
Joe immediately thought of Bucs right tackle Jeremy Trueblood, who led the NFL last year in false starts.
False starts are a sore subject for Trueblood, as they ought to be. Joe knows a Bucs beat writer confronted Trueblood last year about why he was making so many false starts, and Trueblood copped an attitude with said reporter, saying in so many words, “Well, if you ever played the game, anyone who has played the position understands… “
What was Trueblood, who recently signed his tender offer from the Bucs, implying, that because he had more false starts than any other NFL lineman he knows the game better than any other right tackle, or that he doesn’t know as much about the game than others in the NFL?
It’s an interesting observation that Tucker had.
Let Joe get this out front right away: Trueblood is not dumb. Hardly. He graduated from one of the better universities in the northeast, Boston College. So let’s get that premise out of the way right now. Trueblood is hardly dumb.
Nor does Joe think Trueblood lacks passion. Joe sees Trueblood get tangled up in a lot of scraps on the field. To be blunt, Joe enjoys this. Joe likes his offensive linemen mean and angry.
So that leaves Trueblood’s hearing to be an issue, if one is to believe Tucker’s premise. Joe has no idea if Trueblood is hard of hearing or not, but it’s an interesting theory.
May 12th, 2010 at 1:21 pm
I think Trueblood is a little too slow to stop great speed rushers, and not quite bulky enough to stop great power rushers. I think this is why he gets false starts. He tries to get the jump on them to compensate for his short comings. I think he has great passion and drive, but his inabilty fustrates him to the point of losing his cool and getting stupid personal foul penalties on top of the false starts.
May 12th, 2010 at 1:21 pm
Maybe he’s a nervous kinda fella… jumpy and all
May 12th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
What?
May 12th, 2010 at 2:07 pm
Let’s take a guess which one of these catagories Kenyatta Walker fell under?
May 12th, 2010 at 2:17 pm
I think JDouble nailed it. ALthough I think he does okay with bull rushers as long as he is setup well. The speed rushers can give him a problem though.
Overall, I think he is a decent RG. I like his passion and the false starts can be corrected. I give him more credit than most.
May 12th, 2010 at 2:25 pm
LOL!!!
Anyone remember that Carolina game — Joe believes it was 2003 — that Walker got flagged for holding calls on three straight plays?
Joe was about ready to throw an $8 beer on the field he was so irked.
May 12th, 2010 at 2:47 pm
Maybe he’s just one of those poor souls, doomed with excessive wax build-up?
May 12th, 2010 at 2:49 pm
Joe,
That is the exact game I was thinking of when i wrote that.
May 12th, 2010 at 2:52 pm
Dave says: “Overall, I think he’s a decent RG”
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Typical ignorant Bucs Fan…
May 12th, 2010 at 2:55 pm
I guess no one’s going to point out the fact that Trueblood had 3 different signal callers, two of which were rookies??
That would explain his response, “people who played the game would understand”. Here he chooses a cliche’ instead of throwing his teammates under the bus. This is actually pretty typical of Trueblood, a good teammate, that sticks up for his brethren.
May 12th, 2010 at 3:08 pm
Hosstyle in Tampa:
Curious… and Joe doesn’t have an answer:
Did his fellow offensive linemates equally struggle with false starts?
Joe gets where you are coming from and it’s a valid point: quarterback cadence, et al. Joe’s not so sure others had as much difficulty as Trueblood.
May 12th, 2010 at 4:22 pm
Nobody should accuse Trueblood of being dumb!! Those accusations are reserved for our head coach.
Sorry, that was in poor taste. I really like radio.
May 12th, 2010 at 4:23 pm
trueblood is about as good as he was as a rookie…no real improvement or maturation on his part…..so it might be time to part ways with the guy….i love his nasty streak as thats what a lineman needs, however he is yet to use that nastiness to the best of his abilities on the field….that nastiness usually just comes across in dumb penalties and lashing out in nasty ways like cursing and winging helmets, etc….might be time to move on as there seems to be no progress with this guy….adam from ny
May 12th, 2010 at 4:23 pm
Trueblood rack disciprine.
May 12th, 2010 at 4:24 pm
in laymans terms:
HE MIGHT JUST BE A BIG TIME SCHMUCK
adam from ny
May 12th, 2010 at 8:13 pm
I think it’s because he realized that Byron Leftwich is so slow , if he didn’t get a head start , he wouldn’t be able to block the defender for the 30 seconds it takes for him to get the ball off.