Cashing In With Julio Jones?
October 2nd, 2022
The most thought-provoking line of last week came when Todd Bowles revealed that Julio Jones could have played against the Packers but the Bucs held him out as a move to help his knee heal for the long term.
That’s incredibly rare in the NFL. Usually, when a quality player can play, he’s put on the field. He wants to play and the team needs him. It’s as simple as that.
And consider who the Bucs were playing. The Packers have 13 games per year since Matt LaFleur became head coach in 2019. Green Bay may be the major obstacle to the Bucs nailing down the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs.
But there was Julio on the bench, sitting out with suspended Mike Evans and injured Chris Godwin.
The Bucs lost 14-12. Needless to say, the offense was weak.
Today, Julio is supposed to play, per NFL Network and BSPN. If he does and he thrives, including drawing attention from other receivers in a Tampa Bay win, then Joe will have to give Todd Bowles major credit for being patient and getting his team to 3-1 in the healthiest way possible.
If the Bucs lose and Julio looks good, Joe won’t be able to shake wondering what could have been last week against Green Bay with Julio in the lineup.
Managing injuries and sometimes preventing them are huge roles of an NFL head coach. Bowles is being put to the test big-time, and keep an eye on that one-legged running back.
October 2nd, 2022 at 9:53 am
Another Bowles Blunder? Over time they just keep on coming. Prevent Offense strikes again.
October 2nd, 2022 at 10:12 am
Bowles biggest blunder was getting Jensen hurt in a training camp walk thru without pads. Bowles instructed the defense line to rush Brady.
October 2nd, 2022 at 10:59 am
Bucs since 76…it was Bowles’ fault a player got hurt in practice?
Really?
October 2nd, 2022 at 11:01 am
Eh Bucs fans!
October 2nd, 2022 at 11:39 am
Clowns injuries arent anyones fault dipshts
October 2nd, 2022 at 12:33 pm
I’m going to whip up a big batch of homemade gazpacho today. That always seems to bring the Bucs good luck.
Gonna start it now. I made some for the Dallas Monday Night game ant that was their best game this year.
October 2nd, 2022 at 12:42 pm
Good lord – so much crap today by stupid people.
– Bowles did not get Jensen injured.
– Bowles did not get Stinnie injured.
– Bowles did not get D. Smith injured.
– Bowles did not get Wells injured.
– Bowles did not tell Mike to lose his cool and get suspended.
– Bowles did not cause Ali to retire.
– Bowles did not cause Gronk to retire.
– Bowles did not cause Cappa to take the money and run.
– And Otton experienced a family tragedy.
JJ MAY have been able to play last week, but the guy hasn’t made it through a season for a couple years – why risk the season for one game, even if it is the Pack.
October 2nd, 2022 at 12:50 pm
Given what happened with BA & AB…….BA would have ordered old Julio out on the field…….
Is anyone missing BA yet?…….one has to wonder about his impact on Leftwich & the offense…..
October 2nd, 2022 at 1:14 pm
Bowles looking very good so far IMO. Leftwich not as much.
October 2nd, 2022 at 1:46 pm
I have no problem with Bowles resting Jones.
It’s a long, long season, and the old guys need extra body love.
October 2nd, 2022 at 2:04 pm
Professional negligence on the part of the Bucs’ not only kept the Bucs from a very likely repeat Super Bowl win last season and a much easier path to their Lombardi in 2020, it has literally and figuratively hobbled them from pulling off a dominating third, and likely last, season with the Greatest Quarterback of All Time under center.
How ironic that the solution or the “cure” for the Bucs’ perennial, near devastating, league-leading plague of hamstring injuries to its key skill players (receivers, running backs and dbs), was sitting underneath Tom Brady’s, and his partner and sports health guru Alex Guerrero’s noses before either of them had even arrived in Foxborough, Massachusetts:
“In 1999 and 2000, hired by the New England Patriots because the owner of the team was tired of seeing his players go down with hamstring injuries, [Dr. Marcus Elliott, director of P3 Applied Sports Science and former physiologist and muscle injury specialist to the New England Patriots] Elliott implemented a program aimed at applying then current injury research to hamstring injuries in the NFL. What resulted was a program so effective the Patriots considered it a COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE over the rest of the league.” (emphasis added).
Let that sink in, Buccaneers fans. Since 2000, Bill Belichick and the Pats organization were sitting on a secret weapon which they believed gave them an actual “competitive advantage” over the rest of the League. What else happened around that time period? It just happened to be the start of the New England Patriots Dynasty where Tom Brady led the Pats to NINE Super Bowls and winning SIX of them.
Just how effective was the Patriots’ hamstring prevention program? :
“The results were significant: prior to implementing the program, the Patriots had 22 players suffer hamstring injuries, but after the program was implemented that number dropped to three and then two the following season.”
In two seasons, the Pats dropped from 22 to 2 hamstring injuries. Again, a soft tissue injury prevention program, a ‘secret weapon’ in place at New England BEFORE Alex Guerrero Tom Brady had even met!
How does Alex Guerrero not even pick up on this secret weapon and incorporate it, in some version, into the TB12 Method? Was it willful ignorance from a point of pride, or hubris, on Guerrero’s part? I haven’t the slightest idea. All I know is that Guerrero SHOULD have incorporated the important parts of the program which he SHOULD have then leveraged his partner into pushing it within the Bucs’ organization and players.
Just imagine what the Bucs would have been had the hamstring injury plague merely passed over Tampa Bsy instead of settling right down and calling it home.
https://www.si.com/edge/2016/08/17/hamstring-injuries-nfl-training-camps-new-england-patriots
October 2nd, 2022 at 2:04 pm
Agree with Cobraboy. They need Jones healthy in December and January. If we’ve learned anything since the league expanded the playoffs, it’s that seeding isn’t as important as health. Case in point, the bucs loss to the Rams last year. I would much rather have a healthy roster than the #1 seed.
October 2nd, 2022 at 3:17 pm
I agree with cobraboy and redeemer Jones would have been the number one focus in that packers game with his injury history might have lost him for the entire season just to play one game. 2 and 1 isn’t that bad and now looks like we will have our big four playing the kc game hope the offense gets out of the gate this time go bucs.
October 2nd, 2022 at 3:46 pm
Atticus Flinch. If you know your Pats history you know BB didn’t allow Guerrero around anybody but Brady and ultimately kicked him out altogether. Also from all accounts the TB12 method is a blitch and a lot of players don’t have the discipline to go through it.
October 2nd, 2022 at 4:16 pm
Kentucky, you’re half right. Bill did allow Guerrero in the locker room, and he serviced multiple players. The problem was, he started telling lineman not to lift weights. Alex got too big for his britches, and Bill banished him. It was a little ridiculous to make Brady hump up the hill to get treatment, but he tried to circumvent tried and true training methods. Rubber bands might work for QBs, not so much for 300 pound lineman. BTW, Guerrero once claimed he could cure cancer. He also believes in concussion water.
October 2nd, 2022 at 5:05 pm
Playing it safe is not always the best strategy. With 3 of our top WR unable to play, I too believe Bowles made the wrong call by keeping Julio Jones on the bench. It most likely cost us the game.
If the injury was a recent concussion, absolutely – play it safe until the player fully recovers.
October 2nd, 2022 at 5:33 pm
That was one of the cringiest posts I’ve ever seen
October 4th, 2022 at 3:49 am
I think Julio needs to be cut so that Gronk can be enticed out of retirement!