Crowell Experiment Comes To An End
June 19th, 2010
With the rookie contract signings of defensive end Erik Lorig and linebacker Dakoda Watson yesterday came the release of Angelo Crowell.
You remember, Crowell. Maybe you don’t.
He was the big offseason defensive free agent signing last year, who the Bucs had high hopes for at strongside linebacker. But Crowell was damaged goods, never played and sucked up $2.5 million of Mark Dominik’s budget and lowered the general manager’s grade point average.
Crowell was brought back this season. And Joe was told he looked healthy during OTAs but did not stand out.
Now he’s gone.
Call Joe a sadist, but Joe sees hope in Dominik cutting Crowell.
Joe has to believe that perhaps Dominik is more willing to cut his mistakes rather than hold on too long in hopes they redeem him. In other words, maybe cutting Crowell means there’s less of a chance Michael Clayton is here on opening day.
June 19th, 2010 at 10:21 am
I like your theory, Joe and I hope your right about Clayton. The guy is a cancer on this team.
June 19th, 2010 at 11:08 am
Some of the posters here thought this guy might even start this year. They marveled how good he was. Suckers.
June 19th, 2010 at 11:44 am
Eric S
He was signed for Bates defense. To big and slow for the Tampa 2.
No mystery or surprise there
June 19th, 2010 at 11:50 am
Every G.M. makes mistakes. The good ones don’t let their egos tie them to dead weight.
June 19th, 2010 at 11:51 am
Nice signing Dom! If I remember correctly there were a lot of pro-org sheep touting how Crowell would rebound this year in defense of Dom.
Well – guess not. Joe, Didnt you recently respond to a comment about how you thought this acquisition would bear fruit this year? I could be wrong about that – but I know that many others did.
June 19th, 2010 at 11:55 am
Capt.Tim that’s a good point!
I will say one thing that I respect about Raheem & Dom is that they seem to be man enough to make the tough decisions. As well as to admit when they make a mistake and move on. That said for some reason they still seem to be ok with the Clayton decision!? Supposedly he’s a good presence in the locker room. Maybe they have him in there specifically to help bring Mike Williams along and keep him out of trouble?
June 19th, 2010 at 12:08 pm
The guy hasn’t played since the 2007 season. I didn’t think he was going to contribute under Bates, Kiffin or Tom Bass for that matter. Nice signing Dom. But it is good they got rid of him, so there is no dead weight in training camp.
June 19th, 2010 at 1:56 pm
Way to go Duminik!!! More wasted money thrown down the drain!!!!
@Orchard full of idiots
“Every GM makes mistakes”
No duh, we know that. Honestly, that’s a ridiculous stance to this topic. Dominik is not like other GM’s. Yeah maybe he went ahead and cut him, but he already did the damage by signing him in first place!! DUMInick needs to make good decisions from the BEGINNING and realize the kind of people he’s bringing into here. He needs to know what he’s doing and not have to pay the price all the time before finally cutting ties with people. Terrible decision maker. I’m not gonna make him a saint just because he cut this guy (even though he needed to go) because bottomline, he screwed up and didn’t do his homework.
Let’s see: Jagadzinski, Bates, Clayton, Leftwich, Nugent, Ward, and now Crowell the list goes on……….so much damn money we could’ve used to keep our deserving players!!!
June 19th, 2010 at 4:24 pm
Patrick,
Hello and welcome to the slow squad.
He was signed as the bigger LB type Bates needed for his system. No Bates, no need for Crowell- doesn’t fit our scheme.
No catastrophic mistake, no billion dollar screwup. Just that-doesn’t fit the scheme. Read this post slowly, over and over, until it sinks in.
Then translate to the rest of the “slow squad”, and congrats again on your new membership
June 19th, 2010 at 5:53 pm
Capt Dim:
Actually it was a mutli-million dollar screw-up (of course not billion as no player has signed a billion dollar contract). If it was a “didnt fit the scheme” issue – why re-sign him months ago when Bates was long gone and not just release him when Bates was canned.
Also Capt Dim, LB is a position in a 4-3 whether it be Tampa 2 or the Bates system that LB’s of different sizes can play. Ruud could play in different systems, Black probably also – it is simply not true to say that Crowell was solely a Bates guy. He was sought out by Dom, reupped by Dom after Bates was canned and only released because it is clear that he is damaged goods in that his injuries keep him from playing special teams.
So, read real slowly Capt. Dim, and you might just get it.
June 19th, 2010 at 9:48 pm
I don’t think he was a mistake by the GM. It was a gamble that didn’t pay off. If he came back healthy and played as good as he did once in Buf. then it would have worked. It didn’t pan out, but it was a decent gamble. It was not like he was a big signing that cost them alot.
June 20th, 2010 at 2:50 am
Thomas, you ignorant s**t, 🙂
Yes Thomas , there are LBs in both 4-3 and 3-4 defenses. Very good:).
But . . ., NO! You can’t plug anyone in to any defense just because he’s a LB. Do you watch football at all?? The biggest reason the ” Bates fiasco” failed is because “HIS SCHEME DIDNT FIT OUR PERSONNEL!!!”
Instead of hiring the right(larger) DL and LB , Bates asked our DL to gain 30 pounds! Idiotic! The only person he did sign to play his scheme? That’s right, Thomas, veeery good! It was Angelo Crowell.
When they dumped the rediculious Bates idea, Crowell was on I.R. For the season. As he recovered, they didn’t “resign” him, they exercised the option to retain his contract. It didn’t cost them anything to do so, as he was later released prior to Training Camp. They retained his rights for a couple reasons.
1) although they were sure he wouldn’t fit our scheme, at least let him get healthy and show us what he can do. Part courtesy, part curiosity. Why not? Didn’t cost much.
2) depth and experience. Once they were sure Crowell could not start in the Tampa 2, they briefly thought about depth at Sam backer, and the value of his experience in the locker room.
Ultimately, his injuries healing slower than expected, and his fit in our D not as good as hoped, they let him go.
So, Thomas, hope that explains the basics of “player type vs fit In Defensive Scheme”. Sorry you haven’t heard of this concept before, it’s been around for 30 years, a little to fast for you, huh?
So, that clear it up for ya a little bit, Thomas?
Next time, before ya call me out, go round up a clue first, would ya? Most junior high school players would have been able to embarrass you on that last post. This is PRO LEVEL. Go read a book and learn something, would ya?
June 20th, 2010 at 10:22 am
When dom does good it is good.
When Dom does bad it is also good.
Awesome!
June 20th, 2010 at 5:36 pm
Ah, no Eric, it’s not like that!
You see, every single decision that is made by the Bucs management or staff is immediately jumped on and anaylzed by the Fans. Some Fans- namely you and your fellow ” Slow Squad” members, always post that it was the wrong decision. Frequently, you add that the people making these decisions are idiots.
Ussually, it’s just day to day business of running a football team. You and the squad just don’t understand that, so you get scared that it’s the apocalpse.OR, sometimes you guys are just jelous of the rich folk that work in the NFL. Mostly, I think you just don’t understand. That’s because, well, yer all a little slow. Sorry, there it is 🙁
But, never fear! Capt. Tim is here, to explain the basics nice and slow, so that even the constant Buc haters can understand, and hopefully move foward.