Immature Leadership?
February 27th, 2024
Running back Chase Edmonds (not pictured) speaks out.
Great insight into the 2023 Bucs season here from veteran backup running back Chase Edmonds.
Joe can say without flinching that Edmonds is one of the nicest dudes in the Bucs locker room. But that doesn’t mean he’s afraid to speak his mind.
Edmonds sat down with Mr. Bucs Nation for an interview last week and opened up about Tampa Bay’s roller coaster 2023 season.
He took a stab at explaining the team’s 4-7 start and how they came out of it. It made Joe wonder whether the leadership within the team failed early, or if it was a case of so many rookies and young players on the roster getting off course in a new situation.
“Us starting off at 3-1 heading into the bye, young team — you know, you read what people are saying about predictions and what they think the season is going to be — so [we were] kind of feeling ourselves a little bit too much to where like you go into the bye thinking it’s sweet,” Edmonds said.
Joe doesn’t know how a professional team with a hearty handful of Super Bowl winners collectively gets too high on itself at 3-1, but ok.
However, that feeling, if it comes, shouldn’t last more than a game. The Bucs’ ensuing slump nosedived the team to a 4-7 record.
Edmonds said Baker Mayfield was the No. 1 reason for Tampa Bay’s special turnaround and playoff run.
Week after week Mayfield earned more and more trust from his teammates, Edmonds said, and winning galvanized the roster.
“You could just really see that team felt that we were starting to gel and, like, guys got closer. That Week 12 to Week 17 run, we got so close as a team compared to like when we first started out,” Edmonds said. “It was kind of cliques a little bit [early in the season]. You know, just because we had so many young guys. You got some veteran guys and you got the guys that won the [Super Bowl] with each other. So it was trying to get through that mold and mold it all together.”
And mold the Bucs did. The team was an uncalled timeout — and a touchdown and a two-point conversion — from forcing overtime in the divisional round of the playoffs.
February 27th, 2024 at 5:02 am
Joe … ‘The team was an uncalled timeout — and a touchdown and a two-point conversion — from forcing overtime in the divisional round of the playoffs.’
You were doing sooo well, right up until that. The proverbial ‘junkyard dog with a bone’ … just can’t let it go. At least add ‘the inside 2-minutes interception’ to your descriptor just to pretend that our QB had a role in that loss.
February 27th, 2024 at 5:45 am
and, and, and. Puh-leeze, stop it with the timeout.
February 27th, 2024 at 5:48 am
Saw that interview. I hope we keep him on the roster. Talk about MATURE leadership. What a great team guy. And…he’s still damned good!
February 27th, 2024 at 5:48 am
Kudos to Chase Edmonds. We hear over and over again how much the team believes in Baker. Also, look at the pro bowl and how Baker did so well and was the MVP. He is the guy. The Bucs were starting to clique. We watched it all in real time. Go Bucs!
February 27th, 2024 at 6:02 am
Mayfield is ho-hum.
8-8. 0 points in game 17. McLaughlin’s 3 field goals gave us the 9-0 win.
Detroit playoff game on the line and he throws a pick to seal the loss.
Season middle-of-the-pack stats thanks largely to garbage-time play against 4th quarter prevent defenses.
Ho-hum.
February 27th, 2024 at 6:33 am
Mayfield is ho-hum.
8-8. 0 points in game 17. McLaughlin’s 3 field goals gave us the 9-0 win.
Detroit playoff game on the line and he throws a pick to seal the loss.
Season middle-of-the-pack stats thanks largely to garbage-time play against 4th quarter prevent defenses.
Ho-hum.
**********************************************************
February 27th, 2024 at 7:15 am
Edmonds said Baker Mayfield was the No. 1 reason for Tampa Bay’s special turnaround and playoff run.
Week after week Mayfield earned more and more trust from his teammates, Edmonds said, and winning galvanized the roster.
Stats, stats and more lies. These are humans playing the game. Leadership counts and Baker is way ahead of Fields, Watson, Cousins or anyone else Munch my Rod and co. Want to take ahead of Baker.
February 27th, 2024 at 7:16 am
And who might I ask was responsible for not calling that time out? That’s right the Head Coach Todd Bowles. Reminded me a little of some of the bonehead decisions the year before like sending out a kicker who couldn’t hit past 50 yards to kick not one but two 50 yard plus field goals when the games were on the line. Instead of leaving the offense in and giving them a chance on 4’th down he thought our kicker was going to magically grow some extra muscle and put it through from 54.
February 27th, 2024 at 7:17 am
So IvanT, aka BucU, knows more than actual Buc players. You may want to fill the team in, so they will know they are wrong.
February 27th, 2024 at 7:17 am
Title: Immature leadership? My non-Joe way of thinking of things.
1. Edmonds just giving an excuse to a journalist of why they had a bad stretch with “feeling ourselves a little bit too much”
A) Sometimes teams simply regress to their mean performance level after an unexpectedly strong start.
B) Sometimes, it is just how your team lines up with another team. Remembering the 2020 Bucs, they lost be a combined 72 to 26 to the New Orleans Saints.
C) Do we really think that 3-1 Bucs got too big of a head after a 3-1 start. What did they still have big heads when they were 3-3?
February 27th, 2024 at 7:21 am
Also as far as Detroit goes if Evans had not let a perfect ball go right through both hands and ended up in a DBs hands we would have had a TD there not a Fg. Then Baker would be tied with 2 minutes left. Do some runs and try to get in FG range.
February 27th, 2024 at 7:39 am
As far as ho hum goes Baker raises his level of play on the playoffs to Elite. Cousins, Jackson, Dak, Hurts all do the opposite and implode under pressure. In a matter of fact way Baker says he plays better under pressure then backs it.up.
February 27th, 2024 at 7:40 am
Why should Joe stop bringing up the uncalled time-out?
Todd Bowles quit on his team, and didn’t give them the opportunity to perform the miracle.
I find this especially egregious since we almost had a miracle earlier in the year against Buffalo.
As far as I’m concerned, that was a fireable offense.
February 27th, 2024 at 8:02 am
Jason: The key word is “almost”. If you almost did something, you still didn’t do it.
February 27th, 2024 at 8:09 am
Do I agree with Bowles on how that game ended? No. Am I gonna let it ruin my life. No.
February 27th, 2024 at 8:18 am
According to Ira:
“During their 4-7 start, the Bucs averaged 19 points. During their 6-2 finish, the Bucs averaged 24 points as Mayfield threw 17 TD passes and only five interceptions. In two postseason matchups, he threw for a combined 686 yards and tossed three TD passes each game.”
Not surprising, as the season went on, new team, new coach, new system, Baker and rest of offense gelled
February 27th, 2024 at 8:45 am
So who else do you get to replace ho hum? Cousins is old, hurt and 1-4 in the playoffs. Fields has an 11-29 career record And never been to the playoffs. A rookie at 26? Ped man Garrapolo? Minshew? Watson on an over priced guaranteed contract is 1-2 playoffz and his last full ssason was 4-12. Best option is baker by far.
February 27th, 2024 at 8:48 am
Playcalling by Canales was much improved as the season went on. The defense is why we lost to Detroit in the playoffs. Bowles should have brought the heat. He went soft and allowed Detroits offense to have their way. Pathetic. Completely on Bowles. We should have won
February 27th, 2024 at 8:48 am
Certainly the Bucs offense regressed to terrible right after the Bye. None of us were in the meetings and practices during the bye week, we don’t know what happened during that week other than what we have heard from the players and coaches. Edmunds was there and I have no reason to doubt his take.
February 27th, 2024 at 9:42 am
Defense Rules Says:
February 27th, 2024 at 5:02 am
You were doing sooo well, right up until that. The proverbial ‘junkyard dog with a bone’ … just can’t let it go
——
oh the the irony
February 27th, 2024 at 9:49 am
. . . The timeout . . .
Lmao.
Come on Joe. The only POSSIBLE outcome of calling that timeout,
Was we all would of had time for one more beer.
Is that what this is REALLY about? Lol
February 27th, 2024 at 9:51 am
Why don’t some of ya’ll armchair head coaches realize that Detroit had more talent? At some point, talent finds a way to win. We plugged in leaky holes and outperformed what was expected. I mean, we were banking on certain players like Ryan Neal that were supposed to ball out. We had young guys like McCollum and Izien playing in the backfield, injuries to Dean and Davis, and a loafer in D. White.
Honestly, if BA was the HC, I think he would have held players like D. White accountable much, much earlier in the season. Bowles is a great coordinator, mostly. But, I don’t think he’s the kind of guy that gets in your face when you make a mistake other than an “Aww shucks” kind of reaction. And it’s ok, not everyone can cut it as a HC. But, I think Bowles has a ceiling which he met this past season. I don’t expect much else unless he elicits fear in that locker room. Guys performed with Tom Brady and BA because the expectations were your best or get off the field.
February 27th, 2024 at 10:17 am
Joe says “The team was an uncalled timeout — and a touchdown and a two-point conversion — from forcing overtime in the divisional round of the playoffs.”
Joe, it is sad you keep repeating this! Really Joe, you are better than this. Give it up. You are degrading your professional opinion.
February 27th, 2024 at 10:45 am
so [we were] kind of feeling ourselves a little bit too much to where like you go into the bye thinking it’s sweet
That’s because Devin white played for the bucs mr team captain has never really been mature
February 27th, 2024 at 10:59 am
Baker Haters….suck on that. Another player who is in the day to day battle giving Mayfield his props. You Nimrods are clueless. Why don’t you ever say if Otton would of ran the correct route we would not of loss. If the Offensive Line could block instead of throwing out ole whiff blocks…. If the kicker would not of bounce a field goal attempt off the upright. If Evans would not of made a Career choice of saving his body or taking the hit, the interception would not of happen. You see it is a team game and let one guy not do his assignment and it can go to hades quickly.
Do I wish Mayfield would not of made that throw to a receiver that ran an incorrect route and BTW if he held it because of the incorrect route and let Godwin clear he would of been sacked. Then you idiots would be saying he held the ball too long.
Every time I leave this comment section I feel dumber for reading your ignorance.
February 27th, 2024 at 11:22 am
These Baker Haters know more than Chase who was in the locker room all year. Y’all some idiots.
February 27th, 2024 at 11:50 am
BakerFan……..the correct grammar is “would have” not “would of.”
Not sure how you can feel dumber than you already are.
February 27th, 2024 at 12:30 pm
Safe to say after our first four games other team started looking at our tape and figured out how to beat us
February 27th, 2024 at 1:33 pm
Watch it,Joe, you are going to inflame the Baker Hate Brigade by quoting somebody on the team who feels like Baker was a big part of the team’s success. Too many bloggers with fragile egos who need to be right about something last season. It is obvious to most that Baker made significant contributions to a team with the worst rushing record in the NFL. Still hoping the Hate Brigade gets their hero Trask next year, and Baker takes a $40mil/yr deal with ATL.
February 27th, 2024 at 2:22 pm
Funny how Joe keeps saying a timeout and 2pt conversion away from nfc championship game… more like one bone headed interception in tight coverage away from the championship. Baker lost us the game in the final minutes, it’s ok to say that. Our defense didn’t help with 3 consecutive touchdown drives by the lions but y’all’s god of a quarterback mayfield threw it right to the lions.
February 27th, 2024 at 2:54 pm
never let i go joe. he needs to be pounded on that until he gets timeouts right or lets someone else handle them
February 27th, 2024 at 5:10 pm
Just a reminder guys the NFC South is the worst division in football…
The last play of the season with everything on the line Mayfield trotteed out on the field and threw the dumbest pick in a playoff game I’ve seen in a while…He rarely has back to back good years so buyer beware…