Price Out; Injuries Spreading
October 22nd, 2010
Yeah, Joe heard the bad news delivered by Raheem Morris at his afternoon news conference.
Joe was depressed and turned to ice cold pints before hitting his laptop.
Brian Price is going to be out for a while. The St. Pete Times reported Price has some sort of hip inflammation that tossed a curveball at Bucs doctors. The Bucs are going to see how he responds with some extended time off. It could be several weeks, per the Times.
As Joe wrote the other day, pull up your pants, Ryan Sims.
Surely, Gerald McCoy will get nearly every defensive snap, as usual. And Sims and Roy Miller will split it up at nosetackle. Look for Michael Bennett, who played his share inside in preseason, to get a handful of reps there. Joe suspects Kyle Moore, whose return is expected, will stay primarily at his left end spot.
Now losing Price is no massive loss, per se, because the defensive line as a whole has not had success. Price is a lot better than Sims. And since this season sadly is not about winning a Super Bowl, then losing one of the young guys the Bucs need to develop and evaluate is troubling.
Earnest Graham didn’t practice Friday because of a bad hamstring. Morris talked about how Kregg Lumpkin has been cross-training at fullback and Erik Lorig is emerging as more than an emergency fullback. But there was not a peep about Chris Pressley, the guy who came into the season as the No. 2 fullback. We know he can’t run the ball, but now he can’t block, either? Joe sincerely hopes Graham can find a way Sunday.
Old man LG Keydrick Vincent also has missed practice time this week, and Raheem calmly chatted about how rookie Ted Larsen would the his replacement, if necessary. No word whether Raheem was wetting himself behind the podium. …. Larsen was a college center who has been learning his way at left guard since the Patriots drafted him.
The thought of losing Vincent and Graham is enough to send Joe to the liquor cabinet.
October 22nd, 2010 at 10:56 pm
That Lorig looked like a french poodle in Times square last week totally lost whats the angle with that call cross training is that a transgender approach to football?
October 22nd, 2010 at 11:48 pm
He also said rudd has missed practice and questionable
October 23rd, 2010 at 12:50 am
Damn. Losing Faine is really hurting this team. Our depth has just been eatin’ up. Such is life in the NFL.
I can’t believe Chris Pressley isn’t a viable option. If he is that bad, why not keep Rendrick Taylor instead of Pressley, as a receiving fullback, the way Chucky used Jameel Cook?
October 23rd, 2010 at 9:16 am
Actually neither Price or Miller has played significantly better than Ryan Sims . There will be no drop off with Sims in there. The line play can’t get any worse than its been. I actually think Sims is a better player than Miller period. There is a chance the run defense may actually improve if Sims gets more reps than miller.
October 23rd, 2010 at 9:46 am
Incidentally it looks like we may see Kregg Lumpkin today running the ball also. He is listed ahead of Legarrette Blount at halfback. So actually I really hope we see Lumpkin at halfback or else get ready for Caddy to have all the carries in the game I guess. I really wonder what happened with Blount. Inactive last week. Now behind Lumpkin. I don’t know if its a blitz thing. Im starting to suspect that the coaches just don’t like him. Clearly the guy has zero impulse control. Its probably just a matter of time until he punches somebody else. Personally I wouldn’t care if he’s a headcase. With Graham and Huggins out he’s the only prayer we have of running the ball. Let him run and replace him in the offseason if he turns out to be a cancer. I mean they put up with Talib who, mark my words, will eventually do something violent again.
October 23rd, 2010 at 10:36 am
Saw Rendrick Taylor play for the Omaha nighthawks he didn’t look that bad Bucs should have kept him
October 23rd, 2010 at 12:26 pm
Might be a blessing in disguise if Price is out for a couple weeks. It would mean that they can’t move McCoy around to DE as much. He’ll be playing undertackle in 4-3 sets and DE in 3-3-5 sets. That should give McCoy more opportunity to work on his game as a 3 technique. Once he gets rolling there, maybe Price can come back from injury and take over the nose tackle spot. I really think they need to use Crowder and Bennett even more at DE, even if Kyle Moore is healthy. Bennett has gotten more pressure in this last game (and we barely got any pressure against the Saints, but it was all Bennett) than very other DE this season.
I would have liked to see Rendrick Taylor kept at FB, I thought there was too much potential to let go. I also think Erik Lorig might surprise a few people. I was impressed with some of his run blocks last week. Being a former DE, he doesn’t hesitate to make contact. Being a former TE, he should have the hands to catch out of the backfield. I doubt we’ll ever see him get a carry though, and probably never should.
October 23rd, 2010 at 5:50 pm
never took you for a blink-182 fan Joe…