Bucs Will Have Two Draft Classes
February 14th, 2011
Save for the Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers, few if no other teams had as many critical injuries as the Bucs did last year.
It started with Brian Price and didn’t end until Arrelious Benn was lost. Some 11 starters put on the injuried reserve list.
The prospect of those players coming back has Raheem Morris fired up, so reports Rick Stroud of the St. Petersburg Times.
“I got a whole draft class coming back when you think about it, and that’s pretty exciting,” Morris said. “I got two or three first-rounders (McCoy, Joseph, Talib), a second-rounder (Price), a starting center (Faine), my starting safety (Grimm) who was playing lights-out. And don’t forget about a guy like Demar Dotson, who was all the talk in the preseason.
“We think all those guys will be back and ready to go, if not by training camp, certainly by the start of the regular season. They’re all doing well.”
Joe has absolutely nothing against Jeff Faine but the way Jeremy Zuttah played in Faine’s absence, given the veteran center’s salary, Joe would be surprised if Faine returns for the 2011 season wearing pewter and red.
But Joe gets where Raheem is coming from. Given all the injures — the Bucs still won 10 games — and the fact all of the rookies got precious playing time last season, the prospects of next season have a tinge of excitement to them.
If there is a next season.
February 14th, 2011 at 9:41 am
Cody Grimm “starting safety”. No mention of T-Jax?
February 14th, 2011 at 9:53 am
Grimm has to start. Can’t count on TJAX until he proves he is past his problems.
Would be nice to have them both ready to go and a good competition during TC.
February 14th, 2011 at 9:59 am
Open competition is the way to go. I hope we don’t lose any preseason games. Those games are probably more important to us than ever before.
February 14th, 2011 at 10:07 am
T-Jax is suspended. He can’t be in training camp or even at One Buc Place until the suspension is lifted. This includes talking to him. If he gets his truff together, which I hope he does, since this will be his last chance, he has to be in shape and up to speed to compete. If he beat the dragon, he can do it, if not ….
February 14th, 2011 at 10:09 am
If they bring that Pot head back, he may go to FS and Grimm goes to SS. I hope they dont bring him back. He’s an idiot- two times? He’s too dumb to to be worth the trouble. I think Asante and Lynch got it covered. You can’t count on him
February 14th, 2011 at 10:14 am
I agree with you all. Just had to point out that Rah didn’t even mention him. Very telling coming from Rah who usually has his players backs.
February 14th, 2011 at 10:59 am
nick:
Tanard Jackson still has five (?) games to serve on his suspension so given his sentence and the fact he’s a three-time failure, with a fourth failure meaning he’s gone for good, there’s absolutely no way you can count on the guy. The Bucs are better off just letting him go and be someone else’s headache. Time to move past Jackson.
Oh, as of March 4 when the CBA expires, that means of course no drug testing until there is a new CBA.
February 14th, 2011 at 11:08 am
FYI, I’m pretty sure T-Jax only has two games left to serve…
February 14th, 2011 at 11:16 am
TJ is too big a talent to give up on already, IMO.
Don’t count on him, but also don’t release him yet. At full strength that secondary could be really good.
February 14th, 2011 at 11:23 am
hey, we gave up on Josh Hamilton too quickly
February 14th, 2011 at 11:44 am
Joe – agree 100%
Eric- I hear you, but it hurts the team to give this guy the reps, build chemistry, get co-pedometer as a unit, then he leaves them hung out to dry for a joint!! You can’t avoid injuries, a guys respond to that- stepping up to cover for your buddy, who got hurt in the line of Duty. It’s different when a guy leaves over something as selfish as that. It makes young guys wonder about the team’s dedication to “the plan” when vets make those kinds of mistakes. Plus T-jax didn’t play that well the year before, think the dope was getting to him.
Better spend the time on someone who has some loyalty to the team, than a guy whos betrayed them twice already.
February 14th, 2011 at 11:50 am
The thing that intrigues me most about Morris statement is Demar Dotson. We have all seemed to pretty much forget about him when talking about the future of the offensive line but the scuttlebutt last preseason was that Dotson was looking impressive enough that the Bucs were(allegedly) ready to possibly let Donald Penn hold out. Well now we don’t even need him to play left tackle and if he is good enough to be even a decent left tackle then maybe he can be a dominant right tackle for us now that Penn is locked up. James Lee played nicely last year but Demar Dotson has the body to potentially be a dominator if some of the hype we heard last year was true.
February 14th, 2011 at 12:10 pm
Cody Grimm, Starter ..
February 14th, 2011 at 2:44 pm
Gitarlvr- agree about Dotson- I posted about 3 weeks ago that I thought, by seasons end- our O-line would be LT-Penn,LG- Brandon Carter, C- Ted Larsen,RG-Hardman, and RT- Dotson. Putting Zuttah,Trueblood, and Lee for depth. Larsen played great last year, but is a center. I think both Carter and Hardman bring more Size and athleticism to the Guard spot. Line play was great with Larsen and Hardman playing last year. That old line had it’s chance, and has never been productive. Time for a change.
February 14th, 2011 at 5:14 pm
Nothing against Jeremy Zuttah, but if he’s the starting center next year, somebody needs to get it into his head that it’s called a “Shotgun Snap” not a “nonchalant, lazy flip” back to Freeman.
February 14th, 2011 at 9:44 pm
Teddy- lmao!
February 15th, 2011 at 4:08 pm
Hey Nick, Josh Hamilton was hanging out in crack houses doing crack down the street from Tropicana field ( I believe it was the Thunder Dome back than).I dont remember all the details but i believe it was during season,there’s no way the “Devil Rays” could have kept Hamilton on the team.I believe he got arrested and much more than T Jax.