Mark Dominik Speaks
April 11th, 2011
With a fresh contract through the 2015 season, Bucs rockstar general manager Mark Dominik was in a chatty mood today on The Ron and Ian Show, on WDAE-AM 620, broadcasting from the Chris Thomas Memorial Golf Tournament in Clearwater.
Dominik explained that Bucs coaches and scouts are all flying in to Tampa tonight, to get together for “10 to 12 days” to finalize every angle as it relates to the NFL Draft.
Also, Dominik said the Bucs can talk to their 2011 draft picks only until the draft ends, assuming the NFL lockout remains in force at that time. “Once the last selection is made, you can’t speak to any rookies anymore.” But, as has been widely reported, Dominik said draftees can be flown to Tampa for a traditional meet-the-player press conference before the player will have to leave the Bucs’ facility.
And for those holding out hope the Bucs might throw fists of cash at Nnamdi Asomugha or another big-name free agent, Dominik dumped a bucket of cold Gatorade on that notion.
“I think we’re going to stay with the plan we started two years ago, and that’s trying to build this thing really through the draft. If there’s a piece of the puzzle that makes a lot of sense from outside the organization, we’ll certainly give it a shot and see if it works out for us. But the bottom line is when you go back and you look at certainly the Green Bay Packers and what they just accomplished and how they did it, they did it all internally and they barely touched free agency. And we want to be that type of a drafting team that takes advantage of that second draft also, and go find the Ted Larsens that can fill in the holes for us and use free agency that way.”
Joe wonders whether Dominik’s contract extension makes him more or less likely to partake in free agency. Perhaps it has no bearing at all.
April 11th, 2011 at 12:37 pm
Not a bad team to try and replicate. Outside of Charles Woodson, the Packers have ignored FA. All the best teams in the league rely heavily on solid drafts and very little on FA. I wouldn’t mind bringing in Nmamdi, but don’t see it happening.
April 11th, 2011 at 12:40 pm
Dominik has always talked about how he wants to emulate the Steelers and the Packers because they build through the draft.
April 11th, 2011 at 12:46 pm
Im happy with Dominik.
There’s only one thing that worries me. Is he going to re-sign the players we develop or let them walk and start drafting replacements?
The only reason it worries me is because we haven’t really seen what he will do with our own free agents yet. I don’t want this team constantly developing draft choices over their rookie contract, get a few good years out of them and then watch them get paid somewhere else while we draft replacements.
It will be interesting to see how he handles OUR free agents. Im not all that worried about Nnamdi or big name guys.
April 11th, 2011 at 12:51 pm
Fear The Glo:
Just a guess: Dominik likely has a price range on what to spend on the free agents (Ruud, Black, etc.) depending on their value to the team and talent level. If their agents ask for more, Dominik will waive goodbye to said players.
It’s not like this hasn’t been done before in the NFL. Kevin Colbert is a master at this.
Hell, Joe remembers Bucs fans screaming like gutted hogs when Richie McKay let Hardy Nickerson and Brad Culpepper walk. Joe seems to remember the Bucs winning a Super Bowl after each left.
It’s a fine art when to know when to fold ’em, and when to hold ’em.
April 11th, 2011 at 1:17 pm
Not that i think Dominick will sign Nnamdi, but it’s kind of funny how the Packers were brought up and they brought in a big name FA CB from Oakland in Charles Woodson a few years back. Kind of funny the similarities there. I do realize that Woodson really exploded when he went to the Packers, so its not totally comparable to the Nnamdi rumor. I will say however that I’m not convinced Dominick won’t sign some FA(s). His words were “If there’s a piece of the puzzle that makes a lot of sense from outside the organization, we’ll certainly give it a shot”. Not “we will never sign a free agent”. So I don’t think he threw a cold bucket of Gatorade on anything…
April 11th, 2011 at 2:26 pm
Joe,
Can we get the Commish to give us a complete Mock Draft? I appreciate his studeous work and consistent coverage but there are other media outlet counterparts of yours that I absolutely DISAGREE with and I would love someone that has more credibility to dispell this Lance Kendricks crap as a second rounder to the Bucs when there are other priorities on defense. I have not even seen Kendricks as a early pick by anyone but this other media outlet. Pass on the message please and congrats to Dominik. He earned it!
April 11th, 2011 at 2:48 pm
Architek79:
Every round?!!!
That’s a lot of work for Justin. 🙁
April 12th, 2011 at 1:14 am
I don’t think we’ll see a mock draft that covers every round. Its too hard to predict one round.
I’ve heard a hundred times that we want to build through the draft, and I don’t care as long as we’re champions once again. I do, however, get tired of Dominik comparing the plans to the Cheeseheads. Kudos to them, but I honestly believe our own system will be the envy of other teams soon.