Penn Seeing New Things
August 5th, 2011
Much has been written and said about Donald Penn battling Adrian Clayborn in training camp. It’s fun to watch, and it’s fun to hope that Penn is helping the kid mature and make up ground lost thanks to the asinine lockout.
Penn delivered some of the more interesting commentary on the topic, courtesy of Craig Smith of ESPN1040.com. It seems Penn is getting his own education.
Speaking of rookies, DE Adrian Clayborn has had a fast start to camp, much like WR Mike Williams did a season ago, and has already earned the praise of his practice counterpart, Pro Bowl LT Donald Penn.
“He really holds his ground good,” Penn said. “It helps us, as a defense, set that edge. It’s really hard to get him off the box, off the block, on the run plays. He has so many counter moves. I tell people all the time, I think a lot of his plays are going to be made off of effort and off of counter plays, because he counters so quick. It’s something I haven’t seen, so it’s something I’m trying to get used to that will help me in the long run, too.”
Joe loves hearing all this stuff, but Clayborn is still a rookie. Joe will be very pleased if he performs better than Stylez White did last year.
August 5th, 2011 at 10:27 am
Hopefully going against Clayborn in practice should also help Donald Penn improve his game some more. It’s not like going up against “I take it easy in practice” White was making him any better.
August 5th, 2011 at 10:29 am
Raheem told a story the other day in a press conference about How Clayborn has made Penn work harder than he ever has in practice, and how competitive and helpful they were to each other.
August 5th, 2011 at 10:40 am
5 sacks should be VERY doable.
August 5th, 2011 at 11:00 am
I say he gets to 10+, that guy is going to be a beast, and you can’t double team Claynborn, Bowers, and McCoy.
August 5th, 2011 at 11:09 am
Well put Steve
August 5th, 2011 at 11:15 am
I agree with all the above, the thing to remember is that any team is going to have trouble with the size and athleticism the Bucs bring with the D line now. Look at GMC this year compared to last and the new guys with size and explosion, one alone may not put up insane numbers but as a group they will surprise and could be top 10 in the league in sacks as a unit… I just hope they get to Peyton when I am in town in October…. GO BUCS
August 5th, 2011 at 11:17 am
I dont think you could get better praise for a rookie, straight from a Pro Bowl LT mouth. He says these are things he hasnt seen, In Tampa or in general ?? Sounds like he is a Pit Bull.
Clayborn is a different breed of DE, not many DE with his shape and build. Its starting to sink in, we may have future real deal weapons on the DLine. Been quite a few years since that could be said.
HELL YEAH
August 5th, 2011 at 11:36 am
Thomas says: If he doesn’t get 18.5 sacks, he is a BUST.
August 5th, 2011 at 11:41 am
Stylez was poor against the run AND couldn’t get to the QB. Clayborn will be a major upgrade in the run game at the very least.
August 5th, 2011 at 11:51 am
I’m just excited to hopefully see our run defense step up this year. I’m loving the fact that both these rookie ends were known for holding up well against the run.
I honestly will not worry about our pass defense, if Raheem did that good last year with no pass rush. . . can’t imagine what it’s gonna look like with the new improved rush!
August 5th, 2011 at 12:00 pm
@mauha. and its all raheems fault! for drafting somone with injury concerns… (when his injury concern is the fact that he was born injured…. thats it 0
August 5th, 2011 at 12:08 pm
Thomas says to Dan: If Ruud were still on the team, we would have won a super bowl. Bowers wont play a game. McCoy is a bust. Price is a bust. Clayborn is a bust(I read an article somewhere on some website at some point in time, that Clayborn is faking his birth defect). And Gruden is my lover.
August 5th, 2011 at 1:12 pm
cant even lie man i wasnt too happy when we picked clayborn but i knew from previous drafts that dominick would be makin a good pick up. Glad to hear this kid is coming along strong. I hope this Defense goes back to its glory days
August 5th, 2011 at 4:40 pm
@Teflon Don – I also wanted Tampa to take someone else besides
Clayborn with our first pick. Thank God for Tampa I am not picking the team, LOL
August 5th, 2011 at 6:38 pm
Hopefully Buc fans we get to see against the Chefs.
August 5th, 2011 at 10:36 pm
Doanld Penn has done a great job since he broke into the starting lineup. If Clayborn is making Penn better then that in itself is a win for Freeman and the team, without a single sack.
August 5th, 2011 at 11:23 pm
I agree BigMac. One of the things i can truly say about this new very young D. Is even in practice, they are going to be going 150% on every snap every play. With these young guys being so talented and getting better everyday. It greatly improves our offense of veterans. I think they got a little complacent last year during the off season cuz they didn’t have much competition standing in front of them during practice. We should see a much better O line out of this as well.
August 6th, 2011 at 9:15 am
Even Gaines Adams stumbled into a sack now and then with only one move. The important thing is that he’s actually making moves and attempting to break free. This will create turmoil in the backfield and will result in a few extra sacks and interceptions.
Go Eagles!