“There’s Not A Lot Of Use For Him Here”
November 30th, 2011
Jeff Faine should find a seat on the bench, suggests former Bucs DE Steve White, who also proposes four other Bucs have changed roles.
As fans ponder how the Bucs should approach the rest of this season and dole out playing time, former Bucs DE Steve White offered up six options that he would enact immediately.
(Warning: at least one of these could send you into shock.)
Speaking on Two-Hand Touch on WQYK-AM 1010 last night, White started with sitting down captain Jeff Faine. Here’s why:
“I’m going to bench Jeff Faine and move Zuttah over to center and find me a left guard. Somebody’s going to be a left guard or we’re going to draft one,” White said. “Jeff Faine, he’s serviceable, but I see centers get up on our middle linebacker every single play; I don’t know if I’ve seen Jeff Faine do it once this year.
“We need an upgrade. If we’re going to be a running team, we need a center who can run block. We don’t pull our center, which is probably what he’s better suited to doing. So there’s really not a lot of use for him here.”
Cut Albert Haynesworth was White’s next call (“this guy can’t find the B-gap”), along with benching Quincy Black (“you gotta go”). Wave good-bye to Kregg Lumpkin, says White, who has been very critical of Lumpkin’s blocking, and sit-down Kellen Winslow on first and second down because of his heinous run-blocking.
Lastly, White says it’s time to truly look for Ronde Barber’s replacement.
“We’re going to have to find somebody to split time with Ronde [Barber]. We gotta find the next guy. He’s a liability against the run 90 percent of the time,” White said. “Those are changes I would make right away.”
Joe would disagree only in the timing of some of these moves. In Joe’s mind, the Bucs need to remember/learn how to win games, and Joe thinks that for at least another two games it behooves the Bucs to keep their best players on the field.
November 30th, 2011 at 2:21 pm
He’s completely right on every point.
Ronde Barber gets a lot of free passes in this area because he does so many of the little things right. Unfortunately, he’s lost a step or two and misses way too many tackles.
Given the fact that Biggers has also regressed, we need to find another corner. If Ronde wants to come back next year, he’s going to have to be okay with only working out of the slot. He just isn’t full-time starter material anymore.
November 30th, 2011 at 2:22 pm
Hey joe, iis there a link to the full convo? Any chance you transcribed it? I think it would be a fun read
November 30th, 2011 at 2:26 pm
Agree 100% with Steve White on those comments. He’s pulling no punches and calling out players accurately. My only minor change would be to keep Haynesworth in the lineup, but that’s only because we don’t have anyone better to take his place.
This team needs a lot of help personnel wise. The draft doesn’t give enough help to keep up with this team’s needs. Dominik MUST hit free agency hard this offseason if the Bucs care at all about competing in 2012.
Here’s an unbiased list of players that need replacing or upgrading: Faine, Trueblood, Lumpkin, Stroughter, Spurlock, Pianalto, Madu, McCargo, Haynesworth, Miller, Black, Hayes, Diles, Hayward, Barber, Lewis, Jones, Lynch.
That’s a sh-tload of mediocrity right there, plain and simple. We need a great draft PLUS at least 6 free agents to get this team to a respectable talent level. This team is nowhere near as talented as the most extreme homers would have you believe. Nowhere near.
November 30th, 2011 at 2:27 pm
Jrock:
The audio is in the link above, like usual.
November 30th, 2011 at 2:46 pm
If gap control is a problem on the D-Line, that’s the first thing to address to each player. “Maintain gap integrity or your backup will.”
LB’s are soft, except Foster.
We do need to find Ronde’s replacement. He can’t play forever.
I’m all for replacing Faine with Zuttah, but we need a LG first.
How about we replace Olsen for an OC that calls a vertical, aggressive game. Get rid of dink and dunk.
November 30th, 2011 at 3:01 pm
Man there’s a guy in KC who is a Ronde clone. Guess no one saw it coming out of college. I saw him play one game at VT. Loved him. we didn’t take him
November 30th, 2011 at 3:07 pm
Great points but we need haynsworth he does get pressure and Geno Hayes we can work withbut sean jones should be benched now!
November 30th, 2011 at 3:08 pm
tcaviar:
Kinda hard to bench your team’s leading tackler.
November 30th, 2011 at 3:19 pm
The full audio is on whatthebuc.net “Listen Live link” right now, or at least it was last night.
I didn’t disagree with any of his suggestions. As Joe says, maybe the timing isn’t right for a couple of them, but they are excellent suggestions.
November 30th, 2011 at 3:40 pm
Hey guys. I upload them normally to our What the Buc podcast. It is in iTunes (free) and at http://www.whatthebuc.net/listen-live
November 30th, 2011 at 3:50 pm
@Joe
But Jones is not good. How many tackles or missed deep ball assignements has this guy missed all year? Exactly, He sucks he can be replaced. Bring up black.I’d start working in gaitor see what he could do in ronde’s role. Id release spurlock and bring up gant. Id release lumpy and play madu to see what he has. Im all for sitting faine he knows line calls but not powerful at the point of attack, and I believe zuttah could be a above average center anyways. Why not larsen? He might of started out bad but he didn’t do terrible in the games faine was injured in. He was all the buzz in camp. And at all cost Id bring up the lb we have on the practice squad and see what he can do because we know exactly what black and hayes are going to give us.
November 30th, 2011 at 3:54 pm
knucknbuc:
Joe actually believes Sean Jones is playing better this year than last.
November 30th, 2011 at 4:21 pm
I’m with you, Joe. As bad as Jones seems, he leads the team in tackles from a position that should not. He may have missed 10 tackles but he has made 60. I don’t hear anyone complaining about the 17 tackles Ronde has missed this year. Or Jackson’s awful 19 tackles/14 missed ratio.
November 30th, 2011 at 6:58 pm
I dont always like what white says but he i spot on. I have wanted to get rid of faine for the past year, he is usually always injured and he doesn’t move people at all. This offensive line has plenty of veterans amongst it he is not worth having around just for line calls. We need to see what some of these back ups and practice squad players have in the tank. Clearly we all know what we have on the roster as of now, what happened to smith the linebacker who raheem ranted and raved over during preseason and with all the horrible linebacker play he hasnt even suited up yet. As for ronde time to go love the guy to death but he is old and hurting this team. He has made some good plays against the pass but he has also given up a lot as well plus a lot against the run…we need two new corners next year at least. CODY GRIMM, i know the guy has been injured the past two years but if we don’t address strong safety in the offseason i say let jones walk and start grimm in his place and bring up black
November 30th, 2011 at 7:19 pm
White for HC !
November 30th, 2011 at 9:35 pm
The first thing I do is fire Olson. Second I hire Jack Delrio (sp?) as my DC. I fire my linebacker coach and hire Derrick Brooks as his replacement. I would cut Black, Biggers, Jones, Lumpkin.. Dominic should be able to find any warm corpse to replace any of those Bums. I then institute a plan for penalties. Whether its benching or of a monetary form. I also do the same for missed tackles. These guys have to be accountable and learn if the penalties and missed tackles continue you won’t be here and set an example with someone. These guys need to be woke up. In this off season Dominic needs to wake his arse up and throw his plan of not hiring any FA out the window. He then needs to bring in competition for every position and tell everyone if your not ready at the start of OTA’s you will be replaced and mean it. If this regime makes it thru this year and is a part of this organization serious changes need to be made across the board.
November 30th, 2011 at 9:45 pm
You guys can forget Del Rio. He’s under contract with the Jags next year. To coach with the Bucs he would have to take a massive salary cut.
Ain’t happening.
November 30th, 2011 at 10:48 pm
offense seems better when Faine is out
December 1st, 2011 at 7:07 am
Oops, If the Jags fired Delrio Joe, how is he under contract with them?
December 1st, 2011 at 8:19 am
First of all Barber was the only guy I saw tackle against Tennessee, whats he talking about??
And White doesn’t like Hanesworth, you can tell by his twitter feeds. Don’t make it personal, Albert is doing a good job for us, and its going to be awesome to have him, McCoy and price healthy next year.