Tag, Who’s It?
February 18th, 2013
Much to Jeremy Trueblood’s chagrin, it is highly unlikely he gets slapped with a franchise tag by Mark Dominik.
Counting down the hours until the world’s largest indoor track practice, the NFL scouting combine, means we are nearing the end of the silly season.
The NFL silly season is when fans, desperate for football news in the dead of winter and still fighting off the hunger pangs for football developed since the end of the Super Bowl, try to determine who signs who and who drafts who and who gets slapped with a franchise tag.
Enter the creator, curator and overall guru of Pro Football Talk, the great Mike Florio. The new star of NBC Sports cobbled together an exhaustive list of who may be or could be or should be hit with a franchise tag from every team in the NFL.
And yes, Florio offers a couple of suggestions for Bucs fans. A tag may/could/should be placed on either defensive end Michael Bennett or right tackle Jeremy Trueblood.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers: The Bucs plans to spend on keeping their own guys. When it comes to using the tag, it’s a toss-up between tackle Jeremy Trueblood and defensive end Michael Bennett, or neither.
Now knowing Florio and his sarcasm and wit, Joe thinks he was having fun with Bucs fans and was just being a wiseacre to suggest Trueblood could/should/may get hit with a franchise tag. Joe’s confident Trueblood has played his last snap in a Bucs uniform. He got Wally Pipp’ed by Demar Dotson, a cool guy, a hard worker, but not exactly the best run blocker in the NFL.
Is Dotson valuable on the bench? You know it. Is he an above average starter? Well, not really. This is why some people, including “The Godfather,” Gil Brandt, think Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik drafts a right tackle in the first round.
February 18th, 2013 at 9:29 am
I think you’re wrong about Florio. He really doesn’t know much about football. Sure, his son plays, but he TRIES to come across as an expert. Something that he has parlayed into TV appearances and national exposure. There is no way he was trying to be sarcastic. This is just typical of Florio’s half-assed attempts at writing a good story but messing it up due to very little research and fact finding. He didn’t know Trueblood wasn’t a starter.
Why would he be trying to have fun with Bucs fans? One of the smallest fan-bases in the NFL and he’s funning it up with us? Not likely. What is more likely is that because we have such a small fan base he did his usual no effort in fact finding with all things Buccaneers and posted yet another half-ass article. He’s clueless.
I’m not sure when it happened, but somewhere along the line know-nothing sports journalists who were somehow considered to be experts have been one-upped by sports bloggers whose greatest attribute to their alleged expertise is owning or operating a web site. Florio is a prime example of this.
February 18th, 2013 at 9:35 am
As hard as Florio has worked to build credibility, there is no chance he was joking here. Just think about how many times Florio has kicked himself for the fact that Terry Bradshaw didn’t die and he reported he did. This was something that has haunted him to this day… and that wasn’t even him having fun with anybody, just an erroneous story.
February 18th, 2013 at 9:40 am
Yeah it’s too early to go that deep, I don’t think anyone is getting tagged this year. Not Bennett, trueblood maybe biggers? (Total joke) It’s never exciting when your team drafts an offensive lineman, I hope that’s not what we do with out first pick.
February 18th, 2013 at 9:41 am
Last year we got it right with the draft. I hope e can do it again this year, there is lots of talent defensively this year to go offense with our first pick.
February 18th, 2013 at 9:43 am
Florio & Mike Lupica are the same weasel (who wins…in a hair-pulling, slap fight??????)
February 18th, 2013 at 9:59 am
No way in hell do we franchise tag Trueblood. I hope he’s gone and I am a fan of drafting a right tackle with our first rounder.
February 18th, 2013 at 9:59 am
@Justin P,
Funny, but not a good visual. 🙂 On second thought….
February 18th, 2013 at 10:15 am
Michaelf Bennett is the only UFA that deserves consideration, but I’m not sure he deserves a top 5 salary. He was 16th in sacks, 20th in tackles and 8th in forced fumbles. Great stats…hope they find a way to keep him….but top 5 money seems a bit much. That would put him over 12 million a year. Hopefully the Bucs can find a way to keep him without tagging him.
February 18th, 2013 at 10:27 am
So what R would we target? My guess is DJ Fluker. We could probably trade back some spots and still get him while picking up an extra pick. If we keep Bennett and dont go after Ansah, then maybe we can pull off a trade into the top of the 2nd and hoefully Short is still there. Then get CB’s Trufant or Ryan.
February 18th, 2013 at 10:27 am
“RT”
February 18th, 2013 at 10:33 am
No way dom drafts a lineman that’s not his thing draft all defense that way it gives you time where you don’t need to tie up that much money into the defensive side of the ball cuz most will have to play out rookie contracts an most of em are still early in it even if its there first one besides majority of our cap is locked into the offense anyway
February 18th, 2013 at 12:36 pm
^^ It’s a little tough to read these type of posts when you don’t use any punctuation. I had re-read it couple times. I think I get what you’re saying, though.
February 18th, 2013 at 12:36 pm
I agree with what many people said on here. Florio is most likely not joking about Trueblood getting the tag. He just doesn’t know sh** about our Bucs and does not know THAT much about football. Most of the articles he posts on PFT are just negative things or saying bad things about a player or a team or just trying to spread stupid rumours. I can’t stand Florio, he rather write about Manti Teo’s hoax then an actually good football article. Guy is pathetic, but Joe will never understand that.
February 18th, 2013 at 1:31 pm
It’s absolutely pathetic how little most people outside the Bay area know about the Bucs. I know it’s a relatively smaller market compared to most franchises but damn, there’s only 32 teams in a nation of 300 million people. You’d think people would have a clue, but they don’t.
I live in Dallas and I know two people, yes TWO, who know anything whatsoever about the Bucs. And that doesn’t include myself. Yet I know more about their team, the Cowboys, than most of them do…and I don’t even like the Cowboys. How sad is that? I guess it’s just symptomatic of the dumbing down of Americans in every area of life. If it doesn’t affect them directly they don’t want to know anything about it.
February 18th, 2013 at 1:54 pm
As for the draft, I’m certain Dominik will pick BPA regardless of position except for QB, RB, WR or special teams. They had Barron rated highest last year and they had no qualms about drafting a safety that high. They’ll do the same this year. What if they have TE Zach Ertz rated highest when their pick arrives? Then you can take it to the bank that TE will be the pick. End of story.
The problem is we have no idea what their board looks like. And we never will, even after the draft (except for the actual pick itself). That being said we can make some educated guesses based on the strength of the top half of the draft. DT, DE and OT are strongly represented so it wouldn’t be a surprise if one of those positions were the pick. But it’s just a crap shoot, really, because safety was one of the weakest positions in the first round last year yet that was the pick.
My money is on the pick being a lineman. Sheldon Richardson, Johnathan Hankins, John Jenkins (no he’s not just a 3-4 NT), Ezekial Ansah, Eric Fisher, Lane Johnson, DJ Fluker, Chance Warmack (yes a guard, that’s right; notice what happened when Joseph & Nicks went down?). Johnthan Banks & Xavier Rhodes are possible but not likely in my opinion.
February 18th, 2013 at 2:34 pm
I respect your opinion FLBoy, but disagree slightly. If we were a compelete team trying to add depth or competition, I would agree with BPA, no matter the circumstance. But we are a team with glaring holes in the secondary, and to an extent at DT. My point is, if a guard is the highest rated player on the board, and the 2nd highest rated is a CB, I think we take the CB. Yes, I beleive in the BPA, but there are some variables IMO, its not just a slam dunk.
February 18th, 2013 at 2:56 pm
I think we will go BPA, just as long as that BPA is a CB, DT, DE, LB, or TE…. No way in hell the team goes out and gets a position we are already strong at (OG, SS, RB, OC).
February 18th, 2013 at 3:05 pm
My guess would be the Bucs use some sort of weighted-average system to give each player a score with respect to their position. Something like giving the position of need(CB) the highest % and the lowest(PK) the lowest, and everything else somewhere in between. Example CB has 90%position of need, but player is rated a 86, and OG is rated at 70% and player is rated an 91. CB is 90%(86)=77.4……and the OG is 70%(91)=63.7……….or some method to determine positional value
February 18th, 2013 at 4:05 pm
@buccanay
I agree with you about the OG vs the CB if their grades are very similar. If, however, there’s a significant drop-off in grade from one to the other then I don’t think there’s any way Dominik dilutes the talent base on the team by selecting an inferior rated player. Placing too much emphasis on need is how you ruin your team over time (see Gaines Adams, Cadillac Williams, Dexter Jackson, etc).
February 18th, 2013 at 5:34 pm
If the possibility of trading or selecting a cornerback at #13, proves to be futile or over-reaching, then by all means select an offensive tackle at 13. Preferably a LT and move Penn to RT.
February 18th, 2013 at 5:36 pm
I withhold the right scratch every positive thing I have ever said about Dom if he doesn’t sign Bennett!!!
I just read that negotiations have gone sour???
All our time spent/draft pick spent trying get a pass rusher and we finally have one develop here, getting better year after year, and he’s in his prime.
For what? To let him walk???
Dom you better pull this off.
February 18th, 2013 at 6:57 pm
PRBucFan Says:
February 18th, 2013 at 5:36 pm
I withhold the right scratch every positive thing I have ever said about Dom if he doesn’t sign Bennett!!!
I just read that negotiations have gone sour???
All our time spent/draft pick spent trying get a pass rusher and we finally have one develop here, getting better year after year, and he’s in his prime.
For what? To let him walk???
Dom you better pull this off.
++++++++++++
If negotiations have done sour between the Buc and Bennett and the go very well between either Paul Kruger or Michael Johnson… I am fully confident Dom will reap the reward of signing a much better player. Kruger and Johnson are way > than Bennett.
February 18th, 2013 at 7:16 pm
To each his own, I respect you opinion, I just don’t agree with it.
IMO Bennett is entering his prime and I believe he will be an Elite pass rusher in this league. We’ll have to wait and see about it but that’s why my feelings are that strong on this.
February 18th, 2013 at 8:22 pm
I read the other teams and there was no jokes there. In the comments, he got shredded. I think he was being serious.
Just a couple months ago, he was touting his inside “anonymous” Buccaneer connection that said Schiano needs to go back to college. I question his Buc locker room connections now.