Carrying The Weight To The Field
May 7th, 2013There’s a lot to like with Bucs rookie nose tackle Akeem Spence. First, Joe isn’t sure the guy ever wipes the smile off his face. He’s always in a good mood.
Joe would be, too, if he could build himself into an NFL draft pick anda potential starter by hitting the weights big time, documents veteran sports columnist Gary Shelton of the Tampa Bay Times.
“The weight room — that’s where I make my living, man,” he said. “Anytime you don’t see me in the locker room, you’ll probably find me in the weight room trying to get stronger.”
The question with Spence is how much he can apply that strength to his football play. At Illinois, he didn’t always use the best leverage, which is one of the reasons he was still there in the fourth round.
“I hear it, but I don’t try to pay attention,” Spence said. “I’m weight-room strong, but I feel like I take it to the field real well. Sometimes people don’t understand it’s the scheme. With me being so strong, sometimes people expect me to grab the blocker and throw it into the backfield. But at the same time you’re still playing football. You’ve got to pay attention to the scheme.”
As so eloquently spoken by the great Warren Sapp, “You don’t pump weights on the 50-yard line.” So true.
What does impress Joe with Spence, aside from his beaming smile, is that Spence is durable in the devil’s den that is interior line play. He started 38 straight games and left Illinois after his junior year.
May 7th, 2013 at 8:11 am
Warren did’nt smile all the time either.
May 7th, 2013 at 8:28 am
McCoy and makes the DT combo known for smiling. Well at least we know he is durable, that’s one of the main issues we have had at the DT position for the last few years. Now he can work on his technique and improve his leverage and he can easily replace Miller.
May 7th, 2013 at 8:48 am
That just means he is due for an injury. Probably season ending, you’re not suppose to talk about those things.
May 7th, 2013 at 9:26 am
I hope Dom & Co. are right about him. Need him to be tough in the trenches.
May 7th, 2013 at 9:31 am
He is a carbon copy of Roy Miller at the very least. That is all Miller was known for.
May 7th, 2013 at 9:42 am
The Bucs brought in a similar DT in Andre Neblett who is a short stocky workout warrior that has some legitimate chops. If you excuse the 4 game suspension last year for PEDS, he managed to start for the Panthers in 2011 even registering a sack of Josh Freeman and getting a forced fumble.
Both of these guys are high 30s in the 225 and love the weight room, but must stay clear of the extra help from Dow Chemicals or whoever makes that stuff. Hopefully from all of these tilted nose combatants, one emerges as a legitimate starter!
May 7th, 2013 at 10:20 am
Ironic that Spence is known for his upper body strength and McCoy the lack of it.
No matter as long as the pressure is there.
May 7th, 2013 at 10:30 am
Sometimes guys that are weight strong are still and get injured a lot due to a lack of flexibility. Hopefully that’s not the case here.
Of course, 2 years of injuries pretty much falls in line with the guys he’d be playing next to, wouldn’t it?
May 7th, 2013 at 10:31 am
“weight strong are still”
Typo
“…weight room strong are stiff…”
May 7th, 2013 at 11:07 am
I’m thinking means is going to be our strong side safety. Watching that ten minute video on YouTube of his play, I think he is perfect over there for us… Maybe make him that hybrid DE, but mostly standing at LB.
May 7th, 2013 at 11:08 am
I said safety, I meant SS linebacker*
May 7th, 2013 at 11:24 am
Biff Barker Says:
May 7th, 2013 at 10:20 am
Ironic that Spence is known for his upper body strength and McCoy the lack of it.
I hadn’t heard that McCoy lacks upper body strength. What’s your source for this ? Not arguing , just curious. Seems reasonably effective, for someone lacking strength.
May 7th, 2013 at 12:03 pm
Fritz50,
See GMC’s 2010 and 2011 campaigns. He tore each bicep, resulting from a lack of strength, technique, or genetic weakness.
May 7th, 2013 at 12:11 pm
@stevek
It was bad tackling technique. He stated that last training camp when they start doing tackling drills last year.
May 7th, 2013 at 1:14 pm
@Sneedy16,
Yeah, that’s what I recall too. The Raheem regime didn’t practice very good technique.
Training camp last year was where the bad injuries happened during or before full training camp, except for Carl’s turf toe. I could be wrong but I recall reading he had been dealing with that toe before he was even signed to the Bucs.
May 7th, 2013 at 1:58 pm
If I recall correctly, McCoy did 23 reps at 225 at his combine, Spence did 37!
May 7th, 2013 at 3:02 pm
Sapp had simmilar numbers as McCoy at the combine, and like he says…you do not pump iron on the 50 yardline.
May 7th, 2013 at 5:35 pm
Hopefully the coaches can allow him to play to his strengths, to ease into the NFL
May 7th, 2013 at 5:38 pm
Durable being the keyword
IF Spence is to effectively replace Miller he must first replace Miller’s main asset, his durability/reliability.
May 7th, 2013 at 5:40 pm
Ironic that we are looking to replace what we just let leave…