Bucs Trade for Carimi
June 16, 2013 at 10:31am by Scott • 1 Comment »
The Bucs traded for former Chicago OT Gabe Carimi, what, a month ago? Yeah, it’s been a while. Sorry. Anyway, he’s a former first-rounder who wasn’t able to stay healthy and was considered a bust for the Bears.
“I think it just set me back last year,” said Carimi, who partially dislocated his right kneecap against the Saints and had multiple surgeries. “I wasn’t at full strength. I’m just looking forward to this year. I was just trying to get my knee right, trying to be the best I could be. It feels good.”
The Bucs only gave up a sixth-rounder for him, so I’m fine with this. He has as much of a chance of sticking as any sixth-round pick, and a bigger upside if he gets healthy and can hang out for a couple years. The right tackle spot is still wide open and the player I remember seeing coming out of Wisconsin would be a good fit there. Demar Dotson is still the starter for now, but this could get interesting in August.
Another Darrelle Revis Update
June 06, 2013 at 01:00am by Scott • 1 Comment »
I’ve been holding back posting a Darrelle Revis update mostly because there isn’t a lot to tell. He’s progressing and is able to cut now, but he’s still not practicing and probably won’t for quite a while.
“That’s the goal is to be out there Week 1 and play,” Revis said. “If there’s anything other than that, we’ll have to see when the time comes. But yeah, we’ve got to have the goal set and coach has the same goals, too, for me to be out there from Day One.”
So the mandatory minicamps are almost definitely out and training camp doesn’t sound too promising. I’d like to see Revis out there for a preseason game or two just so his first playing time as a Buccaneer doesn’t come in the regular season. And at the Jets. Oh man, you think Jets fans suck just as a matter of course, wait until a former player gets injured on their field. They’ll be cheering like they just found a cabbie that speaks English. But at least they won’t be throwing batteries at him. I mean, it’s not Philly.
Schiano: Nothing To See Here
May 31, 2013 at 11:43am by Scott • 3 Comments »
Greg Schiano and the Bucs were “accused” of running their practices too hard and violating NFL rules on contact during practices (which will be how the actual game is played in ten years, I’m sure). I can’t find the original story on it, so I don’t know if the NFL actually investigated it or if it was some news report that just casually threw it out there. Either way, it doesn’t look like there will be any consequences to it and Schiano is pretty much dismissing the whole thing.
“We had one that got kind of fanfare or whatever you want to call it in a young guy mixed up with Jeremy Zuttah, and Jeremy educated him, maybe not the right way, like you don’t do that. But we spent a lot of time about keeping your headgear, keeping your shoulders out of it.”
“I feel confident that we’re doing it the right way,” he said.
I like the “Jeremy educated him” line. NFL.com has a video of Schiano basically saying the same thing.
A phrase coaches have been saying since the beginning of football is “You play like you practice”. Guys shouldn’t be forced to go full speed and completely spend run themselves to death during practices, but most players say they get more out of practices when they’re a little rough. I’m telling you, the player that Zuttah manhandled learned a lot from that encounter. Football is not for the meek. The NFL (and the reporters who get off on spotting rules violations and reporting them (I’m looking at you Florio)) need to learn this or the game that they make a living on will abandon them.
Steve Smtih Retires
May 30, 2013 at 11:44am by Scott • 2 Comments »
Steve Smith, who had been signed by the Bucs to add some depth and competition at the bottom end of the wide receivers corps, retired yesterday due to knee injuries.
“I’ve been blessed to play the game that I love at the highest level for the past six years,” Smith said in a release issued by the Buccaneers. “I will always cherish my time with the New York Giants and our Super Bowl victory in 2007. I also want to thank the Philadelphia Eagles, St. Louis Rams and Tampa Bay Buccaneers organizations for the opportunities they gave me. This was not an easy decision, but it’s the right decision for me at this time.”
Smith’s retirement leaves the Bucs with 11 receivers on the roster, but only a couple of which you’ve heard of. Kevin Ogletree, Tiquan Underwood and Chris Owusu seem to have the best shot at winning the #3 role, but don’t overlook Tim Wright. He’s from Rutgers.
(And yes, I know Underwood is, too. Let me have my Rutgers jokes. I’ll only get them for another year or two.)
Grimm Arrested For Drinking Again
May 29, 2013 at 09:38am by Scott • No Comments »
Cody Grimm was arrested (again) for public intoxication (again) last Sunday in Virginia where he was attending a wedding.
While the public intoxication charge is a misdemeanor, Grimm could face more severe penalties due to a previous arrest on public intoxication in Christianburg, Va., on March 10. The Post reported that Grimm was given a ‘deferred disposition,’ in that case which would allow prosecutors to drop the charge if the former Virginia Tech star had fulfilled certain promises and remained out of trouble.
Which he didn’t. They’re still not going to send him to Leavenworth, but they are going to do something to him and the Bucs and/or the NFL will likely impose their own discipline too. There are seven safeties on the Bucs’ roster right now. With Grimm solidly a backup, he is fighting Sean Baker, Ahmad Black and Keith Tandy for roster spots (I am assuming Nick Saenz, who is also on the roster, is just a made up name and not a real person). This won’t help Grimm’s chances.
Donald Penn Not Fat, Just Pissed
May 29, 2013 at 09:21am by Scott • 2 Comments »
Pewter Report published an article the other day (which has since been updated) regarding players who are on the “hot seat” and Donald Penn was one of them because he is not watching his weight and not meeting weight conditions in his contract.
“Penn loves playing for the Buccaneers and is one of those locker room guys that coaches love to have, but also has an occasional lazy streak and has failed to meet most of the weight clauses in his most recent contract”
Of course Penn heard about this and peeled off some tweets (which have since been deleted — doesn’t anyone stand by their words anymore>?) which the Times was considerate enough to capture in a single article.
“330 right now in the best shape I been in a long time stop reporting bull(expletive) I made all my weigh in last yr n this yr,” Penn tweeted.
Turns out the update Pewter Report posted was to clarify that even though they didn’t really specify a time period that Penn had actually met his weight clauses so far this year and last year, just like Penn said.
PewterReport.com has learned on Monday that Penn did in fact meet his weight clauses for the 2012 season, although prior to 2012 Penn failed to meet some of the stipulations of weight in his contract, costing him of bonus money
“Has learned” is a funny way to put it. Another Penn tweet:
Upon learning the item orginated from Cook’s blog on Pewter Report, Penn tweeted, “Keep reporting bull (expletive) on me n see the next time I do a interview wit u yo (expletive) is lies get the facts 1st Cook b4 u say (expletive).”
What Pewter Report said wasn’t technically a lie since they framed it in the context of Penn’s contract, which he signed in 2010. And since Penn did have weight issues in 2011, they were factually correct. But the implication was that Penn continues to have weight issues that will affect his status with the team (putting him in the “hot seat” this season) and that’s not true. 2011 is a thousand years ago in football time and what happened then has almost no relevance to today.
Penn is still an excellent left tackle and I think the “hot seat” is too strong for him. Everyone was basically put on notice when Greg Schiano got to town — shape up or get the hell off the team. And the number of players left from the Raheem Morris regime just keeps on shrinking. So Penn needs to keep his shit together, but so does everyone else. And at least according to his weigh-ins for the past couple years, he has been.
Banks Signs
May 25, 2013 at 01:03am by Scott • No Comments »
The Bucs’ top draft pick, the easy-to-pronounce-but-silly-to-spell Johnthan Banks, signed his rookie deal yesterday, leaving only third-round quarterback Mike Glennon still unsigned. It’s a little unusual to have your last unsigned draft pick be a third-rounder, but Glennon’s agent may think he deserves more because he’s a quarterback, which I think is adorable. In the end, he will get whatever Mark Dominik decides to give him. If he’s lucky, Glennon won’t have a clause in his contract that compels him to bow whenever he passes Dominik in the hall. He’s done it before.
As far as Banks, it looks like the worst he’ll end up with is the nickel corner position to start the season. Depending on how training camp goes for Eric Wright and whether Darrelle Revis‘s knee, you know, starts working or not, he could be a starter. The Wright/Banks competition should be one of the more interesting battles this August.
OTA Day 1
May 22, 2013 at 02:12am by Scott • 7 Comments »
The Bucs had their first OTA of the offseason Monday and, according to Greg Schiano, they had 100% attendance. That doesn’t mean 100% participation since there were several guys in rehab (for knees and stuff, not for crack) but everyone was on the property, which bodes well for the season.
The big story is, of course, Darrelle Revis, who looked gimpy and not quite as far along as some had hoped he would be. Revis thinks the Bucs took a “good risk” in trading for him. Greg Schiano is more measured, but still sounds optimistic, probably because it’s still May.
“I think we’re in a good place. We’ve got a long way to go, but I think he’d tell you he’s feeling better every day, he’s doing more every day and step by step is how we’ll get there.”
Now that I re-read it, it isn’t as much optimism as “what else would he say?”
In case you were wondering who had the inside track on SLB, Dekoda Watson took the starter snaps there. Jonathan Casillas will be his main competition, but Watson is a guy you really want to see succeed.
And from the “You Have No One Else” Department, Schiano also confirmed that Josh Freeman is the starting quarterback.
“But we have our starting quarterback, and it’s Josh Freeman. I’m not looking to find another.”
Mike Glennon read that in the newspaper, crumpled it up and threw it away. He missed the trash by four feet.
Luke Stocker took snaps as the starting tight end. You can imagine my mixed feelings about this.
And apparently Jeremy Zuttah and Akeem Spence had to be separated when the two got into a fight on the field. Spence did 37 reps on the bench at the combine. Do not fuck with Akeem Spence.
Rookies And Revis
May 16, 2013 at 02:05am by Scott • 1 Comment »
The Bucs have been busy signing their draft picks to contracts and currently have their last four picks taken care of. Only Johnthan Banks and Mike Glennon remain unsigned, but seeing as how there’s not a lot to negotiate over and neither of them are going to hold out and go back into the draft next year, the Bucs probably aren’t sweating it.
In other news about not sweating it, Darrelle Revis will apparently not attend OTAs with the team, but he will be at One Buc getting rehab for his knee.
Considering how heavily the Bucs are expected to lean on Revis this season, his absence during offseason practices raises questions about how seamlessly he can be integrated with his new team. Essentially, the man who is expected to be the most vital member of the defense won’t join his teammates on the field until the first day of training camp, at the earliest.
All these questions were raised by the Bucs when they traded for Revis because they knew he wouldn’t be ready right away. And as Stephen Holder points out in the article, Revis’s main responsibility will be to lock up a receiver one-on-one. Regardless of how complicated Greg Schiano’s defense is, it won’t make Revis’s job much harder and the learning curve won’t be anything he can’t handle.
Rookie Minicamp
May 13, 2013 at 01:35am by Scott • 7 Comments »
The Bucs held a rookie minicamp sometime in the last month or so. I’m pretty sure it was last week, but the Bucs’ draft was full of relatively anonymous players and I’ve been busy. What, you don’t have a calendar? Pirelli makes more than just tires, you know. Here’s the condensed version of what happened at the camp:
Johnthan Banks: Was on a separate field from the media and no one could tell what he was doing most of the time. Lined up at right CB on Day 2.
Mike Glennon: Big arm, very smart, sporadically accurate, started camp fumbling snaps from center.
Akeem Spence: Strong and fast, needs help with footwork.
William Gholston: Practices hard, has nasty streak, hot and cold practice but a lot of raw potential, played at DT and DE.
Steven Means: Easily overpowered, had relatively poor practice, hard worker.
Mike James: Out of view.
There were a ton of tryout players an undrafted free agents on the field for the minicamp, too. The Bucs wound up signing four. In alphabetical order:
WR Jheranie Boyd (North Carolina): Physically gifted, injury history
OT Jace Daniels (Northern Michigan): Another project tackle, strong.
WR Chris Denton (Mount Union): Projected return man, productive in DIII.
DE Ka’llal Glaud (Rutgers): Went to Rutgers, also plays LB, went to Rutgers.
To make room for the new guys, the team cut three players you didn’t know existed and George Selvie, who seems to have a soft spot in Bucs’ fans hearts since he went to USF.