Since camp started Buccaneers General Manager Mark Dominik has pulled the strings on three personnel moves.
Gone are Safety Matt O'Hanlon, Defensive End George Johnson, and Wide Receiver Marrio Urrutia.
New to camp are Cornerback Darrell Pasco, Defensive Back Vince Anderson, and Tight End Martin Rucker.
This continues a trend from the regular season last year when a large number of defensive backs were rotated through One Buccaneer Place. What is Dominik looking for? A particular type of special teams player? Better depth at Corner? at Safety? All of the above?
There are now 15 defensive backs (Corners & Safeties combined) on the roster, nearly one fifth of the available 80 roster spots. Obviously this number will be reduced before the season begins.
None of these players come in with more than 2 years of NFL experience, nor are they accomplished players as yet, so it would be way off base to think these are offensive or defensive starters. Certainly they may be well known as special teams players but only Special Teams Coach Rich Bisaccia would know for sure. It seems more likely the Buccaneers have started looking for some hidden gems for the practice squad. These players could see time this Saturday night in the first preseason game and need to make an impression quickly. Watch for when they play and how much -- it will give a barometer on what they might bring to the team.
There is one additional angle to consider for the only one of these three players who was a draft pick: Martin Rucker, who was selected by Cleveland in the 4th round in 2008. Rucker was an accomplished Tight End coming out of Missouri. In fact, he finished his college career as the most prolific pass-catching Tight End in the school's history. Think that's not saying much? Ask Kellen Winslow -- The First -- who shares the same Alma Mater as Rucker. With two of the five oldest players on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers being Tight Ends (John Gilmore and Jerramy Stevens both with 9 years in the NFL) and add in that apparently the Cowboys were also interested in Rucker and this almost plays out like an extra 4th round draft choice addressing a future need now. Of course, he has to make the team first! Rucker is certainly a preseason name to watch.
Mark Dominik has an established history of finding the occasional gem (Donald Penn from the Minnesota practice squad, Tim Crowder from the waiver wire last year), so these players are worth keeping an eye on. Hopefully they all will get enough playing time Saturday night to see what they bring to the table!
Showing posts with label Buccaneers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Buccaneers. Show all posts
Friday, August 13, 2010
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Kyle Moore Emerging Quickly
With 10 days of training camp in the books some trends are starting to emerge and some trends are continuing.
One of those continuing trends is the stock of the Buccaneers 2009 Draft Class. Not just because first round pick Josh Freeman is showing leadership and keeping a firm grip on the starting quarterback position. Not just because third rounder Roy Miller is continuing to develop into a dominating physical presence inside. Not just because seventh rounder Sammie Stroughter could be an opening day starter.
The big boost to the power of the 2009 draft class is the player showing the most improvement during training camp of all the 2nd year players: 2009 fourth round defensive end Kyle Moore.
Moore has been a consistent force from the right end position during camp. He shows no signs of the nagging injuries which haunted his rookie year. And he looks every bit the part of an emerging difference maker.
His improvement shows the faith placed on him by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will reap deep rewards. Those rewards are easy to see -- without such faith, the Buccaneers would not have one of defensive tackle Brian Price, wide receiver Arrelious Benn, cornerback Myron Lewis, or wide receiver Mike Williams, opting instead to draft another defensive end with one of those 2010 picks. Considering all four of those players have worked their way into the two deep (with two possibly starting on Week 1), the value of Kyle Moore and the importance of his emergence becomes obvious.
Solid play by Moore can also bring another benefit -- Tim Crowder can continue to backup Stylez White, putting the Buccaneers top two sack producers in a rotation at right defensive end. Keeping the pressure coming from the right puts the heat right in the quarterback's face and will help the Buccaneers improve their defensive performance in 2010.
Watch for Moore (#94, left defensive end) on the first defensive series Saturday night against the Dolphins. It could be the next piece of a nasty pass rush falling into place.
One of those continuing trends is the stock of the Buccaneers 2009 Draft Class. Not just because first round pick Josh Freeman is showing leadership and keeping a firm grip on the starting quarterback position. Not just because third rounder Roy Miller is continuing to develop into a dominating physical presence inside. Not just because seventh rounder Sammie Stroughter could be an opening day starter.
The big boost to the power of the 2009 draft class is the player showing the most improvement during training camp of all the 2nd year players: 2009 fourth round defensive end Kyle Moore.
Moore has been a consistent force from the right end position during camp. He shows no signs of the nagging injuries which haunted his rookie year. And he looks every bit the part of an emerging difference maker.
His improvement shows the faith placed on him by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will reap deep rewards. Those rewards are easy to see -- without such faith, the Buccaneers would not have one of defensive tackle Brian Price, wide receiver Arrelious Benn, cornerback Myron Lewis, or wide receiver Mike Williams, opting instead to draft another defensive end with one of those 2010 picks. Considering all four of those players have worked their way into the two deep (with two possibly starting on Week 1), the value of Kyle Moore and the importance of his emergence becomes obvious.
Solid play by Moore can also bring another benefit -- Tim Crowder can continue to backup Stylez White, putting the Buccaneers top two sack producers in a rotation at right defensive end. Keeping the pressure coming from the right puts the heat right in the quarterback's face and will help the Buccaneers improve their defensive performance in 2010.
Watch for Moore (#94, left defensive end) on the first defensive series Saturday night against the Dolphins. It could be the next piece of a nasty pass rush falling into place.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
What Is The Game Plan?
The plan before the 2009 season was for new offensive coordinator Jeff Jagodzinski to to install a running game using a zone blocking scheme. This new scheme would take advantage of the young offensive line and talented running backs on the Buccaneers roster to create a powerful rushing attack. This philosophy was detailed by Head Coach Raheem Morris during his first offseason (Apr 2, 2008):
But the lure of what Coach Jagodzinski brought to the interview table is obvious. He was fresh from dealing with college players. His program at Boston College had just graduated the (arguably) top rookie QB the year before (Atlanta's Matt Ryan). In the context of an upcoming draft with plans to grab a young signal caller, the fit is natural and too good to pass up. Protect that new young quarterback with a solid running game and have a proven coach in place to groom him into the passing game.
Ah, but the best laid plans . . . .
Before the 2009 season a zone-blocking run system was installed to replace the assignment blocking system of the prior coaching staff. During the preseason players gushed about how they could tell it would work and they liked it. Then, just before the last preseason game, Coach Jagodzinski was dismissed and Coach Greg Olson was promoted to Offensive Coordinator.
Suddenly, Tampa Bay came out throwing. And throwing. And the Buccaneers have rarely stopped since. What was to be a powerful rushing offense finds itself throwing 57.5% of the time through Week 14. In only 3 of 13 games so far in the 2009 season have the Buccaneers rushed the ball more than pass the ball. Those run-focused games were against Washington, at Carolina, and Miami -- three of the four narrowest losses this season. While there have been games when the run/pass count was different by less than 5 attempts (Miami, Atlanta, New England), there have been four games with 15+ more passing attempts than running attempts (Carolina, Philadelphia, NY Giants, and Buffalo). In contrast, the widest margin for the run game so far this season has been 8 more rushes than passes (Washington, at Carolina). The win against Green Bay was fairly balanced with only 6 more passing attempts than rushing attempts. In raw numbers, the most rushing attempts in a single game this year has been 31 twice (Dallas, Miami) and the most passing attempts in a single game this year has been fifty (50!) twice (Buffalo, Philadelphia).
There is no discernible pattern -- the high pass attempts are not specifically in games where the Buccaneers were far behind and playing catch-up football (for example, the Buccaneers were down by only 6 points at the start of the fourth quarter at Buffalo, one of the 50 pass attempt games). And it was not a matter of which quarterback was playing: games with Byron Leftwich averaged 20 rushes and 39 passes, games with Josh Johnson averaged 26 rushes and 30 passes, and games with Josh Freeman have averaged 25 rushes and 33 passes (Leftwich and Johnson each had a 50 pass game, Freeman's high attempt mark was 44 in his game against Carolina).
So very clearly we see that Coach Olson is a pass-first type of offensive coordinator. This is not entirely surprising as his background includes time at Purdue as quarterbacks coach with Joe Tiller and time in Detroit as quarterbacks coach with Steve Mariucci. As the season has progressed the offense has lost more and more of the zone blocking schemes and returned to the rather West Coast look of the past few years (just as the defense has also returned to what has previously been utilized).
While the debate about having a rookie quarterback and using a run game to remove the game from his shoulders is valid, it is not the subject here.
The change from the Jagodinski-run system to the Olson-pass system has severe consequences for the upcoming offseason. During the 2009 offseason, the offense was tooled to be a running football team with good, young size up front, blocking wide recievers, versatile tight ends, a fullback, and a multiheaded tailback. Several of these facets of the offense were established in free agency last year. By addressing these things last offseason the Buccaneers are primed to be aggressive on the defensive side of the ball this year.
However, if the Buccaneers are going to be a pass-system team then it's not so clear that the offensive side of the ball is where it needs to be. In fact, several positions on offense may need to be addressed during the 2010 offseason (free agency and draft). Wide receiver is underproductive for the number of pass attempts -- perhaps the Buccaneers need to give up some downfield blocking ability for speed, route precision, or hands/physical size. Offensive linemen need to be evaluated on pass-blocking ability and changes made if needed. You could also assert that the multiple back scheme is not necessary and replace tailbacks with more wide receivers. Perhaps the fullback position is not necessary and can be used for a defensive player instead.
The downside of all this is that it will detract from adding more young talent to the defense which is clearly in need.
While currently there is no clear sign that the direction will be anything different from what we've already seen, three games remain in the 2009 season. It is possible to establish an identity in these games different from the prior 14 games, though unlikely.
It will be intersting to watch how this plays out. The issue of the Tampa Bay offensive identity will most likely be the single most important driver of the 2010 offseason.
"'When you talk about the violent football teams, the physical football teams, the Pittsburgh Steelers, you think about downhill running and people smashing,' said Morris. 'That's just what it is. When you talk about violent football teams like the Jacksonville Jaguars, you talk about people smashing you and running the ball downhill. We want to become those guys.'" -- Head Coach Raheem MorrisUnfortunately, Coach Jagodzinski was released during the preseason due to prolonged attention-to-details issues which I interpret as poor performance under game time conditions (such as play calling or working with assistants to get the right personnel on the field, etc). This interpretation of these events makes sense since game day trouble would not be detectable during a normal interview or during training camp. Coach Jagodzinski had been a head coach at Boston College. The focus of a head coach on game day is strategy. A coordinator must focus on tactics. The only other offensive coordinator duties that Jagodzinski had previously had was "passing game coordinator" at Green Bay. As such he had never flown solo as an offensive coordinator before and therefore may have been an ineffective tactician.
But the lure of what Coach Jagodzinski brought to the interview table is obvious. He was fresh from dealing with college players. His program at Boston College had just graduated the (arguably) top rookie QB the year before (Atlanta's Matt Ryan). In the context of an upcoming draft with plans to grab a young signal caller, the fit is natural and too good to pass up. Protect that new young quarterback with a solid running game and have a proven coach in place to groom him into the passing game.
Ah, but the best laid plans . . . .
Before the 2009 season a zone-blocking run system was installed to replace the assignment blocking system of the prior coaching staff. During the preseason players gushed about how they could tell it would work and they liked it. Then, just before the last preseason game, Coach Jagodzinski was dismissed and Coach Greg Olson was promoted to Offensive Coordinator.
Suddenly, Tampa Bay came out throwing. And throwing. And the Buccaneers have rarely stopped since. What was to be a powerful rushing offense finds itself throwing 57.5% of the time through Week 14. In only 3 of 13 games so far in the 2009 season have the Buccaneers rushed the ball more than pass the ball. Those run-focused games were against Washington, at Carolina, and Miami -- three of the four narrowest losses this season. While there have been games when the run/pass count was different by less than 5 attempts (Miami, Atlanta, New England), there have been four games with 15+ more passing attempts than running attempts (Carolina, Philadelphia, NY Giants, and Buffalo). In contrast, the widest margin for the run game so far this season has been 8 more rushes than passes (Washington, at Carolina). The win against Green Bay was fairly balanced with only 6 more passing attempts than rushing attempts. In raw numbers, the most rushing attempts in a single game this year has been 31 twice (Dallas, Miami) and the most passing attempts in a single game this year has been fifty (50!) twice (Buffalo, Philadelphia).
There is no discernible pattern -- the high pass attempts are not specifically in games where the Buccaneers were far behind and playing catch-up football (for example, the Buccaneers were down by only 6 points at the start of the fourth quarter at Buffalo, one of the 50 pass attempt games). And it was not a matter of which quarterback was playing: games with Byron Leftwich averaged 20 rushes and 39 passes, games with Josh Johnson averaged 26 rushes and 30 passes, and games with Josh Freeman have averaged 25 rushes and 33 passes (Leftwich and Johnson each had a 50 pass game, Freeman's high attempt mark was 44 in his game against Carolina).
So very clearly we see that Coach Olson is a pass-first type of offensive coordinator. This is not entirely surprising as his background includes time at Purdue as quarterbacks coach with Joe Tiller and time in Detroit as quarterbacks coach with Steve Mariucci. As the season has progressed the offense has lost more and more of the zone blocking schemes and returned to the rather West Coast look of the past few years (just as the defense has also returned to what has previously been utilized).
While the debate about having a rookie quarterback and using a run game to remove the game from his shoulders is valid, it is not the subject here.
The change from the Jagodinski-run system to the Olson-pass system has severe consequences for the upcoming offseason. During the 2009 offseason, the offense was tooled to be a running football team with good, young size up front, blocking wide recievers, versatile tight ends, a fullback, and a multiheaded tailback. Several of these facets of the offense were established in free agency last year. By addressing these things last offseason the Buccaneers are primed to be aggressive on the defensive side of the ball this year.
However, if the Buccaneers are going to be a pass-system team then it's not so clear that the offensive side of the ball is where it needs to be. In fact, several positions on offense may need to be addressed during the 2010 offseason (free agency and draft). Wide receiver is underproductive for the number of pass attempts -- perhaps the Buccaneers need to give up some downfield blocking ability for speed, route precision, or hands/physical size. Offensive linemen need to be evaluated on pass-blocking ability and changes made if needed. You could also assert that the multiple back scheme is not necessary and replace tailbacks with more wide receivers. Perhaps the fullback position is not necessary and can be used for a defensive player instead.
The downside of all this is that it will detract from adding more young talent to the defense which is clearly in need.
While currently there is no clear sign that the direction will be anything different from what we've already seen, three games remain in the 2009 season. It is possible to establish an identity in these games different from the prior 14 games, though unlikely.
It will be intersting to watch how this plays out. The issue of the Tampa Bay offensive identity will most likely be the single most important driver of the 2010 offseason.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
GM Challenges: The Salary Cap Rocket
Clearly the largest part of the modern NFL GM's job is to manage the salary cap. The salary cap has been escalating rapidly for the past five years.
In 2005, the salary cap was $85.5 million.
In 2006 the cap was originally set to be approximately $94.5 million. An extension of the CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement -- between NFL player and owners) that year included a change in the formula used to determine the cap. The new formula jolted the cap to $108 million.
In 2007 the cap barely nudged up to $109 million.
In 2008 it escalated to $116.7 million.
For 2009, the cap is approximately $127 million (an increase of 50% over the 2005 cap in just five years). This rapid rise in cap dollars means small market teams are getting more and more money to meet the cap from the "league" and not from their own revenue sources. This will likely be a testy topic among the owners when the current CBA expires in 2011.
Where does that leave the modern GM? They are stuck between owners which must have profitable franchises and players who are getting a larger and larger fraction of revenue. Also, the current CBA contains language which affects existing player contracts ("poison pills" to motivate both sides to the negotiating table) which makes decisions on handling veterans a gamble. Finally, the threat of a player lockout in 2011 looms on the horizon.
Oh, yea, and don't forget to win a bunch of games, too!!
In 2005, the salary cap was $85.5 million.
In 2006 the cap was originally set to be approximately $94.5 million. An extension of the CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement -- between NFL player and owners) that year included a change in the formula used to determine the cap. The new formula jolted the cap to $108 million.
In 2007 the cap barely nudged up to $109 million.
In 2008 it escalated to $116.7 million.
For 2009, the cap is approximately $127 million (an increase of 50% over the 2005 cap in just five years). This rapid rise in cap dollars means small market teams are getting more and more money to meet the cap from the "league" and not from their own revenue sources. This will likely be a testy topic among the owners when the current CBA expires in 2011.
Where does that leave the modern GM? They are stuck between owners which must have profitable franchises and players who are getting a larger and larger fraction of revenue. Also, the current CBA contains language which affects existing player contracts ("poison pills" to motivate both sides to the negotiating table) which makes decisions on handling veterans a gamble. Finally, the threat of a player lockout in 2011 looms on the horizon.
Oh, yea, and don't forget to win a bunch of games, too!!
Friday, October 30, 2009
2009 Detroit Draft Class
Round 1, #1: Matthew Stafford, QB (Overall #1)
Round 1, #20: Brandon Pettigrew, TE (Overall #20) (From Cowboys)
Round 2, #1: Louis Delmas, S (Overall #33)
Round 3, #12: DeAndre Levy, OLB (Overall #76) (From Saints through Jets)
Round 3, #18: Derrick Williams, WR(Overall #82) (From Cowboys)
Round 4, #15: Sammie Lee Hill, DT(Overall #115) (From Redskins through Jets)
Round 6, #19: Aaron Brown, RB(Overall #192) (From Cowboys)
Round 7, #19: Lydon Murtha, OT(Overall #228) (From Jets)
Round 7, #19: Lydon Murtha, OT(Overall #228) (From Jets)
Round 7, #26: Zack FollettOLB(Overall #235) (From Falcons through Broncos)
Round 7, #46: Dan GronkowskiTE (Overall #255) (Compensatory selection)
2009 Tampa Bay Draft Class
| Round 1, 17th: Josh Freeman, QB (Overall 17) (From Jets through Browns) |
| Round 3, 17th: Roy Miller, T (Overall 81) |
| Round 4, 17th: Kyle Moore, DE (Overall 117) (From Dallas) |
| Round 5, 19th: Xavier Fulton, T (Overall 155) |
| Round 7, 8th: E.J. Biggers, CB (Overall 217) (From Jaguars) Round 7, 24th: Sammie Stroughter, WR (Overall 233) (From Ravens) |
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