BucNation Firing Cannons
Blog about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers!
Monday, March 7, 2016
Mankins Retires, Now Who's Left?
Logan Mankins has called it a career. He has retired. He played two good years in Tampa and came to work every day. He made the pro bowl this year and his work ethics has resonated to our young line. Our back up is Gilkey, according to the depth chart. Antoine Everett is our only other back up guard so we will have to find an extra back up to fill the void. It is said that Kevin Pamphile is skilled enough to play left guard but that will leave no 2nd string for the right tackle position. Source: USA Today
There is also talk of moving Hawley to guard and either going with Smith at center or picking up a free agent. Some of the free agents that can fill our voids are:
Alex Mack Browns
Richie Incognito Bills
Jahri Evans Saints
Willie Colon Jets
Tim Barnes Rams
Who do you think will give us the best chance to put right personnel on the field?
March Sale: Get $10 off at the Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club on any 4 shipment order. use code SAVE10
Tuesday, March 1, 2016
Buccaneers Draft Day Decisions
As the 2016 NFL draft combine shuts down we have already seen signs of awesomeness from players that we didn't expect it from. We do understand that these drills usually don't translate to field production, but sometimes the drills are small glimpses of what the possibilities could be in the future. BucNation is back and forth on whether we should go offense first or defense first.
Considering we went mainly offense in the 2015 draft it would seem that defense is the way to go. Drafting at the 9th spot will not leave us with many of the main picks that we've been scouting for. It's believed that Ramsey, VH3, Bosa, and Spence could already be scooped up before it's our turn. So what do we do? Who do we draft? Here are three players that we believe will get the job done and fill the void we need regardless what draft spot they are projected and valued at.
Deforest Buckner 6'7" 290 DE (Oregon) finishes the 2015 season with 45 solo tackles, 38 assists, 17 tackles for loss, and 10.5 sacks. Buckner was named the 2015 Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year. By adding him to our DL would add massive size and strength to an already tough line (11th against the run only giving up 1,606yds). At 6'7" he can definitely help with slants by keeping his hands up and blocking the passing lanes. We also need help with our pass rush and we feel that Buckner can add needed pressure and collapse the pocket. He's not much of an edge rusher so we see a lot of DL/LB stunts in the future if we draft him.
Tyvis Powell 6'2" 210 S (Ohio State) is a top consideration at the safety position for some teams. His clutch time play has been noted by many. Running a 4.47 will give our secondary the size and speed we need to go up against the top WRs in our division. He finished with 8 INTs in his 3 year career at Ohio State. With most of our force on defense coming from the linebackers and defensive line positions, Powell will get a chance to learn on the job without fearing the deep ball coming 75% of the time.
Xavien Howard 6'0" 201 CB (Baylor) is a corner that we feel has what it takes to play at a high level in the NFL. He has practiced against a high powered offense in his two year career at Baylor. He tallied 37 tackles, 5 INTs and 9 pass break ups (31st in the country). It's said that one of his weaknesses is he's too physical for his own good. We'll take that.
We at BucNation Firing Cannons feel that these 3 players will make a strong and immediate impact to our defense if our targeted players aren't on the board.
Who do you think will help improve our team's production?
Considering we went mainly offense in the 2015 draft it would seem that defense is the way to go. Drafting at the 9th spot will not leave us with many of the main picks that we've been scouting for. It's believed that Ramsey, VH3, Bosa, and Spence could already be scooped up before it's our turn. So what do we do? Who do we draft? Here are three players that we believe will get the job done and fill the void we need regardless what draft spot they are projected and valued at.
Deforest Buckner 6'7" 290 DE (Oregon) finishes the 2015 season with 45 solo tackles, 38 assists, 17 tackles for loss, and 10.5 sacks. Buckner was named the 2015 Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year. By adding him to our DL would add massive size and strength to an already tough line (11th against the run only giving up 1,606yds). At 6'7" he can definitely help with slants by keeping his hands up and blocking the passing lanes. We also need help with our pass rush and we feel that Buckner can add needed pressure and collapse the pocket. He's not much of an edge rusher so we see a lot of DL/LB stunts in the future if we draft him.
Tyvis Powell 6'2" 210 S (Ohio State) is a top consideration at the safety position for some teams. His clutch time play has been noted by many. Running a 4.47 will give our secondary the size and speed we need to go up against the top WRs in our division. He finished with 8 INTs in his 3 year career at Ohio State. With most of our force on defense coming from the linebackers and defensive line positions, Powell will get a chance to learn on the job without fearing the deep ball coming 75% of the time.
Xavien Howard 6'0" 201 CB (Baylor) is a corner that we feel has what it takes to play at a high level in the NFL. He has practiced against a high powered offense in his two year career at Baylor. He tallied 37 tackles, 5 INTs and 9 pass break ups (31st in the country). It's said that one of his weaknesses is he's too physical for his own good. We'll take that.
We at BucNation Firing Cannons feel that these 3 players will make a strong and immediate impact to our defense if our targeted players aren't on the board.
Who do you think will help improve our team's production?
Thursday, February 25, 2016
Doug-Ur-Naut Staying
Here at BucNation we are in middle of the road with Doug Martin's decisions of testing free agency market for the 2016 season. You can't blame him after the season that he had in 2015 by being the second best RB behind Adrian Peterson. He wants to see what other teams are willing to pay for his services. He's 27 and he's coming off his rookie contract of 4 years for $6.7M. We drafted Martin in the first round at pick 31 in 2012 and since day one he's been that work horse that balanced our offense when things got rough. His rookie year he made the Pro Bowl and rushed for 1,454 yds 11Tds. He caught 49 passes for 472 yards and 1 TD. He only had 1 fumble and it was lost.
Franchise Records:
Most Rushing yards in a game - 251 Raiders 2012(His hometown)
Longest run - 84 vs Eagles 2015
Rookie rushing yards - 1,454 breaking Cadillac Williams 1178
Most rushing TDs in a game - 4 (First half) vs Raiders 2012 (tied NFL record
Most TDs by a rookie - 11
In 2013 he suffered a torn Labrum which resulted in him being injured for the season. He only played 6 games before he suffered a torn labram which put him on IR. In those 6 games he rushed for 456 yards 1 TD. He caught 12 passes for 66 yards and 0 TDs. That season he had 2 fumbles and lost 1
Under new head coach Lovie Smith In 2014 he played 11 games and rushed for 494 yards and 2 TDs. He caught 13 passes for 64 yards and 0 TDs. He had zero turnovers.
That season we struggled on offense due to the sudden illness of Tedford that left his QB coach Arroyo to run the offense.
This season he was back to rookie form. Played all 16 games and rushed for 1,402 yards and 6 TDs. He caught 33 passes for 271 yards and 1 rec TD. His break out game of the season against the Eagles helped us get the win and gave him the team record with an 84 yard run. He won his second trip to the Pro bowl.
He was second leading rusher in the NFL and the elephant in the room is that he had 5 fumbles and lost all 5. So we at BucNation Firing Cannons can understand any angle the Tampa Bay Buccaneers take towards signing Martin to a $6-8M a year contract. GM Jason Licht says he's optimistic about re-signing Martin.
We feel that if the Bucs franchise tag him he can have that one year to prove 2015 wasn't a fluke. If he rushes over 1200 yards next season he will tie Adrian Peterson as the fifth faster RB who got to 5,000. If he repeats his production in 2016 then it's a no brainer to sign him for $500,000 a game for the 2017 season.
We want to know how you feel about it Bucs fans!!! Drop a comment and GO BUCS!!!!!! #BUCup
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