Bucs safeties coach Nick Rapone.
Nick Rapone wanted all the doubters to understand him: Antoine Winfield will be back for the Bucs this fall.
That’s the Antoine Winfield who gave Bucs fans flashbacks to Rondé Barber. That’s the Antoine Winfield who changed games with his play. That’s the Antoine Winfield, All-Pro.
What we all saw last year was not that Winfield.
In fact, Joe cannot remember one play Winfield made after he was robbed of a forced fumble on an Atlanta touchdown in The Licht House because either FOX or the NFL, two entities worth some $30 billion combined, was too cheap to put a replay camera on the goal line that every two-bit college game has.
Disgraceful!
(And that led to a Bucs loss, too.)
Winfield was hurt late in the blowout win over the Commandos on Opening Weekend. He suffered other injuries and man, it was hard to believe the same guy was an All-Pro.
Talk about a lost season.
In the offseason, Joe could see in the comments on this here website that folks began muttering that Winfield got paid and as a result, Winfield shut it down. Joe found that virtually impossible to believe, given how Winfield is a stand-up guy.
In his media availability yesterday at One Buc Palace, safeties coach Nick Rapone was pretty darn firm that the real Winfield will be on the field this year.
Though unspoken, you could decipher between Rapone’s words as if he was cautioning folks, don’t even think Winfield was just about getting paid.
Rapone said Winfield was badly hampered with injuries and that is why his play dipped significantly. And that’s the only reason.
“I think if he’s not injured, you see Antoine Winfield,” Rapone said. “Look at his body at work. I think you’ll see in his [normal] body at work. That’s all.
“Oh, [the injuries] impacted him a lot. Impacted him a lot. He only played eight games.
“So, if he’s healthy, then I think you see the body of work you’re used to seeing.”
In other words, Bucs fans should expect to see the real Antoine Winfield return.
Joe can’t help but think that Winfield’s nosedive in play really impacted the fifth-worst pass defense in the league. The middle of the Bucs defense on the second- and third-levels was awful against the pass.
Jordan Whitehead was not the same guy the Bucs thought they were getting back. And Whitehead even got hurt. Then Winfield was a shell of himself due to injuries.
As a result, the safety play for the Bucs suffered. Badly. So Winfield being healthy and being that-guy again, well, that’s like signing an All-Pro in free agency.
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