Another plea to use Rachaad White as a slot receiver.
Since Mike Evans blew out his shoulder against Detroit when Lions corner Rock Ya-Sin sinned by riding Evans like a bronco in a rodeo and rocked the Bucs’ world by sending Evans to the injured reserve list with a broken clavicle, the Bucs’ offense has really, really struggled.
And the proof is in the pudding. As in stats dug up by Rich Hribar of Sharp Football Analysis. It seems the Bucs have one of the worst “successful” passing offenses in the league since Evans went down.
Tampa Bay is now 30th in success rate on passing plays (38.7%), ahead of only Tennessee (37%) and Cleveland (31.7%).
Once again, a successful play in the NFL is when the offense can get at least 40 percent of the needed yards to convert on first downs, 60 percent on second downs and 100 percent on third and fourth downs.
With Evans and mostly Chris Godwin, teams are simply taking out rookie Emeka Egbuka. Defenses just aren’t allowing him to get open. And his numbers have taken an expected dip as a result.
Now throwing these damn quick passes to wideouts on screen passes mostly parallel to the line of scrimmage sure as hell isn’t helping gain successful plays.
With Bucky Irving on the cusp of returning and Sean Tucker showing he can run pretty well, Joe will once again suggest that the Bucs use Rachaad White as a slot receiver.
When past offensive coordinators schemed ways to get White open in the flat, he was damn dangerous. Joe hardly ever sees current Bucs offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard use that play. Put White in motion and get him on the edge.
Joe’s good friend NFL columnist/humorist Mike Tanier earlier this week pointed out only the Bucs and Chiefs have had four players line up in slot over 100 snaps each.
The Bucs’ receivers who have logged 100 snaps at slot are Emeka Egbuka, Sterling Shepard, Tez Johnson and Cade Otton. Egbuka, obviously, has moved outside to No. 1 receiver. The other three have had meh results.
So why not be a bit creative and give White a spin at slot receiver? You have to try different things to snap an offense out of a funk.