Bucs cornerback Jacob Parrish slammed into the rookie wall last season along with a couple of teammates.
One particular stats tell that story well.
Parrish, playing largely at nickel corner, had 7 tackles for loss through the Bucs’ first 10 games. He had none in their final seven games.
Still, Parrish did more than enough to impress Bucs fans that were paying attention. He proved to be a legitimate talent and a sound tackler, damn good for a third-round draft pick.
That got the attention of another Bucs nickel corner, retired legend Rondé Barber.
Barber was very impressed, so he said on the WFLA streaming show that bears his name.
“Having a guy like Jacob Parrish, who is in my mind, the first real nickel we’ve had probably since Sean Murphy-Bunting; everybody else has been a safety trying to convert,” Barber said. “And Todd [Bowles] told me this however many preseasons ago, he wants a guy that can play against the run. He’s got to be physical. You look at Jacob Parrish, you don’t say, ‘physical.’ But you put the tape on, all you see is physical.”
Joe wants Parrish on the field more often. During the Bucs’ winless December, which featured consecutive losses to the slimy Saints, Falcons, Panthers and Dolphins, Parrish played less than 75 percent of the defensive snaps.
In the season finale, with Parrish playing outside cornerback in place of Jamel Dean, who skipped the game with a shoulder injury (surprise!), Parrish played 100 percent of the snaps.
Joe gets the value of having a quality nickel corner, but the Bucs have to find a way to get Parrish more snaps. The Bucs defense isn’t good enough to have one of its best players watching from the sidelines.