Still ticking.
Time to have a little fun in the dark of the night!
And speaking of the dark, “IT’S ALIVE!”
Joe had given up the PFF tribe for dead. A stats company bought out Cris Collinsworth’s outfit this winter but told Collinsworth he could keep his dumbass grades and the website. As a result, Collinsworth had a bloodletting, laying out much of his staff.
And for weeks after the sale, little to no copy was posted on the site.
But in the wake of the draft, the PFF tribe has demonstrated it has a pulse. So what the hey, let’s link to the tribe’s latest.
The tribe posted its ratings on all Bucs players. And the tribe believes, as Joe believes, the Bucs signed Kenneth Greenwell for a reason. And it wasn’t just to play special teams.
The tribe believes Greenwell is a starting running back in the league. Bucky? Not so much. The PFF tribe thinks Bucky is the No. 44 running back in the league.
Look, Joe’s not going there, though Bucky’s numbers were really bad. He had one of the worst successful run rates in the league last year and his yards-per-carry were dreadful.
But Joe is thinking three things boxed in Bucky last year.
First, it seemed clear, at least to Joe, that former Bucs offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard didn’t know how to scheme up a run game. The Bucs run game, beginning in the preseason and throughout the regular season, looked a whole lot like the slop that Bryon Leftwich tried to throw out onto the field after he lost his crutch, Bucco Bruce Arians, in 2022.
Then, there was how the offensive line was ravaged by injuries. It would have made Jim Brown sweat to run behind the two guards the Bucs had out on the field to end the season.
And third, as Joe likes to say, other teams’ coaches get paid, too. As great of a rookie season as Bucky had, you just know defensive coordinators were working all offseason a year ago to gameplan a way to stop Bucky.
Add the three elements up, no wonder Bucky had a rotten year.
Joe’s bullish on Bucky this fall and believes Bucky can bounce back. That talent that made Bucky a star as a rookie didn’t just vanish overnight.