He’s figured it out.
A former high priest of the PFF tribe seems to have split opinions on Bucs defensive tackle Calijah Kancey.
One of his opinions seems to be a regurgitated cliche.
One one hand, ex-PFF high priest Sam Monson, now talking for “The 33rd Team,” claims Calijah Kancey sucks out loud as a run defender. But on the other hand, Monson thinks Kancey will break out this season as a top-shelf pass rusher.
“He’s been reasonably productive as a pass rushing tackle,” Monson said. “He’s been pretty abysmal against the run.”
Well, Joe thinks the opposite. Joe thinks Kancey has arrived as a pass rusher and is very underrated against the run. This nonsense that Kancey can’t stop the run is just some trope started when he was at Pitt. That’s not the case any longer, if it was the case at all.
For example, NextGen Stats claimed Kancey [did not miss](http://NextGen Stats: Calijah Kancey Pulled Off The Unthinkable) one regular-season tackle last year. Not one! For a starting defensive tackle? That’s unheard of.
When Joe first tipped off Bucs coach Todd Bowles to this at the combine, Bowles didn’t exactly argue with Joe (as if to say, “No, that’s horsesh!t.”) The only thing Bowles pushed back on (just a little bit) was zero missed tackles. Bowles told Joe he would have to go back to the tape to double-check.
In fact, Bowles raved about Kancey’s run defense.
So how the hell can one be “abysmal” against the run when you don’t miss one tackle for an entire regular season?
(Since that NextGen Stats article came out, Kancey has gone on the record saying he missed a tackle last year in the regular season. And no, NextGen Stats is not factoring in Kancey’s tackle of Jayden Daniels’ towel in the playoffs. These numbers are just regular season.)
But as a pass rusher, Monson says, look out for Kancey this fall.
“I think this is the year Calijah Kancey is going to put it together as a pass rusher,” Monson said.
Well, Kancey led the Bucs with 7.5 sacks last season, almost doubling his sack total as a rookie (four sacks). And Kancey once again started the season injured and missed the first five games playing 12 regular season games total.
If Kancey can be on the field for 17 games, look the eff out.
Yes, *if* Kancey can stay on the field for 17 games. Joe thinks that qualifier is being used way too often for Bucs starting defenders the team is banking on to have a good season.
Yes, Joe is looking right at you, Jamel Dean and SirVocea Dennis.
As Steve Smith once said to Aqib Talib, “Ice up, son.”
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NextGen Stats: Calijah Kancey Pulled Off The Unthinkable