Comments on: Which First-Year Head Coach Will Be Most Successful?

By: KeenanJ

KeenanJ — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 14:16:58 +0000

@LukeNSims
Excuse me taking so long to reply. It usually sends me a notification when there is an update in the conversation, but not this time. But to the conversation. I would agree, they have the better offensive line unit, receiving corps (at least starter wise, but probably not depth wise), starting QB and as we both agreed on, starting DE unit. But what about the rest of the team? We agreed that we have the better stable of linebackers, so that’s that. I would give us the edge in the secondary. We have depth across the board and also a up and coming star in Cox. They have Talib, but his future with the team is up in the air, if it hasn’t already been decided internally for them yet. I’d say we still have the edge in RB with MJD (hopefully) and Jennings. Blount has been steady, as you’ve said, but MJD is clearly better and Jennings could still be considered the better pro between Martin (which bothers me because I really wanted us to draft him) and Jennings. More of because of NFL experience over pure talent. Then the TE position. We’re better there too. I would agree that we’re about even when it comes to starting units, but I’d say we’re better from a depth position, so I would say we have the better overall team.

Honestly though, it could go either way.

By: LukeNSims

LukeNSims — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 18:04:42 +0000

@KeenanJ All fair points. I will elaborate on why I think the Bucs have the strongest roster of the five teams: With the Vincent Jackson acquisition I think that the receiving corps easily outstrips the Jaguars receiving corps (V-Jax and Mike Williams make a formidable duo – Williams has 1,700 yards over the past two seasons). As you mentioned, the defensive ends are quite good. I think that the true potential of the DEs is yet to be found though and they will find it in the next two years, maybe this year. Ronde Barber can still play and the Mark Barron pick will pay dividends immediately (or at least I believe it will). Eric Wright at corner is someone I find to be highly underrated as well. Further, the running back stable in Tampa Bay leaves little to be desired. Legarrette Blount (1,700 yards over the last two years) and Doug Martin (another good pick) help make Freeman look good. As I said in the article, I am not a Freeman fan but he put up some good numbers a year ago (25 TDs to 6 picks). While Carl Nicks has yet to gel with the rest of the offensive line, the unit has allowed 28 and 29 sacks the last two years and will only get better with him at guard.

I see a lot of upside on their roster. There is very little for me to argue against them. You bring up a good point about linebacking, but outside of that and fullback I really don’t see the Jags with any real leads over the Bucs.

By: KeenanJ

KeenanJ — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 14:38:15 +0000

The people who voted on that poll, obviously aren’t all that familiar with each team’s roster, nor do I believe they keep up with the progress each team is making. That would be unreasonable of any voter on such a topic, but the point is, that you can’t really answer that question unless you at least know some details concerning each team involved. I have little to no insight on the Bucs, Raiders, Dolphins, or the Colts, so I’m not really in the best position to answer the question myself. Yet, I will still say that Mularkey has the best chance to have the most success. I could go into great detail as to why I believe that, but I’ll defer that option and say it’s just me being a homer.

While I agree with most of what is said here, there is one statement that I believe to be far from the truth. And that is the bit about the Bucs having a better roster than we do. I do not believe that all. While I don’t know the ins and outs of their roster, I would assume they have a few holes on their roster somewhere and we don’t have any. We also have depth in our LB corps and our secondary. The only spots I would give them edge to is DE and QB. DE because they’ve spent early round draft picks on the position and QB because, as far as we know right now, Freeman is the better QB than Gabbert. Other than that, I don’t see how they could have the better talent base than us.