Buccaneers Training camp is just around the corner as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers begin to prepare for the 2018 regular season. The rookies will report on July 23rd Youth Demar Dotson Jersey , while the veterans will report on July 25th. The first practice is scheduled for July 26th. Every year, there are always surprises with certain teams, whether it be a player who outperformed expectations, or a player who underperformed. It’s almost certain Tampa Bay will have a few names on each side of the spectrum, and I am here to give my predictions on who may fall in these categories. The first person I expect to exceed expectations is Vinny Curry. Curry is heading into his first season as a Buccaneer after spending the first six years of his career in Philadelphia. There are a few reasons why I think Curry will exceed expectations. The first being that he simply didn’t have a great opportunity to rush the passer the last few seasons because of the depth on the Eagles defensive line. According to Pro Football Focus, Curry ranked fifth among right defensive ends in total pressures with 45 and he did so in a lot less snaps than the players ahead of him. Curry did only have three sacks last season, but stats don’t always tell the full story and in this case they didn’t. In addition to his three sacks, Curry added 17 quarterback hits, which was a career high for him, per PFF. The second reason I expect him to exceed expectations is because I really think that he will be able to exploit one-on-one matchups on the outside with Gerald McCoy and possibly even Jason Pierre-Paul constantly seeing double teams. When you take into account that Curry will be playing a lot more critical snaps then he did last season, it’s hard to imagine him not having an increase in all statistical categories. I think a fair expectation is somewhere between 6-8 sacks and 34-38 tackles. Both would be a huge increase from last season. The second player who has a chance to exceed expectations in my opinion is Carlton Davis. Davis, to me, should be the starter opposite of Brent Grimes on the outside from day one. I think the Buccaneers know that Vernon Hargreaves III is better off in the slot, which really gives Davis the inside path during training camp to start on the outside. He is a big physical press corner who will succeed if the Buccaneers allow him to play his style. Davis accumulated some impressive stats per PFF during his 2017 season at Auburn. One thing I really like about Davis is his position flexibility. He isn’t the type of corner to just play on one side of the field. During 2017, Davis took 164 snaps on the right side and 180 snaps on the left side. That type of versatility is key because it allows Tampa Bay to be much more creative with their schemes. Davis allowed a 25.0% contested catch rate, which was good for the third lowest amongst the 2018 draft class. PFF also graded Davis as the 8th best cornerback in the class and he only allowed a catch on 49.1% of the passes thrown this way. With the league becoming very pass heavy, Davis has a chance to shine from day one. I expect him to take full control of his opportunity and cement himself as the team’s future No. 1 cornerback. You never want to think about possible disappointments, but it’s inevitable, especially with these Buccaneers. A player who could be a disappointment is Demar Dotson. Dotson has been a Buccaneer for his whole career and has done a pretty solid job of stabilizing the right tackle position for many years, but injuries have started to take their toll. Dotson has not played a full season since 2014, which should concern Tampa Bay as they head into the season. Despite the injuries, when healthy, Dotson has been a very good right tackle and puts up impressive numbers. According to PFF http://www.buccaneersauthorizedshops.com/authentic-bryan-anger-jersey , Dotson was the 8th best tackle last season with an overall grade of 14.1. That includes both left and right tackles. Of course, Dotson did miss several games, but 11 games is a pretty decent sample size. For those wondering, that overall grade has pass blocking, run blocking, screen blocking and penalties factored into it. It would be great if Dotson can stay healthy, but I’m not betting on it and that’s why I think he will be a disappointment. His knees are shot and there are only so many more snaps the soon to be 33-year-old has left in him. I think we will see Caleb Benenoch and Alex Cappa starting on the right side of the offensive line come late November. The second player who could disappoint is DeSean Jackson, again. Clearly last year was a let down and I feel like this year has the makings of another let down. There have been talks of the team moving Jackson into the slot and letting Chris Godwin start opposite of Evans, but nothing is set in stone as of now. Of course that will all be handled during training camp.Jackson is still one of the fastest receivers in the league, so it isn’t his ability that has me concerned, it’s the coaching staffs ability to put him in the best possible position to succeed. Not only does Jackson need targets, but so does Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, O.J. Howard, Cameron Brate, Ronald Jones and Adam Humphries. It’s going to be tough to manage, but the most important thing will be allowing Jackson to work in space and eventually completing the deep ball. Time will tell on whether the coaching staff with solve this puzzle.The New Helmet Rule: A Perfect Clusterf*** Of Chaos I mean, really?When NFL owners approved the new helmet rule back in May, there’s no doubt in my mind it was after a few bourbons that would’ve cost me a paycheck to afford. How in the hell did they think this was a good idea?Player safety is important. The players don’t care if they get hurt or develop long-term health issues, so it’s important - and almost imperative - to protect them from themselves. I get that. But damn, this is a bit ridiculous, right?The criticism across the league has been sharp and widespread. If it didn’t hurt so bad it would almost be funny. Almost.ESPN’s Louis Riddick discussed the confusion concerning the new rule for the first two minutes of this video. It’s comforting to see intelligent analysts such as Riddick speaking some sense. 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan took a pretty direct approach himself. We’ve been through rule change experiments during the preseason before, that is nothing new. But the degree of absurdity that has been witnessed thus far has caused legitimate concern and rightfully so. The question is: how did no one see this coming? It’s impossible to ban the helmet from football. As the rule currently states Lavonte David Jersey , using any part of the helmet during a hit— whether incidental or not — results in a 15-yard penalty. Every single collision of is a product of momentum and to ask a player to adjust like that - to slow down - is not only extremely difficult, but dangerous. Common sense should prevail in this situation. When you hit someone with your shoulder, your head naturally follows in that direction. It’s not that hard to understand.There are more problems than player safety and one of those is the fact that we don’t really know what the refs are out there calling right now. One call looks different than another, yet all of the results are the same. Penalties are subjective enough anyway, especially where there is a ton of gray area and right now there’s more gray than the Country Kitchen Buffet.“I think there’s definitely truth to it – it’s not clear,” Buccaneers head coach Dirk Koetter said in reference to how ambiguity of the new rule. “The players in general – it’s not crystal clear. We’ve watched the videos. The league has sent videos the last two weeks dealing exclusively with the use of the helmet. But it’s still football and when they send videos out and they’re showing them in slow motion, that’s different than playing football. So I think there’s just going to be an adjustment period. This is a significant change. We’ll just have to see how it goes.”Coupling a major shift in procedure with indirect instruction is bound for disaster no matter how good one’s intentions may be.And let’s go ahead and slide down the slippery slope of game-changing calls, unfair and/or unnecessary ejections, and whatever else can change the course of a game due to inconsistent calls.On a quick side note — if you thought this helmet rule was scary enough, what about the call last weekend on Vikings’ linebacker Antwione Williams? The new rule officially states that, “a defensive player must not unnecessarily or violently throw him down or land on top of him with all or most of the defender’s weight.”I swear to all of the holy figures in this universe, if this call makes it into the regular season, I will be using the warranty on TV. The wall mount just “broke” and the TV somehow has a fist-sized hole in it.Um, sure. Go ahead and ask a 6-foot-3, 247-pound linebacker like Williams to shift more than 50% of his body weight in mid-air while falling to the ground and trying to take a 225-pound (at minimum) quarterback down with him.That’s not much to ask at all, right?So where does the NFL go from here? Fortunately for everyone there will be a meeting on Wednesday of this week and the word is that there will be plea after plea to help change - or at the least, adjust the rule. It’s doubtful that the league will just forego the whole thing, but any type of change would almost be welcomed at this point.Could they implement a review procedure for questionable calls? Why not limit the rule to just the crown of the helmet? Why not get rid of incidental contact? This video by Chargers head coach Anthony Lynn does a good job showing the intent of ball carriers and what should be called - therefore making it much easier to discern between incidental and intentional contact. Your browser does not support HTML5 video.According to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, this “significant change” is in year one of a three-year adjustment period in which the league will update the rules as time marches on, which just adds to the chaos. What may be deemed illegal this year, could be the opposite 2019.Despite the negativity it’s important to remember that this is the first time that anything like this rule has been attempted. This is not the norm for a game that has been around for over a hundred years. The frenzy - to an extent - is to be expected.But the hope is that something productive - and some sort of change - comes out of Wednesday’s meeting. In a perfect world, the NFL would just come out and say “gotcha!”. But you know what they say about wishing in one hand and performing another duty in the other.My money is on the other hand.
