RB, uno dei punti di forza dei Bucs 2014

Il RB rookie Charles Sims

Nei Tampa Bay Buccaneers 2014 c'è un reparto, quello dei RB, che sulla carta dovrebbe rappresentare un importante punto di forza della squadra di coach Lovie Smith.

Doug Martin, il RB starter, è sulla strada del pieno recupero dopo il brutto infortunio alla spalla rimediato nel corso del 2013. Ma a differenza di quanto accadeva con Greg Schiano, quando tutti i palloni venivano fatti portare sempre e solo allo stesso RB (Martin prima dell'infortunio, poi James e infine Rainey) adesso le cose stanno per cambiare...

Intanto, dal draft è arrivato il RB Charles Sims, e oltre all'interessante rookie da West Virginia c'è da segnalare il recupero dai rispettivi infortuni di due elementi interessanti come Jeff Demps e Mike James, oltre al confermato Bobby Rainey.

Proprio quest'oggi l'argomento runningback è stato affrontato direttamente dall'OC Jeff Tedford e dall'allenatore dei RB Tim Spencer. Qusete le loro dichiarazioni più interessanti, tratte dal Tampa Bay Times.

Cominiciamo da Spencer, tra i principali artefici dell'arrivo di Sims a Tampa. Parola al RB coach:
"I like the athleticism. I like guys that can do a little bit of everything," said Spencer, who was Lovie Smith's running backs coach with the Bears as well and sees a bit of Chicago star Matt Forte in the rookie. "'One of the first things I like when I see him is 'Is he going to block the way he runs? Is he a tough guy? Do I see the same type of effort when he runs the ball as when he's pass-blocking? ... I like that he took pride in all of his game. He has some qualities Matt had that I liked."

Sims, ottimo anche a ricevere il pallone, potrebbe dunque rappresentare un'importante arma in più per i Bucs. Ancora Spencer::
"It can be an advantage for us because we can get a couple different guys in the backfield with him," Spencer said. "It's nice to have that guy, because we can do a lot of different personnel things with a guy like that. It helps the game out. Once he understands the whole deal, we can sort of blossom."

Spencer si attende un contributo importante anche dal velocista olimpionico Jeff Demps, giocatore dalla velocità decisamente speciale:
"He's ultimate fast. That guy can really run. You sit there with amazement just to see the burst he has," Spencer said. "You see guys thinking they're going to cut him off. I like what I see in Jeff. We have some things we have to do to harness that speed and get him in the right situations. That speed can definitely help us out."

Queste invece le parole dell'OC, Jeff Tedford, a proposito di come avverrà la gestione dei RB; non avremo più un solo "cavallo da tiro" ma le portate saranno alternate tra più giocatori:
“I think you have to alternate,'' Tedford said Tuesday. "Even when we had two, 1,000-yard rushers (at California), J.J. Arrington was a 2,000-yard rusher and and we had a couple times guys had a thousand yards apiece. But I don’t believe that one back can carry the load. It’s just too physical. I think you probably need to have two to three guys to bring different things to the table. But I think you at least need to have two to be able to spell them here and there and keep them healthy and tat type of thing. That's the goal to try and create some depth right there where there's not a dropoff when one guy comes in and another guy goes out. There's no dropoff. We just keep going.''