In Which I Totally Disagree With Coach Morris On Gerald McCoy

Someone, I think it was Roy Cummings but I can't be sure, finally asked Tampa Bay Buccaneers Head Coach Raheem Morris about the possible negative effects of moving Gerald McCoy around so much on his development as an undertackle. I'm not big on transcription but you can look at the video for yourself here (unfortunately the Bucs don't provide embed clips) and the guys over at Pewter Report did a partial here which I will be excerpting.

Here are the relevant parts of his answer.

“I think it helps him because they can’t find him a little bit,” said Morris. “It helps to get him in different spots where he is able to make disruptive plays. He has two tackles for a loss and a bunch of tackles for us. The sacks will come; we just have to continue to rush. … So we’ll do some different things up there and search for different answers.

First off no offense to Gerald McCoy but at this point he hasn't done anything that would warrant opposing offenses looking for him pre snap. I've watched all the games and as of yet nobody has broken their regular protection rules to try to double team him. Any time he has faced a double team in pass protection it was because he was lined up to the side the offense would normally slide the center regardless of whom was there. And the fact of the matter is in the kind of defense that Tampa runs there is no more disruptive place to play than the undertackle position.

Understand that for me this isn't about sacks. I know that sacks come in bunches as long as you are rushing well. The problem is from my perspective McCoy's pass rush has regressed each week so far. He went from making some really good moves against the Browns to trying to run right down the middle of guys in the Steelers game. But that's what happens when one play the guy is rushing a guard and the next play he's rushing an offensive tackle or maybe even a tight end. Its a whole different ball game rushing from inside or outside and McCoy is still trying to learn how to rush from there on the NFL level. Asking him to try to do both isn't helping him in any sense of the word and it certainly isn't hiding him.

I'll have some fun with the next quote.

“Yeah, it is helping him because he is flushing guys out and Quincy (Black) is capping guys off,” said Morris. “It’s not about the sack numbers. It’s did you affect the quarterback’s throw? Were you able to knock the pass down? Did you make the quarterback run outside the pocket so that he couldn’t see his wide open receiver? All those things happen when you talk about one-on-one rush. But the sacks will come.”

First off one of the things that was frustrating about watching and listening to this exchange was that Coach Morris focused almost solely on the times when McCoy is lined up at end in a 3-3-5 and Quincy Black rushed on McCoy's side. Well in the first three games McCoy has ALSO played defensive end in our regular 4-3 alignment when opposing offenses have put in heavy personnel like two tight ends with or without a fullback. And as I said in my Bull Rush column, you can't tell me that we don't have other defensive ends who could hold up just as fine in that situation while allowing McCoy to stay at undertackle where he is needed.

Also even when we do run the 3-3-5 personnel Quincy Black doesn't always pass rush and even when he does he doesn't always pass rush to McCoy's side. If you listen to the presser Coach Morris almost makes it sound as if Black is leading the league in sacks or something. The sack he notched against the Panthers was impressive but it was off a pass rush game. It wasn't because McCoy flushed the quarterback. He rushed the double team well I'll give him that but had Kyle Moore, Tim Crowder or any other defensive end been over there they would have also been double teamed. Hell Black rushed on Stylez White's side against the Steelers and White got double teamed in exactly the same fashion. As for me I don't remind the occasional Redskin call with Black coming. But what about the times we run Redskin and he DOESN'T come?

Has anyone seen Gerald McCoy get a pressure rushing as a defensive end with a 3 man rush out of Redskin?

I know haven't.

Oh and to answer those questions Coach Morris asked, no, no and no.

I don't get to watch the coaches film unfortunately so I can't see all the angles of every play. But even from the TV copy or watching it online its apparent that McCoy's rush went backwards the last two game a little bit more each week. That's not a hypothetical, that's a fact.

Now we come to the most revealing part of what Coach Morris had to say and also where he and I have the biggest disagreement.

“If I was thinking selfishly for McCoy, I probably would say, ‘Yes,’ but thinking selfishly for a defensive standpoint, that makes us better,” Morris said. “If he was a selfish player he would come to me and say, ‘Hey just leave me at this one position so I can get better at it,’ but does not have that in him. Our defense needs him to move around to be productive and be smart, and be sharp, and be wise beyond his years so to speak..."

It is with that opening line that Coach Morris admits that, yes the moving around IS stunting Gerald McCoy's development at undertackle. He does it under the cloak of "selfishness" but he admits it nonetheless. And that's where the rest of what he says becomes moot to me.

I've seen what a disruptive undertackle can do in this scheme. I played with probably the best undertackle that has ever played the game in Warren Sapp (who oh by the way agrees with me). And if its not him then I watched film on the only other guy that could give him a serious run for his money in recent Hall of Fame inductee John Randall. I'm not saying Gerald McCoy will ever become either of those guys, but if he is at least a reasonable facsimile he can wreak enough havoc from just that one position to make everyone and I do mean EVERYONE around him better. A good to great undertackle can be the force element of a defense versus running plays to his side. A good to great undertackle can force so much attention upon himself that the three other defensive linemen all end up with one on one opportunities. A good to great undertackle can allow a defensive coordinator to have a much smaller playbook because they bring so much pressure on any given play that there isn't much of a need to blitz, especially in 2 minute situations.

But McCoy will either take longer or never develop into a good to great undertackle if he is also trying to be a decent defensive end on either side as well as part time nose tackle as well. It's just not going to happen.

And the reason why I'm being so vocal about this is because it reminds me so much of the way Gaines Adams was mishandled may he rest in peace. I don't care who I piss off I'm going to keep talking about it either until it changes or the season ends. I may end up looking like Ahab screaming at the sea but I really don't care. I know what kind of undertackle Gerald McCoy can be. I watched him in college, I saw him in the preseason and I saw glimpses in the first game against Cleveland. Its not selfish to want to see more of that, its smart. You don't draft a guy number 3 to be a utility man, you draft a guy that high to be a dominant force AT ONE POSITION.

Maybe in 3 years when McCoy has established himself and has some game experience under his belt he will be able to dabble a little more at end keep his productivity up at undertackle but I don't see it happening as a rookie. And the thing of it is the defense doesn't "need" him to move around. That's just not true. We have enough talent on our defense to not have to use gimmicks and trickem dickem stuff. That defense can line up and whup people's ass if they are put in a position to do so. Last year I could understand trying to fool people to victory but not now. Not with the talent we have on this defense.

I don't know how McCoy feels about this because I haven't talked to him nor have I talked to anyone close to him about it but like I always say I go by my experience and by what my eyes tell me. You will never get me to believe that making McCoy a jack of all trades but master of none helps him or our defense overall. If the implication is there are holes at other spots that need to be filled then as Eddie Robinson is quoted as saying "Get a player better, or get a better player!" but don't use that as an excuse to have smoke coming out of McCoy's ears with little to no benefit to show for it.

In closing I would like to give props to whomever asked the question today. I get on the media at times when I think they have done something wrong but I will also show love when they get it right. That was the most astute question I have heard so far in all of Coach Morris' press conferences since the regular season started and if nothing else now more people will be watching to see how this all plays out and that is a good thing.  On another note it was also good to hear Coach Morris mention Michael Bennett as a guy they might take a look at to upgrade the pass rush. Why it has taken 3 games is anybody's guess. But hey, its a start at least.

Now if only somebody can start asking about why Kyle Moore is in on third and long with our four man rush instead of Brian Price then we will be cooking with fish grease...