Will The Bucs Be Able To Run?

Many Buc fans feel as if the bucs won't be able to run the ball against this very formidable Cardinals defense but is that really the case? The Cards were ranked 6th against the rush last year and the biggest reason behind that is the 6'8 300 pound monster Calais Campbell. Its no surprise that he eats up space and does extremely well clogging holes, making it hard for running backs to run his way. So what can you do to counter act that? Run away from him.

Every defense has their strengths and weaknesses and obviously Campbell stopping the run is one of them. Looking at the Patriots game you can see former Buc and now starting running back for the Patriots LeGarrette Blount gained the most yards when running away from Campbell and at Chandler Jones. Jones although an extremely gifted pass rusher and athlete, isn't strong against the run. Its a lot easier to push 265 out of the way than 300, just a simple observation.

This is why the bucs must start fast and establish the run game by targeting Jones early. Make Campbell work to chase the play down from behind. The game of football is all about finding mismatches and using your strengths to beat the other teams weaknesses. The bucs Oline is a strength even though they did get Winston a little banged up last week yet they didn't allow a sack. The Oline will need to show up big time this Sunday so that the Bucs can dictate the pace of this game.

Will the change to LG from RG be simple?

One of the biggest acquisitions early in free agency was the signing of J.R. Sweezy, former right guard of the Seattle Seahawks. Sweezy is an aggressive player that made the switch from Dline to RG in the NFL and has turned into quite the offensive lineman. Now the Bucs are asking him to switch positions again from Right guard to Left guard. The transition would seem to be simple right? Looking more into it, that doesn't seem to be the case.

Pro football focus has a nice example of why the switch would be harder than people expect.

Maybe they underestimated the difficulty involved in reversing the mechanics of linemen who were changing sides of the line. It isn’t just as simple as asking a receiver to move across the formation. The entire shift in footwork is something that takes getting used to for a lineman. Everything is mirrored physically, and applying that mentally is not as easy as most people assume.

Looking around the league I found another player who made the switch and now is on another team. Jonathan Cooper a former #7 overall pick for the Cardinals made the switch from LG to RG and had to switch a lot of things around, courtesy of espn.com

After spending his entire career at left guard, Cooper has had to adjust to playing on the right side. But it hasn’t been just a few tweaks here and there. Cooper said the move was starting all over and meant rebuilding himself as a right tackle.

Cooper went through the transition with ups and downs and maybe his team didn't think the change was good enough to keep him as they traded him to the Patriots. Yes, they got a stand out player in Chandler Jones, but were they really just wanting to drop Cooper since he did adapt well to the change?

Sweezy has gone through the biggest change from D-line to O-line so I believe he has what it takes to make the switch, but don't be surprised if there are some bumps on the road to him becoming an exceptional LG as he was at RG.