Bucs fans have a lot of concern when it comes to our second-round draft choices. Small examples would be names like Austin Seferian-Jenkins, Roberto Aguayo, Johnathan Banks. We will only talk about two for today and that is Ronald Jones “ROJO” And Noah Spence. Why haven’t these two contributed anything to the team this season thus far?
Ronald Jones was the 5th running back taken behind Barkley, Penny, Michel and the Browns Chubb. Jones has been inactive the past two weeks because of Koetter’s personal decision. There really is no definitive information to say why Koetter has made that decision. It could possibly be GM Jason Licht and Head Coach Dirk Koetter want to own up to a bad draft pick earlier rather than later.
If I had to guess, I would say a team has inquired about trading for Jones and Koetter wants to hold leverage in the trade by not playing him and hurting the Jones value in a trade. Koetter could be playing Shaun Wilson to find out if he is making the right decision to trade Jones and go with Wilson instead. The trade could also include QB Ryan Griffin hence why the Buccaneers have been working out quarterbacks secretively. Or maybe Winston could be involved in some kind of trade talks. It is all speculation, and nothing is backed up by any evidence. The NFL is a business, and anything can happen for the right price.
Defensive end Noah Spence, a second-round pick of the Bucs in 2016, was inactive Sunday against the Eagles. When he learned Friday that he would not be playing, he requested a meeting with Koetter. Noah Spence has quickly fallen out of the coaches and fans good graces by being benched as of late. Noah Spence has voiced his disappointment in being benched.
He’s disappointed. He wants to play, he wants to help,” Koetter said. “He wants to be a part of it. That’s a good thing. We had a productive meeting. Shoot, that’s a sign of maturity on his part to come up and look me in the eye and talk it out man to man. I appreciate that. We didn’t agree on everything, but we got a plan in place to keep pushing it forward.” via Buccanneers.com
Spence is battling back from a shoulder injury that ended his first two NFL seasons. One of the reasons he did not play is that he doesn’t start on any special team units.
“Coach was saying I put a lot of pressure on myself and it makes me think too much sometimes,” Spence said. “Just play football.”
Stay tuned for the inactives for week 3 as the week goes on.
