Is Xavier Rhodes really a good fit as a Bucanneer?

[TampaBucks05]

Xavier Rhodes. As Tampa Bay fans, we are already in love with him. He comes from FSU, the same home as our future 1st Ballot Hall of Famer Derrik Brooks. He would fill one of our biggest holes at the CB position. He is an athlete with great ball skills and range of motion. He plays physical, disciplined, and is a solid tackler. At first glance, Rhodes seems like a no brainer for the Bucs, especially if he becomes available after the 1st round. But is he really a good fit on our defense?

At FSU, Rhodes was only asked to play zone coverage. Its well known now that the Bucs play primarily bump-man caverage and like to include lots of blitzes into their scheme, so its no wonder why Bucs player are hardly ever asked to play zone coverage on defense. Does this mean that Rhodes can't play in a defense that primarily plays man-coverage? No, but noones ever seen him do it. The transition to the NFL may take a lot longer, be alot tougher, and quite frankly may never happen for Rhodes. So it would be a good idea for those in the Bucs front office to ire on the side of caution before spending a high round draft choice on a player who may never pan out.

[BucsnNoles]

Xavier Rhodes. As Tampa Bay fans, we are already in love with him. He comes from FSU, the same home as our future 1st Ballot Hall of Famer Derrik Brooks. He would fill one of our biggest holes at the CB position. He is an athlete with great ball skills and range of motion. He plays physical, disciplined, and is a solid tackler. At first glance, Rhodes seems like a no brainer for the Bucs, especially if he becomes available after the 1st round. But is he really a good fit on our defense?

At FSU, Rhodes was only asked to play zone coverage. Its well known now that the Bucs play primarily bump-man caverage and like to include lots of blitzes into their scheme, so its no wonder why Bucs player are hardly ever asked to play zone coverage on defense. Does this mean that Rhodes can't play in a defense that primarily plays man-coverage? No, but noones ever seen him do it. The transition to the NFL may take a lot longer, be alot tougher, and quite frankly may never happen for Rhodes. So it would be a good idea for those in the Bucs front office to ire on the side of caution before spending a high round draft choice on a player who may never pan out.

Now that's just not true.

[BucBalla85]

I think he has a high probability of going to the Bucs at 13.

[BucNY]

Yeah, I think he'd be a good FS for us. I'm nervous about relying on him to be a corner at the NFL level.

[dexmonkey]

FSU mixes zone and man frequently in a game. Rhodes has a ton of experience being out on an island. i dont know where you get that he only played zone. hell, his best trait is his ability to be physical and jam and redirect receivers at the line. are you sure you were looking at the correct corner? hes #27, not #6

[lyronmewis]

Rhodes played mainly man coverage, what game tape have you been looking at? If anything, he's worse at zone. I think most of the catches on him come because of coverage mixups with safeties and linebackers.

The only thing I'm concerned about is whether or not his ability to cover translates to the NFL. Receivers will be just as physically gifted as him, so he can't rely on his press coverage all of the time. He doesn't really have the agility to cover those quick short routes. His whole game is pretty much pressing a receiver and letting his size blanket them in coverage. I haven't really seen him display much ball skills either. It's common nowadays to just chuck the ball up and let the receiver make a play. I don't know if he has the body control or ball location skills to excel at those plays

I could see him dominating some receivers. He would probably dominate Mike WIlliams, and keep Vincent Jackson in during non-jump balls. I don't know about guys like Julio Jones, Dez Bryant, Calvin Johnson type receivers though who have a lot of elite aspects to their game.  Also struggle with veteran, shifty guys like Wes Welker.

[BucsnNoles]

I just realized that the kid/dude/chick that started this thread also thinks that Tampa's football team is named after a male deer.

[BucBalla85]

Rhodes played mainly man coverage, what game tape have you been looking at? If anything, he's worse at zone. I think most of the catches on him come because of coverage mixups with safeties and linebackers.

The only thing I'm concerned about is whether or not his ability to cover translates to the NFL. Receivers will be just as physically gifted as him, so he can't rely on his press coverage all of the time. He doesn't really have the agility to cover those quick short routes. His whole game is pretty much pressing a receiver and letting his size blanket them in coverage. I haven't really seen him display much ball skills either. It's common nowadays to just chuck the ball up and let the receiver make a play. I don't know if he has the body control or ball location skills to excel at those plays

I could see him dominating some receivers. He would probably dominate Mike WIlliams, and keep Vincent Jackson in during non-jump balls. I don't know about guys like Julio Jones, Dez Bryant, Calvin Johnson type receivers though who have a lot of elite aspects to their game.

Those are guys that you will lose more than win depending on the player. Question is whether he is a guy who would make us a better team overall. Is he worth the number 13 pick?? If there is somebody who could overall make a bigger/better impact for the team than the guy we got at that position then you need to get him.

[chace1986]

I just realized that the kid/dude/chick that started this thread also thinks that Tampa's football team is named after a male deer.

IIRC, he has stated previously that his username uses Bucks to refer to $.

Nevertheless, in the few FSU games that I have watched the past year, they ran both man and zone.

Bucks may have just read a football prospect breakdown on one of the random sites that puts out mocks and analyses and it may have stated that FSU primarily runs zone, and he just ran with it.

[lyronmewis]

Rhodes played mainly man coverage, what game tape have you been looking at? If anything, he's worse at zone. I think most of the catches on him come because of coverage mixups with safeties and linebackers.

The only thing I'm concerned about is whether or not his ability to cover translates to the NFL. Receivers will be just as physically gifted as him, so he can't rely on his press coverage all of the time. He doesn't really have the agility to cover those quick short routes. His whole game is pretty much pressing a receiver and letting his size blanket them in coverage. I haven't really seen him display much ball skills either. It's common nowadays to just chuck the ball up and let the receiver make a play. I don't know if he has the body control or ball location skills to excel at those plays

I could see him dominating some receivers. He would probably dominate Mike WIlliams, and keep Vincent Jackson in during non-jump balls. I don't know about guys like Julio Jones, Dez Bryant, Calvin Johnson type receivers though who have a lot of elite aspects to their game.

Those are guys that you will lose more than win depending on the player. Question is whether he is a guy who would make us a better team overall. Is he worth the number 13 pick?? If there is somebody who could overall make a bigger/better impact for the team than the guy we got at that position then you need to get him.

he would definitely improve the secondary, but that's not much of an accomplishment

it's about picking the best possible player that we can, that can have the biggest impact

[BucsFan18]

IDK if he is a good enough CB to get drafted at 13 but I see us trading back into the first round to snag him. Also I have noticed that out of the 5 mock draft they have on nfl.com right now 3 of them have us getting Xavier Rhodes, 1 with Zac Ertz and the other D.J Fluker

[BucBalla85]

Rhodes played mainly man coverage, what game tape have you been looking at? If anything, he's worse at zone. I think most of the catches on him come because of coverage mixups with safeties and linebackers.

The only thing I'm concerned about is whether or not his ability to cover translates to the NFL. Receivers will be just as physically gifted as him, so he can't rely on his press coverage all of the time. He doesn't really have the agility to cover those quick short routes. His whole game is pretty much pressing a receiver and letting his size blanket them in coverage. I haven't really seen him display much ball skills either. It's common nowadays to just chuck the ball up and let the receiver make a play. I don't know if he has the body control or ball location skills to excel at those plays

I could see him dominating some receivers. He would probably dominate Mike WIlliams, and keep Vincent Jackson in during non-jump balls. I don't know about guys like Julio Jones, Dez Bryant, Calvin Johnson type receivers though who have a lot of elite aspects to their game.

Those are guys that you will lose more than win depending on the player. Question is whether he is a guy who would make us a better team overall. Is he worth the number 13 pick?? If there is somebody who could overall make a bigger/better impact for the team than the guy we got at that position then you need to get him.

he would definitely improve the secondary, but that's not much of an accomplishment

it's about picking the best possible player that we can, that can have the biggest impact

Right. I hope they are gonna fill a lot of the secondary needs in FA before the draft to get some flexibility to what they can do with that first pick. BPA isnt a bad idea at 13.

[3rd String Kicker]

At 6'1" almost 220, I doubt he's going to have problems chucking receivers at the line... but I'm a Seminoles fan so I may be playing favorites.

[JDouble]

Xavier Rhodes. As Tampa Bay fans, we are already in love with him. He comes from FSU, the same home as our future 1st Ballot Hall of Famer Derrik Brooks. He would fill one of our biggest holes at the CB position. He is an athlete with great ball skills and range of motion. He plays physical, disciplined, and is a solid tackler. At first glance, Rhodes seems like a no brainer for the Bucs, especially if he becomes available after the 1st round. But is he really a good fit on our defense?

At FSU, Rhodes was only asked to play zone coverage. Its well known now that the Bucs play primarily bump-man caverage and like to include lots of blitzes into their scheme, so its no wonder why Bucs player are hardly ever asked to play zone coverage on defense. Does this mean that Rhodes can't play in a defense that primarily plays man-coverage? No, but noones ever seen him do it. The transition to the NFL may take a lot longer, be alot tougher, and quite frankly may never happen for Rhodes. So it would be a good idea for those in the Bucs front office to ire on the side of caution before spending a high round draft choice on a player who may never pan out.

Now that's just not true.

+1

Hard to take the post serious when you are so wrong about such an important piece of information.

[Dolorous Jason]

I want to see his shuttle run and 40 time at the combine , but I do like him.