Bucs DE Smith ready to set down roots 
Jacquies Smith, who had 6.5 sacks last season, is expected to play at right end this year. ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE By Roy Cummings | Tribune Staff Published: June 19, 2015 TAMPA — With a pretty good degree of accuracy, Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht can tell you who will and who won’t make a particular NFL team long before that team even begins playing preseason games.That’s why Licht and Jon Robinson, the Bucs’ director of player personnel, couldn’t wait in August to get a look at the tape of the Hall of Fame Game between the Bills and the Giants.A defensive lineman who wasn’t expected to make the Bills’ roster was going to play in that game, and Licht and Robinson were eager to see if he had improved to the point where he might be able to help the Bucs.“His get-off, his burst off the ball, that’s what excited us,” Licht said of the then little-known defensive end named Jacquies Smith. “If a guy’s got that, we figure we can teach him the rest.”Smith remains one of the NFL’s lesser-known players. It might not be long, though, before everyone knows his name. After all he’s about to spend a season playing one of the game’s premier positions.After recording 6.5 sacks playing mostly left end last year, the unheralded University of Missouri product is moving to right end, where the game’s best pass rushers roam.It’s a tall order for an undersized (6-foot-2, 260 pounds) second-year pro who has already tried and failed to stick with three NFL teams, but Smith (whose first name is pronounced Ja-kwees) believes he can do it.“I played some right end in college, so it’s not really too much of an adjustment for me,” Smith said. “It’s really just a matter of making sure you do all the little things right.”For Smith that has always been the case. Coming out of college, scouts loved his versatility and work ethic, his speed and quickness and his ability to close on a quarterback and finish him off.What worried them, and what ultimately kept teams from drafting a player with All Big-12 credentials, was his lack of size and an equally troubling lack of technical skills, such as handwork and footwork.As Licht suggested, though, those are the parts of the game that can be taught, and at every stop he’s made, including the short one he made in the Canadian Football League in 2012, Smith has gone to school.“Having been around some great players in all the different places I’ve been, I’ve taken a lot of bits and pieces and made them a part of my game (in an effort) to be better,” Smith said.“That’s what these (offseason) workouts and this minicamp have been about. When you come out here, you want to work your technique and just get better at using your hands and taking on blocks. It’s a matter of trying to take your game to the next level.”The Bucs need someone on the line to take his game to the next level. Their 36 sacks last year were the most since they recorded 36 with Simeon Rice at right end in 2005, but they still ranked only 21st in the NFL in that department.That’s why the Bucs are eager to see what the player they claimed off waivers from the Bills just two weeks into the season can do now that he’s had a chance to settle in and work on his game a bit.“When you pick up a player like that as late as we did, he doesn’t have a chance to go through any of the offseason (workouts) or training camp with us, but he still came in and contributed in a big way,” Bucs coach Lovie Smith said.“So we obviously think his best football is ahead of him. He can rush on the outside, and he’s had a good camp so far. He hasn’t missed anything and we’re excited about his second season with us.’’Only half as excited as Jacquies Smith. He’s been trying for four years now to lay down some roots with an NFL team, and he believes he finally has the opportunity to do it here in Tampa.“In Buffalo last year, I was just trying to make a niche for myself and find a role, just trying to make the team,” he said. “Now my role is already pretty much laid out for me here.“There are expectations, and they’re very high for me, so my thing is to go out and try to exceed those expectations. I want to prove I’m one of the best and I deserve to be out there.” [email protected](813) 259-7979Twitter: @RcummingsTBO