ALL TWENTY-TUESDAY: BUCS OG J.R. SWEEZY

There are more than just a few Bucs fans who are less than content with the current situation of their team’s offensive line. Because of this, many were baffled that the team did not address the need in the offseason, citing that the Buccaneers are going to go into 2017 with the same disappointing group they had the previous season. But, that’s not completely true. The Buccaneers will be adding a new offensive lineman to the mix in 2017 – or at least, they hope – when offensive guard J.R. Sweezy makes his Buccaneers debut.

Sweezy’s path to the NFL was an interesting one. The former N.C. State starter actually did not play a snap of guard, or offensive line for that matter, during his collegiate career. Sweezy played 35 games with 20 starts along the defensive line at N.C. State, starting every game his junior and senior seasons. After the season, Tom Cable, the offensive line coach for the Seattle Seahawks, called Sweezy (who wasn’t going to get drafted) and asked about his interest in making the switch to offensive line. Sweezy admitted he was a little confused, but said if that’s what it takes to play in the NFL that he would try anything.

The Seahawks did end up drafting Sweezy in the seventh round of the 2012 NFL Draft. In the first game of his NFL career, he started at guard due to injuries on the depth chart – remember, this was not only Sweezy’s first game in the NFL, but it was also his first game at offensive guard. Lining up against All-Pro defensive lineman Darnell Dockett for your first game is one heck of a task.

The next year Sweezy was an on-and-off starter as he developed into an offensive lineman, but went on to start almost every game of the 2013, 2014 and 2015 seasons.

On March 9, 2016, J.R. Sweezy signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as a free agent to a five-year deal worth $32.5 million. Following his signing, he underwent back surgery and was placed on the Physically Unable to Perform list which made him unavailable for the first five games of the season. Though the team expected him to come back from that, a set back landed him on injured reserve for the 2016 season, meaning he did not suit up at all for the Buccaneers in his first year, not even in training camp.

That brings us to the here and now. With Sweezy fully cleared and getting ready for camp, it’s hard to remember just what the Buccaneers saw in him before they signed him. This week’s All-Twenty Tuesday is here to remind you of that. Let’s take a look.

The play above showed the most alluring traits of Sweezy and they are his effort and his willingness to finish blocks. Sometimes you’ll see offensive linemen, even when run blocking, be content with simply locking their assignment up and not wanting to really drive them down the field. Sweezy likes to do that, and I think a reason for that is because he’s good at it.

Sweezy is a little less than 300 pounds, so he’s a big boy, but not as big as some of these interior defensive linemen, especially the ones that play 0 or 1-tech. A way Sweezy counters giving up size and uses his lighter weight to his advantage, is by being very nimble on his feet. He’s constantly churning his legs to drive opponents down field when run blocking, and his advantage there is because he moves his feet better than players who might be stronger than he is. This allows for him to get them off balance and moving in a certain direction before they can gain their ground and overpower him.

Here’s another look at that.

Sweezy was going up against a player stronger than him in the clip above, but because he was able to get into him early and keep his feet moving as he made contact, he was able to maneuver his assignment away from where the ball was being run, and even when the defender was able to get his strength and throw him off, Sweezy didn’t give up on it and kept pushing his defender off balance.

Finding offensive linemen who have this kind of effort is not something you see very often. But, coming from a player who played defensive line his entire college career only to say he’d switch sides and do whatever it took to play in the NFL, effort shouldn’t come as a surprise.

There’s only one word to describe the play above: finish – well, two words if you want to use the same word twice since he finishes off two guys in one play.

Sweezy seems to really enjoy getting to that second level. Anytime the play calls for him to move up and take on either a linebacker or a safety, you can tell his eyes get wide open with excitement. Here, the release was instant from going to the line and engaging the linebacker, but he also does well on combo blockers where he’ll start by double-teaming one defensive lineman, then if the run progresses down the field, will release and take on another incoming defender.

It’s fun to have a guy on your team who can block the way Sweezy does in the clip above. I don’t think he’ll ever be an Earth-moving type of run blocker who can forces guys off of their stances, but he is a smart offensive lineman who uses his quick feet and the angles of how he engages to open up gaps and finish blocks.

Another example of that can be seen in the clip above where he’s used as a pulling guard in a split-zone play to seal the edge.

This is where I think the Buccaneers could use him most. By allowing Sweezy to be the main guard both on pulls and on stretch plays (we’ll get to that), it would free fellow interior offensive lineman Ali Marpet to be more of a force blocker and move people in the middle. I think the play above is good evidence that Marpet and Sweezy would be a great combo due to their styles.

Here’s another example of Sweezy as a finisher, but it also touches on him as a stretch play blocker, too.

Because Sweezy is so quick with his feet and quick off the snap, sometimes he can turn those opportunities of angling defensive linemen into straight up, knock-down plays. In the play above, Sweezy was going up against a nose tackle defensive lineman, a player who weighed more and carries more power than he did. But, because Sweezy was able to get into his defender so quickly, he was able to knock him right off his feet. It’s almost like turing speed to power like we talk about for pass rushers, but flipping it for offensive linemen. 

Finally, let’s take a look at his pass protection, a narrative that gives Sweezy a bad rap.

There are times, like for any offensive lineman, where Sweezy guesses wrong on which defender to take or doesn’t help out in the right area, but, if you ask me, a lot of that has more to do with failed chemistry along the offensive line than in ability itself. Sometimes failed chemistry can be due to a failed part in the caterpillar – all legs have to move together to work – but this clip shows that Sweezy has the mental processing to not be as much of a liability as we may be reading.

In the play above, Sweezy did a nice job of engaging with one player, then recognized where there was a weak point in the protection and slide over to help. There are going to be plenty of times where offensive linemen get pushed back by pass rushers or juked out on stunt blitzes. That’s because it’s much easier to pass rush with today’s defensive athletes than it is to pass protect. With that in mind, you’re just hoping you can get five guys who can gel together enough as a unit to hold up for a reasonable amount of time. If Sweezy can process pass protection as shown above on a consistent basis, I think he has the quick feet to buy some time and not be as bad as we think – though he’ll always be vulnerable to a good bull rush from a power pass rusher.