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The Tampa Bay Bucs are young, dumb and ready to run.
The team with the moto ?young and hungry? or ?youn-gry? has got youth all over the place. 74 of the 90 players in camp have three years of experience or less.
One of those players is LeGarrette Blount, the second year running back out of Oregon. He burst out onto the scene with Tampa Bay and ended up being one of the best backs in the league over the second half of the season.
In 13 games he ran 201 times for 1,007 yards and six TDs. He averaged 5.0 yards per carry?an absurd amount for a bigger back that clocks in at 6-0 and 250-pounds.
Yet he still is extremely young, as are the majority of players around him. The Bucs need to give him a steady dose of reps in the first quarter to ensure the team builds some sort of consistency heading into a season that is right around the corner.
Last week against the Chiefs, Blount ran the ball five times for 18 yards in the Bucs 25-0 win. That is not enough of a workload for a guy that is going to be the undisputed No. 1 back. He is projected to carry the ball around 20-25 a games and getting more reps in before the season starts is very important.
Putting the young Bucs against a very cerebral minded team like the Pats will allow the entire unit to get an idea of how to run an offense despite dealing with so much chaos and adjustments on the field.
Obviously the Buccaneers want to avoid injury at all cost and shouldn?t play him too much, but I think it?s reasonable to say Blount could use an entire quarter of reps.
The injury risk is not as great with the tank of a back and right now the more game experience the better for this emerging star.
The Bucs need to be off to the races on Thursday.
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