Ask the Expert: Jerry Angelo

by Gary Shelton on June 4, 2016 · 0 comments

in general, NFL, Tampa Bay Bucs

Jerry Angelo is a former personnel director for the Bucs and former general manager of the Bears. Each week, Angelo answers your questions regarding the NFL. Send your questions to GarySheltonsports@gmail.com with "ask the expert'' in the subject line. The most interesting question will be selected.

Saturday, 6 a.m.

USA Today suggests that Greg Schiano was the worst coach the Bucs ever had. Would you pick Leeman Bennett? Ray Perkins? Richard Williamson? Raheem Morris? Lovie Smith

I’m not going to say who was worse than who, but Schiano had a lot of talent, not unlike Smith and Morris when they were the head coaches for the Bucs. To lose as many games as they did is unacceptable.

Being a head coach in the NFL is a very difficult job. Most coaches that are hired to be head coaches will be fired within three years. Coaches like Schiano and Perkins, who have that drill sergeant mentality, have to win early or pay the consequences by having their players quit on them.

To be a successful head coach in the league, you have to have a very

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good assistants. Your staff is as important as your players. Players can’t play to their potential or be developed without quality coaching. When a head coach is named his toughest task is to put a quality staff together. Without one you have no chance.

NFL.com wants to know who is going to lead the NFL in rushing this year. A. Adrian Peterson; B. Todd Gurley; C. Le’Veon Bell, D. Ezekiel Elliott; E. Other.

I would go with Elliott. He will be running behind arguably the best offensive line in football. The Cowboys have other weapons, a pro bowler at tight end and wide receiver. So it’s not going to be easy for defenses to stack up at the line of scrimmage to stop him.

The other component that will help him, is Dallas’s defense has been so bad, to keep them off the field they have to run the ball, not unlike what they did with DeMarco Murray, who I believe led the league in rushing that year. From a team standpoint, there was a reason they drafted Elliot with the fourth pick in the draft.

Any of the others mentioned are capable of leading the league in rushing. Peterson has owned that category for a number of years, but I believe he is slowing down. Gurley is playing without a proven quarterback, Bell is coming off knee surgery and the Steelers are going to throw the ball with big Ben.

The sleeper, in my opinion,  is C.J. Prosise of Notre Dame, who was drafted in the third round by Seattle. He’s going to be an interesting guy to watch. He’s got size, speed and strength and did an unbelievable job for the Irish while playing the position for only a handful of games.

Now that the draft has had some time to settle in, which rookie do you think will make the biggest impact on the Bucs? Vernon Hargreaves? Noah Spence? Or Roberto Aguayo?

Hargreaves will make an immediate impact for them because of the nature of the position. He is tailor-made to play the nickel position and like Ronde Barber will have plenty of opportunities to get his hands on the ball. Spence will have an opportunity to make a big impact as well, because the Bucs haven’t had a legitimate rusher off the edge in a long time. If McCoy has a big year, that will help Spence and Jaquies Smith getting to the passer. With pass rushers, they have less to do assignment wise, but what they do is much harder to do. Usually it’s either hit or miss with them.

Peyton Manning says he was close to signing with the Tennessee Titans in 2012. How might the fortunes of the two franchises have been changed?

No doubt the Titans would have been better, but Denver was the right choice. He had many more pieces in place with the Broncos.

They had a top defense and some good playmakers to throw to. Tennessee had little in place and haven’t done much to improve their team over the years. Manning made the decision based on what’s good for business. Thinking with your heart can be costly. Sometimes when do, you can lose your head.

Bill Veeck, the old baseball owner, used to say that you couldn’t overpay superstars, but you could go broke giving big dollars to average athletes. Given that, what do you think when you hear the Jets have offered Ryan Fitzpatrick $24 for three years that is worth $12 million the first season?

I agree with Veeck 100 percent! Nobody ever looks at the superstar and say he’s overpaid.

When you get in a habit of overpaying mediocre players...you lose. They don’t make a difference, yet the money they consume, based on your cap, can get eaten up quickly, which leaves you little funds to go out and compete for the better players or pay your own players.

They create ‘dead money’ (players that are cut, because teams overpaid them, yet their money still counting against the cap in future years). The Jets are thinking with their hearts, They are letting a well-liked guy (who has been cut more times than Rocky Balboa) hold them hostage. I don’t get it. I get he’s their quarterback and they have no options at this point, but he doesn't either. Why throw good money at a mediocre player, who no one wants make no “Cents”.

New game: I give you an NFL player, and you tell me if he is overrated or underrated.

1. Kirk Cousins. Desperate people do desperate things. Cousins is a byproduct of that thinking. Overrated.

2. Tyrann Mathieu. Rated just right.

3. Richard Sherman. Special.

4. Jadeveon Clowney. Verdict is still out, but the evidence doesn’t look good for him to justify the pick…Overrated.

5. Drew Brees. Not the same, but without him the Saints are the “Aint’s”.

6. Jason Pierre-Paul. Overrated and overpaid.

7 . Andy Dalton. Rated just right

One in a series: Who is the best Atlanta Falcon of all time? Tommy Nobis, Claude Humphrey, Deion Sanders or Tony Gonzales. Or anyone else.

You have to go with Humphrey. I don’t know how great he was, because they didn’t keep complete stats back then. He was a sack machine on a bad team.

Nobis was a better collegian that a pro, but that’s not to say he wasn’t a heck of a player for the Falcons. If Dion would have stayed a Falcon and if Gonzales was a Falcon from the start, I would probably give them more consideration. Dion was a mercenary who capitalized on the free agent system, as well, as any player. Gonzales was on fumes when he went to Atlanta and finally ran out of gas.

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