Fred Smoot has seen some things in the secondary in his day, but the first question the Junks had to ask him on Monday when he joined to discuss Week 1: What is up with ‘his boy’ Emmanuel Forbes, who had two personal fouls on the same play yesterday?
“I don't think (he had two on one play), but I've been humiliated on national TV, many times. It comes with the position of cornerback, which is a very humbling position. It's like being in a batter's box in baseball – if I go three for 10, I could be an All-Star,” Smoot said. “The one thing I can say he did yesterday is when he did get beat, it was some sticky coverage, and I can give Tampa Bay all the props. They did a good job because they know one thing about Chris Godwin, he's very good inside, but when you put him outside, he cannot get off the press. So any time they want to get him to ball, they put him in motion to make sure the guy that was on him could not push him. Baker Mayfield kills them by 1,000 paper cuts, so it wasn’t really an Emmanuel Forbes problem, it was more yesterday was the first day of a new era, and they looked like a team that hadn’t played together against a team that’s cohesive.”
So it went too for Benjamin St-Juste trying to slow down Mike Evans, which the best way Smoot said to try is ‘get on your knees and pray,’ but Smoot also says BSJ’s biggest issue is ball skills, so…
“I don’t think this will be an issue all season. The more and more they play together, troubleshoot together, get a chance to go rep for rep…the one thing that kept us yesterday was third down, we were awful on third down and they didn't give the offense a chance to get the ball moving,” Smoot said. “We went to a playoff team’s house and battled them for three quarters with a new group of guys.”
And for those that think a defense that ranked 32nd overall can’t get much better due to talent deficiency, one that let the Bucs score on seven of their first eight possessions?
“We couldn't fix this house in one year; there’s no Micah Parsons dropping out of the sky, we’re starting to collect and build, and you can’t fix everything,” Smoot said. “I thought we fixed the linebacker position, and Luvu and Wagner showed up yesterday, but we cannot fix everything. They're going to get better, and we need to believe that. They lost to a talented offense, and they’ve been together for so long, but Baker escaped a lot of pressure, too, so we missed some sacks. They were disruptive, but did not finish the task – but this is just the beginning, and they’ll get better day by day.”
Take a listen above to all of Smoot’s visit, including some thoughts on Jayden’s debut and the offense!
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