WHAT THEY'RE SAYING

Notes, Quotes

The Sports Xchange

October 11, 2018 at 3:02 am.

–Defensive coordinator Mike Smith said he spent some 12- and 14-hour days looking at every defensive snap the Bucs played through the first four games and some of their young players were predictably inconsistent.

“I think the biggest is that every time we go out and play, we’re playing to win and that dynamic is different in every game,” Smith said. “I think it was obvious in the first three games – not so much in the fourth game. We absolutely stunk from me down in the fourth game, but we did some things in the first three games that you can look forward and say, ‘Gosh-darn those guys – they’ve got a chance to do some things well.’ Overall, we have not done what we need to get done. I think there’s some young guys that have shown spurts of being good players. I think there’s been times when they’ve shown their youth. I think there’s times that we’ve shown that we’re able to put pressure on the quarterback and there’s other times it’s not. We’ve been an inconsistent group and really that’s frustrating as a coach because you don’t like to put the inconsistencies out on the field.”

–Guard Ali Marpet says he will be on the hook for the bill when offensive linemen gather for their weekly dinner this week, this time at Eddie V’s, after signing a five-year extension worth $10.825 million per season.

“It just happened to be my turn,” Marpet said.

Bucs head coach Dirk Koetter said he was pleased the Bucs were able to lock up one of their core players.

“I think any time you can get guys on their second contract, you draft them and if they get a second contract that means they panned out, they played well,” Koetter said. “You’re happy to see guys earn their money. Everyone knows the salary cap is the salary cap and it’s going up every year. The salaries are going higher. Guys at the top of the food chain at their position group are getting paid really good money these days. You want, as a coach, you’d love to see every guy get paid. It’s not going to work out that way. The more guys you get on the upper echelon, the harder it is to make it all fit together.”

BY THE NUMBERS: 34.8 – Average number of points allowed per game by the Bucs, worst in the NFL.