UPDATED: It took a rare injury to a key player for Bucs reserve tight end rookie Devin Culp to finally get on the field and make an impact.
On Sunday, Culp had three catches for 52 yards. Those were his first career catches.
One reason Culp only played a few snaps before Sunday was a log jam at tight end. He’s the No. 3 when it comes to being a full-time pass-catching tight end. Ko Kieft is ahead of him on run plays.
Culp also hadn’t yet made an impact because the offense he was used to in college was a spread-option, where coaches signal in plays to the team.
The NFL and the spread-option don’t mix. That offense is borderline foreign to the NFL, though some NFL teams use some of its traits.
The offense used with Culp at Washington last year — you know the kind, where the quarterback claps for a cadence rather than barking plays — is an irritant to Chucky. He often tees off on the clapping offenses on one of his many Barstool Sports platforms.
It seems Bucs offensive coordinator Liam Coen is no fan of those college offenses.
Coen said yesterday Culp finally is used to how Coen runs an offense, which is far different than what Culp saw at Washington.
“Yeah, that’s what I kind of always say, is like, what’s wrong about the no-huddle offense and quarterbacks in high school and Pop Warner are looking at the sideline for a play,” Coen began. “Don’t speak. Don’t say a word. Get up to the line of scrimmage. Don’t speak. Don’t say a word. Clap for the cadence. Don’t speak. Don’t say a word.
“This game is about communication, and how we play this game in terms of [the] huddle, the calls, the communication that we have to do is what’s wrong with our [society].”
(Joe’s note: Joe believes Coen said “society” but the word he used is sort of inaudible but “society” makes sense given what he said immediately after.)
Coen then added that it’s common for people now to text rather than have conversations. And sometimes he finds players mirror that culture and he must work with rookies for them to understand they can’t text in a huddle.
“Everybody just texts,” Coen said. “They don’t speak to each other. That’s what’s wrong. I tell the high school coaches all the time, it’s what’s wrong. Talking to each other, we don’t talk.
“And it’s one of those things where [Culp has] had to get in the huddle, hear a play call, multiple calls, and be able to go out and execute that at a high level. That’s not easy to do for anybody that’s never done it.
“So glad to see him being able to contribute, and hopefully be able to continue to do some more moving forward.”
Joe fully understands why NFL coaches are not fond of the spread-option and the clapping. But this is the first time Joe had heard it explained the way Coen did.
So it isn’t just Todd Bowles’ defense that sometimes has to struggle with a lack of communication. Coen does, too.
And now Joe wonders if what Coen detailed is part of what Bowles means when he keeps referring to communication.
(A Bucs administrator once told Joe years ago that players learning to converse is a real issue because, as Coen detailed, they just text. This same suit told Joe that sometimes players will play a video game on their phones with teammates in the locker room and rather than talking or hollering back and forth during the game, they text each other while they are all still at their lockers.)