Goodbye, George Johnson.
Hello, Noah Spence?
The Tampa Bay Bucs lost Johnson to a hip injury he suffered Thursday, and he has been placed on injured reserve. It was a blow to Tampa Bay’s depth, because coach Dirk Koetter says that Johnson was playing well.
However, rookie defensive end Noah Spence continues to impress, which may soften the loss.
“Solid every day,” Koetter said. “Every day the kid flashes. For a rookie, he hasn’t hit any slump days so to speak where he’s had an off day. Every day he flashes, he’s got a nice motor, he pushes himself hard. I think (defensive end) Robert Ayers and (defensive tackle) Gerald (McCoy) are setting a great pace for all of our D-linemen. Those two, as hard as they’re pressing – just in that last red zone period, Ayers made two or three plays.”
Offensive tackle Donovan Smith, who faces Spence regularly, agrees with the praise.
“He’s doing good,” Smith said. “I went against him in college. He’s more so learning and knowing how to rush people now and having a plan coming off the ball, so that’s great. We try to make each other better [and] help each other out – some wins, some losses and we just go from there, help each other out.”
