Our exclusive conversation with Tampa Bay’s starting center
In our conversation with Tampa Bay Buccaneers starting center, Ryan Jensen, James Yarcho and I dove into topics ranging from the previous season, to the off-season and into next season.
When asked about his uptick in penalties in 2018, Jensen acknowledged that perhaps his own reputation as an aggressive player played into NFL officials perhaps looking a little closer at him than in previous seasons.
As a part of his 2019 preparation, Jensen is looking to get lighter on his feet and working on some of the “minute” things in how he plays which may not stick out to the casual fan on Sundays but pay-off in big ways on the field.
After spending four seasons with the Baltimore Ravens, Jensen signed a lucrative contract to join the Buccaneers in the 2018 off-season. After his first-year in Tampa, Jensen had this to say about two of his more often criticized teammates, first about Caleb Benenoch,
“Playing offensive line in the NFL is not an easy thing to do, and Caleb is still really young...”
Talking further about Benenoch’s future as a guard in the league, Jensen said,
“I think Caleb, he has a ton of talent, and I think he’s starting to finally figure it out.”
Another lineman with the Bucs who has been catching his fair share of criticism since even before Jensen’s arrival is, of course, left tackle Donovan Smith.
With Smith’s future with the franchise as of now undetermined, we asked Jensen for his thoughts on Smith, to which he had this to say,
“I think Donovan, again, he’s a very talented - blessed with size and things like that. Obviously there’s things that every person has to work on. I mean there’s things I have to work on.”
Jensen pointed out in the conversation that every lineman had rough patches and mentioned that Smith really started to get everything put together towards the end of the year, especially in pass protection.
This of course is just part of what Ryan Jensen shared with Bucs Nation. To check out more from the conversation including how Jensen feels about his increase in penalties, head coach Bruce Arians and where he thinks the team can learn from what went wrong in 2018, stream or download the latest episode of the Locked on Bucs Podcast!
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