What Will Gabe Carimi’s Role Be With The Tampa Bay Buccaneers?

Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Buccaneers’ General Manager Mark Dominik has done it again. For the third time in four years, Dominik has taken the Chicago Bears to the cleaners in a trade. This time the Buccaneers acquired Gabe Carimi, OL, for a measly 6th round selection in next year’s draft.

Carimi is a former first round selection, but due to injury (hopefully that’s the reason) has been abysmal in the NFL, especially at right tackle..

The Bucs added something they needed badly in this trade. Depth. The Buccaneers have arguably one of the best group of 22 starters in the league, however it thins out real quickly after that. Carimi will help solve that along the offensive side in a big way. Along with Ted Larsen, Tampa Bay now has two bona fide starters who will be riding the pine come Week 1.

Carimi was a player who was much maligned in Chicago. The truth is, he wasn’t very good, however, there was another huge fact contributing to the formula. That being, the Bears offensive line as a whole was brutal. If you stuck Orlando Pace on that line, Cutler would still be scraping grass out of his facemask quite a bit.

Am I saying that Gabe Carimi is Orlando Pace? No, God no. But I am saying that he’s not as bad as what he looked in Chicago. The guy is a former first round pick and has had a hard time dealing with injuries.

I’ve heard people saying this is a ploy to put some pressure on Davin Joseph, be it financially or on the field. Well, it’d be hard to say that isn’t the result, however I don’t believe that was the plan Mark Dominik had in making this move.

I’ve also heard that Carimi could replace Davin right now. I know that wasn’t the plan. I know that can’t be true…

What Dominik wanted to do is make his 53 man roster better. He took people like Jace Daniels and Jason Weaver and shifted them down the depth chart. Carimi is not expected to start, but he is expected to be able to come in and hold up the fort when the inevitable injuries happen. O-Line depth is crucial, as a Buc fan you should know that as well as anyone, this move gives us a little more to hang our hats on.

He’s not going to start against the Jets. And hopefully we don’t ever see him play, because if he does it means someone else is hurt. But in the event that one of those very highly paid linemen do go down, the Bucs have a much more viable option now than they did a few days ago.