Buccaneers: The ageless Brent Grimes

One of the biggest stars of Buccaneers training camp thus far has been one of the team’s oldest players.

It’s hard to overstate just how important Brent Grimes was to last years’ Buccaneers. Consider how poorly almost every defensive back not named Grimes played, and how inconsistent the teams pass rush was early in the season. Now consider how bad that secondary does minus the blanket coverage Grimes provided. A pretty ugly picture, isn’t it?

Brent Grimes’ high level of play was a major key in his teams’ mid-season turnaround, and he helped keep the secondary afloat during their early transition time. Most encouraging of all is that Grimes’ best game came in the final game of the season, meaning his age didn’t wear on him as the season went on. The lone concern with Grimes is how much longer he can maintain this level of play, but if training camp is any indication he’ll be just fine for 2017.

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Grimes has consistently shined on the practice field throughout camp (we’ll just forget about O.J. Howard’s double-move on him), earning glowing reports from teammates, coaches, and former coaches. Dirk Koetter heaped praise upon Grimes following Monday’s practice (via team website):

"“Oh man, Brent Grimes is good every day, but that play he made, knocking it away on the deep one, that was a fantastic play. That’s another good learning situation because D-Jack [DeSean Jackson] had him beat, but Jameis hasn’t had a guy that can run like that. If Jameis puts that out there another five yards, that’s a touchdown. Brent Grimes was beat by a step and made a superhuman effort to knock it away. That’s the kind of competition. There’s two of our best players and that’s what you’re talking about when you’re saying compete in practice to make each other better. That’s making us better. Jameis is learning a lesson there.”"

The current Buccaneer coach wasn’t the only one impressed by Grimes in practice. Super Bowl champ Jon Gruden was in attendance and was caught on mic gushing about the play of Grimes, going so far as to say Grimes was the best story of last year.

Now in his second year with the Bucs, the veteran Grimes seems to be at the top of his game despite being 34 years old. Pro Football Focus can be a tough crowd to please, but their metrics showed Grimes was elite across the board last season, in both pass coverage and against the run as well. With no indication from training camp that Grimes has lost a step we should expect another elite season from the vet this year.

Next: Don't doubt veteran Brent Grimes

What are your expectations for Brent Grimes this season, Bucs fans? Are we heading towards a drop-off in play, or will the Bucs squeeze another big year out of him? Let us know in the comments below!