Buccaneers: Ke’Shawn Vaughn has right mentality to improve

Ke’Shawn Vaughn has shown that he has the physical tools to get better with the Buccaneers, and now he is showing that he also has the mental side locked up.

Ke’Shawn Vaughn can be a polarizing figure for Buccaneers fans. Any team reaching on a player in the draft, and the Bucs did reach on Vaughn, will start their career out with unfair expectations, and young running backs rarely succeed in Tampa.

Had Vaughn gone on Day Three, the expectations on his role would certainly be different, yet here we are. The second-year back really only has two games where he has seen the field, and the consistency just isn’t there yet.

In fact, Vaughn has spent a good portion of this season buried as the fourth man on the depth chart, and he only got his most recent chance due to two injuries.

Now, the Bucs and their fans are trying to figure out what they have with Vaughn, and the most recent game has only divided the proponents and detractors of Vaughn even more.

Regardless of your views on him as a player, the coaching staff is likely going to give their second-year back more touches during the coming weeks, and that is more than warranted.

Vaughn does have the physical traits as a runner and a blocker to be great, but his biggest weaknesses come as a receiver, which is the same reason why Ronald Jones, the starter, also struggles to gain traction with this coaching staff.

Fortunately, Vaughn has made it clear that he wants to work on this area of his game. In an interview earlier today, number 21 talked about his desire to get more passes in practice, acknowledging his need to work on this aspect of his game above all else.

This is a good start, but Vaughn will have to be extremely dedicated to this part of his game to see a change. What we have seen so far hasn’t been great, but practice will go a long way in this regard, especially when most of the passes are generally easy for running backs in this offense.

If Ke’Shawn Vaughn can fix this aspect of his game, there is a good chance he will take over the starting job before the end of the season, at least until Leonard Fournette returns.

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