Gerald McCoy can't tackle, well he couldn't.

Buccaneers DT Gerald McCoy never knew how to tackle until recently.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers DT Gerald McCoy has let one of the universal cats out-of-the-bag.
The secret is that depending on who coaches you up-through-the ranks, some defensive players (especially linemen) don’t ever get taught proper tackling techniques.
In many cases, the coaches just let a big fella fly and if its working they don’t fix anything because their time with a kid is limited.

In the Tampa Tribune McCoy explained how new coach Greg Schiano has taught him how to tackle.
“We do a tackling circuit before every practice, and I’ve never done anything like that before,” McCoy said. “I realize now that, before, I was just playing football. Now, I’m really learning how to tackle and I think it’s going to help me a lot.”

That’s a crazy statement right?

Not as much as you think. McCoy was dominant in every level of football that he played and no one has ever questioned his style of play.

Sure he has been sized up for size, speed, footwork and all of that but not very many people commented ‘does he get the guy on the ground correctly?’

That feels like a safety first type of question, in reality there are right ways and wrong ways to do everything.
They are called fundamentals and when a player such as Gerald McCoy programs the right way to tackle into his arsenal his broken and missed tackles plummet to a dangerously low level.

It’s bad enough McCoy didn’t get this education in high school and/or college but this could speak to why former Bucs coach Raheem Morris watched his team fail last year despite the talent on the roster.  It also gives credence to the concept that players are coached for the big hit, and not to play the game the right way.  This should be a huge blinking sign for the football community, but I am sure this has already left the conciousness of most who read it.

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