Luke Stocker Is Setting Himself Up For A Big 2011 Season

Luke Stocker was the Bucs' fourth-round pick in the 2011 NFL Draft - and the 2012 NFL Draft, as the Bucs gave up a fourth-round pick  in that draft to move up for him. Stocker is expected to step in and play a major role immediately. He's supposed to pair up with either a blocking tight end or Kellen Winslow Jr. Stocker, Winslow and a blocking tight end will be for the Bucs what Rob Gronkowski, Aaron Hernandez and Alge Crumpler are for the Pats. While Stocker doesn't have the talent of Rob Gronkowski as either a blocker or receiver, schematically Stocker should play a similar role, adding versatility to personnel groups which will allow the Bucs to more easily exploit opposing defenses. 

However, the lockout is a throwing a wrench in the works. The coaches can't talk to the players, which means they can't install new play, and certainly can't teach rookies how to run them. But this is nothing new to Luke Stocker, who had three different coaches in his career at Tennessee. He knows how to adjust to a new playbook with a short amount of time.

Most importantly, though, he's also been showing up for Josh Freeman's workouts, and is so far the only rookie to do so. It's not surprising that rookies aren't travelling to the area to train with Freeman, as none of the rookies have any form of income right now. That makes Luke Stocker showing up more impressive, though, and as these workouts focus on installing the offense Stocker should be ready for the season to begin, whenever it does.