Buccaneers say they should have doubled Kevin Pamphile's snaps

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers plan to start rookie second-round pick Donovan Smith at left tackle, if we can believe Jason Licht's comments after the team made the pick. But Smith is going to have to beat out Kevin Pamphile, last year's fifth-round pick, first. Pewter Report talked with offensive line coach George Warhop about that, and Warhop showered some praise on Pamphile -- and then said something that made me slam my head into a wall.

"He was a fifth-round pick, he was a kid that switched over from defensive end," Warhop said. "I wish we could have played him more. I thought, when he went in there, there were some ups and downs, but he played enough that you look at and go ‘Okay, you might have something there.' If I could do it all over again, I would have doubled his snaps. We would have a much better picture of what he is.

That is pretty hilarious, given that many, many people were shouting for the Bucs to give their young players some playing time. Mostly because they couldn't possibly be worse than what the team was putting out there. What's the point of drafting people if you're not going to give them a chance, even when the veterans ahead of them keep failing miserably? Apparently it took Warhop until after the season was over to figure that one out, though. Too late now!

Pamphile being the current starter at left tackle is interesting, but not too telling. Rookies don't often come in with the starting position gifted to them, and it may take a while for Donovan Smith to take over -- but I would expect that to happen, eventually. Pamphile's talented and has potential, but he's nowhere close to Smith in that regard -- and the latter is a favorite of Warhop, too.

Hopefully they'll give their rookies more than a handful of snaps, this year.