Antony Auclair Showing Promise
2 min read
True football fans know that new head coach Bruce Arians isn’t very big on utilizing pass catching TEs. Neither has he been a real fan of dual TE sets unless he’s using them to block. Now Arians has a young TE in OJ Howard, who is poised to tear up the league this year, something Arians has never had before. This is why this season’s offensive playbook has been dubbed “TE friendly.”
So what does all this mean for current Bucs TE Cameron Brate?
Brate suffered an injury in 2017 that he finally had arthroscopic surgery on in January this year and has been cleared to run plays since April. Yet Brate has still yet to hit the practice field, although was at one point cleared. In his absence TE Antony Auclair has been starting to shine.
The Bucs picked up Auclair as an FA in 2017 from Laval college in Canada. At 6’6 254 lbs Auclair can be a devastating blocker and attacks defenders with an edge, something right up coach Arians alley. So far he has shown that he can transition from blocker to route runner very smoothly and has a decent pair of hands.
With Auclair more of a Bruce Arians TE, what happens to Brate?
He has yet to practice his production has dropped dramatically since the drafting of Howard and worst of all he can’t block to save his life. Along with this comes a $7 million dollar price tag on a team that’s strapped for cash.
The Bucs also signed TE Jordan Leggett off of waivers from the Jets.
Leggett was a 5th round pick out of Clemson in 2017 where he was mostly used as a pass catcher, which is why this signing is somewhat odd. Could this spell the end for Cameron Brate? Maybe not anytime soon, but with a $7 million dollar cap hit it’s possible.
