Tag: Ali Marpet

Ali Marpet opens up about retirement, and the next chapter of his life

Hear from former Bucs Pro Bowler Ali Marpet on why he retired from the NFL at 28 years old, and what’s next for him

The biggest question for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers heading into this offseason was the status of legendary quarterback Tom Brady, and whether or not he would return for another season.

What the Bucs (and their fans) didn’t expect was the shocking retirement of Pro Bowl offensive lineman Ali Marpet, who walked away from the game at just 28 years old, after seven stellar seasons in Tampa Bay.

Even after Brady decided to return for another season with the Bucs, Marpet hasn’t had a change of heart, clearly content with his decision to hang up his cleats instead of chasing another Super Bowl with the GOAT.

So, why would a player leave the game in his prime, with tons of money still on the table, and a chance for another championship?

“The biggest reason for me was the physical toll: I didn’t want any more of that. There were some things I wanted to accomplish in my career that I had done,” Marpet told Melissa Jacobs for The Guardian. “I loved playing football. But one of my strongest values is health and if I’m really going to live out what’s important to me it doesn’t make sense to keep playing. There are also the unknowns of the head trauma of the NFL and how that plays out. Plus, your joints, the aches and pains that come with surgeries and all that stuff.”

Marpet’s own injury history impacted his decision, as well as the physical toll required simply exist as an offensive lineman in the NFL, he told Jacobs:

Marpet missed three games after a concussion in November 2020, and suffered mild symptoms afterwards. However, he says repeated subconcussive blows – which have been linked to brain trauma – are perhaps more significant.

Bearing the literal burden of an elite offensive lineman also took its toll. Marpet, who played at 300lb, developed sleep apnea and hypertension. “I was eating as clean as possible for a 300-pounder but having all the weight on your body is bad,” he says.

One of the best offensive linemen in Bucs history, Marpet is ready to start the next chapter of his life, which includes a focus on the mental health field.

“I’m not entirely sure yet what my actual role will be, but I want to work with people in a one-on-one setting,” Marpet told Jacobs. “I’m very eager and excited to build my skills and figure out where they can best aligned.”

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Buccaneers guard Ali Marpet, one of the NFL’s best, retires at age 28

Tampa Bay Buccaneers guard Ali Marpet retired on Sunday, leaving the team’s offensive picture in a bit of a mess.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were already in a hole at the game’s most important position following Tom Brady’s retirement. Now, head coach Bruce Arians, offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich, and the rest of Tampa Bay’s offensive coaching staff has another hill to climb this offseason. On Sunday, left guard Ali Marpet announced his retirement from professional football — at age 28.

“After seven formidable years with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, I’ve come to the decision to retire from the game that has given me so much,” Marpet wrote on his Instagram account. “This organization and the people surrounding it have helped not only fulfill a dream, but also helped build me into the person I am today. I’ve made Tampa Bay my home and look forward to serving this community in the coming years. To the coaches and teammates, family and friends, an Instagram post simply can’t express the profound impact on me. I am eternally grateful. Thank you, Tampa Bay.”

Marpet, selected by the Buccaneers in the second round of the 2015 draft out of small Hobart College, quickly became one of the NFL’s better guards, despite the drastic uptick in competition at the NFL level. He allowed just 16 sacks over seven seasons in 4,706 pass-blocking snaps, and became Brady’s primary interior protector over the last two seasons — including the Bucs’ win over the Chiefs in Super Bowl LV over the Kansas City Chiefs.

It’s not always easy to determine the value of an offensive guard beyond sack and pressure totals allowed, but in Marpet’s case, the difference when he was on and off the field was quite drastic. This was especially true in 2020…

…but it was also true last season. With Marpet on the field, Tampa Bay’s 2021 Total Offensive EPA went from 0.01 to 0.09. Their Passing EPA went from -0.04 to +0.11, and their Blown Block Sack Rate decreased from 4.0% to 1.9%.

Marpet’s effect on the line wasn’t just a product of Brady’s addition, either — his excellence was quite clear in 2020 with Jameis Winston under center.

Marpet’s retirement makes the Buccaneers’ interior offensive line situation even more fractious than it already was going into the new league year. Center Ryan Jensen and right guard Alex Cappa will be free agents, and while the team will get some relief with Marpet’s 2022 cap number of $12,775 million, there’s a lot of work to do — and not a lot of space with which to do it.

It’s possible that this could send the Bucs into a different draft strategy. Texas A&M’s Kenyon Green, Boston College’s Zion Johnson, and Tennessee-Chattanooga’s Cole Strange are among the guard prospects in the 2022 draft class who could be lower-cost additions (though Green is a sure-fire first-rounder).

In free agency, the Bucs might be looking at Brandon Scherff, Laken Tomlinson, Mark Glowinski, and Andrew Norwell, among others. What we know is that whoever replaces Ali Marpet will have a lot of work ahead of him.

The NFL’s top 11 offensive guards

The NFL has changed, and that has made offensive guards more important than ever. Quenton Nelson and Zack Martin remain among the best.

Once upon a time, offensive guards were the forgotten men in the interior. Tackles drew the attention of the masses, as they were often tasked with handling the most imposing pass rushers on the other side of the football. Centers were known for what they offered in terms of being another coach on the field, calling out protections and helping the quarterback.

Guards? They were often described as pavers. Road graders. The guys who helped with the running game.

But times sure have changed. As more defenses kick pass rushers inside on passing downs, or have elite players such as Aaron Donald who can destroy worlds from the interior, the days of the road grader are gone. Now guards need to do it all, and do it well, otherwise offenses will struggle.

Here are the NFL’s top 11 offensive guards, all of whom do it all very well indeed.

Super Bowl LV: The Tampa Bay offensive line deserves all the credit

On Sunday night, the men in the trenches got it done. Ryan Jensen, Ali Marpet and the gang were stars for the Buccaneers in Super Bowl LV.

In the wake of Super Bowl LV, which saw the Tampa Bay Buccaneers knock off the Kansas City Chiefs by a final score of 31-9, there are two storylines beginning to emerge. First, of course, is the story about quarterback Tom Brady. With the win, Brady earned his seventh Super Bowl ring, and another MVP trophy to boot.

Another storyline that is emerging involves what the Buccaneers did on the defensive side of the football. After all, this was a team that saw these same Kansas City Chiefs pour on 17 points in a single quarter back in November. On this night, however, Kansas City struggled to get anything going on the offensive side of the football.

Yet there is another angle to this game, one that – as is often the case – tends to fall by the wayside. That involves what the Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive line did on this night. Because they were a dominant force that not only kept Brady clean in the pocket, but also carved out some critical holes for the Buccaneers run game.

At the outset, Brady was sacked just once on the night. For the most part Brady operated from a clean pocket with wide throwing lanes to attack in the passing game. A prime example comes from early in the second quarter, on this strike from Brady to Mike Evans:

Brady operates from a rock-solid pocket on this play. The Chiefs bring late pressure, but look at the job done by center Ryan Jensen, who peels off a double-team on the interior to pick up the late blitzer, giving Brady enough time to survey the field and find Evans over the middle late in the play for a huge gain.

Take the second touchdown pass of the night from Brady, which came after an offsides penalty on the Kansas City Chiefs gave the Buccaneers a fresh set of downs. Brady has an eternity to scan the field here, before finding Rob Gronkowski in the right side of the end zone for the touchdown:

Thanks to the handy stopwatch on my phone, I have this as just over four seconds from snap to throw on this play. That is an eternity for a single play. But beyond the time Brady has to throw, look at how the Buccaneers offensive line just stones three of the four defenders at the line. There is no push, barely any pressure to force Brady to move in the pocket, and he has all day to throw.

Back in Super Bowl XLII, Steve Spagnuolo put together a plan to pressure Brady with just four pass rushers. If that was the plan on Sunday night, the Buccaneers had an answer for it, and it started with the five men up front.

But do not forget about what this unit did to open up holes on the ground. It was theorized prior to the game that the Buccaneers might find an opportunity in the run game against the Chiefs’ sub packages. The touchdown run by Leonard Fournette in the second half – just when it looked like the door was opening a bit for Kansas City – is a great example:

The Buccaneers bring an extra offensive lineman into the game and run Fournette on a power design to the right edge. With extra blocker Joe Haeg in the game aligning as a tight end on the right, the Buccaneers just cave down from the outside in, collapsing the left flank of the Chiefs’ defensive front. That allows Ali Marpet to pull, and from this angle you can see the athleticism from one of the NFL’s best guards, as he pulls to the edge and paves the road for Fournette:

The running back is untouched into the end zone, and that little window of hope for the Chiefs slammed shut.

So yes, the stories will focus on Brady, on how the Buccaneers shut down Patrick Mahomes, and the legacy angle around the veteran quarterback. But don’t forget the Tampa Bay offensive line, as they were rock stars tonight, and all season long.

Bucs reconfigure their OL after getting stumped by Saints pass rush

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had to shuffle their offensive line after the New Orleans Saints defense pressured Tom Brady in a blowout in Week 9

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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers knew they were in for an unfavorable matchup against the New Orleans Saints defensive line, but they didn’t expect it to be quite that bad. With starting left guard Ali Marpet sidelined by a concussion, they turned to veteran backup Joe Haeg, signed as a priority free agent early this year.

It didn’t go their way. Haeg was dinged with 7 quarterback pressures allowed in one game against New Orleans; for perspective, Marpet allowed 7 pressures in the entire season going into the game. With the starter out another week, Tampa Bay had to get creative to field what they hoped would be a competent offense.

Haeg exited the lineup as quickly as he’d entered it for this week’s game with the Carolina Panthers. To replace him, they moved center Ryan Jensen out of position, slotting him in at left guard. And backup A.Q. Shipley was called up to replace Jensen at center.

We’ll see if the shakeup pays off. The Buccaneers must win this game with the Panthers to remain relevant in the NFC playoffs race; if they fall behind in the crowded standings, they could end up on the outside looking in. Three different NFC West teams are competing for playoff seeds, as are the Chicago Bears (who own a tiebreaker over Tampa Bay). That blowout Saints win continues to look better and better.

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The NFL’s 11 best offensive guards

Guards are no longer the anonymous guys who toil away without recognition, and here are the best in the NFL to do it right now.

If you were to ask a number of offensive skill players around the NFL just how important offensive guards are, you may get a selection of different answers. One skill position player who may have a stronger take on that than others is Tom Brady. Brady has been to nine Super Bowls in his estimable career, willing six and losing three. In the two the Patriots lost to the Giants, one player made as much of a difference as any other, and that was New York defensive lineman Justin Tuck. Tuck was able to get past New England’s interior offensive linemen and force Brady to deal with the one thing that drives him nuts — pressure up the middle that prevents him from stepping up in the pocket.

More mobile quarterbacks can benefit from great guards who can get up to the second and third levels, and running backs with top-level guards in front of them are obviously going to have a better go of it. Guards are no longer the anonymous guys who toil away without recognition, and here are the best in the NFL to do it right now.

More Top 11 lists: Slot defenders | Outside cornerbacks | Safeties | Linebackers | Edge defenders | Interior defensive linemen | Offensive tackles

Honorable Mentions

(Jerry Habraken-Imagn Content Services, LLC)

Brandon Brooks of the Eagles would have been in the top three on this list, and perhaps the second guard overall… because no matter what, nobody was replacing my top guy on the list. Last season, Brooks allowed just one sack and 19 total pressures on 647 pass-blocking snaps, and he was also a top-shelf run-blocker. Sadly. Brooks will miss the entire 2020 season with a torn Achilles’ tendon, which has the Eagles trying to switch Jason Peters from left tackle to guard — an interesting experiment. Also, had Baltimore’s Marshal Yanda not announced his retirement, he would have been in the top half of this list, as well.

Beyond that, there were some tough calls as to who to leave off this list. While Joe Thuney of the Patriots was an easy add. But Shaq Mason, his battery-mate, just missed the cut, as there were a few guys who were slightly better run-blockers in 2019, and Thuney’s pass pro was simply on a different level. Gabe Jackson of the Raiders had some great tape as usual, but was a bit too prone to allowing sacks. The same could be said of former Panthers guard Trai Turner, who’s been one of my favorite interior offensive linemen since he came into the league in 2014. Perhaps a change of scenery (Turner was traded to the Chargers in March in exchange for tackle Russell Okung) will put him back on the right foot. And Larry Warford, who the Saints released in May in a cap-cutting move, should find himself on a roster sooner than later.

Now, onto the top 11.

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