Vita Vea’s Presence Was Felt In Chicago

If you look at the stat sheet, you wouldn’t think the 2018 Bucs first-round pick made much of an impact in his first game in the NFL.  According to Sirius XM Barstool sports producer Steven Cheah, via his twitter, @Chea_Say , Vea certainly was felt by the Bears. By the way, Cheah’s a huge Bucs fan, been on the What the Buc podcast with Derek and has done some outstanding film work. He is a must follow for any fan of the Buccaneers.

Man Amongst Boys

Here’s a great first look. As Steven points out, Vea slashes into the backfield and basically manhandles the guard trying to block him. Unfortunately, other Buccaneers don’t stand up in their gap integrity and the running back escapes.

Now let’s look at Vita Vea. He had a solid debut showing off some of the attributes that made him a 1st round pick. Here has great get-off and push to collapse his gap forcing a wide turn. A nice pickup for the Bears, but Vea did a nice job #Bucsfilm2018wk4 pic.twitter.com/taRl6tiLPB

— Steven Cheah (@CHEAH_SAY) October 3, 2018

Being a 1st round pick at 6’4″ 347 lbs, you know @VitaVea was a strong guy, but wow! This is a 6’4″ 310 lbs. former 2nd rounder that Vea puts on his back. Look out interior lineman everywhere! #Bucsfilm2018wk4 pic.twitter.com/4rULzouvuf

— Steven Cheah (@CHEAH_SAY) October 3, 2018

One of the huge things about Vea is his strength. Watch him here just bitch slap the Bears offensive guard. It was yet another instance of Vea doing his part while his teammates failed to do theirs. Kwon Alexander takes a bad gap, allowing the back to pop outside and make a big gain.

Eventually, the Bears paid Vea the ultimate compliment by doubling him. If he’s getting doubled, Gerald, the guys on the edge, and the backers need to make plays because they’ll be single blocked.

Here it shows Vita Vea being occupied by two blockers. He don’ts win, but if he’s occupying two blockers, his job is really done as it frees up the rest of the d-line for 1-on-1s #Bucsfilm2018wk4 pic.twitter.com/AR5013sOsv

— Steven Cheah (@CHEAH_SAY) October 3, 2018

So no, he didn’t have a 3-sack debut that makes FSU Bucs fan forget about Derwin James, but Vea at least showed some of the things that the Bucs were excited about when he was drafted. Thanks again to Steven Cheah for giving us permission to use some of his tweets for this article. Again, follow him at @CHEAH_SAY.