Meet Your Tampa Bay Vipers: Defense

On Sunday, the Tampa Bay Vipers get set for battle against the New York Guardians. Looking to do damage will be these key players on Defense:

Defensive Coordinator: Jerry Glanville

Glanville most recently was the Defensive Coordinator for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the CFL, and most notably he has been the Head Coach of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons and Houston Oilers. Glanville is one of football’s most eccentric personalities and has always been associated with an aggressive, blitzing style of defense.

Defensive Line: Deiontrez Mount, Jason Neill, Josh Banks & Nikita Whitlock make up the front line of the Vipers’ defense.

There is a pattern to the type of player the Vipers like. We’ll get to that in a second.

Mount is a 6′ 5” 249lb versatile player who can play all four line positions. He plays with heart, but has been caught flat footed at times. Neill comes down from Canada where he played for Glanville’s Tiger-Cats.

Josh Banks might not be quick at 6’3” 303lbs, but he has good technique and is a relentless DT. The whirling Nikita Whitlock has been trying to prove he has the chops to play DT at the professional level after a stellar career at Wake Forest. Whitlock was converted to fullback with the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals but was a rare two-way player when he signed with the New York Giants.

Linebackers: Lucas Wacha and Terrance Plummer are the two starting linebackers. Wacha (the younger brother of MLB Pitcher Michael Wacha) is 6′ 1” 214lbs and has experience playing inside and outside linebacker and was signed out of college by the Dallas Cowboys. Plummer (5′ 11” 240lbs) is known as a technically sound, productive, tough defender who is a grinder.

Secondary: Shelton Lewis, Anthoula Kelly, Micah Hannemann, Robert Priester, & Marcelis Branch make up the Corners and Safeties.

Hannemann and Branch have some NFL camp experience, but all together this group is a bunch of young, untested but hungry professionals.

Now, after all of that a pattern emerges: the Vipers looked for players on defense who can shift positions, play with great technique and have a desire to play hard.