“I Appreciate These Blitz Schemes”
February 27th, 2017
Derrick Brooks talks Mike Smith
What could be more fun on a Sunday than talking football with Bucs legend Derrick Brooks and ex-Bucs guard Ian Beckles, an icon in his own right when it comes to dining well and commanding a radio audience?
Perhaps joining the Bucs cheerleaders for a beach volleyball game. That aside, Joe enjoyed joining those powerful men for a live broadcast of The Ian Beckles Show, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on 102.5 FM yesterday.
While talking to Beckles, Brooks adamantly stated the most important move of the Buccaneers offseason is the retention of Mike Smith as defensive coordinator. Adding talent is great, Brooks said, but keeping Smith lets the entire defense grow into its potential, a defense he said has endured far too much change in recent years.
Then, for a moment, it seemed Brooks actually had one regret about his storied and blessed career.
“I appreciate these blitz schemes,” Brooks said of Smith’s defense. Brooks had a bit of a yearning look on his face and spoke about how he would have loved to have tested his skills as a pass rusher in the way Smith calls on his linebackers to do.
Joe’s not complaining about the Bucs’ glory days defense, but it sure would have been interesting to see if strategically blitzing the lightning-fast Brooks would have improved it.
Lavonte David has 18 career sacks. Brooks has 13.5. Hard to believe.
Back to those Mike Smith blitzes, Joe expects the Bucs to do more blitzing in 2017. Smith should have more confidence in the secondary holding up, and hopefully Lavonte David gets back to 100 percent health and has a bounce-back season.
Of course, if Noah Spence and Robert Ayers deliver consistently as pass rushers, which they didn’t last year, in part because of health, then the Bucs wouldn’t need to blitz as much. And that would be a beautiful thing.
February 27th, 2017 at 12:08 pm
I think I noticed more blitzing from LVD at the end of the season and it worked nicely.
February 27th, 2017 at 12:11 pm
They sure didnt blitz dak vs dallas. Guy ripped us a new one
February 27th, 2017 at 12:58 pm
I remember losing to Atlanta on TNF and our defense looked atrocious. I had been screaming all season long to blitz more often and then the very next game, we started to do so and our defense went on an incredible run. I anticipate more blitzing as well because when we do, we’re one of the best defenses in the league. Not sure why it took Smith so long to implement.
February 27th, 2017 at 1:03 pm
probelm with blitzing is you need corners who can cover man on man and the bucs do not have that as shown by VH3 getting torched by the raiders and amari cooper among others
February 27th, 2017 at 1:04 pm
Brook’s blitzing more. lol What for? For him, sure he would’ve loved it.
February 27th, 2017 at 1:39 pm
@Dusthty
The secondary closed out the season fairly well, but you’re right: the major reservation Mike Smith had with blitzing has to have been the inability of the secondary to cover guys one on one. Given how much success he had with this approach given the limitations of the personnel, I’m interested to see how the team approaches talent acquisition leading into next season.
February 27th, 2017 at 1:42 pm
I would like to hear Joe on Ian’s show once a week?
February 27th, 2017 at 1:58 pm
Dusty be careful being overly critical of a player that was a puppy in his first season. Bill Polian said it takes four years to make a QB. I believe it takes 3 to make a corner. Revis didn’t become “Revis Island” until around his third season.
February 27th, 2017 at 2:02 pm
Dusty
Vh3 is not the future. That pick will go down as a wasted pick. Similar to gmc wasted first round pick a few meaningless plays over seven years but horrendous results overall. Vh3 had some bright spots but his ceiling is low no pun intended
February 27th, 2017 at 2:04 pm
I say be careful because I believe VH3 will be stellar around his third season. He’s techniquely sound when you have that you don’t have to be fast you need experience. And his base or lower body reminds me an awful lot of how thick Revis and Aneus was.
February 27th, 2017 at 2:14 pm
Now I am a gator homer and grad and thought the VH3 pick was horrible a year ago and he played exactly as I thought, he is ok but not that difference maker, I was always a laremy tunsil pick with or without the mask, I just was under the impression of protecting jameis was a big thing and the OL is meh….trade GMC to the Jets for sheldon richardson and switch #1s and go get d cook
February 27th, 2017 at 2:20 pm
Haters Gonna hate.
February 27th, 2017 at 3:07 pm
There is a very interesting article on VH3’s progress on pewter report. The guy improved A LOT as the season went by. I too am a Gators fan and I watched his entire career. I was meh when we selected him which speaks volumes but I disagree with you guys on his future. The difference between week 1 and week 17 was huge. My only issue is that he won’t be able to hang with the monsters and I’m not sure he will ever be able to but he’s going to be a lot better than you guys think. I could definitely see a grimes type cb when all is said and done. His play is predicated on jumping routes so maybe more suitable for the slot but his man coverage deep is going to be rough for a while.
February 27th, 2017 at 3:30 pm
The word is Tony Jefferson is very good in the blitzing department.
February 27th, 2017 at 5:52 pm
I have heard that technically sound players still get beat, and you know what happens late in season 2 beginning of season 3 technically sound players still getting beat. They get replaced, by any player different to being technically sound but not making plays. Not For Long
Hard to say for me about Mr. VH3. He had his ups and downs we won more than we lost this season. For me he helped in bringing that accomplishment into our locker room, hats off to the entire team for that.
Go Bucs!
February 27th, 2017 at 5:57 pm
IN moderation YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
February 27th, 2017 at 6:13 pm
Man the negativity is fierce in here eh…
Kevin…Guy ripped us a new one We were winning that game into the 4th Q!!! We were playing the team with a long winning streak and best record in the league in THEIR house and were ahead into the 4th. That was far from an embarrassment. We had our embarrassing games but Dallas was not one of them.
As for VHG getting torched by Amari Cooper who the eff does not get torched by Amari Cooper. Sherman and Peterson and all the great CB’s get torched on occasion. NO DB in this league can blanket a truly great WR. Pass coverage of guys like Amari Cooper or JJ or our own ME13 requires a team effort as in a strong pass rush!!!
And so a question for TMAX….aside from ME13 and #3 (if you consider #3 a franchise QB) who is a good player on this team?
February 27th, 2017 at 8:13 pm
Stpete… Nailed it. Great comment.
February 27th, 2017 at 9:50 pm
@Joe … “hopefully Lavonte David gets back to 100 percent health and has a bounce-back season.” Joe I apparently missed something during the course of last season. What was the problem with Lavonte’s health? He started all 16 games and played 1,042 snaps out of 1,062 total for our defense (over 98%).
On looking at his & Brooks stats by the way, Lavonte’s averaging 132 tackles/yr while Derrick averaged 122 tackles/yr. Lavonte already has more fumble recoveries & sacks in 5 yrs than Derrick had in 14 yrs. One thing that really struck me though is that Lavonte’s tackles were way down last yr (87) in comparison to his 4 previous yrs (139-147 range). That’s a huge differential. Wonder if it’s because opponents stayed away from his side or because of how Mike Smith was using him. Just looks strange.
February 27th, 2017 at 10:55 pm
tmax showing off his evaluation skills again… LOL
February 28th, 2017 at 6:09 pm
I think deep down I get the most excited when Lavonte gets a sack on gamedays.