More Questions Than Answers?
May 20th, 2019
Still sidelined.
With the addition of Superman rookie inside linebacker Devin White, Joe doesn’t think the Bucs have many worries about linebackers.
The rest of the defense? There are questions up and down the roster and Joe isn’t sure of answers.
Gregg Rosenthal of NFL.com is of the mind the Bucs are hoping, sheer numbers of bodies, to come up with a winning formula in the secondary.
The Bucs are hoping quantity can turn into quality at cornerback. They have at least six cornerbacks fighting for their top three spots, with four of them drafted in the top three rounds of the last two drafts. None of Tampa’s cornerbacks have proven to be standouts, hence embattled general manager Jason Licht continuing to draft them.
The issue isn’t just at corner. Just the fact the Bucs drafted two corners and a safety in the second round raises all sort of red flags to Joe.
If the Bucs thought Carlton Davis, M.J. Stewart and Justin Evans were going to turn the corner this year, then why draft so many defensive backs so early? Actions speak louder than words and this year’s second-round picks tell Joe the Bucs were not confident they had the horses in the secondary to get the job done.
Joe’s not quite ready to panic about Evans’ turf toe — it is, after all, late-May — but let’s just say Joe vividly remembers all the positive reports about Carl Nicks who was battling turf toe and MRSA in his foot during the summer of 2014, only to learn he never would play another down of football.
May 20th, 2019 at 12:39 am
Hi, joe(s),
I really think better coaching will help the whole team.
That said, you guys should have a mail bag for questions. My concern is how do we get out of salary cap purgatory? If belicheat can do it we must too.
What does Joe have to say a out that?
We really can’t cut GMC this year.
Fred
May 20th, 2019 at 12:51 am
Look at the injuries to the defensive backfield last year…We were signing players off the street by the 4th game! Evans, Elliott, Adams, Johnson, Grimes, Ugwebuika (sp) Hargraves, Davis, Whitehead, Conte, Stewart etc. Not one of these players played all 16 games last year. Now, you bring in some ballhawks this year who can hit and run and still have backups who know the system to plug and play instead of searching for players who were sitting at home on the couch! This year you have depth and talent (supposedly) with Brice, Evans, Hargraves, Stewart, Davis, Bunting-Murphy, Edwards, Dean, Whitehead and some undrafted free agents! If Evans can’t make it, next man up. At least you don’t have to search the waiver wire to teach someone off the street the system in place. (Hopefully)
May 20th, 2019 at 12:53 am
My bad, I forgot Ryan Smith was in the mix as well!
May 20th, 2019 at 1:02 am
I feel confident we’ll have decent safety play to cover for Evans if his recovery lingers on into or even past training camp, but it’s definitely the corners, and nickel who better tighten up if we’re to have a chance. With a suspect every down pass rush these corners are left on an island. Four 2nd round picks to battle it out, so may the cream rise to the top.
May 20th, 2019 at 1:02 am
Fred:
It is dangerous to say, “Belicheat does this, so should ever team.” You are talking about an absolute master at football, including strategy, player development and scouting. No one has done it better in all phases, not even Vince Lombardi. Tom Landry is the closest Joe has seen to Belicheat. And there isn’t any second-coming of Landry floating around the NFL these days.
So going the Belicheat route is beyond dangerous.
That stated, the Bucs can get out of salary cap easily. Problem is, does the team have the depth to withstand players getting cut?
The easiest way to get under the cap with loads of cap space would be for the team to be rebuilt which would take a bare minimum three years and drafting a new quarterback (strictly because of salary cap purposes). Arians has already stated many times he didn’t come out of retirement to rebuild a team.
May 20th, 2019 at 1:06 am
Who knows what we are doing. It is a new team new coaches and new scheme. While these articles are needed in offseason to pass the time. They are useless we could have the number one defense next year and lead the league in interceptions. And we could also have the leagues worst defense and have the least interceptions in the league. And Carl Nassib could lead the league in sacks. And joe will be crying all next offseason that we didn’t sign (Howie Long) Carl Nassib. For only 15 million a year with 89 million guaranteed.
May 20th, 2019 at 2:08 am
The team has a new scheme with an emphasis on the secondary, the coaches clearly stated that during the OTA Presser.
They brought in horses to run it. Let’em Run!
In BA I Trust!
May 20th, 2019 at 3:02 am
JOE – how does a team with back-to-back 5-11 seasons NOT equal a “rebuild”???
A rebuild doesn’t always mean getting rid of every decent or high salaried player. I don’t know any rebuilding team that has done that.
The Bucs are definitely in a rebuilding mode of sorts. The Defense needs to be completely rebuilt and it started with drafting White and some young DBs to try and bring enough talent and competition to camp to see who will rise to the top.
The Bucs were dumb to draft O.J. Howard. You can’t lock-up big cap money across TWO TEs. The math just doesn’t work. If they really thought Howard was a game-changing TE then they should have traded Brate. But keeping both was a big mistake.
I have a feeling the Glazers are already counting on a future without Winston. There’s just no way they’re going to pay him $30M/year and expect to be competitive with all the holes in the roster.
Just like they knew for awhile they weren’t going to keep Kwon, I think they already know they aren’t keeping Winston.
May 20th, 2019 at 4:13 am
Great question BucsBandit … “how does a team with back-to-back 5-11 seasons NOT equal a “rebuild”???” The only satisfactory answer (to me at least) is that it’s a partial ‘reload’ (on offense) and a significant ‘rebuild’ (on defense & S/Ts).
Offense has lost several pieces (DJax, Hump, Fitz) but we had an abundance of quality receivers to start with. We essentially replaced DJax with Perriman & we’ve got several slot options to replace Hump. I understand Bucs bringing in Gabbert to be the ‘veteran presence’ but I’ll still put my money on Griffin beating him out for #2. I think folks have underestimated what Ryan could become if given a chance. Plus, we’re not through adding pieces to our offense I’m convinced. BA & company just want to see what they’ve got before making any big changes IMO.
S/Ts is totally new so how could that NOT classify as a ‘rebuild’? Rookie kickers admittedly scare me (after Kyle Brindza & Roberto Aguayo who wouldn’t be scared?), but I’m hoping that the 3rd time is a charm with Matt Gay. And Bradley Pinion has been amazingly consistent in his 4-year career as a punter (almost 44 Yds/punt average & only 1 punt blocked … not too shabby). But the biggest improvement there I’m convinced is the addition of Keith Armstrong as S/Ts Coordinator … he’s a goldmine IMO.
Defense has also got multiple new pieces, with more most likely coming, PLUS an all-new scheme … how that wouldn’t classify as a ‘rebuild’ is beyond me. The most significant change there IMO is the new defensive coaching staff headed by Todd Bowles. Some pieces were in-place (Vea, Allen, Nassib, LVD) but with the exception of Lavonte, they’re essentially all ‘newbies’ in Tampa. Certainly the JPP & GMC situations are disconcerting, but there’s plenty of time to get that ‘fixed’ (and I’ve got a hunch BA isn’t sitting on his hands ‘hoping’ that JL will come up with a solution). We’ll have LOTS of new starters on defense I bet, and it’ll take awhile for this new defense to ‘gel’. But I’m convinced we’ll see week-to-week improvement, regardless of how the W-L record turns out. Yup, it’ll be fun to watch these guys grow together. Despite what all the pundits say, should be a fun ride ahead.
May 20th, 2019 at 4:59 am
“Superman” is a lot better than “Savior” but I’d precede that with “Former LSU…” to make it accurate. This guy is no one’s Superman in the NFL until he proves himself.
May 20th, 2019 at 6:17 am
In my mind, there are two rules in football:
1. You can never have enough competent offensive linemen.
2. You can never have enough depth at corner.
Someone mentioned it above. We were signing players off the street last year because of injuries. Davis missed games, Hargreaves, Grimes, Conte, Evans, etc…And while none of these names instill fear, they were starters.
May 20th, 2019 at 7:20 am
A B+ pass rush will make all of the DB’s look like GREAT picks…..and the inverse is true too
May 20th, 2019 at 7:50 am
Meant to tell you earlier Joe … You started off SOOO GOOOD with the Superman quip and your conclusion that ” Joe doesn’t think the Bucs have many worries about linebackers”. Almost thought things at JBF HQ were turning around … UNTIL the mention of Justin Evans turf toe AND Carl Nicks’ turf toe & MRSA in the same sentence. Good thing I’m not superstitious.
What did give me hope though was your inclusion of the words “it is, after all, late-May” in that last paragraph. Aaah yes, HOPE springs eternal.
May 20th, 2019 at 8:04 am
BA/Bowes must be relying on LB’s for QB heat….gee ..not the first to think of this…definitely high risk and QB;s can burn that tactic big time…absolutely must get a strong rush from the interior 3 !!!!! and other than VV I don’t see the names
May 20th, 2019 at 8:26 am
Joe it makes me think of Carl knicks to haha horror thoughts but Carl got Mrsa so that’s what put him down plenty of players have gotten turf toe an came back fine besides Carl lol
May 20th, 2019 at 8:38 am
When u look behind the curtain on Justin……
He is awful
May 20th, 2019 at 8:50 am
Word is that Kahzin Daniels (OLB) has been really impressing the coaches too. He might end up being a surprise keeper.
He played so well in college that his own coaches did not know he was blind in one eye until a story was published on it. Arians said he did not know until a week before the draft.
But he has been flying all over the place, and I’ve heard that he keeps getting to the QB. Of course, we’re talking about Ryan Griffin so there is that.
Still, a name to watch. Jason Licht always seems to find good LBs.
May 20th, 2019 at 8:57 am
Like me, the Bucs aren’t counting on Evans, and VH3, that’s why they drafted their replacements. Add them to the list of all the other high draft busts under Licht.
May 20th, 2019 at 9:13 am
BA and Licht together have signed more players this year who are good enough to start so we should have better trained talent behind them if the starters go down but BA brought in better strength trainers too and that should help reduce serious injuries this year for BA’s team. Koetter pampered his players trying to avoid injuries but that approach accelerated them. He also avoided calling out the losers trying to keep loyalty but then nobody worried about being held accountable so they went on having fun and ignoring losses. This year it is more competitive than ever and more serious!
May 20th, 2019 at 9:15 am
Depth and hopefully better play will bring more to this below average secondary. They may have drafted a safety early again, but that’s because we can’t take risks with Evans. If Justin goes on IR game one or doesn’t even get there, you have Isaiah Johnson playing starting all year (scary thought).
I’m really looking forward to hopefully having at least one of these guys make a statement on the field. Bowels is a secondary coach so I’m going to trust the crop of DBs that were brought in to play his system.
May 20th, 2019 at 9:26 am
[Well, if you have film of Devin White playing in the NFL, Joe would love to see it. Seems odd a guy would go from the NFL where he is paid handsomely and return to play college football where he plays for free. Joe is also going to guess this would be an NCAA violation that LSU had pro players on the field for them. And since you went full-blown anti-Semite, Joe has one word for you: Bye! — Joe]
May 20th, 2019 at 10:22 am
the major “rebuild” has been the coaching staff and the players confidence…..develop them and watch their production increase….
GO BUCS!!!!
May 20th, 2019 at 1:29 pm
Doom n gloom. This site is extremely depressing as of late. Go Bucs.