Addition By Subtraction
February 18th, 2020
Critical pickup.
If you are talking about yards allowed per game, the Bucs were a middle-of-the-pack kind of team. They finished No. 15 overall in 2019, allowing an average of 343.9 yards each week.
Believe it or not, that’s not a huge jump from when the Bucs were No. 27 in 2018, when they allowed 383.4 yards game.
Rush defense is where the Bucs took their monster jump from the previous season.
In 2019, the Bucs were the best in the NFL against the run allowing just 73.8 yards a game, far ahead of the Jets at No. 2 (86.9 yards).
In 2018, the Bucs were No. 24 against the run allowing an average of 123 yards a game on the ground — think about that!
One guy has an idea why the Bucs made a huge jump in improving their defense happens to be on the Ira Kaufman Podcast today.
Joe is going to give credit where credit is due. Sean Sullivan, the general manager of Bill Currie Ford, the first family of Ford in Tampa, mentioned to Joe how the Bucs improved their defense by subtraction.
Gerald McCoy, Sullivan told Joe, while a good pass rusher and quick with his first step, was vulnerable against the run. Kwon Alexander, in his four seasons with the Bucs made a lot of tackles and splash plays but, when he wasn’t hurt, was missing a lot of tackles too.
Joe looked it up and sure enough Alexander missed 78 tackles with the Bucs, second-most of any NFL defender from 2015-2018. Yes, he made a lot of plays but missed a lot.
Sullivan pointed to the Bucs’ middle of the defense, with Vita Vea and Ndamukong Suh in the middle backed up by Lavonte David and Devin White, as to why the Bucs became so good against the run.
So Joe gives the man his due.
The Bucs rush defense up the middle improved with addition by subtraction, specifically waving goodbye to GMC and Kwon and signing Suh and drafting White.
February 18th, 2020 at 11:17 am
Bring him back.
February 18th, 2020 at 11:20 am
*Suh back.
February 18th, 2020 at 11:21 am
It’s not really subtraction if you replaced those removed with better players. It’s not like we just ran with a couple dudes off the street after we let them walk.
February 18th, 2020 at 11:25 am
Uhhh, so now opinions from a manager at a car dealership (??!?) are being posted as columns now?? What’s next, the mail man’s two cents when he drops off the mail? Maybe the librarian around the corner. The Uber driver’s thoughts on the wzy to the office maybe???
Wow.
Safe to say we need to get to March 16th to get the info flyin…
February 18th, 2020 at 11:30 am
footballjunkie, actually on this team the thoughts of uber drivers are uber relevant
February 18th, 2020 at 11:32 am
most of us were telling you about GMC for years….doesnt have gap discipline or integrity…..
very disappointed in kwon…..thought we shouldve kept him but the SB highlighted his flaws…..he’s still whiffing, over running plays, and not wrapping up…..
now re-sign SHAQ, SUH JPP, nassib….
draft kinlaw or d.brown in the 1st round….
sign j.conklin- RT
draft isaiah wilson-RT from GA
draft FS, RB, OG/C
GO BUCS!!!!!!
February 18th, 2020 at 11:32 am
🙂 nice!! ^^^^^ true
February 18th, 2020 at 11:33 am
@Dusthty
February 18th, 2020 at 11:35 am
Joe doesn’t give a damn who they are from if they are intelligent thoughts. Joe gives credit to people who comment on this site or on Twitter under fake handles if they have smart takes.
Calm down snowflake.
February 18th, 2020 at 11:38 am
Hook, line, and sinker…^^^^^
February 18th, 2020 at 11:45 am
@joe
The greatest poster in JBF history told everyone this 10 years ago!!!!!!!! The 8 time life banned, and legend, Thomas 2.2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Blast from the past!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“thomas 2.2 Says:
November 6th, 2011 at 9:30 am
It is not just sacks, tackles, TFL’s and pressures on non-trap / screen plays that Softy is not producing.
Last year Softy had 28 total tackles (including assists) to Suh’s 66.
The fatal flaw in this new “disruption” stat is that it is purely subjective. Those with an agenda will disagree with the objective about what constitutes disruption. That is why we grade performance on objective criteria. Before Softy was drafted, the measuring stick was always the same. Now you have player who stinks by objective criteria so the sheep must change the criteria to have any argument at all.
Most of you sheep have no clue what a trap, screen draw or play designed to allow the tackle an outside release to “pop” the tight end or slot “z” receiver through the D tackles vacated gap. That is what the Pats were doing with Welker and I was hearing idiots bragging about Softy’s penetration on those plays – foolish.
Get this through your heads: Mccoy is a gap jumper, offensive coordinators design plays, both pass and runs, to take advantage of this – you allow penetration by pushing him the direction he wants to go and hit the play, trap screen, draw or pop pass, right through the vacated area. It is basic playcalling that you will see today.”
February 18th, 2020 at 11:54 am
Right, and our pass rush up the middle was basically nonexistent. Imagine if McCoy had JPP and Shaq on the edge. Our pass rush would’ve been relentless.
I swear, Suh apologists are so delusional
February 18th, 2020 at 11:58 am
I think the greatest example of addition by subtraction was Mike Smith… Todd Bowles came in with an aggressive approach to defense and their mindset as well. Yes, replacing McCoy with Suh helped, Alexander with White as well, but scrapping that read and react, way off the ball, super sized cushion defense was the biggest factor.
February 18th, 2020 at 12:06 pm
Suh was a beast he played a totally different position and all he did was make plays.
February 18th, 2020 at 12:08 pm
Well dang, giving credit where due…if the Ford Motor Company was as good as competitors with price and warranties, you know…like they are at football knowledge, I may be driving an American made Ford right now. But they couldn’t do it with my explorer, so I had to go outside the US of A.
February 18th, 2020 at 12:08 pm
“Joe never thought of this”
C’mon Joe your loyal readers have been talking about this in this comment section for years man. Why hell do think so many of us wanted Peterbuilt & Kwon gone?
February 18th, 2020 at 12:09 pm
I watched Kwon in the Super Bowl completely whiff on two major plays and let a pick six go right through his hands. They had to put him on the bench a few times to lessen the damage he was causing.
Lynch is 2nd guessing that humongous contract he gave Kwon.
February 18th, 2020 at 12:19 pm
Suh needs to come back, even if it means Jameis Christ goes elsewhere.
Unless, of course, Winston gets paid maybe $12 million or so. But please, no franchise tag or long-tern dealio, just a reasonable, cheap one-year take-it-or-leave-it that keeps the D together.
February 18th, 2020 at 12:22 pm
Kudos to Bowles and BA for recognizing the weakness and fixing it while saving CAP space at the same time.
February 18th, 2020 at 12:51 pm
Gotta keep Suh. he’s a tank! The defense has earned their checks. sign them.
yet another reason we can not break the bank with JW….
the risk/reward isn’t there and it would cost us on the other side of the ball.
February 18th, 2020 at 12:53 pm
Kwon missed several tackles in the Super Bowl. Seemed like old times
February 18th, 2020 at 1:21 pm
If Winston is given Big Bucks, the first dumb-ass interception he throws, prolly the first half of the opener, the entire team will be pi$$ed.
They also have seen enough to know nothing has changed. And why should it? Winston has a track record going back to FSU and he has not gotten better.
February 18th, 2020 at 1:29 pm
@cobraboy ill mention the same thing to you as the rest. Stick to the article and get jameis’ jock out of your mouth. The guy lives in your heads rent free and you all want to say us jameis fans are delusional.
February 18th, 2020 at 1:30 pm
Kwon missed alot of tackles because of the wrong angles… I don’t miss him or GMC at all …Suh & Vita kept the middle in lock down… We need to resign him,,,
February 18th, 2020 at 2:11 pm
The run defense was great but the pass defense for most of the year stunk.
February 18th, 2020 at 2:18 pm
Wait A Minute
Wasn’t it said on those site We Lost when we let GMC walk
The defense would fall without GMC????
But the Bucs got Better and much Better in the run
Similar conversation to the one several are having now about Jamies
February 18th, 2020 at 2:18 pm
@cobra gets it.
JW opens the season with a pick………and BOOM!!!!!!!!!!!
the entire morale of the team is TOAST! especially the defense…heck I think even ME is fed up with it!
February 18th, 2020 at 2:49 pm
So now a car salesman is where Joe goes for answers. lol
Seems Joe is looking for a huge discount on his next car.
Oh by the way, if you had listened to the fans, many were saying GMC wasn’t getting it done. It was Joe who pushed back against the notion that GMC was toast. But I get it, every angle counts when it comes to sponsorship and discounts.
February 18th, 2020 at 3:27 pm
I was kinda neutral regarding McCoy, at least until he started complaining about his number being given to Suh. Suh is an obvious upgrade in toughness and run support.
“Row the boat” Kwon is tough, has a lot of heart, passion, and seems like a good kid. He’s been through a lot and I’m happy for him that he got paid. However, he just wasn’t that great and is being vastly overpaid. As much as I wanted Josh Allen, Devin White is a major upgrade over Kwon.
February 18th, 2020 at 3:27 pm
Well at least we know now that El Buco Realisto didn’t use so many !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 8 years ago.
February 18th, 2020 at 3:41 pm
What is ME fed up with?…being a top 5 receiver in the league! Whervdo these people come from!!!
February 18th, 2020 at 4:08 pm
Jamies has 5000yrds because he has the BEST DUO IN THE NFL
ME probably tired of making catches behind him
Oh no your right he ran the wrong route
JAMIES LIVE IS BLIND
I hope we bring JAMIES BACK ticket prices will be like shopping at a garage sale
February 18th, 2020 at 4:12 pm
The real indictment of GMC is Carolina dropping to 28th in run defense. That’s with Luke K… The day GMC enters the Ring of Honor it will have no meaning
February 18th, 2020 at 4:15 pm
Losing!
February 18th, 2020 at 4:26 pm
I would argue that suh and hp are.just as.improtant as shaq. Sign them all!
February 18th, 2020 at 5:23 pm
Yay #1 in defense against the run… in a passing league. Typical Bucs achievement.
Like leading the league in passing yards, but throwing 43% more interceptions than anyone else.
February 18th, 2020 at 5:54 pm
If you didn’t think it was a good idea that we lost Kwon the Super Bowl should have put the last nail in that coffin. I liked Kwon and I thought it might hurt when we first lost him, but as soon as we drafted White I figured we’d get an upgrade. We got a huge upgrade in White and how you saw Kwon play in the Super Bowl was exactly how he played for years on the Bucs. He was never in the right spot and when he was the last person to stop a big play he would either get run over or outta position.
February 18th, 2020 at 6:24 pm
Agreed! Nice men but good riddance on the football field. And, Kwon will add a compensatory pick to make the parting even sweeter.
February 18th, 2020 at 9:24 pm
@CGmaster: bite me. I will comment as I want, and the last person I would listen to is a Jameis Christ butt sniffer.
Giving America’s Turnover Machine a big contract means one or two Big Nasty’s go elsewhere, and I would rather have Big Nasties trying to win games than Mr. I’m Ballin’ playing give away.
February 18th, 2020 at 9:28 pm
I wonder if the Niners are as enamoured with The Red Roister as they were on signing.
I appreciate effort, but I saw enough bad football from Alexander with chest thumping after a normal stop to last a lifetime.
Bad angles, bad reads, missed tackles and wildly overpersuing while out of control defines Kwon Alexander.
I am glad he got paid. Elsewhere.
February 18th, 2020 at 11:32 pm
I noticed a couple of significant whiffs by Kwon that could have made a difference. in the Super Bowl. That is when I realized that White really was a dramatic upgrade. I love Kwon the man but White has already shown flashes of greatness as a player. My expectations for him are very high.
February 19th, 2020 at 2:38 am
Damn joe that kinda hurts my feelings. I’ve been telling for years that McIceCream is soft and teflon kwon well that means he’s slippery and let’s RB break tackles. Joe ain’t got no love for DB no more. 🙃
February 19th, 2020 at 12:53 pm
Yes, Suh at the right price. Nassib also.
February 19th, 2020 at 3:19 pm
Javeon Kinlaw if possible at #14 and lose the $8-$10 million contract. Kinlaw is a massive monster that can play all over the 3-4.