Quarterback Hits Tell Sad Story Of The Bucs’ Edge Rush
June 20th, 2023
Sad rush.
One look at the numbers makes you shake your head.
Quarterback pressure is nice. Quarterback hits are better. Quarterback sacks are the ultimate (yes, Joe has an erection for sacks).
A quarterback hit sort of means being close to a sack. Remember, if the hit comes a fraction of a second too late, here comes the Roger Goodell powderpuff yellow hanky.
So who had the most quarterback hits last year? Vita Vea you say? Close, but no. How about Joe Tryon-Shoyinka? Close, but no, not JTS.
Try disgruntled inside linebacker Devin White. The man who seems to want a trade out of Tampa led the Bucs with 16 quarterback hits, two more than JTS and three more than Vea.
An inside linebacker leads a team in quarterback hits. #Sad
And what’s really sad? After Vea, the quarterback hits by player falls off a map. The next closest number is six quarterback hits. It’s a five-way tie between Antoine Winfield, Anthony Nelson, Shaq Barrett, Carl Nassib and Logan Hall.
Shaq missed half the season with a blown Achilles. Nassib is off the team. And of course, Winfield is a safety.
The Bucs really must get more pass rush from their outside linebackers. The Bucs know this, and Joe thinks that’s why they drafted three pass rushers.
Overall, the Bucs ranked 10th in the NFL in quarterback hits (104) and tied for seventh in sacks (45). They even dumped quarterbacks 7.3 percent of the time they dropped back, which was 11th-best in the league.
Those are good numbers, but the Bucs have to do more off the edge.
June 20th, 2023 at 7:35 am
It’s strange that Todd is so conservative on O when he runs a feast or famine Defense philosophy
No pressure and his D gets picked apart, which happens a lot
He loves the sack and TO driven D but turtles up on O
June 20th, 2023 at 8:06 am
Just put Kyle Trask on Defense, he’d probably set all new single season records in every defensive category.
June 20th, 2023 at 8:15 am
Not getting it from JTS. Maybe Jason will finally admit defeat this season.
June 20th, 2023 at 8:48 am
I’ll be the one to come in and tie this right back to the offense. 2022 we punted the 8th most of 32 teams on offense because we couldn’t get any traction on offense. Rarely had a lead, rarely kept a lead long enough to force a teams hand in play calling which effects the frequency we got to rush the passer. Top 10 in QB hits, still top 10 in sacks (we’ve been at or around the 50 sack figure every year Bowles has called our defense) and we ranked 15th in points allowed which was at the 3 year average in Bowles’ time calling our defense. I’ll take an improvement on the collective effort over having a solitary double sack guy, with their being next to no action from the guys around him
Our defense didn’t crap it’s pants or fall off a cliff in the same fashion our offense did in 2022. Maybe, just maybe with a higher scoring output, less drive calling penalties and turnovers and we can get both sides of the ball to compliment eachother at a higher rate of efficiency. What’s not going to change is the quick drops QBs use to negate our blitz tendencies and working the slot WR & TEs over the middle of our defense rather than testing our solid talent at boundary CB.
June 20th, 2023 at 8:49 am
They’re not giving up on him. Yet.
June 20th, 2023 at 8:50 am
Don’t think you are far off. The defense sure looked gassed in December and January.
June 20th, 2023 at 9:22 am
JTS is our best outside pass rusher
June 20th, 2023 at 9:41 am
At some point, coaching has to be called into question. The consistent lack of performance at a position from year to year and with multiple players is a consistent theme. So what is the common denominator? Coaching! Coaching of technique and concepts of attack to these players needs to be looked at. We are seeing players not just stagnant but also regressing in their performance the longer they are with the Bucs. Barret is a prime example of this.
June 20th, 2023 at 9:51 am
a hanky just on a QB hit?
Angry sacks get hanky’s, too.
June 20th, 2023 at 9:56 am
Common theme is bad picks bro
Logan hall, jTS, Hainsey, Luke G to name a few.
We hit those pics and we would have gone deep into the playoffs
When jTS is your best pass rusher it’s the person picking the players fault.
June 20th, 2023 at 10:10 am
The interior line is faster with the little guy, and the outside looks stronger. That might get that final step in, but the DBs need to be better at locking down receivers.
If a three step drop can get the ball out, the Bucs will be worse.
I hope Shaq is ready for some good things and I hope JTS has gotten it together. It always takes a couple of seasons for the down linemen to grow into the position.
June 20th, 2023 at 10:23 am
Billy Bob … It’s all about talent & how it’s employed. Coaching on the defensive side of the ball hasn’t been our problem. Bowles has gotten excellent results out of this defense’s talent.
And Shaq is not a good example of regression. He’s a better example of an OLB who was able to capitalize (because of how he was employed) on the talent that surrounded him. His 19 sacks in 2019 were an anomaly (for him). He was in on almost 900 def snaps that year (played in all 16 games), over 3 times as many as he got in Denver in 2018. And he had Vea, Suh AND JPP to keep opposing OLines busy. Reality is that Shaq’s more of an 8-10 sack guy, who also happens to be pretty good at playing the run & creating pressure in the backfield.
June 20th, 2023 at 10:52 am
Bowles has some new toys with a whole lot of speed. I believe he’ll be able to cook up more pressure with the new additions.
June 20th, 2023 at 11:09 am
JTS is our best pass rusher???!!! That is a knock on our whole defense. I saw every game and I can’t remember Logan hall doing anything.
June 20th, 2023 at 11:21 am
“I can’t remember Logan hall doing anything.”
Hall played 36% of defensive snaps as a rookie for 12 tackles, 2.5 sacks, and no injuries. Year 2 w/o Hicks/Gholston in front of him, Hall is going to get the opportunities to build on his rookie year.
June 20th, 2023 at 12:13 pm
It’s Not right to blame Licht for the 31st 2020 pick. OBVIOUSLY you have forgotten that COVID WAS IN FULL FORCE! Nobody had tape on anybody. COMPLETE AND TOTAL crap shoot. Of course you and I could have done better. Of course. (We’ll keep telling ourselves that)
The only thing you could hope for is to get lucky. Considering the “actual circumstances”, Licht did well. There is a likelihood that JTS does indeed blow up. Let’s NOT pretend that JTS played his last year in college either. We all know for a fact that he didn’t. And considering the reality and the Truth of of the JTS situation, this IS the year he is supposed to blow up.
In reality, this year is the year that Joe Tryon’s fate will be determined. Good, bad, or otherwise.
Logan Hall actually did better than I thought he did. With things now under control he could really blow up to. Last year was a sh!t show internally and would have been a MASSIVE distraction especially for a rookie. That is not a thing this year. Hall has a couple of years to prove himself but I have a feeling that he will at the least double the production of last year. Hopefully triple it.
GO BUCS!
June 20th, 2023 at 12:17 pm
This year will be a Blunderfest. Bowles will put Plan 9 back in there to flitter around the field with no clue.
June 20th, 2023 at 1:18 pm
If you got to see the draft room’s elation when they got JTS you would surmise that he will get another chance. Licht and Arians saw something in him, for sure (but we haven’t seen it yet).
I loved VOT’s comment. Bowles does indeed “turtle up” on the offense. I think MAYBE he has learned something for this year and/or Canales drives it home.
June 20th, 2023 at 1:24 pm
JTS is our best pass rusher
Sad
June 20th, 2023 at 2:11 pm
Bowles entire defensive strategy is predicated on pressuring the QB. So this is terrible. The entire defense is built around pressure. Getting the qb off his mark and forcing an errant throw. How is it that with a guy like Vita Vea out there we can’t find one player that can consistently be disruptive. Vea eats blocks. So somebody is in a favorable position to get some pass rush. That’s what is killing me. Bowles had to blitz so much last year. And they still didn’t get any pass rush. Sad….
June 20th, 2023 at 2:56 pm
Jeffrey, the BUCS weren’t terrible in sacks last year. They ranked 7th, which is top 25%.
The problem was the OLBs.
June 20th, 2023 at 3:58 pm
JTS will fix it Fred
June 20th, 2023 at 4:21 pm
@JefferyLane77
Thats why they drafted Kancey and brought in Gaines.
It’s pressure UP THE MIDDLE, that lets the OLBs get sacks.
We have been missing that since SUH left.
SUH didn’t have speed though with his size.
Hall and Golston didn’t do ANYTHING to help Vea and teams passed quickly anyway.
Kancey will have plays where he splits a double team and gets a sack.
A true game wrecker we haven’t seen since Sapp.
Let’s stop looking backwards and look forward to what pieces we have NOW.
That draft was spectacular.
June 20th, 2023 at 4:31 pm
Destinjohnny Says: When jTS is your best pass rusher it’s the person picking the players fault.
My Momma says “Bingo!” This will be a telling year for “Licht Bulb”.
June 20th, 2023 at 5:21 pm
I feel the offense is going to improve in goal line and 3rd down this year. Which will be a huge boost to the defense. The defense played a lot last year. I honestly don’t think the defense is bad. The other pieces are there. They just aren’t getting pressure from the dline.To me last year without significant pass rush. The secondary looked left out there on an island. This defense didn’t get much pressure unless they blitzed. My optimistic outlook for the offense comes from the coordinator change. On defense we added a couple players got younger and faster at some positions. But other than that it’s the same defensive philosophy based on pressure up front. These other defensive linemen and edge players better step up this year.
June 21st, 2023 at 2:56 am
Nailed it Joe!
Bowles to his credit manufactured the QB hits/sacks we had last year with his scheme and blitz packages. That my fellow Bucs fans is not ideal. It leaves the back end vulnerable with less/lesser players covering the same area. Great if the guy gets home but a gamble. We need the edge guys and interior DL to get home regularly and to demand help from the opponents O-Line tight ends and backs. See Shaq and JPP. Also the only interior guy teams had to account for last year was Vea with no Suh next to him. So they could easily double him. and not worry about our edge guys at all. A simple ball fake was usually enough to take JTS out of the mix.