Todd Bowles Says Mike Edwards Significantly Changed Defense
November 25th, 2024
This is a headscratcher that makes Joe wonder why defensive back Mike Edwards wasn’t on the Bucs’ roster sooner than last week.
Edwards was selected by Tampa Bay in Round 3 of the 2019 NFL Draft. It was a special Bucs defensive backs draft that yielded key Super Bowl pieces Sean Murphy-Bunting (Round 2), Edwards and Jamel Dean (Round 3).
All were members of the “Gravediggers” that developed into a standout young defensive backs unit.
In fact, back in the 2020 season, the Bucs were the first team to win a Super Bowl in a very, very long time that didn’t have a current or past Pro Bowl defensive back on its roster.
Edwards bolted for the Chiefs in 2023 free agency and then signed with Buffalo to start this season. Edwards was hurt in the spring and didn’t crack Buffalo’s starting lineup and asked to be traded, per various reports.
Apparently, Buffalo didn’t find a deal and released Edwards before the NFL trade deadline. He signed with the Titans (not the Bucs), lasted one week in Tennessee and was waived. The Bucs grabbed him on waivers.
On Sunday, Edwards made his 2024 Bucs debut for the formerly struggling Bucs pass defense and played 25 snaps.
Edwards made a couple of plays yesterday, but Joe was much more intrigued by what Todd Bowles said about him today during Bowles WFLA.com sitdown with sports chief Dan Lucas.
Per Bowles, the Bucs could do a lot more yesterday with their defense because Edwards was on the field.
“Oh, it was huge. It was huge for us [to play Edwards,]” Bowles said. “Bringing Mike back allows [Antoine] Winfield, Lavonte [David] even Jordan [Whitehead] and the corners to open up things that we don’t normally do — that we haven’t done in a while, especially this year, obviously, with people being hurt. But it allows [Christian Izien] to play fast. And Mike is kind of a safety net all over. And as he gets more acclimated in the defense, you’ll see him in diferent places, as well.”
Hmmmm. When Bowles said Edwards lets the Bucs do “things that we don’t normally do,” Joe immediately thought of this year’s struggles in the secondary and wondered what took Edwards so long to arrive.
As for Edwards’ future, Bowles was non-committal.
Safety Whitehead is out for the season with a torn muscle, but Bowles would not put that job in Edwards’ hands. He said it would be a game-by-game decision.
November 25th, 2024 at 4:37 pm
Cut Bowles some slack. The secondary has been devastated by injuries all season. Yesterday was the first game in the last 6 or more where both corners were available with the all-pro safety. When we had them, we beat Philadelphia and we beat Detroit. So don’t give me that, we can’t beat anyone decent. Not true.
November 25th, 2024 at 4:53 pm
Gibberish!
Look at the offense that the Bucs played yesterday!
November 25th, 2024 at 4:58 pm
‘why defensive back Mike Edwards wasn’t on the Bucs’ roster sooner than last week.’
Because Bowels gets WAY to much credit and respect when he is bottom rung of his profession… He is not as valuable as some believe!
November 25th, 2024 at 5:13 pm
Edwards arrives just in time for…”Things we didn’t do” defend passes and tackle
November 25th, 2024 at 5:32 pm
out with whitehead…
in with gold-head…
these things happen
November 25th, 2024 at 6:35 pm
Todd Bowles does the best Joe Biden impersonation I’ve ever seen
November 25th, 2024 at 7:28 pm
Buchen – ROTFLMAO
November 25th, 2024 at 7:28 pm
Whitehead was amazing in week 2 vs Detroit. Haven’t noticed him since. I’m not sure it’s a bad thing that Izien will be getting more snaps. Guy has played very well for the most part.
One impressive rep for Izien yesterday springs to mind. Nabers caught a lil swing pass out wide around the line of scrimmage and he had one guy to beat to pick up 5-6 yards maybe more, that guy was Izien, he stayed right with him, didn’t bite on Nabers making a move and helped make the play.
November 25th, 2024 at 8:10 pm
Bringing back a familiar piece in Edwards allowed Bowles to relax a bit and be aggressive as a head coach. It gave him some peace. And that translated to his players, the game plan, and the final result.
Bowle’s needs some Edwards counseling. The results were dramatically different.
GO BUCS ! ! !
November 25th, 2024 at 9:53 pm
The he is just ludicrous. If Edwards was such a dramatic piece to Bowles’ enigmatic defensive puzzle, why weren’t we trading a conditional 7th for him?
It’s so hard to relate to Todd Bowles. Almost nothing he says makes sense. He overreacts and under reacts at the most baffling things.
November 25th, 2024 at 10:14 pm
Bowles is a buffoon.
November 25th, 2024 at 10:31 pm
Lots of injuries to the defense if Bowles and co can string together 5 more wins and win is another division that would be awesome but we prob lose coen as our OC
November 25th, 2024 at 10:32 pm
Its no coincidence that as soon as Edward left the Chiefs their defense drops off…..
He’s a very underrated safety. Might even be our best strong safety the way Whitehead has been playing
November 25th, 2024 at 10:47 pm
What a load of BS.
They were playing a 3rd string QB on one of the worst offenses in the entire league. It’s nothing more than that.
If Mike Edwards really allows them to do thing “they haven’t done all year” then that is an even bigger indictment of how bad this defensive coaching staff is at actually developing guys, and how bad this org is as player evaluation.
November 25th, 2024 at 10:51 pm
Tavierre Thomas time – lol. At least he’ll give maximum effort!
November 26th, 2024 at 12:24 am
Defense only has to be average to give the above average, Baker Mayfield led offense to distribute the ball per Coen’s plan.
Giants were awful, and we beat them like they were awful. No close scores, no giving Tommy Cutletts any opportunities – just a physical beatdown.
On to Carolina.
November 26th, 2024 at 5:13 am
Todd’s subtle excuses are getting old fast. He knows he’s messed up badly and is probably on the way out. This is a good, solid team with great character and special leaders
I know Lavonte diesnt want to go out like this . Everybody has injuries. Maybe try not to play Godwin and the starters when you can’t even attempt another onside kick. I’ll never forgive him for that. It’s ridiculous and I dont care what anybody else says. We couldn’t even attempt another onside kick….think about that. It’s impossible to win so why did Godwin Get hurt? Doesn’t he and his staff get paid the bog buckd to know these things. I’m still steamed at his many many mistakes and this horrible defense.