Bucs Tied For 7th In Total Sacks
December 31st, 2024
One of the safest bets in football is that a Todd Bowles defense, no matter who is and isn’t rushing off the edge, will rack up a big season sack total.
The 2024 Bucs have a weak edge rush/four-man pass rush, but through 16 games they’ve found their way to 44 sacks, aka drive-killers. That ranks tied for the 7th-most sacks in the NFL.
That’s more sacks than the Eagles, Commanders, Steelers, 49ers, Rams … and the list goes on.
No surprise, last year the Bucs finished the season ranked tied for seventh in total sacks. And in 2022, where did the Bucs rank in total sacks? Tied for seventh!
Todd Bowles told the Ira Kaufman Podcast last winter that adding a beastly edge rusher is not a high priority unless he’s sure the player will add to the team’s total sacks number. Bowles’ core point was that adding a 15-sack guy is nice but not if the net result is fewer sacks.
Regardless, sacks matter, as does edge pressure. And hopefully the Bucs can find a few games of magic left in the body of Bucs sacks king Shaq Barrett.
That could make a massive difference in the playoffs.
December 31st, 2024 at 8:40 am
Who will be the most rested edge rusher in the league? Shaq Barrett! Let’s just hope he’s maintained his football shape and has something left in the tank.
December 31st, 2024 at 8:49 am
Sounds about right it’s why they don’t care where the sacks come from and when they won’t go out and blow a bunch of money in free agency like you want or make a big trade. Bucs are tied for 7th in sacks and pass defense still one of the worst sooo what’s the point of having someone who gives up 19 sacks, we’ll end up with one of the worst pass defenses in the league just like 2019
December 31st, 2024 at 8:51 am
Problem is, we only get sacks on blitzes. The rest of the time–no pressure
December 31st, 2024 at 8:59 am
Smart thinking!
Go Bucs
December 31st, 2024 at 9:09 am
Don’t assume playoffs, yet. Saints play their best games at RayJay.
December 31st, 2024 at 9:17 am
Beeej spot on, we need to get pressure on the quarterback off the jump maybe if we start using a 4-3 alignment more and rushing just 4 and leave our safeties and corners to cover instead of dropping our pass rushers into coverage ? Regardless, we need to get pressure on the quarterback a lot faster than we are. Pressure is one of the big reasons we won the Super Bowl in 2020
December 31st, 2024 at 9:24 am
We constantly complain about Bowles and the pass defense but if you watch the Nfl passing defense is bad across the board. The rules in the NFL dictates that, which is why the QB position is so overvalued. Just look at the bottom 15 defenses in the league against the pass, the majority are in the playoffs including the Bucs. For those of you want to get rid of Bowles because of the defense probably doesn’t know football.
Bottom 5 passing defenses in the NFL
Bucs 4224 Ya 26 TDS against
Vikings 4228 23 TDS
Lions 4238 18 TDS
Ravens 4285 26 TDS
Jags 4341 28.
December 31st, 2024 at 9:27 am
How many sacks when the lead is less than 10 versus mop up sacks?
December 31st, 2024 at 9:32 am
Passes defensed matter too and we only had 2 that I saw last week. We simply have no one near the receivers at all and that is why rookies, backups and stiffs throw for miles on us. What I see is we blitz 5 but they throw quickly into coverage of only 6 meaning Jose’s vaunted edge rush wouldn’t matter but one less coverage guy does. Less blitzing early in games since teams are running off their script and throwing on the 3 step would be my recommendation.
December 31st, 2024 at 9:53 am
I hate to keep harping on this….but we don’t tip or bat balls down…..nobody has been able to tell me the last Buc to do that…..so long ago.
December 31st, 2024 at 9:56 am
This notion that the edge rusher doesn’t matter is ridiculous to me. You have to take away from the coverage if you cannot get a four man pass rush and they can’t. Very rare.
December 31st, 2024 at 9:58 am
The Bucs need to up that sack data and go for it this Sunday. We may not see Carr back but you never know. I am afraid Kamara will show up though.
PSL Bob – Agree about Shaq! Thinking he will be ready.
December 31st, 2024 at 10:16 am
If you have a d line that can rush th passer without blitzing then you have more people in coverage.then maybe you can play closer to the receivers instead of 10 yards away from them..
December 31st, 2024 at 10:24 am
Sacks need to come from the front four: DL’s and edges. DL or edge doesn’t matter to me. I don’t like sacks only coming from blitzes and that’s what’s happening. While a DL or edge may get a sack, it’s because there is a blitz. With our bad safety play, that’s not good.
December 31st, 2024 at 10:27 am
I kinda dislike our defense in that regard. The sack production appears To work well against most teams, but they’re really good ones usually tend to block up all that extra pressure and pick us apart.
December 31st, 2024 at 10:31 am
The Bucs Pass Defense is painful to watch how much space they give up and never come up with a timely sack on 3rd down or a Int. Jameel Dean is overpaid and over rated and of course now so is Winfield-he will never be the player he was last year when healthy and trying to get paid. Secondary needs Help! Go Bucs! Thank God for Baker!
December 31st, 2024 at 10:40 am
With all the pissing and moaning about Bowles and the D, will someone kindly explain a 48-14 win last Sunday????????????? A rapidly improving Offense and a Defense which is getting some badly needed healthy help? The comment from Bbdbucs with that stat in it needs to be emphasized. Of course, there’s a lot of doofuses on here who aren’t fans. They’ve been doing a bang up job scaring off the genuine fans, no names needed.
December 31st, 2024 at 10:46 am
Add a 15 sack edge guy and sack totals go down? I am not sure how Bowles figures that would happen.
Diaby looks close. One more step and he’s there!
December 31st, 2024 at 11:00 am
Stats are useful but not if you look at them one by one without correlation.
Yes we are tied in 7th place for sacks good but there is also the stat that we are bottom 5 in pass defense.
There is also the eye test. All of us can see that when we rush 4 we almost never get pressure. All of us can see that most of the times receivers catch the ball wide open in the middle of the field with the defender being 3 yds off. Honestly i m tired to watch this happen over and over again. We only contest a couple of catches every game.
No pressure and no coverage.
Go Bucs
December 31st, 2024 at 11:58 am
I have a couple of observations:
1. Since Arians arrived in Tampa with Bowles, our defense has not reloaded properly but has slowly deteriorated. I’m not saying that as a knock-on Bowles, but more of a compliment, though some like members in JBF will point out that Bowles can’t develop an edge rusher, ok. I say with the exception of Kancy and maybe McCollum, perhaps Licht has not done well enough to rebuild and/or reload on defense through the draft, nor have we chased quality DE/OLB free agents.
2. We’ve seen bad defenses in Tampa, I feel like the difference between those defenses and Bowles defense, is that his gives us a chance. Todd Bowles defenses, particularly this seasons’ have been notorious about giving up chunk plays, huge yards, making backup QBs look competent, somehow records are set in quarters, first halves against our defense and yet what’s remarkable is that the defense does just enough to keep it close and/or one score games. With the exception of the Denver game, every team we’ve lost too, we’ve had our chances to tie and/or win.
Every armchair GM thinks it will be so easy and seamless to fire Bowles and replace him with something better… most likely if this is how you feel, you didn’t like him to begin with. Not sure why? Btw, every coach makes similar mistakes to Bowles, every damn game, it happens, we’re just not following those teams closely. Raheem really pooped the bed against the Commanders, twice. Everyone lauds Campbell and his at-times careless play calling. For whatever reason, that guy can do no wrong because he’s “fiery!”
3. All the haters get their wish if Bucs blow this opportunity against the Saints. Bowles will be fired because it’s a game we simply can’t lose, we will be at home, playing for everything, while the Saints are playing for the draft.
I will also say, I like many of you are not happy with this mid-season slump formula, it’s exhausting and it’s not sustainable. Amazingly, we’ve been lucky, thank you Anthony Nelson for saving the Buccaneers season. Bowles’ defense will properly be reloaded in 2025, we should be the front runners for the South title again, and if somehow, we don’t see better results from this team, to include a deep run in the playoffs, and yet Coen’s offense is still putting up 30 pts/game, its time to move on from Bowles. You got my vote.
December 31st, 2024 at 12:14 pm
shaq is literally a hired gun for the playoffs…
can he catch a moment of his old self, with fresh legs ???
if coach can dial sh!t up to turn him into a situational sack machine, all of a sudden we can potentially become a dangerous defense in the playoffs —thus making us contenders
December 31st, 2024 at 12:17 pm
what happened to:
Defense Rules
i miss his detailed statistical posts……..he fell of a cliff or something?
jumped ship and became a falcons fan??
December 31st, 2024 at 12:19 pm
marine buc disappeared…
that new england patriots guy eventually slinked off…
rod seems to get quieter as we do better…go figure…
tony marks packed it in…
dudes go from relevancy to the coffin on here over night
December 31st, 2024 at 12:30 pm
Situation: Injuries on defense require Bowles to make adjustments to the scheme. Those adjustments require require players to do some things differently than what they may be accustomed to doing and occasionally relapse due to lack of focus or effort.
Solution: Asst. defense coaches need to place extra emphasis on their groups to keep focus on the adjustments and stress the importance of their group picking up the slack. That stress and emphasis needs to happen through all 4 quarters of the game as well.
December 31st, 2024 at 12:38 pm
That’s greàt,however,the sacks never seem to come at the best times!
December 31st, 2024 at 12:46 pm
That could make a massive difference in the playoffs. 😈
December 31st, 2024 at 12:56 pm
Todd doesn’t understand the benefits of a 4 man line that can get sacks without blitzing. That crushes the passing game and leads to more picks. C’mon Todd!
December 31st, 2024 at 1:01 pm
Great Post Zoo. We have had some empty pockets post-Brady. Yet resigned Evans and Baker. We will now have some jingle in them to make some FA choices from the racks above the bargain shelf.
I am excited that we have a future to be excited about. Bring back Godwin on a 1-year deal, not sure how well he will be after his ankle injury, but he is a playmaker and always has been. Draft for Defense players and depth.
Shaq is a great player in our system, and also a great and tragic story. Hopefully, he has some of his skillsets still in his fresh legs. After this season I do hope we keep him as a OLB coach.
GO!!!!! BUCS!!!!!
December 31st, 2024 at 1:02 pm
Wow I must be saying something triggering?
December 31st, 2024 at 1:04 pm
Eh? JOE’s?
December 31st, 2024 at 1:09 pm
I am more concerned with creating more consistent pressure (moving QB off their mark), playing tighter coverage and most importantly – getting off the field. Another liability has been the turnover margin. Bucs are -4 which is not good especially considering what the playoff gauntlet will look like, assuming we show up and take care of NO Sunday. Bucs HAVE to play clean football and WIN TO battle in post-season. No if, ands or butts. THIS IS A MUST. See NFC stats below going into final week with TO margin –
GB +12
DET +11
MIN +10
PHI +10
LAR +7
WAS +2
TB -4
I get we need Baker to sling it. But damn this defense needs to do their part… get off the field and create more TOs.
December 31st, 2024 at 1:54 pm
Did anyone actually look at the sack team leader board?
Some items of note –
Dallas is just ahead of Bucs in sack total and NYG one sack behind.
Seattle, Cleveland, NYJ and AZ all have more sacks than BUFFALO and KC.
DAL, NYG, NYJ, SEA, CLE, AZ, NO, CHI, LV, and SF all have more sacks than Rams, Det, and Pitt and that’s the Steelers with TJ Watt.
What’s real interesting is a stat from pro football reference – it combines hurries, pressures and all sacks – Simply called QB pressures. I am truly baffled where I find the Bucs –
1) Denver (185)
2) Dallas (170)
3) Minn (169)
4) Dallas (163)
5) TAMPA (160)
Bucs pressure rate as a % is 9th at 24% while TB is 4th in QB knockdowns.
Again, stunned to see Bucs that high but I also know Bowles much of the time has to create pressure with a variety of blitz packages, leaving our weakest link (secondary), even more vulnerable.
So lets look at some other interesting numbers of note –
total air yards on completions – Bucs second worst in NFL allowing 2281 air yards. Only Balt is worse while Det, Minn, Denver and Pitt are just behind TB.
Yards after catch – TB 5th worst, allowing 1945 yards AFTER THE CATCH.
The key metric coaches look at is points allowed… Of the all the teams who have clinched playoff spots or still in the hunt – only the Bengals, Falcons and Commanders allow more points per game. Bucs allow 22.9.
I am stunned after watching this team this season that TB is that high on the leader board in terms of sacks, pressures, etc. Then again, I watch this team and didn’t look at the numbers and analytics. It’s interesting to say the least, at least to me.
December 31st, 2024 at 2:02 pm
One last thing – Blitz % which is huge for this team because we need to create pressure, – Bucs are 2nd at 33.5% of dropbacks. Only MINN higher
December 31st, 2024 at 2:49 pm
Keep the sacks !…work on getting pressure every play from your front 4.
Fix the hole in middle of the field for 5 yard pitch and catch underneath coverage that always seems to be open
December 31st, 2024 at 3:16 pm
Todd for Coach of the year!!!
December 31st, 2024 at 4:30 pm
This is what makes watching the defense so frustrating. When they’re attacking, they can look good. But then they’ll next game just sit back in that trash soft zone and passively get cut to shreds (ie, Broncos game vs Eagles game). I understand you need to mix things up – but come on, stop outthinking yourself. Stay aggressive, and if you get beat doing that, then so be it. That is much better than just sitting back and letting the other team effortlessly go up and down the field without a challenge.
December 31st, 2024 at 4:58 pm
Bbdbucs
the QB position is so overvalued. Just look at the bottom 15 defenses in the league against the pass, the majority are in the playoffs including the Bucs. For those of you want to get rid of Bowles because of the defense probably doesn’t know football.
That’s the dumbest thing anyone has ever typed here. Dig a bit further you’ll see those other teams you mentioned are in the playoffs and have their records because they are at the top of the league in turnovers Mr stat man. Try telling the saints or giants or raiders the QB position was so overvalued. What about the stat this goofy zone scheme has given up the most completions in the nfl? Bowles will be here next year so you should stop making him look worse
December 31st, 2024 at 6:01 pm
A few INTs would go a long way.
December 31st, 2024 at 6:01 pm
Adding a 15 sack pass rusher will NOT result in fewer sacks. Nobody can spew nonsense like Bowels does.
That’s not exactly what Bowles said. But Joe will note that the Texans signed big-money edge rusher Danielle Hunter in free agency. He’s got 12 sacks but the team has just one more than it did last year. And the Texans are on track for a repeat of their 10-7 record.–Joe
December 31st, 2024 at 8:01 pm
Barrett needs to play Sunday, not for this game but to help get his legs under him if we make the playoffs. Give him 10 or 15 pass rush plays in the game against the Saints. I know they may have to inactivate someone who may play Special teams but Barrett needs some time in there this week.
December 31st, 2024 at 10:49 pm
Great posts by several folks including Zoocomics, The MightyVH and Rusty Rhino.
I am sorry when any player gets hurt, and it is not just about money or football. Winfield is a turnover machine and has all the heart in the world; he deserved to be paid. But, when you have that much cap space tied up in one player, an injury is a kick in the teeth beyond all of the suffering the player endures. It’s the same with a Godwin who was having a fabulous season. I wonder what he is thinking. I can’t decide whether I would be chomping at the bit to come back to do that for a full season, or if I would think that I had enough in the bank to stop after two major injuries.
Bringing Godwin back I seems to me to be a no brainer if he heals well and wants to comeback, if only out of loyalty. From a Money Ball perspective, the offense is mostly good enough without him, but I would choose fabulous with him if given the choice.
For rebuilding the defense in the draft, Georgia’s Jalon Walker will probably require more draft capital than the Bucs will spend. Comparing draft profiles, he is a chess piece linebacker who is a little taller, a little heavier and a little faster than Lavonte David was and who can play Edge and ILB; maybe the perfect chess piece for Bowles. The player we are more likely to be able to take without moving up in the first round is Alabama’s Jihaad Campbell. Again, by draft profiles, a little taller, a little heavier and a little faster than Lavonte David was. Again, an ILB but also someone who could be put on the Edge in some situations according to some reviews.
In the second round, I am hoping for Edge Mike Green from Marshall when he was off the radar. But, this year, he has 17 sacks in FBS play; that will get even and FBS player on the radar.
Third round, Davonte Williams?, the other Alabama linebacker was a likely 1st or 2nd round pick until he suffered a lower leg injury during the season. Imagine bringing Lavonte David back with two young studs to establish his legacy. Obviously, there are greater needs than two stud linebackers, specifically if Lavonte comes back. But, we definitely need at least one at the top of the draft.
January 1st, 2025 at 11:00 am
The problem with this mindset course is that without a consistent beastly edge rusher, our sacks come in bunches, with long sackless stretches in between. And massive wide open holes in the middle of the field the whole time.