Bucs Need A “Playmaker” On Defense
February 18th, 2025
Former BSPN analyst weighs in.
It seems Mike Golic, Jr. is reading from the Football Book of Todd Bowles.
The former Notre Dame offensive lineman and former BSPN NFL analyst almost seems to be trying to get a job with the Bucs because he pretty much parroted Bowles while explaining what is wrong with the Bucs.
Specifically, Golic noted what’s wrong with the pass defense, as he told Mina Kimes of BSPN on her podcast.
“They need a playmaker on that side of the ball,” Golic said. “What are they [at], six interceptions this season? Just like, I get that there is some variability and [personnel] turnover, but like, you got to have dudes in position to make plays.”
Joe doesn’t fully disagree but Joe believes forcing turnovers is often as much luck as skill. A defense has to hope an offense makes a mistake. Regular readers know what Joe thinks of the word “hope.”
And what’s the best way to make a good quarterback commit a mistake? You guessed it: The fear the quarterback has of getting his ribs caved in.
But playmakers? Golic is not wrong there.
Outside of Bucs defensive tackles and Lavonte David (who may or may not play this fall), and Antoine Winfield when healthy, what playmakers do the Bucs have on defense?
“So I’m with you, defense, back end or pass rush, they go so hand in hand, would absolutely be the medicine,” Golic told Kimes. Because [Joe] Tryon-Shoyinka was never what they had hoped.”
Joe doesn’t believe that good quarterbacks make mistakes when they have seven seconds to throw without an edge rusher within eyesight. Give a good quarterback time to throw and he will pick apart a good secondary.
Joe will give a playmaker hat tip to Tykee Smith, the rookie who had a quiet finish to the season. He finished with a team-leading three forced fumbles (plus another stolen from him by officials) and 2 interceptions in 13 games.
February 18th, 2025 at 7:09 am
With Tee Higgins sounding disgruntled in Cincy (contract negotiations are ongoing) ..why not make a move. Trade Godwin to Cincy for Trey Hendrickson?
February 18th, 2025 at 7:22 am
If only we had a highly paid secondary member who we can trust to make splash plays and turnovers…..
February 18th, 2025 at 7:24 am
@ LT Dan, the trade block ended Nov 5 and doesn’t resume until the new league year starts (March 12th). At that point Godwin will be a FA and unable to be traded.
February 18th, 2025 at 7:34 am
Mahomes rarely makes bad throws. Made a FEW of them a few weeks ago, might possibly have had to do with running for his life on every drop back?
February 18th, 2025 at 7:42 am
[Antoine Winfield is fine. It’s Lavonte David who may or may not play this fall. Sorry for the confusion. — Joe]
February 18th, 2025 at 7:56 am
Winfield had a horrible season and has to return to form or secondary is in trouble.
February 18th, 2025 at 8:01 am
Antoine Winfield IS the playmaker on the D. When he is out it’s up to Zyon who has his hands full at CB.
LVD helps but he’s solid not a great “playmaker”. Hopefully Campbell or some other ILB can step in and be a playmaker in the middle of the field.
Kancey is blossoming into a playmaker from his position and YaYa is also growing.
The Bucs have reason to be cautiously optimistic. If Winfield returns in FULL health that alone would be major. If YaYa and Kancey continue their growth that will also be an improvement.
Draft another ILB/CoverCorner/Edge OLB. Take the best player available at each position when the Bucs turn comes up in the draft. I trust Jason and the guys to decide WHICH player at WHICH position fits the bill when it’s time for the Bucs to announce their choice.
February 18th, 2025 at 8:07 am
Playmakers yes but more importantly LEADERS! This team is desperate for a Baker Mayfield/Mike Evans on the defensive side of the ball. Someone to hold everyone accountable as well as lead by example. There has to be a go-to guy!
February 18th, 2025 at 8:23 am
That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. The excuses are mounting and it’s insane. People are actually asking for interceptions in a soft zone defense playing 7 yards off receivers? Tykee Is a slot corner he plays inside so he would get more fumbles plus he’s a steal. No other team in our division has a pass rush or gets sacks like us gives up yards like Bowles
February 18th, 2025 at 8:30 am
Nothing improves with this team until we have a Pass Rush. Go Bucs!!
February 18th, 2025 at 8:52 am
Lt. Dan — Godwin is an unrestricted free agent can’t trade what is not ours and you cant sign him to a deal then trade him the cap hit would be enormous. If Godwin leaves the bucs this year its because the bucs chose not to pay him whatever another team did otherwise hell be with us next year.
February 18th, 2025 at 9:09 am
Lichts big mistake drafting JTS, never draft a player that is a “kitty”. The dude was too scared to play in college because of covid and bailed on his team. No heart, no glory.
February 18th, 2025 at 9:17 am
2022 no jpp Shaq on IR Carlton Davis and Dean with Winfield and Mike Edwards. Bucs pass defense ranked 13th in Todd Bowles first year as head coach. He’s gotten worse every year he goes into his lab and adds to his defense. Same players same defense same coach. They’ve upgraded slot and corner. Todd Bowles is not a head coach he’s a coordinator
February 18th, 2025 at 9:22 am
stpetebucsfan, Winfield is a playmaker and healthy this year our defense will indeed be better. But give LVD his props for being one of the better playmakers in the league during his career. Look up forced fumbles, LVD is one of the best in the history of the game! One of the best playmakers I’ve seen in college is Billy Bowman. If he’s available in the third round we oughta snatch him up. Fits anywhere in the secondary, is fast as greased lightning, and plays with a rare gusto for the game.
February 18th, 2025 at 9:28 am
AWJ was a safety in college and Bowles put him at nickel. Then when Bowles put him at his natural position he became all-pro.
The Bucs can have all the playmakers in the world but if the HC puts them in the wrong position or has them playing outside of what they do best, what’s the point?
This team needs better coaching AND more defensive playmakers.
February 18th, 2025 at 9:44 am
Edge rush fixes the secondary. Not the other way around.
February 18th, 2025 at 9:47 am
Playmaker?
We have invested heavily in our defense through the draft……selecting 2 DTs in round 1 & 1 in round 2…..an Edge rusher in round 1…….S in round 2 along with several round 3 picks…..
We are paying Winfield a fortune…..and he’d not a playmaker?
Give me a break.
February 18th, 2025 at 10:02 am
Pass rush and secondary are symbiotic. Improving one helps the other, whichever way round you choose to do it. Example – The legion of Boom: Built from the back forwards.
February 18th, 2025 at 10:04 am
I’d let LVD walk if it means landing two competent edge rushers.
February 18th, 2025 at 10:10 am
No secondary can cover 7-9 seconds. Watch tape of games last year particularly Cousins with Atlanta. No pass rush. No problem for immobile Kirk who shredded Bucs. Todd Bowles wasn’t on the field making tackles. Bucs problem is personnel problem and it is about to get fixed. Let’s start with a veteran EDGE.
February 18th, 2025 at 10:13 am
Covid was killing people. I don’t blame JTS for not playing. His issues are that he can’t finish.
February 18th, 2025 at 10:18 am
Kenton
Largely agree about LVD. He’s never been an int machine he’s only had 4 ints the past nine years. He did have FIVE his second year and 3 in his 4th season, perhaps Todd modified the D and LVD doesn’t get the opportunties although he has had a couple of drops ala Dean.
Still the fact he had FIVE in one season means perhaps he’s simply been asked to do too much in recent years.
February 18th, 2025 at 10:27 am
Golic … ‘I get that there is some variability and [personnel] turnover, but like, you got to have dudes in position to make plays.”
Bucs allowed opposing QBs to complete 418 passes out of 630 attempted (66.3%). That ranks us as 10th worst in the NFL. Interestingly, Bucs only registered 62 Passes Defensed last season … plus only 7 INTs (tied for 4th least in the NFL).
I think Mike Golic is onto something. Bucs Secondary in particular simply wasn’t in position to make INTs on most plays. Hard to make a play on the ball if you’re playing 10 yards off. Looks to me like we’re blitzing too much, and playing zone/off-man to try to minimize the impact of the areas left undefended.
Bucs DLine needs to be able to put up more CONSISTENT interior pressure using a 3-4 man rush without blitzing so much; that’s killing our coverage. We’ve seen how effective interior pressure can be when we had guys like Vea, Suh, RNR & a younger Will Gholston (we got more consistent pressure). That also allowed our OLBs to feed better.
I’d like to see us draft a beastly NT/DT to complement Vea, re-sign Gaines & Brewer, sign a quality veteran OLB to complement Diaby, Braswell & Nelson and that SHOULD provide more consistent pressure (with less blitzing). Improve the CB stable by drafting a stud in Rnd 1 and the ILB stable by drafting a stud in Rnd 2. a a couple of quality FAs back there, and voila, we’ll be able to compete for this year’s Super Bowl.
February 18th, 2025 at 10:39 am
It isn’t Winfield. He had a great 2023 season. We need a great Edge, move McCullum and Smith to safety. This will bring Izen back on the field as the nickel.
I know, I just left us with no starting CBs. We can rotate Bryce Hall, Hill, etc…on one corner and draft in round 2 our other starter. Good CBs are in this draft.
February 18th, 2025 at 10:43 am
You cant make INTs when you play mostly sitting 10 yds off.
You cant create Turnovers when you are playing soft Defense.
Yes we could use some good players but we could also use some change in mentality and philosophy of how we want to play defensively.
Go Bucs
February 18th, 2025 at 11:07 am
Pewter Power calls it like it is.
February 18th, 2025 at 2:02 pm
Over the last weeks I’ve read hundreds of posts about pass defense, but I have yet to discover the phrase “coverage sack.” You need both cover players and rushers working together. The impression I get of the Bucs reminds me of the old saying, “If we had ham, we could have a ham sandwich, if we had bread.” And you need not only players but playmakers on both levels, as Mr. Golic maintains. The failure in expected effectiveness by the two safeties was very troubling. Both had had outstanding years in the past, almost defining “career year.” I realize they had injuries, but that raises the question of whether they are physically capable of playing a hard-nosed defense over a full season.
February 18th, 2025 at 4:23 pm
that playmaker could have been Kancey…
he had his chance; painful thinking about that playoff game
maybe Kancey can redeem himself this upcoming season
February 18th, 2025 at 4:25 pm
The reason our secondary looks so bad is because they never get many plays off. Thats because we never get to the QB without a blitz. When will Bowles and Licht come to the realization, they gonna have to open up that pocketbook and pay for a 1st class pass rusher to change the image of our Defense? We will not find him Dumpster Dipping.
February 18th, 2025 at 5:45 pm
Maybe we have some playmakers, it’s hard to tell because we haven’t started the
same 11 (together) once last year.
February 18th, 2025 at 7:12 pm
Lavonte is not a playmaker. He plays hard and he’s very good, but that’s different than playmaker. To me he’s a lot more like Hardy Nickerson, but he’s not 55. David doesn’t make the big INT to close out wins. It’s not a knock. Same with these corners. They are often competent, but where is mid career Ronde Barber or Lynch? Guys with an instinct to close out games, not just play the defense as called.
February 18th, 2025 at 8:11 pm
I commented earlier that LD was among all time league leaders in forced fumbles. Don’t remember where I read that but I was wrong. Looked it up again and his figures were good not great. He’s lost a step in just the few years I’ve been watching him but since I’m pretty sure we’ll be going heavy defense and especially linebacker in the draft it would be great if he’d stay one more year. And as long as he plays I’ll still think of him as a playmaker.
February 18th, 2025 at 8:54 pm
The Bucs D has young players who should become playmakers—Kancey, Diaby, McCollum, Smith. They need about four more.
February 18th, 2025 at 9:31 pm
No sh1t. Licht and Bowles are concentrating on D now. BTW, we could use a punter, too.
February 18th, 2025 at 10:55 pm
Have to agree with DR… from reading many comments, it seems we need 3 areas of improvement. A beast (like Suh) next to VV, at least one solid play maker edge rusher and get our guys in the secondary in position. Just improving one of three will not automatically fix the 2 others.
February 19th, 2025 at 11:47 am
I strongly disagree with the premise that defenses have to wait for offenses to make a mistake. An analogy from basketball – a defender can fake a steal, forcing the ball-handler to dribble away from said steal attempt, and then attack the predictable area the ball-handler will move to…. This can be done in football in many ways, and it all comes down to the word ‘predictable’ imo. We need to convince the offense we are doing one thing (especially on passing downs) but do another. This is how ball-hawks rack up picks. Yes, I understand we drop some picks, but not enough to get Bowles off the hook.
February 19th, 2025 at 12:28 pm
Turnovers also come when players are at ease with the system as second nature. That’s what happened for the Bucs in the Tampa-2.
But Bowles schemes are complex and variable and it seems players often look uncomfortable with where they are and what they are supposed to do. When they have to think about that, they aren’t in position to make plays.