Zone Approved
April 5th, 2025
“We got you help, Lavonte.”
Most Bucs fans watching closely last season saw how starting inside linebacker K.J. Britt looked lost in zone coverage.
He certainly wasn’t smooth. The fluidity wasn’t there, sort of like Joe navigating a vegan menu.
Britt also lacks speed. That’s why the Bucs were ramping up the role of inside linebacker SirVocea Dennis. And then Dennis was lost for the year in Week 4 with a shoulder injury.
He’s apparently healthy after surgery but the Bucs found major help so they won’t have to rely on Dennis if he’s hurt for the third consecutive season.
That help comes in the form of veteran Anthony Walker Jr. in free agency. He’s not just Lavonte David’s close friend; Walker has made 83 starts and Todd Bowles says his film tells the story.
After Bowles said that at the NFL owners meetings this week, Joe asked Bowles to be specific about Walker.
“I thought he was a very smart football player on film,” Bowles replied. “He fills gaps, he understood the game. When he was out there and he was healthy, we really thought he played some very good football. He did a lot of things that we really like. His zone drops were great, how he read the guards and tackles were great, how he communicated was great – just his presence about him when meeting him was very good. I thought he really did a lot of things that we like to do, defensively, so that kind of helped us out when we decided to sign him.”
Joe will take it.
Walker has excellent seasons on his resume from his time in Indianapolis and Cleveland. On paper, he looks like a serious upgrade.
As Walker notes (and apparently Bowles, too) don’t believe what Pro Football Focus says about him.
April 5th, 2025 at 9:07 am
Between Walker and SVD playing the first half of the season, can the Bucs now afford to take a chance on Jihaad Campbell?
April 5th, 2025 at 9:23 am
I’m normally an optimist but look at his history –
2017 – hamstring injury 2018 – groin injury in training camp 2021 – hamstring injury 2022 – torn quad 2023 – IR
I’m not expecting much from him. I’ll happily eat crow.
April 5th, 2025 at 10:07 am
i’m hearing kyzir white is going to sign with the bucs…!
this is one heck of a move to secure the middle of the defense, with what would then become a pretty deep linebacker room
April 5th, 2025 at 10:11 am
While every team does (and should) play some zone, I feel like the narrative from bowles these last few years (as the fans became increasingly frustrated with his charmin soft zone) was that we were playing so much zone due to injuries or lack of quality players across the defensive backfield. We were FORCED to play his horrible, very bad, no good zone defense. I NEVER believed that claptrap. bowles likes playing zone. And these comments further solidify that to me. Maybe it’s what he preferred as a player. Part of me thinks it’s tied to his obsession with turnovers. He thinks more zone = more turnovers. But when ur guys are playing 10 yards off and bailing at the snap, they are nowhere near the receivers TO get turnovers (or to deflect passes at that). And the stats show that. All that being said, the more competent players we have to play zone, the better.
April 5th, 2025 at 10:20 am
whoever we use alongside David, he has to be a coverage guy. walker’s a good fit. gobucs – so he was healthy from late 2018 through early 2021 and only on IR once? I can live with that. jimbob – we need an LB for the whole year, not the second half so no thanks. some scouts don’t even see jihaad as a pure backer anyways
April 5th, 2025 at 10:20 am
i read that too Adam. would be kinda like the Hardy Nickerson acquisition. dude had soooo many tackles last year
April 5th, 2025 at 10:22 am
Trade down and get an extra third round pick. I like the UCLA ILB Schwesinger but he will go early rd2:
“During his pro day, Schwesinger weighed in at 238 pounds on his 6’2 1/2” frame. He did not run the 40-yard dash, but posted a 7.05 in the three-cone drill, 4.25 in the short shuttle, and jumped 10’7” in the broad jump. Add that to the impressive 39.5” vertical jump he posted at the NFL combine and you’ve got one of the most-athletic linebackers in the class.
Just two seasons ago in 2023, Schwesinger was still just a reserve player for the Bruins. In 2024, he broke out in a big way, earning First-Team All-American honors while leading the nation with 90 solo tackles (136 total). He also stuffed the rest of the stat sheet, posting 8.5 tackles for loss, four sacks, two interceptions, three pass breakups, and a forced fumble.”
April 5th, 2025 at 10:38 am
We do need to draft a LB but it doesn’t have to be the first round. Walker wil be more than serviceable hopefully and LVD will do his thing.
April 5th, 2025 at 11:33 am
I love an earlier article in which LD called walker about starting to train with him right after walker was signed. Walker was surprised and pleased to see his friend already pushing him. That mentality has worked for LD all these years. Perhaps walker will benefit as well.
April 5th, 2025 at 11:52 am
Pro Foosball Focus is a bad clown show, with special needs clowns.
April 5th, 2025 at 12:41 pm
I’m hoping that LaVonte and Anthony’s friendship helps smooth the way for Anthony and motivates him to play his best right out of the gate. And that we see a noticeable upgrade at ILB this year.
As others have mentioned, I’m also a little concerned about his injury history.
Hopefully, the injury bug that bit us last year has moved on.
Coach Swiss Cheese is fully committed to his soft-zone defense. Unfortunately, I don’t see that changing this year, regardless of what he says about ballhawks and killer instinct.
I hope I’m wrong about that. I’d be thrilled if I was.
I’d still like to see us draft an ILB in rounds 1 or 2, as insurance and in preparation, in case LaVonte decides to call it a career at the end of the season (after we’ve won the SB)!!!
April 5th, 2025 at 1:20 pm
Let’s see Dennis make it to the preseason before enshining his bust in Canton for cryin out loud. When China Doll turns into Ironman, until then, knock off the Dennis talk already.
April 5th, 2025 at 2:24 pm
The headline should be changed to Swiss Cheese zone approved.
The state of the defense is just a dumpster fire.
Meanwhile there’s people actually thinking Bowles should get an extension.
Insanity is doing the same things while expecting different results.
April 5th, 2025 at 2:33 pm
I still find it remarkable I spent the entire offseason last year pointing out that Britt was clearly too slow to be a starter. How did I know this and the team didn’t?
April 5th, 2025 at 2:52 pm
How do you play tight man to man, or press zone, etc with safeties that can’t make plays on the ball and 5th and 6th string corners in the NFL.?
Should Todd have ordered funderburke and Hayes to play tight coverage? With little to zero effective safety play behind them?
Swiss cheese is what you get with JV talent in the secondary….. I know plenty of you think the coach should be able to make filet mignon out of pork rinds but it don’t work that way.
Give the man the personnel on the D and watch what happens. Defense has been the red headed step child for a few years. Time to level up 🤘🏼
April 5th, 2025 at 2:58 pm
Walker has had some injuries but he has started about 100 out of 130 games. Some uts not as exaggerated as some people are implying on this thread. I trust LVD and Bowles’s opinion on his abilities over the naysayers
April 5th, 2025 at 3:12 pm
The average injury rate for a nfl player just under 79% games played or 13.5 of 17 games. Walker’a injury rate has been about 75%. 4% under the average games played per season.