Shaq Barrett Explains Bucs Defense
July 27th, 2019
Change coming.
The days of dudes sitting three, five, seven, damn near 10 yards off wide receivers at the snap of the ball are over in Tampa Bay.
Nothing seemed to frustrate fans more than to see Bucs defenders all but saying to receivers, “You get the first three or four steps on me, man, and I won’t jam you at the line.” Receivers, naturally, had a freaking field day on the Bucs defense.
New Bucs linebacker Shaq Barrett sort of explained that ish is done.
“It’s aggressive,” Barrett said of playing for new defensive coordinator Todd Bowles. “I love it. I love it. And It’s crazy because I played in a [34] for a long time and it’s different than all the [other defenses] I’ve been in.”
Barrett went on to explain in Denver his position was more coverage and dropping back. Not with Bowles.
“It’s a lot different,” Barrett said, but confessed he didn’t want to go into detail and spill the beans for Bucs’ opponents. In Denver he would “drop more and cover more.”
Now, Barrett is expected to pressure the quarterback. And Barrett was doing a lot of smiling at the podium.
Barrett could be a hidden gem. He was buried on a damn good depth chart in Denver. Still, he had seven sacks through the past two seasons and again, was a part-time player who didn’t rush the quarterback a lot. Now that seems to be one of his main responsibilities.
Just for perspective, defensive end nightmare Will Gholston has had seven sacks in the past four years. And he started 37 games in that time frame.
With Jason Pierre-Paul out for who knows how long, maybe for good, the Bucs are sure going to need Barrett’s pass-rushing skills to shine.
July 27th, 2019 at 12:03 pm
Not accepting hype about anyone who hasn’t proven it in a buc uniform nice spin on it but 7 sacks in two seasons would be good for noah spence who played part time or anyone else on this roster. He’ll be asked to cover a lot here also in this pass happy division more than likely or be part time if he cant.
July 27th, 2019 at 12:24 pm
This is an exciting signing for the Bucs. If he plays up to the level coaches and fans think he can, this LB core could be excellent!
July 27th, 2019 at 12:52 pm
Agree with you Alstott … Barrett is ‘an exciting signing for the Bucs’. Interestingly, he & Spence are listed by the Bucs as being the same size (6’2″ & 250 lbs). Shaq had a real strong rookie year (5.5 sacks, 4 FF, 4 PD, 47 tackles) in only 6 games started, but fell off quite a bit after that. Hopefully it was just that Denver had too many mouths to feed in front of him.
Sounds like you’re still on Gholston’s case Joe … ‘just for perspective’ of course. He may not be a sackmaster, but does quite well against the run & has shown a LOT of versatility over the years by playing both inside & outside. Excellent availability too, averaging close to 15 games/season. Managed to survive Schiano, Lovie, Smitty (who didn’t do him any favors it appears), and now he’s still here with Todd Bowles. Presuming that Will sticks, his versatility could very well come in handy this year.
July 27th, 2019 at 12:56 pm
Barrett was a great find by Licht who is much better at scouting potential than other GMs but has been short changed and vilified all these years because of bad Coaches who failed to develop the potential of the players Licht chose but BA is fixing all that right now and developing all 90 players and teaching them all his system so if there are injuries this year there is just another player all ready to go who can step up!
July 27th, 2019 at 1:25 pm
Ahhhhhh yes, the fresh smell of nfl is in the Tampa Bay area atmosphere.
ITS ABOUT DAMN TIME!!!!!!!!!!
July 27th, 2019 at 1:28 pm
Joe is censoring my posts again!!!
July 27th, 2019 at 1:36 pm
Quick note. There is a great 21 minute Bucs hype video on YouTube right now. In the video it states the last 7 games the Bucs had 24 sacks and 11 ints. I read a stats a few days ago saying the Bucs finished 8th in the league with 85 tackles for lost last season. See,Joe you can call them atrocious all you like but if you siff thru the whack none aggressive coaching you can find jewels from last season that give an indication of what can can be expected this upcoming season… Mayhem. Where are all the 1 and 15 predictions now MOs. Don’t hide now homie.
July 27th, 2019 at 1:57 pm
why do we not go after Mason Foster and put him in the middle with White and move Lavante to outside linebacker and let him wreak havoc on quarterbacks
July 27th, 2019 at 2:14 pm
I just want folks to realize when you have a D line that features 3probowlers Suh,JPP and Vea (yes Vea, he’ll be voted in this year. Won’t play in the game he’ll too busy preparing for a Bigger one) that will allow guys like Shaq,Nas and Noah to feast off the edge. Go ahead thinking we about to be..
July 27th, 2019 at 2:44 pm
I’m buying the hype, all we needed was legit overall coaching and an attaching defense. @Sooner, David is more suited to play inside than outside in a 3/4 def. Getting sacks from blitzing, than from pure pass rushing, is two different animals. David hasn’t shown that ability.
July 27th, 2019 at 2:46 pm
I’m buying the hype, all we needed was legit overall coaching and an attaching defense. @Sooner, David is more suited to play inside than outside in a 3/4 def. Getting sacks from blitzing, than from pure pass rushing, is two different animals. David hasn’t shown that ability.
July 27th, 2019 at 3:25 pm
Shaq is super polished and has an entire toolbox of pass rush moves that are more advanced than maybe any other backup I can remember in recent memory. Go look at the tape. With his usage rate going through the roof this dude could easily hit double digits, especially given the huge bodies next to him with their hand in the dirt eating up blockers.
July 27th, 2019 at 3:29 pm
For the umpteenth time on a scale of 1 to 100 Shaq has graded out over 70 in run stopping and pass rushing the last three seasons. Super polished indeed.
July 27th, 2019 at 3:38 pm
Just another Dog.. To go along with a roster that’s filled with nothing but Dogs now.
July 27th, 2019 at 3:41 pm
PriMech they lazy here, if they look at his film there would be a h3ll of a lot more excitement over Shaq. Dudes an animal.
July 27th, 2019 at 3:47 pm
He is a diamond in the rough. Heard from those who follow the Broncs closely that he has a lot of get off from the snap. This was my favorite signing of the offseason. And the soft and passive D was the biggest thorn in my side these past few years. Can’t wait to see the cha cha cha changes!
July 27th, 2019 at 4:16 pm
Not buying all of the hype just yet. I gotta see with my own eyes 1st. I remember a lot of you here thinking Koetter and Smitty were the 2nd coming of JC when they were hired and even the coaches before those. So…we shall see. I noticed in his interview Arians seems to think Barrett and Nissib will be enough. I hope he is right for our sake.
July 27th, 2019 at 5:07 pm
NOS no doubt man. He’s another mouth foaming energizer bunny screaming off the edge that has been behind maybe the greatest pass rushing tandem of this generation for 4 years… they say you are the 5 closest people around you, I’d imagine you tend to pick up a thing or two from Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware. Dude is gonna ball out.
July 27th, 2019 at 5:31 pm
What are you talking about?
July 27th, 2019 at 6:30 pm
PriMech that’s gospel.
July 27th, 2019 at 11:14 pm
I’m SO happy to hear that the 5-9 yard pad is going away. It was so frustrating to watch that over and over with the same dismal results the last few years.