“We Took That To Heart”
August 4th, 2019
Safety Jordan Whitehead takes you inside One Buc Palace
BY ZACHARY SEIFTER
JoeBucsFan.com intern
There’s no way around it.
The Bucs were abysmal at taking the ball away last year. Only five teams intercepted fewer passes and none of those made the playoffs.
Between Weeks 4 and 11, the Bucs only forced one turnover, and it was the special teams unit that did it.
One big storyline throughout the spring and through the first week of 2019 training camp is how good the secondary has been. They’ve been flying around and getting their hands on a lot of passes. Hopefully it’s the first step to a major defensive turnaround in 2019.
But it appears as though one motivating factor for this secondary is hearing just how bad they were last season.
According to safety Jordan Whitehead, the defensive coaching staff has gotten after them for being so terrible at forcing turnovers a year ago.
“Oh yeah for sure,” Whitehead said in a 1-on-1 interview with JoeBucsFan.com when asked if there’s a new swagger in the secondary.
“You know, coaches came in, they expected a lot out of us. Kept emphasizing how many interceptions we had last year, you know, we took that to heart. They come in and they want perfection out of us, so I think every day coming out here that’s what, like, we really try to do is be perfect and it’s showing on the field.”
With how bad the secondary was last season, this new coaching staff should be in their ears about their failures. It should only help them get better.
And although this defensive backfield features three rookies, those young guys should see — and hear — just how bad it was last season and take it as a lesson on what not to do in the NFL.
Clearly, no secondary unit will ever be perfect no matter how hard they pursue it. But to hear perfection is the goal is uplifting.
And quite honestly, all the unit has to do is be mediocre and it would be a significant improvement.
August 4th, 2019 at 11:21 pm
You saying our players are our players, then shrugging his shoulders didn’t really work for coach Koetter?
Shocker!!!!
August 5th, 2019 at 12:29 am
Worst defense in the history of the team, and contender for worst defense ever – a title they certainly earned in the first half of the season. If they need some motivation by hearing how bad they were, they have a lifetime worth.
August 5th, 2019 at 2:04 am
The fact that mike smith is gone and has no hand in this team this year should help out on a whole new level
August 5th, 2019 at 2:30 am
24 sacks 11 ints last 7 games last season. Sorta coincides with Jameis being more efficient the last 6 games.
August 5th, 2019 at 3:41 am
Just being in position and making the tackle is a giant improvement. Interceptions and fumble recoveries are what’s needed to really succeed we’ll get there like fine wine you’ll see. I’ve seen vast improvement but It’s got to happen in games though, let’s see what happens in Spitsburg. Back up depth has been a big problem lately in every area so our UPS driver’s need to make it happen.
August 5th, 2019 at 3:41 am
Who in that room played in the Bucs secondary last year? Hargreaves got injured early, I guess (rookie) Carlton Davis and Jordan Whitehead played in some games. Most were injured or no longer on the team. It was definitely Smith passive style def at fault but nobody ever points out the number of injuries that secondary had. All I hear is ATL will be back playing great def this year because they had injuries last yr. You never hear that about that issue here just that they sucked.
August 5th, 2019 at 3:56 am
Stangl ass man,
They sucked before all the injury. Look up the points giving up in the first four games – pitiful.
August 5th, 2019 at 4:52 am
Thank you Stanglassman. Several keep posting that ‘It’s coaching’ as being the TOTAL reason for last year’s dreadful defensive performance. Lazy analysis IMO. Thankfully BA & TB didn’t buy into that when they took over.
Yes the coaching was bad, but so was the talent level Mike Smith had to work with. Depth … or more specifically, lack of it … absolutely destroyed the LB corps & the Secondary last year because of injuries. Even the Joes have admitted that last year’s Bucs defense historically came very close to leading the pack as one of the most-injured ever in the NFL. Without quality depth there’s no way to compensate for that.
This Bucs’ defense has been REBUILT not ‘reloaded’. None of us know yet who’ll make the final-53 but one thing’s for sure: there’ll be a LOT of new faces on this year’s defense. I expect to see several new starters … Suh, Bucannon, Barrett, White, SMB, Edwards as a minimum. LVD, Vea, Nassib, Davis, Whitehead will probably round out our 3-4 starting lineup, with VHIII getting plugged in as nickel (or maybe starting outside with SMB rotating in at nickel). Point being … over HALF of this defense is new. THAT’S A REBUILD.
The most exciting part to me is that this defense finally has some semblance of DEPTH. Competition for starting & rotational jobs is fierce it sounds like. Injuries WILL happen; they always do in the NFL. But so far this year it’s looking like our Bucs will have a much better chance to compensate for injuries than we’ve had in the past. Can’t wait to see what this new defense looks like come Friday night.
August 5th, 2019 at 5:52 am
Good point Stanglassman regarding the injuries the Falcons had vs the Bucs injuries…if I’m not mistaken we had 7or 8 starters out on defense…
That seems to be the norm when it comes to how we’re treated by the media… They’ll make excuses for everyone but us… even when we win a game it’s deminished; the storyline quickly becomes what our opponent wrong not what we did right…
August 5th, 2019 at 6:51 am
Mike Smith shouldn’t ever coach again not even pee wee football
August 5th, 2019 at 7:00 am
What I am hearing that catches my attention is balls batted down by DBs……passes defended. Last year we were never close enough to contest passes.
That’s telling me we are playing more aggressively with speed.
Sure, we need more interceptions…..but being 5 yards from a WR doesn’t help a DB on interceptions or tackles.
The difference between Mike Smith & Todd Bowles is glaring.
August 5th, 2019 at 7:24 am
The uniforms are so putrid. The scheme/colors/pattern make absolutely no sense.
August 5th, 2019 at 8:02 am
Brent Grimes was a starter last year. The dude was collecting a pay check. He played so far off coverage he might as well been in the stands. There was never a tackle he would want to make, it was a joke they didn’t bench him. Enough said about how bad we were last year, it’s well documented. This is a whole new defense, new players, new scheme, new coaches. The McCoy doll leader of losing is gone. I’m glad some returning players feel bad about last year, but it’s time to put it in the past, and focus on the future.
August 5th, 2019 at 10:58 am
Yeah I didn’t realize until it was posted on here at some point that we were like the most injured team in the last decade or something last year. All mostly on D.
August 5th, 2019 at 9:19 pm
Well since some want to blame our bad defense on injuries and not coaching let me remind you. The injuries were also because of coaching and those soft practices which didn’t have them ready enough physically to play.
August 5th, 2019 at 9:50 pm
Ptwalk:
Agree with what you say mostly, but remember Dirk Koetter was 3-0 in season-opening games. His teams were ready. What the hell happened after September is another question.