Who Will Mike Caldwell Pluck?
March 11th, 2022
Defensive lineman Will Gholston
Joe groaned between swigs of Big Storm Beer when the Jacksonville Jaguars signed Mike Caldwell to be their defensive coordinator.
Caldwell is a longtime protégé of Todd Bowles and was Tampa Bay’s inside linebackers coach for the past three years. He arrived in Jacksonville in January pledging to build on the Jags’ blitz-heavy scheme from last season.
Joe suspects Caldwell will have a lot of influence on the remaking of the Jags’ defense as he is close with new Jacksonville head coach Doug Pederson dating back decades.
The point here is the Jaguars have about $40 million in cap room and the ability to lure guys like pending Bucs free agents Jordan Whitehead and Will Gholston.
Caldwell has seen first-hand what hard-working, team-first men they are. And relatively speaking on the free agent market, they are affordable.
Joe is willing to wager that the Bucs lose at least one defensive free agent to Jacksonville. All the benefits of playing and living in Florida are available there, too, so it’s not like the Bucs have a special drawing power. Heck, the Bucs’ defensive free agents can’t even be sure who their 2023 head coach and coordinator would be in Tampa.
March 11th, 2022 at 4:48 pm
Yeah but its Jacksonville.
March 11th, 2022 at 6:56 pm
Y, James, but several of these FAs played for the Bucs when they weren’t so good, either…
March 11th, 2022 at 7:34 pm
The greater sin, possibly, is that Green Bay signed Rick Bisaccia (sp) as their Special Teams’ coach. Many didn’t think he would go back to ST after being a HC (albeit briefly).
It’s difficult to imagine that we’d keep our ST coach, since they’ve been so awful, especially if someone as qualified as Bisaccia was available. Someone at OBP loves their coaches too much!
March 11th, 2022 at 8:20 pm
Hate to say this, but it’s sounding more & more that the Bucs’ bones are about to be picked clean. How long will it take to turn a carcass into an eagle?