The Snowball Effect Of A Stud Pass Rusher
July 21st, 2024
If…
Joe thinks the Bucs took care of the biggest problem in the secondary.
The biggest problem on defense? That’s been addressed, but not yet fixed. There is a difference.
Joe really believes the Bucs’ secondary will be significantly imprived. It’s hard to believe a secondary with an All-Pro playing centerfield (Antoine Winfield) was bad. But it was. Former safety Ryan Neal was simply overwhelmed. Teams targeted him and it was ugly.
It was so ugly midstream, Bucs coach Todd Bowles was changing protection, and Neal is still unemployed some two weeks before training camps open.
As a team, the Bucs got a decent pass rush. As a team. But good teams almost always have a monster getting after quarterbacks. That, the Bucs did not have.
So this year the Bucs have a bunch of ifs getting after the quarterback.
* If Joe Tryon-Shoyinka finally gets it.
* If YaYa Diaby’s rookie season (less than half the snaps) was no fluke.
* If Chris Braswell can play like a veteran as a rookie.
* If MIA Randy Gregory comes shows up.
That’s a whole bunch of “ifs” but Joe will add another. If the Bucs can finally find “that guy” to rush from the edge and consistently put quarterbacks on their arses, then Bowles won’t have to blitz as much.
Then imagine how much better the pass defense will be?
The absences of a lethal edge rusher doesn’t just hurt the pass rush, it drags down the whole team.
July 21st, 2024 at 12:53 am
JTS modeling some of his cosmetics for men. He will excel at blush and rouge for men.
July 21st, 2024 at 1:49 am
QBs! Beware Kancy and LVD..
July 21st, 2024 at 2:13 am
Forget JTS and Gregory.
The edge is all on Yaya, Braswell, & Nelson. The inside is on Kancey and a less fat, more muscle VEA
July 21st, 2024 at 2:38 am
The 2016 to 2019 New England Patriots were 1st, 5th, 7th, and 1st in scoring defense. They played in 3 Superbowls and won Two of them. In those four seasons, the highest number of sacks they had as a team was 47, and no player ever had more than 7.5 sacks.
Trying to boil down the entire defense to whether or not you have a ”premium” edge rusher with double-digit sacks remains a weird axe Joe can’t seem to stop grinding despite its lack of a factual basis.
July 21st, 2024 at 3:44 am
CallTheSaltTruck … ‘In those four seasons (2016-2019), the highest number of sacks they (Patriots) had as a team was 47, and no player ever had more than 7.5 sacks’.
Awesome FACT Salt Truck. On looking deeper into HOW the Patriots pulled off 2 Super Bowl wins in 3 appearances in those 4 years though, it’s obvious that their OFFENSE (yes, led by Tom Brady) was a critical element in helping those defenses achieve the results that they did. Starting in 2016, the Patriots’ offense ranked #3, #2, #4, #7 in Scoring Offense while their defense ranked #1, #5, #7, #5 in Scoring Defense. That’s very nice TEAM BALANCE right there.
Several things stood out to me about those 4 years:
o The difference in Patriots’ scoring & their opponents’ scoring averaged 165 points each season in 16 games. When you outscore your opponents by an average of 10 PPG, you’ll win a LOT of games each season.
o Patriots’ time of possession always favored their defense during those years (apparently Tom Brady has always liked to keep the ball in his hands). Defenses love that.
o Patriots’ 3rd Down Conversion Percentage, 4th Down Conversion Percentage and Red Zone TD percentages in those 4 years was ALWAYS better than their opponents. And usually by a significant amount. Helps your scoring, helps your TOP, helps your defense when your offense is performing at a very high level.
o The other thing that stands out though is that Patriots played in a weak division. They beat their division opponents by a 5-1 margin EVERY YEAR during that stretch. And during those 3 SB years, they never played more than 3 playoff games and played all but 1 of those games at home. That’s a significant advantage.
July 21st, 2024 at 5:40 am
Anthony Nelson, Markees Watts and Jose Ramirez are not chop liver. Nelson is a pretty solid OLB and I’m really looking forward to seeing big jumps from Watts and Ramirez. Watts was a beast last year in TC and when he finally got a chance to play looked really good. Ramirez will be healthy and have a full NFL offseason under his belt and know the system coming into camp. I think this Joe is going to be pleasantly surprised by some of these young pass rushers.
July 21st, 2024 at 6:18 am
How do you spell JTS? “IfNhope”
July 21st, 2024 at 6:32 am
Watts bout ta splode! Mark it.
July 21st, 2024 at 6:58 am
I agree with u 100% Lt. Dan. Watts will be explosive. I’ve marked it.
Now, let’s reference JTS, who in my opinion was a bust year one, two, three, n still is a bust to this day n the foreseeable future.
Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me.
Fool me three times, shame on both of us.
Fool me four times and it’s ASHAME that the Bucs brass continue to play the useless “Fool Game”.
I digress.
July 21st, 2024 at 7:01 am
Having a picture of Tryon up involving anything with Stud Pass Rusher in it just looks wrong. Maybe Dud Pass Rusher.
July 21st, 2024 at 7:35 am
In Todd Bowles’ defense, you earn your strips by knowing & doing your job … no exceptions & no free-lancing. And a DE/OLB’s job in his defense is to play the run AND pass rush. But Job #1 seems to always be shut down the run.
I’m convinced that rookies take awhile to figure out how to do that. Such seems to have been the case with Ya Ya last season? Very likely it’ll be the case with Braswell this season. Ironically, JTS seems to do reasonably well in playing the run (Bowles has noted his versatility in playing several positions in the past). So does Nelson BTW. Folks shouldn’t write either one off just yet.
Neither should we prematurely anoint newbies like Watts & Ramirez as ‘the next great thing’. By every account, this is a VERY complex defense (maybe too complex?) and I tend to think that’s why Todd Bowles hasn’t turned over the reins to someone else. Rooks have to EARN more game time through taking advantage of opportunities as they present themselves. Not always easy to do.
July 21st, 2024 at 8:19 am
A great pass rush can make a mediocre secondary look great. A bad rush can make a great secondary look mediocre. Always need to pressure the QB.
What Mayfield did last year in the face of constant pass rush pressure was remarkable. Hopefully, the revamped line can slow down opposing defenses. If they can, Mayfield and Bucs will have a magnificent season.
July 21st, 2024 at 8:45 am
“Neither should we prematurely anoint newbies like Watts & Ramirez as ‘the next great thing’.
They’re potential new additions to the pass rush rotation. Watts actually got some snaps last season against Tennessee and Indy(could be confusing him with SVD because he played his first meaningful defensive snaps in Indy) and these are the guys giving Wirfs & Goedeke the business in practice to get those 2 better.
As they say iron sharpens iron, and I imagine having a Tristan Wirfs to hone your skills against has got to be beneficial, because if you can win m reps against him then you should be able to win reps against alot of the tackles you’ll face because not many are better than our guy.
July 21st, 2024 at 8:54 am
Brass was in a similar defense at Bama, and coaches have said he’s more ready than YaYa last year, so he’ll get on the field faster than YaYa.
This will be JTS’ last season in football as he won’t be picked by another team up after this season. I hope he got a good degree and tells his friend what a great career he had.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Mike Greene replace Hall as a starter. Greene played well before getting hurt. He should exceed Hall’s 0.5 sacks last year.
July 21st, 2024 at 10:05 am
It will be a relief when JTS is cut. I’m tired of focusing on him when he is in there. Same old story- -no, not love and glory. He gets run outside the play and past it.
July 21st, 2024 at 11:08 am
Package JTS and Logan the Oaf off for a can of tuna fish and a jar of mayo. JTS is chicken of the sea, and The Oaf is Squidward. So sick of these two. Hey, every great GM still has some stinkers, and it’s somewhat being a victim of success and drafting late.
Adios sea chickens.
July 21st, 2024 at 1:23 pm
@Gipper
Yep. We could bring Ronde Kelly & Lynch back or put Deion Charles Woodson Ed Reed Brian Dawkins or any of them back there & they wouldn’t look as good with us if the pass rush doesn’t help.
July 21st, 2024 at 3:00 pm
Randy Gregory … He’s out.
I think JTS shows up this year. Braswell will deliver, too.
July 21st, 2024 at 3:41 pm
WATTS
July 21st, 2024 at 5:10 pm
Go get Judon from New England. They aren’t going anywhere and need draft capital
July 22nd, 2024 at 8:04 am
Gregory? Seriously?
Geez!
Go Bucs!