“He’s Got To Stop Thinking So Much”
March 3rd, 2025
Too much thinking.
As Bucs coach Todd Bowles met with a gaggle of Tampa Bay pen and mic club members last week at the combine in Indianapolis, when Bowles spoke about rookie outside linebacker Chris Braswell, Joe couldn’t help but think of a pop culture icon from the past.
Joe kept thinking of Curly Howard of The Three Stooges and one of his famous lines, “I’m trying to think, but nothing happens.”
(Insert sound effect of Curly getting his face slapped.)
So why did Bowles’ words make Joe think of Curly? Because Bowles suggested Braswell embodied Curly’s line about thinking; Braswell was doing too much thinking and not enough playing.
“He’s got to stop thinking so much,” Bowles said. “When he thinks he slows down. When he’s sure, he plays with his hair on fire and you can see how fast and physical he is.
“When he’s not sure he thinks about it and he’s half-speed. We have to get him past that.”
“I’m trying to think, but nothing happens.”
Bowles did admit that Braswell was beginning to demonstrate why he was a second-round pick late in the season with his speed and physicality.
Well, the numbers don’t bear out that it began clicking for Braswell late, though Joe is looking at production from an edge rusher and not his ability/inability to cover wide receivers.
In Braswell’s last nine games, he had two quarterback hits and one sack. That’s about as invisible as an edge rusher can be without putting up Ghost Johnson-like goose eggs.
And it’s not like Braswell had a log jam in front of him for playing time. The Bucs were so desperate for production at that position they pulled Bucs sacks king Shaq Barrett out of mothballs.
Look, Joe is not going to rag on a rookie edge rusher. It’s very common for them to struggle. Still, Joe would like to see Braswell breathe on a quarterback more than he did last year, especially down the stretch.
If it means not thinking is the answer, by all means channel Curly.
You had to know this was coming because it's #NationalClamDay – the classic scene of Curly fighting the clam from Dutiful But Dumb (1941). #ThreeStooges pic.twitter.com/Kx8GaNMOdS
— The Three Stooges (@thethreestooges) February 25, 2018
March 3rd, 2025 at 4:12 am
That is not the look of a confident man.
March 3rd, 2025 at 4:13 am
The guilty plea on the indictment of overly complex defense has been submitted.
Duh.
Everyone slows down when they have to think before they act in a speed of light world. Maybe, draft a pass rusher, play him as a pass rusher and evolve the defense with your players. Lovie Smith II.
Jenius Crumbs, Todd.
March 3rd, 2025 at 5:30 am
Maybe Todd should give him only two things to think about. Set the edge, and get after the QB!
March 3rd, 2025 at 5:40 am
Thinking too much seems to be the common theme with a lot of our “defensive” draft picks. Maybe it is Todd’s defense scheme of them doing everything else on defense except…..ummmm…RUSHING THE PASSER? Players playing to Todd’s scheme versus the players’ strengths? Same comment for our DBs.
March 3rd, 2025 at 5:42 am
Hodad … Agree 100%. Bucs need to generate pressure on the QB without having to resort to so much blitzing. I’m convinced that blitzing the ILBs is what necessitates dropping the OLBs into coverage in Todd’s 3-4 schemes.
The 2 ways to accomplish that IMO are (1) get another big guy in the middle to spell Vea on half of the plays; (2) play & rush 4 DLinemen instead of 3 to get more interior push & pressure. To do either, Bucs need another beast in the middle to rotate in with Vea (we’re too light on the inside without Vea in there and opponents take advantage).
March 3rd, 2025 at 5:43 am
Oh and BTW, if a guy’s thinking too much, MAYBE the problem is that he’s got too much to think about?
March 3rd, 2025 at 5:45 am
The backfield was real banged up most of the year. Lots of guys including Chris we’re having to drop into coverage more than normal. That is called situational football. Great teams and players are good at it. Next year when I expect to hear, ” where was Bradwell last year”. The answer will be, learning situational football at NFL speed. Situational football requires thinking until it becomes instinct. Todd knows that and teaches it.
March 3rd, 2025 at 6:35 am
We finished #7 in the NFL in sacks.
We finished with 43 sacks.
Not bad.
And if you guys haven’t figured it out, we stop lineman into coverage
Because Bowles has the most creative blitz packages in the NFL!
We drop lineman to confuse the offense!
And we finished #7 in the NFL sacks with 43.
Stop nagging!
March 3rd, 2025 at 7:02 am
People really do overthink too much & that doesn’t really accomplish anything. It’s not healthy either.
March 3rd, 2025 at 7:28 am
The Bucs may have finished #7 in the NFL in total sacks with 43. BUT too many times the opposing teams QB has enough time to potentially find a cure for cancer before getting pressured to release the ball. Pressure forces incompletions, mistakes, interceptions and kills drives. That is what the Bucs need to happen. The sack is just the cherry on top.
March 3rd, 2025 at 7:28 am
My whole idea that buying one superstar or overpayed semi-star isn’t necessary. If a bunch of no names but cheap alternatives can rank 7th in the entire NFL, maybe we need a NFL “moneyball” version. If we had 4 edge rushers this year with none making anywhere close to Josh Sweat money and Myles Garrett is out of the question. If we get four decent edge rushers that each could give us 6 sacks, that is 24 sacks from that position, better than we could hope for and still not sell our future down the line.
Then we get 6 from Kancey and Vita each and you have 36 sacks, 4 each from our ILs, a total of 5 from our DBs and then give the rest of the DL another 6-7 and BOOM, you have 51 sacks with mortgaging the future.
March 3rd, 2025 at 7:33 am
We get sacks when we send 6 people. We rarely if ever get sacks otherwise, which is why guys like Kirk Cousins looked all-pro against us. 43 sacks, that’s nice, but on how many drop backs, 500?
March 3rd, 2025 at 7:53 am
Maybe, edge rushers should only rush the QB? Bowles has this guy playing safety basically.
March 3rd, 2025 at 7:54 am
The plan is simple. Get the QB any way u can….
March 3rd, 2025 at 7:55 am
Todd’s skem is the issue, it takes too long for most players to be comfortable.
March 3rd, 2025 at 8:02 am
teacherman … Yes we finished #7 in terms of sacks, but we finished #29 in terms of Passing Yards Allowed. And yes Todd uses a lot of creative blitz packages (especially with ILBs), but we allowed opposing QBs to complete a tad over 66% of their passes. That ranked us #22 in the NFL last season. And oh ya, we gave up 27 passing TDs last season, tying us for #19 with the Titans, Patriots, Colts & Ravens. Our 7 INTs tied for for 4th least in the NFL with the Jets, Patriots & Commanders.
Just saying that we can do a lot better than that. The Super Bowl champion Eagles had a very good defense this season, ranking #2 overall in Points Allowed (303 points) and #1 in Total Yardage Allowed, plus #1 in Pass Yardage Allowed and #10 in Rushing Yardage Allowed. They use a 4-3 defense, blitz a lot less than we do (154 vs our 461 blitzes). I’m gonna guess they must be doing something right to rank that high and win the Super Bowl.
Looks to me like they rush 4 DLine just about all the time. If you add up the def snaps by their DTs (Carter, Williams, Davis, Ojomo & Booker), their DEs (Harris, Huff, Graham) & their Edge guys (Sweat, Mathis, Hunt) you come up with a grand total of 3,785 def snaps. That’s roughly the equivalent of 4 big guys out there on every defensive play (Eagles only allowed 999 def plays last season). Those players got 31 of Philly’s 41 sacks on the year (75%). Still, the team only had 117 total pressures on the year (far below the 175 pressures that we generated).
Despite low sacks & pressures, Eagles still had the #1 pass defense in the NFL, and the #2 overall defense. Their run defense wasn’t much worse than ours (Eagles #10 vs ours #4). Yet their pass defense was far superior, although they allowed opposing QBs to complete 62% of their passes (as opposed to our 66%), but they generated 13 INTs on the season (as opposed to our 7 INTs). I’m suspecting that the Eagles played a lot more man-to-man than we did, and their DT/DE/OLBs dropped into coverage far less.
March 3rd, 2025 at 8:24 am
The dude barely played, they can’t develop players so he’s all on his own who’s fault is that. He’s a second round pick that Bowles wouldn’t play so fans have to assume he’s a bust. JTS was a useless 1st round pick but they played him.
March 3rd, 2025 at 8:26 am
Bowles blitzes and drops linemen into coverage because our pass rushers couldn’t get the job done. Go get us a legit QB killer and we can generate a pass rush from the front 4 and let our DB’s focus on stopping the pass. You didn’t see us dropping Barrett and JPP into coverage all the time because they were hunting the QB. Fix the pass rush and the back end will work itself out. Pass rush has to be our priority this off season.
March 3rd, 2025 at 8:38 am
Loved the Curly clip. Great comedy. Maybe Coach Bowles should be playing some comedy clips at the meetings. It might loosen up the young guys that are overthinking too much. It’s a lot on their shoulders when they are worrying about being kept on a team and a reason to overthink too. Laughter helps.
March 3rd, 2025 at 8:40 am
Thats the same problem on every level of the defense. The system is too complex for a player to pick up quickly.
March 3rd, 2025 at 9:06 am
The defense is complex enough that Bowles won’t let Licht bring in a player from another team at the final cuts, or during the regular season, because the vet can’t learn the defense quick enough to play!
March 3rd, 2025 at 9:08 am
I noticed Braswell making more of an impact late in the year. I’d rather them sign a FA and draft EZ. OLB of Yaya, Mack, EZ, Braswell, Nelson + Watts/Ramirez on the practice squad for depth would work
March 3rd, 2025 at 10:06 am
Paraphrasing Heath Ledger’s Joker…
“I know a draft bust when I see one, and…” (points to Braswell)
March 3rd, 2025 at 11:24 am
He just needs to get comfortable with his role in the defense and understand his responsibilities well enough so he doesn’t need to think. Typical rookie stuff. An offseason training and learning more, plus Larry Foote taking over the OLB room ought to be enough to get Braswell a big jump in year 2. I think he and Diaby would be a solid starting combo, and if they draft Ezeiruaku in round one, you’d have a nice 3 man rotation.
March 3rd, 2025 at 1:34 pm
The Curly clip brought back memories. Maybe the Joe’s are older than I thought. A lot of good thinking in the comments. I don’t know what I could possibly add.
March 3rd, 2025 at 3:24 pm
Well if Braswell isn’t going to be a bust – we’ll know soon enough since in that 2nd year players always talk about the game slowing down for them, and they do less thinking and can react quicker.
You’d like to have seen more from him, but I certainly won’t ding him too much as you shouldn’t write off guys based on rookie years, certainly not at edge.
March 3rd, 2025 at 6:00 pm
Some of you should think more.
March 3rd, 2025 at 9:08 pm
This is the quote of the year.
“ Oh and BTW, if a guy’s thinking too much, MAYBE the problem is that he’s got too much to think about?”
Thanks to DR for that,