Brooks Unsure If Bucs Can Be An Average Defense
July 12th, 2012
Former Bucs guard Ian Beckles, an ex-teammate of Brooks, hit Brooks with a hardball question on the potential of the Bucs’ defense during the Ron and Ian Show on WDAE-AM 620 yesterday. Based on his response, Brooks doesn’t seem moved by the addition of Eric Wright, Mark Barron and Lavonte David, the return of Ronde Barber, and guys like Gerald McCoy, Cody Grimm and Michael Bennett coming into the season 100 percent healthy.
Ian Beckles: Did we do enough in the offseason to think that we’re going to be at least an average defense this year?
Derrick Brooks: That’s yet to be seen. You know, I wasn’t expecting much to be done up front because of the drafts that we’ve had the last couple of years. It’s time to see where these young [defensive linemen] are and see if they’re the answer, or do you need to be more active in free agency. … That’s a tough question that I asked myself looking at their defense based on how they performed last year. How much was it personnel? You know, how much was it with the defense itself and the players alone and the system they played in, you know, the details of it? So we’ll get a chance to see going in with Coach Sheridan what Head Coach Schiano was able to put together. But the answer may not be in the free agents. It may just be in stability of what you’re bringing to the orgainization and the stability of what you’re bringing on the defense. That may be enough to get some improvement. How much? Only time will tell.
Joe has no crystal ball, and can only hope/assume the Bucs will return to respectability on defense. Joe would be happy to simply not see the team get gutted and gashed up the gut repatedly and, you know, tackle.
Joe’s confident the Bucs will improve defensively, though unsure it will be enough — or fast enough — to successfully defend the Panthers, Giants and Cowboys in the season’s first three games.
July 12th, 2012 at 10:07 am
If anybody knows how or where this defense will be this year, atleast until the games are played, should be in Vegas or in line for lottery tickets!
July 12th, 2012 at 10:40 am
Yeah…. really. All we can do is hope. It really can’t get any worse can it???
July 12th, 2012 at 10:53 am
Bill Sheridan scares me. When he was the defensive coordinator of the Giants he was fired and the Giants certainly have more talent than we do on that side of the ball.
July 12th, 2012 at 10:58 am
We didn’t block, but we made up for it by not tackling.
July 12th, 2012 at 11:23 am
Just remember Butch Davis is behind the scenes in all of this. Sheridan may be the D-coordinator…but hes got butch overlooking his every move. That gives me a little more confidence
July 12th, 2012 at 11:32 am
Yes, and Schiano’s forte is also defense. Sheridan will have lots of experience looking over his shoulder. Add in some very skilled defensive assistants and a repeat of last year should not happen. How good they can be will only be determined with experience. There may be some rough spots out of the gate but, barring injuries, this defense should get better as the season roles on.
July 12th, 2012 at 11:43 am
This D hasn’t been good in what 4 years? They were a mess in Gruden’s last year and haven’t done a thing since. We can only hope!
July 12th, 2012 at 11:56 am
I believe the Defense will be much better this year, simply because guys aren’t giving up on plays, and we got rid of a “serial loafer” with the best blue chip safety in the draft.
July 12th, 2012 at 12:20 pm
Aren’t we all unsure about the defense?
July 12th, 2012 at 1:13 pm
This d-fence will be dominant just wait I have a real good feelin about our young guys getting better.We will keep the trend going from worst to first.
Tampaaaaaaaaaaaaa Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!!!!!!!!!!
July 12th, 2012 at 1:36 pm
Whatever you do, pay NO attention to Ian Beckles, I think he feels if the Bucs have a good team or develop greatness out of it’s lineman and lb’ers, Beckles would not have anything to gripe about and nobody to school on how bad a player is, he must be a major drag to watch a game with! This defense is going to be fine, just with the new coaches alone makes them much better than last year, not to mention the influx of new talent that’s been added with the head coach, who by the way is a “teacher” coach, he’s very proactive in motivating these players. So don’t listen to these outsiders or our local has-beens (or never-was), and I don’t mean double nickle Brooks, he’s just waiting to see how things play out first.
July 12th, 2012 at 2:25 pm
The thing I’m unsure about is the linebackers. We should’ve added a veteran linebacker to the mix. David seems like a beast, but he’s……another rookie. We were already young and inexperienced enough at that position.
July 12th, 2012 at 3:18 pm
Patrick
There might be more FA signings to come, atleast I hope. I believe there will still be players released from other teams that are tweeking thier rosters, etc.
July 12th, 2012 at 5:00 pm
Sheridan should be a good defensive coordinator. In his one season as DC for the Giants he had to deal with an amazing amount of injuries.
(Strahan had also retired and JPP hadn’t been drafted yet to understand the timeframe)
Osi was coming back from a season ending injury the year before (limiting him to pass rushing duties instead of run defense) but held out of training camp claiming he had issues with Sheridan’s defensive schemes… but since then Osi summer hold-outs is almost an annual thing.
Tuck played injured the entire season.
Pierce missed the second half of the season.
Alford tore his MCL and ACL at the end of training camp – so all the training reps were lost.
Canty was injured in camp and was only able to play in the second half of the season at a limited level.
Boley missed training camp then got injured again during the season and missed games.
Phillips season-ending injury after 2 games.
Ross missed training camp and most of the season.
Webster injured and missed games at the end of the season.
Bernard missed all of training camp and probably played the season at less than 100%.
Take away the starters for anyone’s defense, throw in replacements with no training camp time and see how well it performs even for an established DC. Sheridan will make sure the backups know the playbook as well as the starters this time around. He over simplified the playbook and was too predictable trying to compensate.
Second chances can succeed. See the coach up at New England. How did that Cleveland stint go? He might be the most motivated staff member of them all.
July 12th, 2012 at 5:22 pm
@FactMaster,
Holy crap that was a lot of injuries. If he finsh in the 20’s would of been a good season. The Bucs just lost GMC and the defense fell apart. Well I’m sure the defense will be in the top 20 this year (if they stay healthy)
July 13th, 2012 at 6:15 am
I know # 55 would never say it; but in my opinion that was the most ill-conceived defense and unprepared Buccaneer team I’ve witnessed in 36 years. The injuries on defense made the line-up of players go from mediocre to poor. With the abundance of youth and players who never experienced success (except # 20) they simply gave up as soon as they took the field as yet another opponent waltzed in for a TD on the opening drive.