Former Bucs guard thinks he has the answer for Todd Bowles to turn around his shaky pass defense.
Joe was looking at some stats last night and it depressed him when it came to the Bucs.
In the six years that Bucs coach Todd Bowles has been with the Bucs, other than one season, the Bucs pass defense has never been good. Not even in the 2020 season when the Bucs won the Super Bowl.
The Bucs had a good pass defense once with Bowles his first season as head coach (2022). That year the Bucs finished in the top-10 in passing yards allowed per game. That’s easily the high-water mark for the Bucs pass defense in the past six seasons.
Oh, the Bucs defense caught fire in the 2020 postseason. But overall, the Bucs’ pass defense hasn’t been anything to brag about in recent years.
Below are the Bucs’ rank in passing yards allowed per game with Bowles as the defensive coordinator.
2019: 29th
2020: 21st
2021: 21st
2022: 9th
2023: 29th
2024: 29th
So if you average that out, in the past six seasons, the Bucs, on average, have been the 23rd-best pass defense in yards allowed per game.
Not good.
In an effort to plug the damn, the Bucs loaded up on cornerbacks early in the draft. Seems reasonable, right?
Well, former Bucs guard and popular local sports radio personality Ian Beckles believes Bowles is loading up on the wrong level of the defense. Armed with intel that Beckles said he personally got from Father Dungy, Beckles believes the answer to the Bucs’ pass defensive ills lies not in the secondary, but up front.
Beckles, appearing recently on the “Pat and Aaron Show” on WDAE-AM 620, reinforced by Father Dungy, said adding Benjamin Morrison and Jacob Parrish won’t amount to a hill of beans if the Bucs don’t get after the quarterback.
“I interviewed Tony Dungy way back in the day,” Beckles began. “And I asked Tony Dungy, ‘What’s more important, great coverage or great pass rush?’ I mean, he didn’t hesitate.
“‘Ah, you know Beck, it’s a great pass rush.'”
So, Beckles noted, it is all about the pass rush.
“You give me Warren Sapp and and you give me Simeon Rice and the other guys are getting [a total of] 10-15 sacks a year, it won’t matter who is back there [in the secondary].”
Beckles added that former Bucs corner Donnie Abraham told him that when he went to the Jets and left the Bucs with Sapp and Rice after the 2001 season, it was a whole different animal playing corner.
“The Buccaneers haven’t had that luxury,” Beckles said of a feared edge rush recently. “They haven’t. You have to be able to stop the run and the Bucs can do that. But when you can’t rush the passer, and these days if the quarterback is comfortable back there, they’re going to shred you.”
Joe cannot argue with a word Beckles said here. Joe has been screaming for a couple of years now to bring in a proven veteran edge rusher. Joe pulled back on his hollering when the Bucs *finally* broke down and signed Haason Reddick.
Joe is hoping the Bucs defense this offseason had a change in philosophy. Former defensive line coach Kacy Rodgers did a good job with his linemen. But when it came to an edge rush, Rodgers openly admitted the Bucs didn’t care about that.
Yes, Joe fully understands getting pressure up the middle usually disrupts quarterbacks. However, the game is evolving. We have a lot more mobile quarterbacks, or at least quarterbacks who have the ability to escape the pocket, starting in the NFL.
So pressure up the middle, if you don’t have an edge rush, really doesn’t do much to these signal-callers. These (more) mobile quarterbacks can just take a couple of steps to the side and complete passes.
That’s why it was so awesome to watch the defense in the 2020 NFC title game and the Super Bowl. Ndamukong Suh and Vita Vea and Will Gholston got pressure up front and drama queen Aaron Rodgers and Pat Mahomes, when they tried to escape the pocket, ran right into a trap laid by Bucs sack king Shaq Barrett and Jason Pierre-Paul.
Since Shaq and JPP grew old, the Bucs had no edge rush waiting to trap quarterbacks when they tried to dodge Calijah Kancey and Vita.
Hopefully, enlightened YaYa Diaby, fresh from Von Miller’s Sack Summit, and Reddick’s heady analysis can allow the Bucs to set quarterback traps again.
At least new defensive line coach Charlie Strong believes in sacks. That’s encouraging.
@953wdae
Beckles dropping TRUTH BOMBS about pass rush vs coverage! Tony Dungy said it best – GREAT PASS RUSH leads to everything! When you got Sapp and Rice terrorizing QBs, doesn’t matter who’s in the secondary. Bucs need that heat again! What’s your take – two solid corners or one shutdown stud? #iheartradio
♬ original sound – 953wdae
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