Bucs coach Todd Bowles.
Yesterday, Joe read a commenter on this here corner of the interwebs ask a very good question.
Last year, the Bucs were ravaged by injuries in the secondary and at inside linebacker. It led to the Bucs playing Antoine Winfield when his play had dropped off so much from his normal self, Joe has wondered aloud several times that maybe Winfield shouldn’t have been on the field.
The commenter in question stated (Joe is paraphrasing) the offense had a bunch of injuries, too, yet Liam Coen still produced.
That’s a fair point. Very fair. For three games, the Bucs were without their two Hall of Fame/Pro Bowl receivers. Granted, the Bucs lost all three but it wasn’t like the offense collapsed. Each game was a one-score losses. A
ll three were lost, in large part, because the Bucs either couldn’t get a stop late in the fourth quarter or in overtime.
Sense a pattern?
In Warren Sharp’s Sharp Football Analysis 2025 Preview, Sharp said all eyes are on the Bucs defense this fall.
The Bucs dropped from #12 to #25 in touchdowns allowed per drive, they dropped from #8 to #25 in turnovers forced per drive, and they consequently dropped from #11 to #18 in points allowed per drive.
Tampa is playing a slightly more difficult schedule of offenses in 2025, so they must improve tremendously on that side of the ball.
Doing a modicum of research this week, Joe was stunned to re-discover that, except for one season (2022), the Bucs have been in the bottom-third of the league in passing yards allowed per game. Three separate times the Bucs ranked No. 29 in passing yards allowed, including the last past seasons.
So yeah, Joe agrees. The defense better improve with new additions to every level.
And it would also go a long way if SirVocea Dennis and Jamel Dean can stay on the field. Those two have missed a combined 26 games the past two seasons. Not good.
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