Old memories.
So when manbeast future Hall of Fame defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh left the Bucs after the 2021 season, who replaced him?
Devoted Bucs fans will remember that was Akiem Hicks.
The former Bears Pro Bowler was a 6-4, 335-pound monster who was past his prime at 32 years old but known for rushing the passer and not being pushed around in the run game.
Hicks, who came to the Bucs with an injury history, battled injuries through 11 starts in Tampa and then was out of football. However, the desire to land a Hicks-like presence didn’t fully leave the Bucs. They went smaller on the defensive front the past three seasons and now they’re trying to get bigger.
The 2026 offseason move from Logan Hall (now with the Texans) to signing A’Shawn Robinson was about getting bigger and nastier. Robinson has at least 30 pounds on Hall and a history of not being blocked by tight ends, among others.
While patrolling the NFL annual meeting in Phoenix, Joe heard plenty of chatter about the Bucs looking to restore their once-proud run defense.
Head coach/defensive playcaller Todd Bowles hit on that last week along with retired Lavonte David. Asked what his primary tweak will be on defense, Bowles looked in the trenches.
“We gotta get back to controlling the line of scrimmage up front,” Todd Bowles told The Exhibit. “You know, our interior guys have to dominate the line of scrimmage. And if we can do that, everything flows off of that. But it starts with the defensive line.”
David told The Arena Gridiron he thinks the Bucs are returning to what kicked off the Bruce Arians/Todd Bowles era.
“I feel like Coach Bowles is getting back to his formula defensively,” David said. “Because, you know, we kind of like changed our regular schemes from the first first couple of years when we won the Super Bowl, our scheme was really to stop the run. It got to a point people didn’t want to run the ball on us.”
David said he likes the additions of Robinson and inside linebacker Alex Anzalone because that brings the Bucs closer to what worked so well, as they are players that can play the run and the pass. He suggested adding another interior defensive lineman, but those comments came before the Friday signing of DT Rakeem Nuñez-Roches, a rotational piece for the Bucs (2018-2022) during the last Super Bowl run.
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