Now that the offseason is in full swing, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be turning their attention to fixing up roster holes that largely held the team back last season. At the top of the list is pass rush help, an area that plagued the BUcs last year despite not cratering on paper nearly as badly as it seemed on the field.
Despite finishing 11th in pass rush, the Bucs struggled situationally to clamp down on opposing quarterbacks. We saw on more than one occassion that the lack of a decent pass rush allowed teams like the Falcons, 49ers, and Chiefs to mount comebacks in the final minute of games to flip the eventual outcome.
A lot of other things went into that happening, but pass rush going M.I.A. certainly didn't help.
The Buccaneers are on the cusp of truly competing for a Super Bowl, which is why Myles Garrett requesting a trade out of Cleveland caught the attention of so many in Tampa Bay. Adding a future Hall of Famer seemed like a no-brainer decision if the Bucs could make it happen, but it turned out to be much easier said than done.
That dream -- which was more of a pipe dream than anything else -- officially came to an end on Sunday.
Buccaneers miss out on a Myles Garrett trade, but it's not the end of the world
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One of the early plot twists of free agency involved Garret not getting traded by the Browns, but rather agreeing to a [record-setting new contract extension to keep him in Cleveland](https://x.com/MySportsUpdate/status/1898763374382444820). It's a move that takes him off the board for the Bucs, but doesn't really impact their pursuit of finding pass rush help over the next few weeks.
Trading for Garrett was always sort of a longshot, especially considering how much it would cost in future assets in more than one way. Not only would the Bucs have needed to surrender multiple draft picks -- which we know Jason Licht loves -- but the historic contract extension he got from the Browns would have been a bill for the Bucs to foot had they acquired him.
Mike Greenberg has been a salary cap wizard over the last few seasons, but fitting a massive contract for Garrett on the books with everything else the team needs to do is a tall task.
Instead the Bucs are back on the road we all throught they'd be going down heading into free agency. There's a wealth of veteran talent about to hit the market, which pairs well not only with what the team has in Calijah Kancey and Yaya Diaby but whoever ends up joining as part of the rookie class.
Here's an incomplete list of potential free agent targets the Bucs could pursue:
* Josh Sweat
* Khalil Mack
* Joey Bosa
* Dayo Odeyingbo
* Chase Young
* Haason Reddick
* Von Miller
* Demarcus Lawrence
Again, that's an _incomplete_ list which just goes to show how much talent Tampa Bay will be able to look at bringing in. Harold Landry III, Matthew Judon, and Dante Fowler could all be options as well so there shouldn't be a shortage of pass rush help for the Bucs to look at even though they missed out on Garrett.
It would have been nice to add him, but the cost was always going to be too much. Now we can look at what the team would have needed to pay for him and see what they can get on the market and in the draft to patch up a key area of the roster with more than one player.
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