Ira Talks Defensive Line Upgrades, Clear 2018 Theming, Jensen Decision, Chubb Desperation, Licht’s Greatest Draft Challenge, And Much More
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Diving deep into the Buccaneers’ latest moves today is the great Sage of Tampa Bay sports, Mr. Ira Kaufman. Fire up the podcast right here as Ira and Joe wrestle with all the big free agency news, or enjoy at iTunes, Google Play or Podbean.com. Ranked on the Google Play podcast “Top Charts” for nearly FIVE consecutive months (all genres nationwide), the Ira Kaufman Podcast keeps you informed and entertained every Tuesday & Thursday — and there is NO offseason. Click or download above. It’s fun — free and easy, too. Enjoy!
March 20th, 2018 at 1:53 pm
The Truth of why this Organization “does not value a pass-rusher” is the simple fact that this has been a FULL blown rebuild from talk show dominik and NFL GM Licht’s marching orders were to build an Elite offense!!!!!!!!!!
Now that the offense is close to set, we will now see that value of defense return!!!!!!!!
March 20th, 2018 at 2:11 pm
Lord knows Dominik did a number on this roster.
We need some defense this year! I’m excited for the draft.
March 20th, 2018 at 2:53 pm
Dominick did leave us with some parting gifts don’t forget now. Topping the list is our prospective franchise QB Glennon
Jonathan Banks
Akeem Spence
Will Gholston
Mike James
March 20th, 2018 at 3:16 pm
Great podcast Ira! But next time tell the loud Joe (Lee? I get their names confused) to stop breathing into the microphone! Sounds like he’s leering at Rachel Watson!
March 20th, 2018 at 3:19 pm
BUCLIFE is pretty simple folks. Let not complicate this. Ever since the Bucs got away from there bread and Butter….Defense. They have never regained their status in this league. You Thought..a powerhouse offense was required. It is not. Its the reverse. An Outstanding defense and a good or slightly above average Offense is the ticket. You win with this more than you lose. And our outings show this. Get the Defense right and our Bucs will win more games..Quite a few more. And You’d better have a pass rush come September!! Simple ..even a caveman understands…
March 20th, 2018 at 3:26 pm
So us taking Howard at 19 means we don’t value a pass rusher?
If Derek Barnett was on the board then I buy the point. The best available remaining DEs were Charles Harris and Tak McKinley though – likely rated in the 20s on the Bucs board.
No one had those guys in the class of Howard – who the Bucs had as a top 5 TE in the class; and many scouts were saying he was basically a generational TE akin to Rob Gronkowski but without the health issues. You can’t just ignore this.
So no – drafting Howard does not mean we do not value an edge rusher. A better example would be Evans at S over an edge rusher in R2; or Aguayo over Ngokue.
Value and need have not met us yet in the high rounds for DE.
2014 – a highly drafted DE = no Mike Evans and likely Anthony Barr; who’s never topped 4 sacks
2015 – Dante Fowler said he didn’t want to play here ; and we draft him then we have no franchise QB
2016 – Shaq Lawson I guess? Not a great DE class in R1
2017 – Charles Harris or Tak Mckinnley? Combined for 8 sacks total between them. Howard looks like a future all pro still imo we’ll see what happens.
The point is – you can’t hit every need every offseason. Realist’s point is valid – there is literally no talent left here from Dominik beyond McCoy/David.
Sure we could have drafted more DEs… but then we’d likely be mad we ignored .
My biggest gripe would be spending resources on the secondary (VHIII/Smith/Evans) that could have all been pass rushers that likely help the team more. But then again the secondary would be bare as hell if we did that.
March 20th, 2018 at 3:26 pm
Oops – meant the Bucs had Howard as a top 5 player in the draft (not top 5 TE)
March 20th, 2018 at 4:09 pm
Cornelius. Very insightful post. Sometimes you just gotta be in the right place at the right time, and even then ya never really know what you are getting.
March 20th, 2018 at 4:22 pm
Vh3 didn’t fall off the map, he was pushed off by Mike Smith. He didn’t play soft zone at Florida.
Get Chubb, get anyone you want on dline, if they keep playing that soft there will be no improvement. The secondary is the biggest issue on this team.
Lions just resigned Zach Zenner to a cheap contract. Offer them a 7th for him and pair him and barber for a power run game after drafting that guard with the 7th
March 20th, 2018 at 4:23 pm
Nelson
March 20th, 2018 at 5:26 pm
Ira, While I realize they need a pass rusher i think you are underestimating what the inside tackles can do to help the pass rush(the ones we just signed). Just think about Curry moving the QB up into the pocket into a much better DT in McCoy then he is used to. Also Mccoy will push the QB back into Curry by making them step back into the pocket.
Don’t get me wrong I think the Bucs still could add another DE with rushing ability if one is there in the draft or the later waiver wire but Quinn? Come on…if he can’t stay on the field he is of no value and no one is sure he will, of which I doubt he will be.
Just buying players that are old and for short term gain is exactly what Gruden did in the later years of the Bucs which is what he is already doing with the raiders.
A GM has to find the one or two under valued player and make them a star, which if Curry is in on passing downs which he was not at the eagles he can show if he can raise the sacks significantly for himself or someone else on the line.
Noah Spence may be the answer assuming he can ever play a full year also, remember Ira, sometimes it may be the healthiest teams that make the play offs and not just the best ones.
March 20th, 2018 at 6:11 pm
It’s also not like we haven’t tried to sign DEs. Let’s look at the best available since 2014. Let’s really see if the organization really doesn’t give a sh1t about rushing the passer:
2014 – Michael Johnson – DE – rated as a top 3 player by NFL.com. We signed him. Everyone loved the move at the time. Next best rated DE was Lamarr Houston who also has done nothing. The other better DEs that year re-signed with their team. Sounds like we sure were trying to upgrade at DE…
2015 – Greg Hardy(?). Not a great class. We flirted with it though. I liked Jabaal Sheard that year and he’s averaged like 6 sacks per year. Nothing special tho really. NOt the magical double digits.
2016 – Olivier Vernon. Sure would have been great to have him but he cost $85 million. He has 15.5 sacks in 2 seasons with the Giants. Is that worth $85 million and an inability to sign a ton of players we currently roster? Mario Williams also signed that year. A lot of people wanted him. He had 1.5 sacks in 2016.
We signed Robert Ayers – who gave us 6.5 sacks in 12 games in 2016. Even after cutting him i’m not sure what move we should have made here in FA that we didn’t.
2017 – Campbell. That’s the one. The only one man. In 4 years of FA – in terms of missing an obvious DE upgrade – and even then – this was a guy who never had double digit sacks and was more of a DT since he’s 300 lbs.
Still should have signed him. But missing out on 1 good signing in 4 years doesn’t say to me “This team doesn’t give a sh1t about pass rush”
Sometimes the cards don’t fall right for all positions. Other than blowing the 2016 draft; I’m not sure what Licht could have really done. The team was signing DEs every year but there were never many studs available; and in most years the supposed “studs” were huge flops that I’m happy we missed out on.
March 20th, 2018 at 6:15 pm
So let me get this straight for the first 2 days of free agency this team was horrible and didn’t spend money but when they sign Jensen they only got a guy who Baltimore didn’t want. I am starting to clearly see why most of the commenters on the site are negative. I am about sick of all the negativity no matter what they do.