JPP Loss Critical
July 26th, 2019
Invaluable.
Joe has rocket fuel for the crowd that loves to throw rocks at Gerald McCoy.
It seems, if you believe the stats crowd, the defensive line of the Bucs last year was a one-man gang. And that one man was none other than Jason Pierre-Paul.
First, the following found its way somehow into Joe’s timeline. It happens to come from one of the high priests of the PFF tribe, a failed minor league pitcher, this Steve Palazzolo.
Apparently, he and his trained orangutans decided to look at interior linemen and how much pressure they put on quarterbacks during a four-year period ending with the completion of last season.
Palazzolo came up with the top-ten interior linemen who produced the most quarterback pressures during that same time frame. Former Bucs stud Gerald McCoy, despite being widely considered by NFL people to be one of the best defensive tackles in the game this past decade, is nowhere to be found in his list while McCoy was one of the best tackles for compiling sacks in the NFL.
Highest pressure percentage, interior D-Linemen (2015-18):
1. Aaron Donald 17.8%
2. Geno Atkins 14.8
3. Fletcher Cox 14.2
4. Chris Jones 13.3
5. Sheldon Richardson 12.6
6. Malik Jackson 12.3
7. Mike Daniels 12.1
8. Kawann Short 11.4
9. Jurrell Casey 11.0
10. Cameron Heyward 10.9— Steve Palazzolo (@PFF_Steve) July 24, 2019
Now to be fair, this could very well be opposing teams knew they only had to take out GMC and their quarterbacks could eat a plate of wings from Hooters without being disturbed.
So what does this tell Joe? That while an effective pass rusher, GMC was, well, inconsistent. If you believe these numbers.
(No, Joe has no idea how the PFF tribe defines quarterback pressure.)
Then, Joe was reading Football Outsiders 2019 Almanac last night and came across the following from contributor, jet-flyin’, kiss–stealin‘, data-analyzin’, Bucs-film-studyin’, limousine-ridin’ Thomas Bassinger.
Despite JPP being one of the better pass rushers in the NFL last season, the Bucs defensive line was still little more than a piece of trash.
Tampa Bay traded for edge rusher Jason Pierre-Paul. The net result: The defense’s pressure rate improved from worst to second-worst.
And people actually wonder why Joe was screaming for the Bucs to draft edge rusher/outside linebacker Josh Allen or defensive lineman Ed Oliver. Screaming!
But think about this for a second: JPP played lights out last year and the rest of the slugs playing with him either played at the same rotten level as years before or perhaps worse? And this doesn’t factor in how Vita Vea in the latter weeks of the season was a force on the line.
That’s just how appallingly miserable the defensive line was outside of JPP and Vea. Unreal!
Not to give disgraced former Bucs defensive coordinator Mike Smith a pass here, but let this be an example of why opposing teams were playing flag football the last two seasons against the Bucs.
There you have it GMC haters. Joe’s arming you with baseball bats this cloudy Friday morning. Start swinging.
July 26th, 2019 at 9:39 am
Remember when everyone used to say how McCoy needed “help” around him and then he finally had 2 very good DEs with him last season and he still didn’t do much? Lowest tackle total of his career.
It tells you all you need to know about the Tampa media when the first question to Jameis yesterday was about a player who’s not even on the team anymore. Classic lazy Tampa media.
July 26th, 2019 at 9:46 am
Vita Vea improved immensely the last six games of the season. No mention of this Joe? Nassib was not bad either.
July 26th, 2019 at 9:46 am
Didn’t read the article, eh? 🙁
July 26th, 2019 at 9:47 am
Joe , ok my bad, you did mention Vita Vea.
July 26th, 2019 at 9:48 am
Lousy smitty didnt make things better by lining up in his predictable passive defense….smitty is the worse coach in BUcs history….back to back years with the worst defense in the league…..
regarding GMC, he aint been sh!t since 2014…..
we’ll bust his @$$ twice this year…..
GO BUCS!!!!!
July 26th, 2019 at 9:49 am
All new defense this year. Literally.
I don’t know what the end result will be, but it certainly will not be like last year. I’m looking forward to seeing the defense for the first time in years!!
July 26th, 2019 at 9:51 am
Out of curiosity, did the veterans report to training camp this morning? Was GMC among them? Strange, I thought he was a Panther now yet he continues to get as much JBF press as always.
July 26th, 2019 at 9:53 am
813bucboi Says:
“…smitty is the worse coach in BUcs history…”
I have to agree with this claim.
Here’s what I think…he sucked the whole time he was here, but for the first year or two, it was hard to really be sure it was him because he wasn’t given the talent to succeed. But last year, he had the talent and still sucked. No excuses were left.
Arthur Blank once blew his top that the defense under Smitty was not tough enough…and that was the problem here too. I get why Koetter brought him in…Dirk is very loyal to his friends. But it was also what doomed Koetter in the end.
July 26th, 2019 at 9:55 am
Those stats are skewed Joe.
They don’t factor in how much fun Softie93 was having, and as we all know, that’s really the most important stat when it comes to Old Gerry!
July 26th, 2019 at 9:55 am
Yesterday. The most boring story of the year. Dudes show up for work. Wow. Breaking news. The players who were made available by the Bucs have already been quoted in stories. Joe’s happy you were already aware of this apparently. smh
Just to help you out, this article is about how rotten the Bucs defensive line was and how valuable JPP is. So it uses information from the past two years, of which GMC was prominent on the defensive line.
If you want Joe to play with a crystal ball, well, if Joe had the power to read the future, he wouldn’t have this site. Joe would be on a beach of his private island in the Bahamas with babes hanging on him as Joe counts his billions on his smartphone apps from winning Powerball tickets.
July 26th, 2019 at 9:56 am
@Defense Rules
Its all over the media…but mostly it is taking digs at GMC. Arians made a comment about how players didn’t garner attention when they arrived…’they just drove right into the facility’.
I think that was a dig at McCoy and his showy arrivals in the past. Personally, I don’t think it matters.
July 26th, 2019 at 9:56 am
One thing is certain…..the defense cannot be worse this year.
July 26th, 2019 at 9:58 am
Time to stop blaming coaching.
No talent
#worstgminfootball
July 26th, 2019 at 10:00 am
Strange. Joe hasn’t sensed on social media anywhere Jags fans enraged over Jalen Ramsey showing up for camp in a Brinks truck.
Joe can only imagine how Bucs fans would have freaked out if GMC pulled the same stunt. The nerve!
July 26th, 2019 at 10:10 am
And this doesn’t factor in how Vita Vea in the latter weeks of the season was a force on the line.
^^^Absolutely. A lot of us forgot Vea the latter half. I hope everyone understands a rookie coming on at the end of the season is a sure fire sign that greatness is on the way. To start playing lights out at the END of losing season is very very rare it’s not like he was rested. Expect Vita and Spence to shut up a lot of haters this year.
July 26th, 2019 at 10:17 am
As far as defensive line goes, getting rid of players like Michael Bennett and replacing them with players like Swaggy Baker is not a recipe for success.
July 26th, 2019 at 10:24 am
Guitar-strumming, gun-totin’ Da’Quan Bowers.
July 26th, 2019 at 10:31 am
PFF was not high on JPP last year despite the sack total. I’m guessing his pressure % was low or something relative to the sack total compared to most 10+ sackers.
Year2 Vea should hopefully = upgrade over McCoy. Counting on combo of Suh/Barret/Nelson as new additions to make up for pass rush pressure from JPP. That’s 3 pass rushers we technically added. Can’t say we ignored it.
Also I recall a lot of plays where we were in our soft zone, and I’d basically see the hole in coverage – lot of them slants / quick throws between LB/CB, and those plays our DL had no chance to generate pressure statistics even if they beat their man within 1-2 seconds because the ball was out in 1.5.
Playing press to give our DL an extra 1-2 seconds should result in more pressure opportunities, especially with more aggressive blitzing.
At least in theory. We will need the coverage to be solid tho for this to work, hence the huge investment in secondary players in the draft that are – per BA words – guys who are smart / hardcore work ethic / and ready to play basically day 1
July 26th, 2019 at 10:36 am
We are all trained orangutans.
July 26th, 2019 at 10:39 am
McCoy is at the end of his career and on another team….can we move on? After all there’s plenty to write about now that training camp is upon us. The guy, like Djax, is now a total waste of ink.
July 26th, 2019 at 10:42 am
bonzai
arthur blank tried to warn us…..
GO BUCS!!!!!
July 26th, 2019 at 10:58 am
Well our OWN Buccaneers head coach says McCoy hasn’t been the same the last five years. I’m pretty sure he knows what he is talking about! This article backs up SOME of what he’s already addressed. Maybe we can find out if he has a Kimona in Panthers colors and did he wear it to opening of training camp. Better yet would be if Cam dressed as Superman and McCoy dressed as Batman. They could take that clown show on the road on their way to last place!
July 26th, 2019 at 11:03 am
Joe I would be curious to know about the pressure rates of 3-4 teams. This is what matters now. We are not going to run a 4-3 defense. Yes BA said we will run 4 man lines, but it will be with pressure from the secondary and Linebackers not the D line. GMC did not fit that because he only wanted to play the 3 technique. I would have traded him or released him as well. I wouldn’t want a player who doesn’t want to play the system I have.
And it is not just about creating a system for your players. If your players don’t fit any system which we didn’t on defense last year then you have to start somewhere and the big montra with every coaching staff is player buy in. From everything I have read GMC didn’t have by in from with any system, unless he was going to star!!! GMC while had some talent and put on a nice guy face, was not a team player. Took himself out many crucial times during games and just was a zero factor and didn’t make the people around him better. We also saw where he couldn’t control as a team captain Baker and other on his own side of the ball.
I was a big GMC fan when he was drafted, but just couldn’t get past those issues the longer I watched him. I started just watching him alone last year and just watched him stop rushing so many times it was getting sickening.
July 26th, 2019 at 11:03 am
Uhh, ya think?
July 26th, 2019 at 11:14 am
It’s funny when comes to JPP,initially he would be gone for the season. Now it’s as early as October,in a few weeks it’ll be “cleared to play week 1”. Guess it pays to be a freak healer. One thing does seem certain. He’s playing this season for the Bucs. Also came across a interesting stat from last season, the Bucs were 8th in the league in tackles for lost with 85. Interesting.
July 26th, 2019 at 11:40 am
One season for McCoy. Then Panthers cut him
July 26th, 2019 at 11:42 am
@Joe … “Joe has rocket fuel for the crowd that loves to throw rocks at Gerald McCoy.”
@Joe … “Just to help you out, this article is about how rotten the Bucs defensive line was and how valuable JPP is.”
Whatever (first line in the article kinda made it look like GMC was more the focus Joe). For as supposedly bad as the DLine was, JPP was on the field for 933 defensive snaps (89%) and GMC for 732 snaps (70%). Vea was only on for 493 snaps (47%) and Allen for 386 snaps (37%). Our ‘rotten’ DLine put up a combined 31.5 sacks, 77 QB Hits, 47 TFLs. That was better from a ‘pressure’ perspective than many previous Bucs’ DLines.
Last year’s shoddy defense was more a story about our LBs & Secondary not being able to get the job done than our DLine. Thus the addition of White, Bucannon, Barrett & Nelson as LBs, Murphy-Bunting, Dean, Edwards & Brice in the Secondary as well as Suh on the line will upgrade our defense considerably.
July 26th, 2019 at 11:53 am
There’s no way in sports that you can take stats and PFF pressure rates of all these players & add it all up & say that’s what we are.
This is a new team playing a new scheme with new leadership. Suh will be a main anchor for us and the team will feed off him. There will be a new energy on this defense(good or bad) and there is no way of telling how it’s gonna pan out. This front 7 will be entirely different then last year and that’s no joke. Even the guys we got coming back won’t be playing the same positions no more.
Y’all can judge our passrush before you see it as much as you like. Alls that tells me is you don’t understand how things like momentum, confidence & energy can make a difference.
July 26th, 2019 at 11:56 am
Either that or I am didn’t actually see my Ray’s sign a hitter that the Mets and Dodgers didn’t want cause he can’t hit………Only to see him come here and be our most productive hitter.
Not a stat in the world could have forsern that.
July 26th, 2019 at 12:05 pm
Carrion for the vultures!
D-line does not exist in a vacuum. When your “stud” MLB can’t tackle, your “under-rated” OLB is constantly out of position, 2 of your starting 3 DBs were UPS drivers, your safeties are rookies or play like rookies, and your defensive coordinator has the flexibility of a concrete brick, rushing the passer is the least of your worries.
We need contributions from EVERYONE, not just the DL.
July 26th, 2019 at 1:51 pm
@Joe replies are reading a bit snippy today. You usually take the bashing of your GMC love fest in better spirits. Maybe it really is time to move on. You could adjust the stats to see if Vea would make the top 10 over last half of the season? You could ask Suh who his favorite cartoon is (Batman does rock). Lots of stories right here in Bucs land.
July 26th, 2019 at 1:54 pm
https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/rankings/earnings/defense/all-time/
So what we’re saying is….the 5th highest paid defensive player in the history of the NFL is likely somewhere between 10-20th best at his position at getting after the QB.
And worse against the run.
Got it.
3 of the top 5 on that list are Bucs/ex Bucs. Not really a good thing, but at least we’re the best at something. Even if that something is giving away money to highly paid defenders.
July 26th, 2019 at 2:27 pm
When did GMC ever make a game saving tackle or game saving sack when we needed it to preserve or setup a win?
Everyone of those tackles on that list has, and there’s film to prove it. GMC was overrated because we didn’t have anyone better to take him to task, and the national media needed someone to prop up.
July 26th, 2019 at 4:10 pm
When are they going to bring Mike Daniels in cut jpp and sign him
July 26th, 2019 at 4:41 pm
I’m not gonna be critical of our D line Just yet. Both the loss of JPP and McCoy are huge. Everybody is high on Vita’s improvement which we have Yet..to see. Nassir will bring it. And Suh will play hard..when he wants to. We still gotta find another DE from somewheres. But..lets see what we got. Any improvement from last yrs dismal performance will be an improvement. If this Defense improves just 50%, we win more games than last year. I’d be happy with 8-8 for starters.
July 27th, 2019 at 1:43 am
Is Mike Daniels still available?