Getting After The Quarterback
February 12th, 2021
Quarterbacks’ nightmare.
Joe was honestly shocked reading this stat.
Regular readers know Joe has an erection for sacks. Simply put, a quarterback cannot throw the ball when his arse is lying in grass. And if you cannot sack the guy, you hit him, Al Davis-style: “Hard!”
And if you cannot do that, then get the quarterback off his mark so he must run.
By all means, get after the quarterback. Nothing is more important on defense in a passing league. As we witnessed Sunday night, a pass rush can win you a Super Bowl.
Now when Joe thinks of a pass rush, Joe thinks of the Steelers. That front-seven is a monster for quarterbacks to handle. Joe also thinks of the Rams led by future Hall of Fame tackle Aaron Donald.
The Bucs? They’re good and sometimes damn good rushing the passer. Well, the PFF tribe dug up stats to suggest the Bucs are better than damn good all the time in getting heat on a quarterback.
It seems the Bucs led the NFL in quarterback pressures in 2020, and not by a little.
Pressures generated this season:
1. Buccaneers – 441
2. Steelers – 367
3. Bills – 362
4. Rams – 350 pic.twitter.com/INZ73K87ap— PFF (@PFF) February 12, 2021
This surprised Joe, but it really shouldn’t have. Joe knows the Bucs had 29 pressures on Patrick Mahomes in the Super Bowl. Joe heard this week that was a Super Bowl record.
So it makes sense. A team that sets a Super Bowl record ought to be pretty good in that areas in the regular season.
The Bucs’ front-seven deserves all the credit. And so too does defensive line coach Kacy Rodgers, the former Bill Parcells assistant. Wherever Rodgers has been, his teams have always been able to rush the passer.
February 12th, 2021 at 9:07 am
Draft a younger Edge rusher in the first round and we can keep this tradition going.
February 12th, 2021 at 9:07 am
Boom! I hope they can keep the band together for one more year.
February 12th, 2021 at 9:08 am
A good trend to continue!
February 12th, 2021 at 9:15 am
Must keep the dline in tact including Suh. Go Bucs!!
February 12th, 2021 at 9:21 am
Bucs had 344 pressures in the regular season (2n)… then added 100 in the post season. That’s huge! They really turned it on when it mattered most.
February 12th, 2021 at 9:23 am
No where to run, no where to hide.
Enjoy because it is hard to duplicate.
The second SB Ring is like “we are part of the Big Boy franchises now!
If I was JL I would roll the dice hard against the cap this year because as I said it is extremely hard to get to this point.
The Hell with cap hell is the yell!
Of course there will be a painful hangover on the other side
Strike while you can !
February 12th, 2021 at 9:30 am
Absolutely have to keep this defense together. With the GOAT running the offense, it just seems silly to spend precious dollars on guys like Godwin or AB. Tyler Johnson is a stud just waiting for his chance.
Licht needs to keep the band together on defense while drafting for the future there, as well. Draft edge rushers and an LVD replacement. Then focus on QB of the future.
February 12th, 2021 at 9:40 am
Joe I think you along with the majority of long time Bucs fan find it hard to fathom things like the Bucs having a dominant pass rush, or a good running game or a good offensive line or even a good kicker.
We are all so used to the Bucs stinking at so many facets of the game that it is hard to believe the Bucs are not only the best team in the NFL, but also the most talented team in the NFL too.
February 12th, 2021 at 9:56 am
Exactly BigPoppaBuc!
February 12th, 2021 at 10:23 am
I agree OBF ! Licht has to ride the cap hard , like a 21 yo stripper in the space ship at the odyssey!
February 12th, 2021 at 10:35 am
Yea deff want to keep the defense together but deff should start drafting replacements for jpp suh and lvd. Like joe said you cannot have to many pass rushers. If there is a guy in the 1st rd that could replace suh jpp or lvd I say go get them.
February 12th, 2021 at 10:41 am
Ive been saying for some time
I think they may have best front 7 in entire nfl
And the back end is getting better with experience in tough games.
Cant wait for next year
Use tag on barrett if need be
Suh will be had for 8-9 mil per
Lavonte will sign for around 10-12 ish per
And draft dline tackle /edge rusher 2 of 3 picks in first 3 rounds
February 12th, 2021 at 10:43 am
Let’s get JJ Watt now too, see if he wants to win a ship
February 12th, 2021 at 10:56 am
Guarentees we will not be Drafting an Edge player at 32. Unless without a doubt that player will be the Highest Graded player left. You think taking like the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th Edge player is going to be Graded higher than the 2nd or 3rd RB?
February 12th, 2021 at 10:58 am
Sadly we may have to choose between jpp and Barrett (assuming jpp doesn’t have a bunch of dead money this year). We prob also lose brown and/or Godwin. Can only spend so much money at either of those positions. But we will see what Licht is able to pull off. I do know it’s easier to replace a receiver than it is a pass rusher.. we may also lose Suh. David will be a noticeable drip off if we lose him as well. Gotta prioritize the defense and either day you are probably drafting an olb and a dline early. I’m sure we will add a vet or two for replacement. Have to hope Nelson takes another step and maybe a surprise like cam gill
February 12th, 2021 at 10:59 am
@Joe … “And so too does defensive line coach Kacy Rodgers, the former Bill Parcells assistant.”
I don’t disagree that Kacy Rodgers is a heckuva DLine coach Joe, but IMO it’s an oversight not to even once mention Todd Bowles in the article. The beauty of Sunday night started with the game plan, and it had the Chiefs totally discombobulated. Defensive play-calling was also spot-on IMO. Mahomes probably had ‘Nowhere to Run; Nowhere to Hide’ racing through his head on each play.
Getting Vea back for the playoffs was huge obviously, but Suh was an even bigger factor in my eyes. He was a beast all game, and wasn’t gonna be denied a SB victory for a second time. And JPP & Shaq were always there to squeeze the play. Their constant pressure on Mahomes made him look almost mortal.
February 12th, 2021 at 11:17 am
jj watt…
nothing more need be said…
#AddAnotherOlderBeast
February 12th, 2021 at 11:39 am
R O
There is edge rusher out of miami …cannot think of name…
He has got character concerns…one being he is trying to be rapper…so questioned his desire for football
I think he may have several concussions so concern there too
But that is how guys drop
I mean remember sapp drug testing issue near draft and reason for falling so much to bucs who took a flyer and the rest was history
So it can happen. But yah..its usually cause risk involved. Or maybe the player is from a tiny school. But it can happen
February 12th, 2021 at 11:42 am
If we cant re-sign Shaq, maybe make an offer to JJ Watt..
February 12th, 2021 at 11:57 am
Just WOW!
February 12th, 2021 at 11:58 am
I can easily see JPP and Suh taking a bit of a discount to wrap up their career in a system they know, with TB12 as the captain of the (pirate ship) and having another shot at another ring.
They are only considering legitimate contenders at this stage of their careers and their aren’t many teams that match up as more likely to win than the Bucs. Will the chiefs offer either one 2-3 million more , and is that worth learning a new system rather than being the savvy established member of the group.
Shaq, Godwin, LVD are the staples we need to worry most about, assuming Brown and Fournette move on. Lenny will likely command a lot of money at his age although was he really that impressive ? Is he going to carry a team, he seemed much more a complimentary asset rather than a young Adrian Peterson.
February 12th, 2021 at 12:00 pm
Shaq we love you but you’re no TJ Watt ! Unless you take Vita with you your numbers aren’t going to rocket 🚀 upwards
February 12th, 2021 at 12:07 pm
Go all in on Kareem Hunt. We need a legit pass catching back for this offense. Other than that, retain the entire defense. Restructure ME13 and try to bring Godwin back as well if at all possible.
February 12th, 2021 at 12:16 pm
I think we may lose David. That being said I think the Bucs trade up a few spots and snag Jeremiah Owusu-Koramo.
February 12th, 2021 at 12:24 pm
Going to be a buyer’s market this year. The Bucs are in a great spot. The big free agents will get signed in March, which gives Licht a chance to bring back Shaq. I think the bigger free agent movement will be later when the vets have to choose between taking less money or not playing. The Bucs get two bites at the free agency apple this year. If you cannot resign the high cost guys to keep them, then you just go after a bunch of bargain players. All likely to be one year deals, so get ready to do it yet again in 2022. Winning has a positive effect on every aspect of how a team operates, and its interesting to experience these benefits.
February 12th, 2021 at 12:31 pm
Just another note. You lose Shaq and Godwin to FA due to cost, and you likely acquire some compensatory picks. Better than nothing and just another smooth move by Licht considering how cost effective Shaq has been for the last two years.
February 12th, 2021 at 12:36 pm
True about compensatory picks, but don’t think we see those until the following offseason, so wouldn’t help us this year
February 12th, 2021 at 12:43 pm
Sadly as good as Godwin has become his is just one of a very talented group and sadly he would be on the top of the odd man out list of mine, pains me to type that but it is best for both sides
February 12th, 2021 at 12:45 pm
That is called bringing the heat!
February 12th, 2021 at 1:04 pm
Like I said before, Jason should offer reasonable contracts to all of our FA. If they do not want to play for us then good luck in the rest of their career. There are just too many older players who just simply want a ring as opposed to high dollars. Face it, the Bucs are in great shape really.
February 12th, 2021 at 2:16 pm
I mentioned in a different thread about how the 2020 roster will likely go down as one of the most stacked rosters in NFL history.
The sad, flipside to that point is that the salary cap is in place to prevent such teams from maintaining that status.
Its a damn shame we are having a cap reduction for 2021…
February 12th, 2021 at 3:54 pm
Pressures are kind of a made up stat, so take it for what it’s worth, it’s someone opinion and/or eyeballing a play to come up with the stat.
Regardless the Bucs started out the season on fire, then defensively went into that slump where they just played a weaksauce soft zone with seemingly no pressure, before closing out the year strong, but with the corners playing terribly. But, they got it together, and got hot, in the playoffs. I really wonder what exactly we’re going to see next season, because the Bucs defense was dramatically better in the SB than they were over the last 8 weeks of the season. So did the players just kick it up a notch, or did they get lazy waiting for the playoffs to begin?
February 12th, 2021 at 4:01 pm
Does this stat include the playoffs? For all the tome the secondary got burned during the season I’m surprised that number is so high. After the by week that all kinda changed and the playoffs became even more different. When that front line gets pressure it really makes that back end look even better. Could imagine what that number would be if Vea was around all year! Keep getting better champs!
February 12th, 2021 at 7:55 pm
Dan Snyder is going to be sniffing around for Barrett