Bucs Likely Made A Decision On Bringing In A Veteran Corner

September 27th, 2021

Bucs coach Bucco Bruce Arians.

Bucs Super Bowl-winning coach Bucco Bruce Arians has said some very interesting things about cornerbacks over the past week.

And in the wake of his secondary getting roasted yesterday in a loss to the Rams, in large part because of backup corners being forced to play major minutes after injuries to starters, it seems clear Arians is leaning on bringing in a new corner or two.

Whether that is by trade or by free agent signing is unclear.

The first tip (if the play of the backups wasn’t a tell) was Arians’ first comment about the Bucs’ pass defense after yesterday’s loss.

“Busted coverage,” Arians said of the major issues the secondary. “Just totally busted the coverage. Lack of communication and they didn’t get the call to each other. That’s what young guys do.”

The last sentence in Arians’ words all but announces the Bucs are after a veteran corner. And Arians, later in his postgame remarks, suggested that whether the Bucs will go out and get a corner has already been made by the time this story is published.

Arians was asked about the probability of bringing in new corners and replied, “Well, we brought a couple of guys in, in the last couple of weeks, that have experience – long and tall corners. We’ll make that decision on the plane, on the ride home.”

Surely the Bucs have landed by now.

So when Arians is scheduled to speak to the local pen and mic club at 2:30 p.m. this afternoon, will he announce a new corner or two?

And will Richard Sherman, for the first time in his life, play for a team not located in the Western time zone?

45 Responses to “Bucs Likely Made A Decision On Bringing In A Veteran Corner”

  1. PassingThru Says:

    Some of the slower fans seem to think that using the second round pick on Trask was a great move. So I’ll repeat:

    A late second round pick shouldn’t be spent on a backup QB who looked overdrafted during the preseason. If you cannot find a CB on the board that you like in the late second, and you know the CB depth is paper-thin, you should have a contingency plan in place like calling around to see who is available for the pick.

    Now whether you draft a CB or trade for one with the second round pick, you have three benefits:

    1. You buttress the weakest position starters on the Bucs;

    2. You provide the team with depth as CBs get injured. Again, this team was paper-thin at CB to begin with;

    3. You develop scheme versatility when the pass rush fails. When the front 7 are not delivering what you need, or when additional pass coverage is needed you have the quality available to go to a nickel or dime personnel package.

    And of course items 1, 2, & 3 give you a helluva lot more than Kyle Trask as Super Bowl windows tend to slam quickly. Look at Seattle, the quintessential one year dynasty. They lost one member of the Legion of Boom and curled their toes.

  2. SB~LV Says:

    Yesterday and the first two games were much much more than DB’s
    Sloppy sloppy play, by play I mean ALL and every component of football including Tom Brady. That loss yesterday against a GOOD football team was the best thing that could happen to the players and coaches.
    They will get their Sierra together. Rest Gronk, this could be his last season, I understand he is/was injured but that is not what I am talking about. His athleticism is waning, Brate and OJ need to become the go to TE’s

  3. Anonymous Says:

    Arians said Gronk was fine as is Gio. He will get his vet day off and he will also not practice till probably tuesday or wednesday. He’s gonna be good to go for Pats as will Gio.

    Brate and Howard do need to be involved more because the three headed monster is very good. Brate is Mr. Reliable in many ways.

  4. Joe in Michigan Says:

    PassingThru: You forgot to a few important questions that don’t fit your narrative:

    1) What if Trask is good?

    2) What CB SHOULD the Bucs have taken? If you CAN’T NAME ONE, then you agree that there probably wasn’t one there in the 2nd Round that would’ve helped this year.

    3) What good does it do to whine about it now? Let me answer this one for you: IT DOESN’T.

  5. Joe in Michigan Says:

    *You forgot a few important questions*

  6. ModHairKen Says:

    PassingThru, they have been drafting DBs the last few years. What has it gotten them? Young players with promise and no experience. So griping about this draft is just griping that they did not do the same thing again that has not been working.

    More important, these young DBs are all experienced enough now that what we saw yesterday and against the Cowboys should not have happened.

    But the blame does not only lie there. The pass rush was not good.

    It was one bad game.

  7. PassingThru Says:

    @Joe in MI

    1. Sure, if Trask is expected to be a franchise QB, but the chances of that are slim to none, and Slim has left town. To reiterate yet again and again and again: Super Bowl contention windows tend to be brief. Early draft picks should be used for either impact performers within that window, or to replace a vet who is either aging or expected to leave.

    2. Again, read my post thoroughly. I covered this. And again, CB depth was a known problem. What problem did Trask address in that context? Or any context within the Super Bowl contention period?

    3. You got me there. Why should we be discussing football on a football board? Put down the pom poms.

  8. PassingThru Says:

    Drafting DBs? I’m talking specifically about CB depth. It was paper-thin. Was it addressed in the second round? No. Was it addressed in the third round? No. Was it addressed in the fourth round? No. Was it addressed in the fifth round? No. Was it addressed in the sixth round? No. Was it addressed in the seventh round? Winner winner chicken dinner.

  9. Anonymous Says:

    Honestly the Bucs offense played lights out yesterday. Brady shredded a top 3 defense in the NFL and it wasn’t even funny. We get our secondary corrected and healthy the rematch with the Rams will be us getting revenge.

    We’ll have AB, JPP, SMB, Dean, and Sherman hopefully. I mean come on now.

    The Bucs offense was shredding the Rams top defense and they didn’t have AB whom would have probably led the team yesterday.

  10. Joe in Michigan Says:

    PassingThru: Again, I ask…Why are you whining about it now? What good does it do, other than maybe you like to whine?

  11. AlabamaBucsFan Says:

    No teams have infinite depth at every position. Ours just happens to be at CB.

  12. PassingThru Says:

    @Joe in MI:

    Don’t get your panties in a bunch. I answered, it is awaiting the moderation cycle.

  13. Ryan T Baker Says:

    That being said , Ross Cockrell is damn good athlete (4.4 40yd / 40” vertical) . He may just need a little more practice in playing time before he comes around . He made some decent plays yesterday, but there are still some tho TD he needs to clean up.

  14. Bucsfanman Says:

    Yeah, hindsight is 20/20. That ship has sailed.
    This is kind of a “no-brainer”. We need help, and stat.

    I’ll simply point out that even adding a vet DB doesn’t make up for a lack of pass-rush. Lets not pretend that the two aren’t interconnected. Stafford had all day to pick us apart.

  15. Joe in Michigan Says:

    PassingThru: Whiners are gonna whine. You’re the one with your panties in a bunch over the 2021 draft. Your “I told you so” attitude is as weak as you are.

  16. Man Child Says:

    No defensive pressure exposed the secondary for three straight weeks.
    A non-existent running game, injuries compiling at positions we are already thin at. Sure it’s only week three; but the cause for alarm is entirely justified.

  17. Man Child Says:

    *And that’s not even bringing up the wealth of sloppy needless penalties

  18. Booch the Bucs Fan Says:

    Speaking of penalties, did anyone else notice some bias in favor of the Rams? Some of those calls were ridiculous. Granted, there were some sloppy mistakes on the part of the Bucs, but there were more than a few calls that had me scratching my head…

  19. BucsBeBack (Artist formally known as: BringBucsBack) Says:

    I doubt there are any unemployed NFL pass-rushers, waiting for the phone to ring?! That call may need to be made, too.

  20. Leighroy Says:

    How dense do you have to be to wake up at 5am to repeat your flawed argument that a 3rd round talent, 4th string rookie cb, was the missing link this year in the secondary? Believing that some fool from UCF or Canada was going to come in and cover Cooper Kupp better than anyone else in their 3rd nfl game is comical.

  21. Hodad Says:

    Passing by. No rookie corner taken with the last pick in the second round was going to make a difference yesterday. You think a rookie corner was going to shut down Cooper Cupp? Was he going to sack Stafford who had all day to throw? The Bucs have drafted plenty of young corners, maybe to many. How about a good second round RB, that might’ve helped. Would’ve could’ve. Why didn’t we use our third round pick on a corner instead of a back up guard, why not in the fourth instead of moving up for a receiver? Get what I’m saying about being so down on Trask?

  22. Jerry Says:

    For those crying about the Trask pick (still)… What rookie CB would we have taken at that pick that would have made any difference yesterday? Instead of simply trashing the pick, I want you to name names.

    You can have Sherman and Revis in their primes back their. But if you can’t get any pressure at all on the QB, you will get picked apart. We are not getting any pressure from the front 7. Which is actually a bigger problem than CB because so much money and picks are invested in that group and getting zero production.

  23. Cobraboy Says:

    Remember when folks talked about all-time team sack leaders?

    Remember when Barrett took aim at the all-time sack record?

    This is what a Super Bowl hangover looks like: 90% effort with 20% heart.

    I don’t blame the offense that much. Some, but they are not the problem. It’s a heartless defense that smells…without any real leadership.

    Did David & White even dress out?

  24. Gofortheface30 Says:

    No second round corner was going to snake different yesterday to be sure. Maybe. Perhaps. Altho I’ll say second round is still a high value pick and more times than not a second rounder will be more of a blue chip guy than a dee Delaney, or a Cockrell. In any event seems to me a lot of Gator fans on here white knighting a little too hard for Trask as well, and you guys can pretty much Blow me. Seriously F off Gator fan. Trask will never be that guy, and people are allowed to be of the opinion that it was a wasted pick. Gd fat Gator fans getting so bent, you guys are more annoying than the people “whining” over the wasted pick

  25. BucsFanSince1976 Says:

    Perhaps if Edwards catches the floater instead of dropping it and the D gets on a fumble that was loose for a very long time , maybe the storyline is a little different
    Fully expect Licht to sign 1 or 2 players in the next 48 , while else would he have cleared 4 mil on Marpet redo. Bucs are extremely deep at TE , if a contender loses a upper tier TE and wants to swap a good corner???? Although player for player trades in the NFL are rare.
    A dose of humble pie at this juncture of the season can be a wonderful motivator(Chiefs are very motivated). Bucs will be fine , Brady will be laser focused for his old team and getting to say after the game , “You should have kept me Billy”.

  26. Eddie Marz Says:

    Lot of Monday morning quarterbacks. Anyway nobody wins them all. Bucs lost five games last year into their Supet Bowl run. I expect them to be better this year, just not perfect. GO BUCS!

  27. FrankPillow Says:

    Sure CBs are an issue…but I’d argue the REAL issue is piss poor pressure by the DL and OLBs, along with a blitz game that is confusing nobody.

  28. lambeau Says:

    The Panthers are in on Sherman, according to The Athletic,to replace Jaycee Horn–their new GM is from Seattle. The phones are busy this morning.

  29. Duane Says:

    The Rams are a great team that played well yesterday. Can they survive the NFC West and be there again at the end of the year? Maybe. Likely the toughest game on our schedule. Not playing our best football, and im fine with it. Any team that loses two of their top 3 corners is going to struggle.

  30. TOM Says:

    I almost hate to say this but the real issue could be defensive coaching & BA.

  31. Ed Jean-Pierre Says:

    The DB’s looked very confused yesterday.
    I don’t think young DB’s should be expected to master complex schemes like a mix of zone and
    mam to man. The scheme should be simplified to playing
    man to man and grab the receiver if he is getting away from you. After all there is no foul out in football.

  32. AMI_Chris Says:

    I watch a lot of football on Sundays and seem to see a lot of DBs who are able to cover their receivers tightly. Even the great Bucs’ receivers seem to get a lot of tight coverage. Yet Bucs’ opponents seem to be in the clear way too often. I fear that with no pass rush, we’ll continue to be toast. If Mac Jones carves us up, that will be a really, really bad sign. (Matt Ryan couldn’t do hardly anything against the Giants yesterday.)

  33. David Says:

    PASSING THRU…

    They did draft a corner it just wasn’t in the second round. Maybe they didn’t feel like there was good value in the second round. The first thing you want to do is go point to the past with 2020 vision and bitch and complain. So many buccaneer fans do that. It’s a joke. The bottom line is they have drafted better than any team in the NFL for about four years now, so get over it and move on. They have 3 starting cornerbacks, two of them happen to be hurt right now. They have 3 starting safeties, one of them is not 100%.

  34. buc4evr Says:

    We all knew that CB was a glaring weakness last year and not much was done in the offseason to correct the situation. DL and OLB’s certainly didn’t help and neither did Bowles defensive plan. We played two deep and still got beat, might as well bump the WR at the line and play tight man coverage. It can’t be worse.
    As far as Sherman, they better sign him today.

  35. Johnny W Harris Says:

    I have a few things to say like it or not I think windfield Junior needs to be swapped out now and we need to get a better safety cuz you got guys just running past this man it’s not just the front seven it is totally on our second dairy but we do need to pick up some better safety and db’s better and Todd bows got to stop just let one and two players beat us to on defense man and learn how to double team a player man if it’s one are two players beating us man over man under and that will stop that you have force a team to make someone else beat you not just one are two players look what we did to KC you have to do the same to other team’s

  36. Brandon Says:

    PassingThru Says:
    September 27th, 2021 at 5:18 am
    Some of the slower fans seem to think that using the second round pick on Trask was a great move.

    —————————

    Slower fans seem to think you build a defense from the back to the front… the Schiano Dominik way. Waste a 1st round pick on Barron, spill big bucks for Goldston… but NOPE! That’s what dunces do. Get a pass rush and the secondary will flourish.

  37. TiredBucsFan Says:

    Henderson is gone to Panthers.

  38. alton d green Says:

    i’ve been watching for approx 60 yrs. Remember those cardboard cut-outs from last year? I’ll let you guys figure out where i’m going with this hahahaha

  39. alton d green Says:

    I’m relieved that BA hasn’t blamed Tommy Boy (yet) or President Trump

  40. Sparky Says:

    Who knew there were so many professional NFL scouts and talent evaluators spending their free time commenting on Joe’s.wrbsite. it really is amazing.

  41. firethecannons Says:

    wish we could trade Kyle Trask for a decent corner

  42. BerrickDrooks Says:

    Rojo all the way.

  43. gus georgiou Says:

    Please bring someone in, anybody is better than what we have put out on the field in the first 3 games

  44. TampabayDJ82 Says:

    Maybe if I picked a 4-2-7 in my powerball ticket instead of the one’s I did , I would be a MILLIONAIRE !! BUT I DIDN’T !! The Bucs didn’t need a CB coming into the season !! Not a STARTING CALIBER CORNER !! Injuries are the only reason we are having this conversation !!

  45. Joe in Michigan Says:

    PassingThru Says:
    September 27th, 2021 at 5:54 am
    @Joe in MI

    1. Sure, if Trask is expected to be a franchise QB
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    Talk about unrealistic expectations for the last pick of the 2nd Round! Wow!