Todd Bowles Talks Greg Gaines
March 31st, 2023
New Bucs defensive tackle Greg Gaines.
Buccaneers head coach/defensive guru Todd Bowles sat down with Joe as the sun rose in Phoenix on Tuesday morning.
No coffee. No Egg McMuffin. Just football talk.
Joe asked Bowles about his newest defensive hire, Greg Gaines, the defensive tackle who played alongside Aaron Donald the past four years.
“He’s a good plugger inside. You can’t have enough noses,” Bowles said, referring to Gaines playing the nose tackle position. “He’s a good scheme fit for us with some of the packages we play on the defensive front as to how we like to deploy guys. He played with Vita [Vea] in college and he’s got a lot of accolades coming in; he’s won a Super Bowl. We played against him the past few years and he’s been a pain in our side. So after we lost [Rakeem Nuñez-Roches] to the Giants, he was a good guy to get to replace Nacho.”
At 26 years old, Gaines represents an upgrade to Nacho and gets the Bucs three years younger at the position.
Joe already shared general manager Jason Licht’s thoughts on Gaines.
This signing sure smells like one of those quiet moves that will bring improvement. And the Bucs sure could use that in their run defense, which was historically elite in 2019 and 2020, and then was very good in 2021 and below average last season.
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March 31st, 2023 at 11:48 am
Good move
March 31st, 2023 at 11:55 am
Sounds good, still need to draft a DL and an edge rusher. Along with an LT and a safety or two.
March 31st, 2023 at 12:04 pm
New age Chris Hovan
March 31st, 2023 at 12:06 pm
Good pickup.
March 31st, 2023 at 12:17 pm
Excellent move signing Gaines to pair with Vea, especially after we lost RNR. Still need to add 2 more interior guys though IMO (not impressed at this point with Hall, Senat or O’Connor). Would love to see us re-sign Gholston plus draft a DT, but I doubt we can do the latter this year with so many other needs right now.
March 31st, 2023 at 12:23 pm
One of our Best moves this off season. Gaines will be an asset to our defense.
March 31st, 2023 at 12:29 pm
Defense, couldn’t agree more. IMO the key to a good d line is a healthy rotation. I would also like to see more 4 and 5 man fronts. I know Bowles deploys multiple fronts,.but I sometimes feel he’s too single minded in his approach. Hopefully gaines allows him to be more gameplan specific
March 31st, 2023 at 12:32 pm
I’m not the biggest Nacho fan, but I thought he was a good backup. While I haven’t watched tape on Gaines, looking over his stats, and what Rams fans said about losing him — I’m not sure I buy this is an upgrade. They seem like the same player. However, if that’s the case, that’s very much a win for the Bucs since they get younger and Gaines is cheaper. But an upgrade? I don’t know about that.
March 31st, 2023 at 12:41 pm
Maybe the Bucs could get Hicks back on a team friendly deal
March 31st, 2023 at 1:25 pm
Should we bring Hicks back I see our priorities for early round picks as OT, S, Edge and TE.
March 31st, 2023 at 1:28 pm
It’s likely Bpwels will coach the drive and disruptivity right out of him. I love the signing, shame he has to endure a season of Bloweszoball.
March 31st, 2023 at 1:30 pm
Gaines > Nacho….Good pickup.
March 31st, 2023 at 1:52 pm
Gholston deserves to retire a Buc!
He was only guy who showed up against the Cowboys!
William Gholston always plays hard!
Why haven’t we honored Gholston yet???
March 31st, 2023 at 2:08 pm
Joe getting lots of good interviews.
March 31st, 2023 at 2:18 pm
Goat farmer bowels is more than a good defensive coach. We don’t win the Super Bowl with out HIS coaching of the defense. He’s coached up a lot of good players on our defense. Take the blinders off there bud
March 31st, 2023 at 2:38 pm
1. Sign Will Gholtston and bring back OLB Carl Nassib both are solid defensive contributors
2. Only reason to bring back Akeem Hicks is whirlpool bath depth which will suffer if both Julio and Akeem are gone..
March 31st, 2023 at 2:39 pm
Watch Gaines film. I suggest watching 2021 film since it was announced he played the entire 2022 season with an injury from a preseason scrimmage/practice, a torn labrum and bicep tendon that limited him. He still did decent. Guy moves better than one would expect. Extremely disruptive to the O line. Reroutes ball carriers constantly. Able to stack, shed and move to the ball. Often tasked with playing gap and a half by the Rams. Turn him lose he will wreak havoc.
March 31st, 2023 at 2:39 pm
1#bucsfan …. Need to realize that’s all Goatfarmer can bring to the table. Hard to take anyone seriously when all they do is bitch about the same thing over and over and over.
March 31st, 2023 at 2:57 pm
Nacho actually graded higher per the stat geeks
March 31st, 2023 at 3:00 pm
^^^
Great observations G, Gaines is ridiculously twitchy for a guy list at 6’1 312 and coming out of a 3 point stance. There’s people who can’t even get off the couch as fast as Gaines gets off the ball. Can’t wait to see where he gets plugged in at in the IDL rotation with Vea and I cannot wait to see him sink back into coverage/line up as an ILB lol In all seriousness tho, Gaines’ style compliments the scheme because not only can he 2-gap, but he can get under a C/OGs pads and make gap control less arduous for White & David. Sometimes it isn’t always about a players individual numbers, but all the time it’s how an individual talent factors in to the collective effort.
March 31st, 2023 at 3:12 pm
Defense Rules — well done. You finally said something in two sentences.
March 31st, 2023 at 3:13 pm
PS — Bloweszo is going for his 5th consecutive losing season as a head coach. This is not bitching. This is a fact.
March 31st, 2023 at 3:19 pm
Dooley – Hovan was the man! Facepaint and would get after it !
March 31st, 2023 at 3:34 pm
nacho was a really solid back up…he will be missed
can gaines be as good as say, a brad culpepper ?
he’s about 35 pounds more so he should clog lanes and stack the run, but can he get to the qb…we need dudes getting to the qb with shaq’s achilles and joe sho’s question marks…
we need some guys on the inside to sack the qb because as good as vita is, i don’t think you can rely on him to rack up as many sacks as he did last year, every year…
well…we really need much more off the edge, but if that isn’t happening, gotta have guys inside getting it done…vita did that last year, but it was out of necessity and an added bonus to his expected game…
also i just looked up his sacks the past 2 years…he’s averaging about 5 a year the past 2 years, so maybe he can keep that pace with his talent…
but this team is going to need sacks and real qb pressure, because yeah we resigned dean, but besides that, our secondary is getting straight ganked…we are losing dudes left and right…and whitehead the season before…
besides the steady play of dean, cd3 and winfield, the secondary is getting a little bare bones…
and think about how injury prone we were on the back end in recent years…
pressure up front = relief on the back end
March 31st, 2023 at 3:35 pm
oh sh!t i forgot about hovan……he was good!
March 31st, 2023 at 3:36 pm
@Dooley:
yeah gaines is more of a hovan than a culpepper
March 31st, 2023 at 3:38 pm
@gbobucsfan
Yea Hovan was a favorite of mine on those mid-late 00’s Bucs defenses, only lasted from ’05-’09 if i’m not mistaken, but dude was a presence as a run defender.
March 31st, 2023 at 6:08 pm
Scott Says:
March 31st, 2023 at 2:57 pm
Nacho actually graded higher per the stat geeks
———
Yeah, that’s the same thing I’ve seen as well. Additionally Nacho was sought after, got signed quickly and for more money, which normally means something.
Finally, reading the Rams blogs and just looking at their comments and comments of the fans, and they mostly didn’t care he left. Meanwhile fans here threw a fit when Nacho left. Now, to be fair, most fans are absolute idiots that have no idea what they’re watching (just look at the pro-bowl voting), but seeing how mad fans get at someone leaving is generally a good way to judge their impact, when combined with other info.
Again, I’m not at all down on this, I think they’re roughly the same player, and the Bucs got younger and got the guy for cheaper, the only issue I have is saying it’s an upgrade. I’m not sure I buy that, but, as always, would love to be proved wrong.
March 31st, 2023 at 6:17 pm
I hadn’t thought about Hovan in a good many years. I think this Gaines guy might be a better pass rusher.
March 31st, 2023 at 6:59 pm
I like Gainesburgers.
March 31st, 2023 at 7:05 pm
The hatred is palpable between DR and my friend GF. Can’t we all just get along? This whole thing could be hashed out over a couple frosty cold ones, and maybe a dipper of pcp.
March 31st, 2023 at 7:12 pm
Gaines is solid. We’ll like him!
More importantly…is Tom dating Reese Witherspoon?
March 31st, 2023 at 8:13 pm
Ah, Redeemer, you have an intriguing peace plan. Let’s do the frostier here, send the pcp to Putin!
March 31st, 2023 at 8:14 pm
*Frosties
March 31st, 2023 at 8:14 pm
Pump the brakes on the Nassib talk.
He didn’t look too good last year.
March 31st, 2023 at 8:16 pm
Reese Witherspoon is way to old for Tom by now.
Late 20s startup CEO who just got bought out by a major player sounds better.
The G-Hag ruined his last year, and our last year with him. Tommy deserves way better.
March 31st, 2023 at 11:56 pm
Joe would of been better off with a large coffee, egg mcmuffins and french toast sticks
April 1st, 2023 at 7:43 am
I want gholston back! He needs to be here!
April 1st, 2023 at 9:55 am
LOL, Yes, Gaines is as good as Brad Culpepper, and will not Morph into a personal injury Lawyer later.
April 1st, 2023 at 10:37 am
Agree about Gholston.
April 1st, 2023 at 12:15 pm
Trust me, Culpepper was a much better football player than he is an attorney.
April 3rd, 2023 at 2:49 am
Hoping he a Vea kindle a spark and light it up! Go bucs!