Better The Team, Better The Competition
April 30th, 2025
Bucs honcho weighs in.
The Buccaneers’ head coach is ready for the best men to win in his defense.
That was an overall theme from Todd Bowles during his chat on SiriusXM NFL Radio this week.
Tampa Bay drafted defensive players he’s confident in Rounds 2, 3, 4 and 5.
Let the games begin!
“With the edge guy, Walker, he’s just a good football player,” Bowles said his fourth-round pick, David Walker out of Central Arkansas. “He’s a very powerful guy; he makes a ton of plays.”
Bowles continued on his fifth-round pick from Southern Methodist University, defensive tackle Elijah Roberts: “We think Roberts is a heck of a pass rusher for us, going in from that aspect. And we think we got better, at least we got a lot more depth if nothing else.”
Bowles went on to comment on drafting two cornerbacks, as Joe shared yesterday, and to talk about how strong teams have intense competition in training camp.
And no, Bowles didn’t forget about his new toy at receiver, first-round pick Emeka Egbuka.
“He’s a damn good player,” Bowles said. “You can’t have enough good receivers in the ballgame. That’s not a knock on Chris [Godwin] or Mike [Evans] or [Jalen] McMillan or anybody else or [Trey] Palmer. … He can do a lot of things for us. We had some injuries last year. We just want to stay healthy. We just want to be able to attack at all times.”
April 30th, 2025 at 7:50 am
The picture of Braswell is a reminder – at least to me. If he improves like Licht suggests then the D-line will truly be stacked.
April 30th, 2025 at 7:53 am
Strong teams have intense competition in training camp. Check. He’s a very powerful guy. He makes a ton of plays. Check. Your can’t have enough good receivers in the ballgame. Check. And most importantly, We just want to be able to attack at all times. Check. Mate.
April 30th, 2025 at 7:54 am
Braswell is giving Noah Spence JTS vibes
2nd Round Bust
April 30th, 2025 at 8:11 am
Depth wise, I think we are looking good except for inside linebacker and possibly safety. Sure hope the Licht addresses this in the next few months.
April 30th, 2025 at 8:11 am
We’ll see. Give the kid a chance.
April 30th, 2025 at 8:20 am
Give Braswell a chance. Everyone wants the rookies to just fly off the shelf and be a star . It took a couple of seasons before Gerald McCoy got into his groove along with many many other great players. I truly believe that we have a great stable of talented players and better depth now. Now Coach just needs to put it all together and at least beat the Dixie Chicks (ATL) once this season.
April 30th, 2025 at 8:22 am
Braswell going into second year. Diaby and Reddick. Now Walker coming in with an edge and ability to get to the QB. Also helps Larry Foote will be the outside linebackers coach.
April 30th, 2025 at 8:45 am
McCoy was was also injured at least 2 of his first 4 years here, either biceps tear or pectoral tear. Then again before he was released. JTS had 4 years. Braswell was playing behind 2 1st round draft choices at Bama before he got his shot and played well. He also stayed and was committed when he could have left for greener pastures so lets give the kid a little time. Hall has steadily gotten better. With the 4 and 5 picks I think we’ll be just fine.
April 30th, 2025 at 9:09 am
I believe Ronde was a 3rd round pick and in jeopardy of getting cut his 1st year. The team stuck with him and it turned out pretty well. Braswell probably got a more NFl body this offseason and will come back stronger and now knows the defense. Which will allow him to stop thinking out there and just play football.
April 30th, 2025 at 9:49 am
Sapp was mediocre his first year.
April 30th, 2025 at 10:06 am
I always enjoy JBF and the posters. But what has me truly excited this year is the training camp is setting up to be incredibly exciting on it’s on.
I think JBF is great year round but when training camp rolls around there is nobody in their class.
So thanks in advance Joe’s!! I’m truly looking to your coverage of these upcoming battles!
April 30th, 2025 at 10:08 am
BTW this is where I give the Joe’s the James Brown award.
He was known as the “Hardest Working Man in Showbusiness” During training camp the Joes get that title just substitute Bucs coverage for showbusiness.
April 30th, 2025 at 10:32 am
Braswell showed potential during the rare times he lined up and actually rushed the passer.
Iron sharpens iron. But soft training camps make for a soft team that loses close games. Not the Bucs though. We won all the close games in 2024.
Oh, wait.
April 30th, 2025 at 10:48 am
Looking forward to Joes’ bete noire: preseason games. Yeah Joes, they are important whether you dudes like them or not! So, we’re going to scrimmage with the Ravens, huh? Hope they don’t pull any dirty crap like they did last season with CG14. Mr. Godwin will be sitting that one out. We fans are a big part of this team, too. Fact. Why do you think Bucs got rid of those atrocious uniforms? Cos we fans started screaming and didn’t stop. Now, Glazer Boyz need to get with it on game tickets. I’m talking pricing and selling out home games. No reason why Bucs can’t fill RJS if the Glazers would loosen up on ticket pricing. If the game isn’t a sellout, get imaginative with the leftover tix. I can afford them; a lot of other diehard fans can’t. The Bucs are now a quality club. Glazers are far from broke. Give all the fans here in central FL a $break$.
April 30th, 2025 at 11:11 am
Chris Braswell is a VERY good football player, and folks calling him a ‘bust’ after 1 rookie season are about to be very surprised. You don’t get to start for Nick Saban unless you’ve got something good going for you, and Chris does.
NONE of our OLBs were productive last season. Diaby only had 4.5 sacks; Nelson had 4 sacks; JTS had 2 sacks; Braswell had 1.5 sacks. Shaq, Ramirez, Watts all got 0 sacks. That’s 12 total sacks for our 7 OLBs. Whooppee.
But look at our DLine. Kancey got 7.5 sacks; Vea got 7 sacks; Hall got 5 sacks; Brewer got 2 sacks; Gaines got 1 sack. That’s 22.5 sacks for those 5 players.
But who got those sacks: our DLine starters … Vea, Kancey & Hall (19.5 sacks). And those 3 played together on probably only about 50% of our defensive snaps. Imagine what we could’ve accomplished if we’d had another Vea in there to push the pile for the other 50%. That’d definitely give us a more consistent pass rush. And with that, we shouldn’t have to blitz nearly as much to generate pressure. Less blitzing equals improved pass coverage. And in the process, our OLBs should feast. Now all we need is another Vea clone to make it happen.
April 30th, 2025 at 11:12 am
Aqualung … ‘Braswell showed potential during the rare times he lined up and actually rushed the passer.’
Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner.
April 30th, 2025 at 11:13 am
orlbucfan
Agree 100%. There was a fear at one point with TV dominating that the stadiums would become empty thereby ruining the TV show!!!
You are spot on about making tickets available. Just price them right and they will come. There are a lot of hassles associated with wading through a crowd of 75,000 with parking etc. Try to make it all as painless as possible. And no need to gouge at the concession stands!
By the way kudos to you if you brave I-4!!! I hit Orlando twice a year on business and I try to drive Midnight to six. Hopefully that new lane expansion will help but it’s only six miles and my memory seems to remember sitting for more than just six miles.
April 30th, 2025 at 11:17 am
D.R.
I hear you and agree that at minimum we need to spell ALL big guys! Takes a lot to move those big bodies and they wear out first.
I don’t keep up with college football and am largely ignorant of the players.
Is Elijah Roberts providing any hope? 5th rounder not a ton expected but he is
6-5 285 and a power rusher fast enough to move around and perhaps provide some depth on the 3 interior spots.
April 30th, 2025 at 11:19 am
stpete, I’ve done the O-ville to Tampa football corridor off and on for decades. Now, I’m at the age where one more home game is on my bucket list. LOL. I hope the congestion between the two cities lightens up a little, too. High speed rail would help, but forget it with the troglodytes in Tallahassee. Glad to hear you are doing well, and DR, too.
April 30th, 2025 at 11:26 am
DR I normally have to see it to believe it and I’m gonna have to stick with that. I didn’t know that it can take a few years for a guy to learn to set an edge and rush the passer. You’ve shown beautifully that our edges couldn’t sack anybody last year. So why couldn’t Braswell get more snaps in that case? And now he’s got Reddick and Walker competing with him and he’ll get more playing time? Hopefully he’ll be in the rotation and be growing and learning. I’d love to see it. But I’m gonna have to reserve my judgement until I see it. Your being optimistic about it makes me feel better about it though!
April 30th, 2025 at 11:57 am
I don’t think all those guys were bad.
My thinking goes to more showing blitz mixtures and how Bowles is gonna rush with 4.
I think those stats lean more to a needed philosophy change defensively and that is supposedly what we are getting.
More man will help and a faster couple corners will too.
A cerebral Tykee sounds fun to me next a healthy Winfield.
We have the horses.
No fear here.
April 30th, 2025 at 12:04 pm
Sapp was mediocre his first year.
But, I believe he played. Braswell was in witness protection protocol.
April 30th, 2025 at 12:07 pm
DR maybe Elijah Roberts will be semi-beast….as I’m a semi-truck only on legs . Hope so. It is so true, since Suh left we see the drop off.
April 30th, 2025 at 12:23 pm
Brass got put on drop back duty last year for basically half his snaps I they let him just rush the qb he would have had at least 4 maybe 5 sacks
April 30th, 2025 at 12:36 pm
St Pete … ‘Is Elijah Roberts providing any hope? 5th rounder not a ton expected but he is 6-5 285 and a power rusher fast enough to move around and perhaps provide some depth on the 3 interior spots.’
I think that Elijah Roberts is Will Gholston’s replacement (Will might be signed off the couch at the end of the season IF injuries require like Shaq was, but that’s about it). I think we’ll re-sign Logan Hall at the end of this year (he’s improving steadily).
I expect that TB will carry 6 DLinemen on our final roster: Vea & Gaines as our 2 NT/DT, and Kancey, Hall, Roberts & Brewer as our DE/DTs. OLBs should be interesting since we already have Reddick, Diaby, Nelson & Braswell plus we’ve added Walker. My bet is that we’ll now carry 11 DLine/OLBs, plus 4 ILBs, plus 10 Secondary for a total of 25 defense.
My ‘hope’ BTW is still that we sign a monster DT/NT to rotate in with Vea (Gaines could easily move down the line to DT/DE; he’d probably do better there). And as far as MLB goes, I’ll put my money on Anthony Walker. His career Missed Tackle Rate is only 8%, and his career Pass Completions Allowed rate is only 75% (and over his last 3 seasons it’s almost 10% LESS than that). That’d be an old tandem back there (LVD & Walker), but as the old saying goes ‘Old age & cunning will overcome youth & skill every time’.
April 30th, 2025 at 2:01 pm
I’m with you DR would’ve loved to have snagged a DT to spell VV. I think JL thought the kid from Michigan was the only one worth taking in round one. He was gone before we got a chance. I also think Todd believes he can get better value from a second & third round CB as he got from Dean, Davis, & SMB. The free agency period is far from over, hopefully we can grab a stud ILB, CB, or S
April 30th, 2025 at 2:06 pm
Aqualung … ‘maybe Elijah Roberts will be semi-beast . Hope so. It is so true, since Suh left we see the drop off.’
Suh went 313 lbs, but he played like he was 350. As he aged, he seemed to pace himself more, but when he turned it on, he was unstoppable. Size AND strength AND quickness are all critical IMO, and there aren’t too many monster guys like that in the league who can literally take over the game. Vea can do that, but not when he plays 60% (or more) def snaps. Bucs desperately need another beast (and ya, maybe Roberts will turn out to be a semi-beast; I’m thinking he’s more like Kancey than any of our other linemen).
April 30th, 2025 at 2:17 pm
What I tried to say was, hopefully this guy is a semi-truck on legs, not just a semi-beast. Between algo and autocorrect, life is hard. Go defense. Let’s have a drink
April 30th, 2025 at 2:43 pm
And then we all have to consider coaching.
Strong for the D line.
Foote for edge.
I know definitely one of the Joe’s doesn’t like the word hope, but I still HOPE a few things happen defensively speaking… and I don’t think any of these things are out of reach or the least been impossible.
Diaby and Braswell take forward steps.
Kancey & Dennis have health through preseason and out the gate… and if I may ask, through the regular season too.
Winfield is back to his all pro level.
Smith is Winfieldish pre-2024 at the other safety spot (if he’s put there).
We double our interception rate at the minimum.
Reddick is his 2022 self … given his age, I would be thrilled with his 2023 self. We’re hoping after all, might as well hope big.
Bowles tweaking the defense and finding that special sauce really makes a difference.
We force a lot more three and outa and 3rd and longs. If the above hope list plays out that way, this last one will definitely work out by connection.
I don’t think a top 10 defense impossible. If it’s top 5, I will truly be impressed with the changes made.