The Year Of SirVocea Dennis
June 19th, 2025
Major cog to defensive success?
A few weeks ago, the self-anointed sophists of football, the PFF tribe, tried to suggest Anthony Walker, not SirVocea Dennis, would be the starting inside linebacker next to Lavonte David.
Joe is comforted the PFF tribe monitors the Bucs so well.
At least one national chronicler of the NFL knows better.
Ben Solak of BSPN believes Dennis could be one of the pivotal players in the NFL this year. Why is that? Solak said Dennis was pretty good in pass defense in the games he played last season. And what was the Bucs’ biggest weakness last year? Pass defense in the interior, specifically when Dennis went down with a shoulder injury.
Solak said it was no coincidence that the Bucs stunk defending the pass inside after Dennis was sidelined.
When Dennis was healthy last season, he was fighting K.J. Britt for the starting linebacker spot opposite Lavonte David — and he was winning that competition. Dennis particularly impressed in coverage over the middle of the field, and after his Week 4 shoulder injury, the Buccaneers started getting hammered in the intermediate middle by opposing quarterbacks.
Tampa Bay passed entirely on the linebacker position in the 2025 draft and let Britt go in free agency. With only Anthony Walker Jr. as depth, the Buccaneers have clearly placed their faith in Dennis to play the majority of the snaps opposite David. Tampa Bay’s pass defense was the limiting factor in its postseason push last season, and Dennis should provide a boost there.
Everyone it seemed, and their brother believed the Bucs were going to select an inside linebacker on the first two days of the draft, including Joe. Clearly that didn’t happen.
Was that because of Dennis? Since that draft weekend, several people who toil at One Buc Palace for a living have stated both on and off the record that they are good with their inside linebackers.
Joe’s only problem with banking on Dennis is that he’s only been healthy enough since he was drafted by the Bucs in 2023 to play 17 games. That’s not remotely ideal, no matter how you slice it.
The Bucs are convinced after Dennis had shoulder surgery his shoulder issues are behind him. However, it wasn’t just his shoulder that sidelined Dennis for so many games.
With the addition of new outside linebackers and cornerbacks, the Bucs defense could see an improvement. If Dennis can stay on the field, there could be a big improvement.
June 19th, 2025 at 10:54 am
Fingers crossed for a healthy Dennis and good play from our rookie corners. A lot of ifs, but as you say, if things fall right, we could see considerable improvement in our secondary and a few more games in the W column.
June 19th, 2025 at 10:55 am
our pass defense was bad mostly because of our lack of 4man pressure….
reddick and a healthy yaya should solve those issues
GO BUCS!!!!
June 19th, 2025 at 11:18 am
The dude looked like a menace when he was on the field for sure. Fingers crossed that health stays and regression therapy is delayed.
June 19th, 2025 at 11:55 am
I sure hope he can stay on the field.
June 19th, 2025 at 12:40 pm
Hoping Dennis, Reddick and the newly drafted DBs are the final piece of the puzzle to fixing the Bucs’ defense.
June 19th, 2025 at 1:00 pm
Short-Term
With SVD’s health and LVD’s age, the Bucs are too thin in ILB. Expect Licht to add more depth after roster cuts.
Long-Term
The Bucs have to draft an ILB (maybe 2) next year. The good news is there are at least 7 stud LB prospects in this draft. It’s deep. Look for Sunny Styles out of Ohio State. He fits the captain, good dude, NFL pedigree mold the Bucs have adopted.
June 19th, 2025 at 1:19 pm
What is this Deion Jones slander? We “Only have Anthony Walker jr as depth”? We also have a former pro bowler as a backup… good grief.
June 19th, 2025 at 2:39 pm
“Everyone it seemed, and their brother believed the Bucs were going to select an inside linebacker on the first two days of the draft”
This year’s crop of ILBers was terrible. None were true 1st round talents – and the ‘best’ was Jihad Campbell who was likely off Jason’s board due to concerns over the injured shoulder.
Near as I can tell -there were only 1 or 2 other guys at that position the Bucs would have even considered drafting this year as an attempt to upgrade the position (Schwesinger and Knight) – and they both were selected before the Bucs were on the clock in rd 2.
Licht will need to use a day 1 or 2 draft pick next year for ILB though – as this is almost surely LD54’s last year playing……
Dennis will surprise many this year who don’t expect much from him – but we are going to need another promising young LBer next year to take over the Mike position when Dennis slides over to Lavonte’s weakside spot after he retires….
June 19th, 2025 at 2:54 pm
LVD&SVD
June 19th, 2025 at 4:46 pm
Happy June teenth everyone!!
June 19th, 2025 at 4:57 pm
Today is the day we found out slavery was over and every American should be celebrating just like the 4th of July freedom and Independence 🇺🇸🇬🇭😃😄😃!!!
June 19th, 2025 at 5:44 pm
I for one wanna see how well Anthony Walker Jr plays. I think we have the depth, we just don’t know what the pecking order is and with Dennis having 2 seasons mired by injury, I get the skepticism on account of “believe it when I see it”.
I kind of wish we could’ve kept JJ Russell, because we took his presence on special teams for granted, but I don’t mind him being replaced by either Grier, Walkers, or Jones.
I’m interested to see how far into the preseason Bullock lasts too. Not the greatest athlete, but if you watch his tape you wouldn’t be able to tell because his IQ gets him to his landmarks and keeps him around the ball. Especially in run defense.
We’ve got some guys, we just don’t know fully enough to know the floor and ceiling outside of LVD being involved.
June 19th, 2025 at 6:43 pm
@ Oneilbuc: Amen Brother.🙏