Influenced By Tony Dungy, Ian Beckles Says Bucs Need More Pass Rushers
July 1st, 2025
Former Bucs guard thinks he has the answer for Todd Bowles to turn around his shaky pass defense.
Joe was looking at stats last night and got depressed seeing some of the Bucs’.
In the six years that Bucs coach Todd Bowles has been with the team other than in one season, the Bucs pass defense has never been good. Not even in the 2020 season when the Bucs won the Super Bowl.
The Bucs had a good pass defense once with Bowles in 2022, his first year as head coach. The Bucs finished in the top-10 in passing yards allowed per game. That’s easily the high-water mark the past six seasons.
Oh, the Bucs defense caught fire in the 2020 postseason. But overall, the pass defense hasn’t been anything to brag about.
Below are the Bucs’ rankings in passing yards allowed per game with Bowles as the defensive coordinator.
2019: 29th
2020: 21st
2021: 21st
2022: 9th
2023: 29th
2024: 29th
As an average, that gives the Bucs the 23rd-best pass defense in yards allowed per game since 2019.
Not good.
In an effort to plug the damn, the Bucs loaded up on cornerbacks early in this year’s draft. Seems reasonable, right?
Well, former Bucs guard and popular local sports radio personality Ian Beckles believes Bowles is loading up on the wrong level of the defense.
Armed with intel that Beckles said he personally got from Father Dungy, Beckles believes the answer to the pass defense’s ills lies not in the secondary but up front.
Beckles, appearing on the “Pat and Aaron Show” on WDAE-AM 620, said adding Benjamin Morrison and Jacob Parrish won’t amount to a hill of beans if the Bucs don’t get after the quarterback.
“I interviewed Tony Dungy way back in the day,” Beckles began. “And I asked Tony Dungy, ‘What’s more important, great coverage or great pass rush?’ I mean, he didn’t hesitate.
“‘Ah, you know Beck, it’s a great pass rush.'”
So, Beckles, who also played for Dungy in Tampa, noted it is all about the pass rush.
“You give me Warren Sapp and and you give me Simeon Rice and the other guys are getting [a total of] 10-15 sacks a year, it won’t matter who is back there [in the secondary].”
Beckles added that former Bucs corner Donnie Abraham told him that when he went to the Jets and left the Bucs with Sapp and Rice after the 2001 season, it was a whole different animal playing corner.
“The Buccaneers haven’t had that luxury,” Beckles said of a feared edge rush recently. “They haven’t. You have to be able to stop the run and the Bucs can do that. But when you can’t rush the passer, and these days if the quarterback is comfortable back there, they’re going to shred you.”
Joe cannot argue with a word Beckles said here. Joe has been screaming for a couple of years to bring in a proven veteran edge rusher. Joe pulled back on the hollering when the Bucs *finally* broke down and signed Haason Reddick in March.
Hopefully, the Bucs defense this offseason had a change in philosophy. Former defensive line coach Kacy Rodgers did a good job with his linemen. But when it came to an edge rush, Rodgers openly admitted the Bucs didn’t care about that.
Yes, Joe fully understands getting pressure up the middle usually disrupts quarterbacks. But the game is evolving with more mobile quarterbacks, or at least quarterbacks who have the ability to escape the pocket.
So pressure up the middle, if you don’t have an edge rush, really doesn’t do as much to these signal-callers.
That’s why it was so awesome to watch the Bucs defense in the 2020 NFC title game and the Super Bowl. Ndamukong Suh and Vita Vea and Will Gholston got pressure up front and drama queen Aaron Rodgers and Pat Mahomes, when they tried to escape the pocket, ran right into a trap laid by Bucs sacks king Shaq Barrett and Jason Pierre-Paul.
Since Shaq and JPP grew old, the Bucs had little edge rush waiting to trap quarterbacks when they tried to dodge Calijah Kancey and Vita.
Hopefully, enlightened YaYa Diaby, fresh from Von Miller’s Sack Summit, and Reddick’s heady analysis can allow the Bucs to set quarterback traps again.
At least new defensive line coach Charlie Strong believes in sacks. That’s encouraging.
@953wdae Beckles dropping TRUTH BOMBS about pass rush vs coverage! Tony Dungy said it best – GREAT PASS RUSH leads to everything! When you got Sapp and Rice terrorizing QBs, doesn’t matter who’s in the secondary. Bucs need that heat again! What’s your take – two solid corners or one shutdown stud? #iheartradio
July 1st, 2025 at 5:15 am
I am reprinting my yesterday response to criticism from a few posters here.
Gipper Says:
July 1st, 2025 at 2:41 am
FilthyAnimal and BakerFan,
Bucs primary need this off-season was a dominant pass rusher and they drafted the second best receiver at Ohio State. This notwithstanding the fact that they resigned CG14 for $22Mill for 3 years and posses HOF to be ME13, and emerging star receiver McMillan, and some very competent receiving tight end. TJ Watt is a recent NFL defensive player of the year and instantly makes Todd Bowles defense better than average. Let’s pass on this trade and maybe Baker can throw footballs with both hands to keep all these receivers happy? You guys buy the Egbuka hype. I am sure he is competent but to not go after a disgruntled top flight defender like Watt would be foolish if you have immediate SB ambitions.
July 1st, 2025 at 5:59 am
So…. Key to great defense is the Front Four, or in our case the Front Three and the OLB’s. Knock the snot out of people at the snap and it sets the timing for everything. Our starting Front Three looks pretty stout – when healthy. Our OLB’s – the jury will be in deliberations until about game 6. The next two levels are shaky. People can whine about scheme all they want but talent still rules. All we have going into camp is a lot of hype and promise about what we have on paper; story line, draft sleepers, diamonds in the rough, etc. Can’t wait for the pads to come on.
July 1st, 2025 at 6:33 am
Todd and Licht better hope their homegrown talent breaks thru this year.
July 1st, 2025 at 6:39 am
Of course he’d say that the Tampa 2 was all designed to protect the corner back.
July 1st, 2025 at 7:00 am
Gipper….per NFL.com says the Steelers are not looking to trade Watt at all but rather give him an extension.
July 1st, 2025 at 7:04 am
All for more pass rush. To be fair check out Bowles Defense points allowed stat. Not too bad since he’s been here.
July 1st, 2025 at 7:09 am
Excellent article Joe; nicely developed analysis that we need to focus more on PASS RUSH. I agree with you, but I believe you do that via the PERSONNEL you sign for that purpose. We’ve done some of that (Reddick?) but we still need 1 more BIG NT to rotate in with Vea to complete it.
Our best pass defense was in 2022 like you clearly show, when our Pass Defense ranked #9 in the NFL, giving up only 3461 Yards Passing on the season (average of 203.6 YPG). It looks to me like Todd changed his philosophy quite a bit that year, blitzing LESS THAN HALF AS OFTEN (only 250 times) versus his previous years and emphasizing coverage more. For reference, Bucs blitzed 613 times in 2019, 542 times in 2020 and 532 times in 2021.
He apparently de-emphasized playing the run some also that year, since we fell from a #1 ranking in 2019 & 2020 and a #3 ranking in 2021 all the way to a #15 ranking in 2022. For a Todd Bowles’ defense, that’s unheard of. Of course it didn’t help that we didn’t re-sign Suh or JPP that year, and Shaq got injured & only played in 8 games.
It doesn’t look like Todd thought much of the experiment, since we blitzed much more in 2023 (341 times) & 2024 (461 times) AND did much better in the Run Defense ranking in both those years (#5 in 2023 & #4 in 2024). IOW, he returned to his old ways (emphasize Run Defense as Job #1 and blitz like crazy to create pressure). It’ll be very interesting to see what Todd Bowles does THIS YEAR in those areas.
July 1st, 2025 at 7:35 am
We haven’t had a pass rush since Brady’s 2nd year when JPP wrecked his shoulder a few games in. TJ Watt is over 30, and the Bucs have made it obvious they aren’t gonna sign high priced free agents
July 1st, 2025 at 8:08 am
Well, dropping pass rushers into coverage doesnt help. I think I get the Big V reason, jmo, it gives him a tiny rest break instead of going full steam against two 300+ lb linemen all the time. But the others dropping, coupled with the CB’s playing 10 or more yards off their matchup, no wonder we were making Average QB’s look good. Its just too much prevent. At times it might be needed while protecting a lead and running the clock down, but not too much. Todd has to get away from that.
July 1st, 2025 at 8:17 am
We need CB
IAN and Dungy I guess don’t follow the Bucs
Since 2020 BUCS are 3rd in the NFL in sacks so no pass rush?
Right after PITT & BAL
So for sake of the argument coverage downfield creates sacks too
CHRIS won’t be ready till week 8 at least
GO BUCS
July 1st, 2025 at 8:24 am
Even with Sapp, Joe Greene, Lawrence Taylor, Simeon Rice, and Deacon Jones rushing the passer and Dean would still come out of 80% of games started in addition to the four he doesn’t play every year, Josh Hayes and Tyrek Funderburk still ain’t making any Pro Bowls.
July 1st, 2025 at 8:55 am
Beej … ‘TJ Watt is over 30, and the Bucs have made it obvious they aren’t gonna sign high priced free agents’.
JPP was 29 when we traded for him in 2018, and Ndamukong Suh was 32 when we signed him in 2019. Heck, Akiem Hicks was also 32 when we signed him for the 2022 season to replace Suh. Oh wait, bad example.
TJ Watt is 30, but he’s still playing at a high level. He’s had 108 sacks in his 8-year career (13.5 sacks/year average) which sounds incredible to me. In his last 2 years though he’s done even better: 30 sacks in 2023 & 2024. Doesn’t sound like he’s slowing down. Of course, price-wise he’d be cost-prohibitive for the Bucs (he’s looking for 1 more big payday more than likely, and is currently averaging $28 mil per year salary). TJ’s a FA after this season. Bucs need not apply.
July 1st, 2025 at 9:00 am
I see Ian Beckles has been getting style advice from Ron Diaz lately!
July 1st, 2025 at 9:22 am
FrontFour … ‘Key to great defense is the Front Four, or in our case the Front Three and the OLB’s. Our starting Front Three looks pretty stout – when healthy. Our OLB’s – the jury will be in deliberations until about game 6. The next 2 levels are shaky.’
Excellent analysis & I agree wholeheartedly with your conclusions. Bucs have excellent TALENT in Vea & Kancey & Hall on our starting DLine, but together they only play about 60% of the def snaps. Still we got 20 sacks total out of the 3 of them (over 43% of our 46 total sacks). They also had 47 total pressures among them (27% of our 175 total).
Once the starters went out though (the OTHER 40% of the game?), we got to plug in Gaines (NT), Brewer (DT/DE), Greene (DT/DE) & Gholston (DT/DE) last season. The 4 of them contributed 4 sacks total (less than 10% of our total). They also had 14 total pressures among them (again, less than 10% of our 175 total pressures).
Not hard to draw conclusions there. Our DLine starters are doing extremely well. Their backups need better production this year however (4 sacks doesn’t cut it), as do our OLBs (12 sacks total for JTS, Nelson, Diaby, Braswell, Ramirez, Watts & Shaq doesn’t cut it either).
July 1st, 2025 at 10:15 am
29th in 2024. Yet all we hear is how good McCollum is and how Joe does not understand why fans don’t think he’s Ronnie Lott, Jr.
Those guys who played last year can’t cover in man. They can’t play zone. They can’t get off the field on 3rd down.
And the DBs are the easy target in this ranking but the pass rush was lame in a lot of games.
Some of those guys are gone. Talent has improved at Edge. And LB even though he’s not an All Pro. And certainly at DB. Two new CBs, Hall back. Winfield 100%. And a new Safety.
July 1st, 2025 at 11:03 am
True enough DR, but we only paid a #3 for JPP, and in typical Jason Licht fashion, got him that first year for $3 million. Suh (thinking he was an FA) He averaged $9 million per for his time here, also a bargain imo
July 1st, 2025 at 11:31 am
@Gipper,
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Egbuka is the real deal. And you don’t draft a guy in the first round to just turn around and trade him, What kind of idi0ts do that? And as I remarked in the earlier post, they have loaded up with talent at pass rusher and they should see significant improvement this year.
Everbody thinks trading away good young talent for big names will get you a SB. The Bucs are not making desperation moves. They develop from within — if that wasn’t already obvious.
Foolishness.
July 1st, 2025 at 11:34 am
Echoing a few other posters here to summarize the remedy for pass defense woes.
More depth in middle beast DL penetration so when Vita gets tired or hurt there’s not a steep cliff drop off. Maybe Big Gator can help? Doubtful but hopeful.
Let bulls be bulls and cheetahs be cheetahs. Stop all the ultra-cerebral surprise tactics (dropping pass rushers to cover while pass rushing CBs) and let the men do what they’re great at.
On that note, stop trying to make everyone into a Swiss Army knife, unless Swiss cheese is the product you’re aiming for.
Tighten up the zones, and if the DBs have so much latitude that they can decide to line up in the bleachers on a 3rd and 6, bloody hell, coach them to do otherwise. Have some extra provisions to make sure everyone knows their assignments and reduce the coverage bust rate. Please.
Play more press man coverage. Please.
And thank you in advance.