Not The Same As It Has Been
November 28th, 2025
More problems than edge rush?
It isn’t the same as it always was because not too long ago the Bucs actually had edge rushers. And a weird thing, too: When those edge rushers still had gas in the tank, the Bucs were one of the best teams in the league and also won a Super Bowl.
Funny how that works.
Jeremy Fowler of ESPN typed a few sentences on the Bucs earlier this week. He noted that unlike in previous years when the Bucs had their annual midseason swoons, the Bucs’ defense is getting dragged up and down the field this fall.
Fowler cited the lack of an edge rush.
Despite losing three straight games, the Bucs are in an all-too-familiar position — poised to make a December playoff push against a weaker schedule. The Bucs have been one of the league’s most depleted teams, and their losing streak came against teams with a combined 25-8 record. There’s no shame in losing to the Patriots, Bills and Rams. What’s truly concerning is their lack of pass rush.
Tampa is not generating enough edge pressure, and though defensive tackle Vita Vea faces frequent double-teams, the defense doesn’t have a healthy complement to take advantage. Defensive tackle Calijah Kancey was probably the team’s best pass rusher entering 2025, but he has been out for most of the season. Despite all of that, I’m still bullish on the Buccaneers. They have a top-10 roster when healthy, and they’re getting closer to that every week. And Todd Bowles’ late-season track record is strong as the Bucs have finished the past two seasons with 5-1 and 6-1 records, respectively.
Well, since Shaq Barrett had 10 sacks in 2021 (hhhmmm, what happened the next season?) the Bucs have not had an edge rush. So Joe doesn’t believe the defense blowing chunks the past three games is directly responsible for a lack of an edge rush (hell, YaYa Diaby sacked Matt Stafford last week).
Joe sees people beginning to point fingers at Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht for not drafting a quality edge rusher (Lord knows he’s tried). OK, fair. But Joe was talking to a hardcore Bucs fan, who said to Joe, “Name me a player in college Licht can draft who can get sacks when he’s guarding wide receivers 20 yards downfield.”
In other words, you can’t blame just a lack of an edge rush on the defense suddenly imploding and looking like the Smiths snuck in through the hole in the fence near the Glazer Shed.
November 28th, 2025 at 5:12 am
Another running theme. We do what we do, even when it does nothing.
November 28th, 2025 at 5:36 am
When an offense hits a road block, great OC’s will think and scheme outside the box! Sadly, the current OC appears to be trapped by the box.
November 28th, 2025 at 6:16 am
When the Bucs were 5-1, I thought they could beat anyone in the league. Now, I have no confidence they can beat anyone. They have the talent on the field, but the coaching, scheming and play calling on both sides of the ball seems seems to be lacking. Hopefully, my mindset will change with the upcoming schedule. Just win baby. I need to get back into a positive headspace.
November 28th, 2025 at 6:21 am
Bucs have 2 big holes in their draft history over the past 25+ years (under JL and pre-JL): QB and DE. The Bucs have a much better history getting those positions through trade or FA.
QB: Brad Johnson, Jeff Garcia, Tom Brady, Baker Mayfield
DE: Shaq Barrett, JPP, Simeon Rice
The Bucs don’t need a QB, but are desperate for a DE. So open up the Glazer checkbook and go get a top end proven DE in FA. Get a 26 year old guy coming off his rookie contract by throwing big $$ at him. Don’t go after a 34 year old at the end of his career with downward trending production.
November 28th, 2025 at 6:46 am
Joe … ‘Now Joe sees people beginning to point fingers at Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht for not drafting a quality edge rusher (Lord knows he’s tried).’
JL has tried? Sorry Joe, but our drafting of DLine & OLBs since 2014 has been meh. The 2 most productive edge rushers we’ve had since Bowles has been here … JPP & Shaq … were both FAs. And 1 of the key reasons both were successful here was because we had Vea AND Suh AND RNR (2 more FAs) pressuring from inside. Pressure is rarely just 1 guy up-front who dominates; it’s almost always multiple solid players on the Front that opposing offenses have to contend with.
Bucs don’t have that ‘upfront solidarity’ right now, and it’s not because Kancey went down IMO. He did NOTHING in the first 2 games). Vea has been neutralized very effectively, and no one else on the interior has picked up the slack. I really like Diaby, but against better teams he’s fighting an uphill battle without much help to get to the QBs.
Yes Bowles drops his OLBs (and others) into coverage too much, but I think that’s because he blitzes too much. I’ve gotta believe that he blitzes so much because without blitzing we’d be REALLY BAD at pass rushing (we simply don’t have the horses).
And whose job is it to provide the horses? Yup, good ol’ Jason, but ‘Lord knows he’s tried’. Sure Joe, we’ll go with that.
November 28th, 2025 at 7:15 am
Who’s idea is it to draft college D ends, Hall, Roberts, and move them inside to D tackles? That’s who’s responsible for this mess. I hear the Roberts hype, but he’s no Suh, or McCoy. Not exactly Sapp. Same goes for Hall. Neither played DT in college. I see better DTs in college every Saturday. Now if Todd would play a 4-3 defense, and they could rush from the end like they did in college we might have a pass rush. So does Licht do this, or does Bowles want these type of players? His chess piece JTS, remember that? When Bowles defense was good remember it was Arains calling the shots on personal, and how they were used. So who’s calling the shots now? It’s hard for me to believe Licht didn’t have Todd’s blessing on every defensive player drafted since he’s been HC. I think Bowles is the one who pushed for his friend’s son Morrison in the second round. Did Bowles say lock up Zyon he’s my guy? Did Todd say Dennis is good at MLB, don’t need another one to even compete? Hard to know who’s most responsible for this roster. Right now, it isn’t a SB contender that’s for sure.
November 28th, 2025 at 7:26 am
The Bucs are not executing well as a team, but let’s face it-
They don’t have the quality depth to make up for injuries.
5 starters on offense including the team’s MVP and 3 starters on defense including arguably their 2 best pass rushers and best CB.
Throw in some coaching issues and QB decision making and you get 1-4 the last 5 games.
“Hope”fully, some of the cavalry is coming against lesser competition.
November 28th, 2025 at 7:34 am
I’m up early drinking coffee. A lot of people say this is a top 10 roster. What method is used to calculate that? To me it’s having more top 10 players in the position groups, stats, and body of work, than the other 31 teams. Bucs need more of those guys. Key word was mentioned, when healthy.
November 28th, 2025 at 8:15 am
Let’s beat lesser competition so we can back into the playoffs. Surely there will be lesser competition there too. Not hardly unless quality teams lose over 1/2 their starters.
Enough excuses. Time for Bowles and company to go.