Drafting The Buccaneers Defense
June 18th, 2025
Imagine setting out to draft the best available NFL defense.
Where would Tampa Bay’s rank?
Retired Pro Bowl guard Kyle Long made that his task on the Pushing The Pile podcast with guest co-host Brock Vereen, his former teammate with the Bears.
The two went back and forth having an NFL Draft-style show selecting team defenses. At No. 17 overall, off the board came the Bucs.
In a slap in the face to Todd Bowles, Vereen called the selection “a reach” but professed his respect for Lavonte David, Vita Vea and Antoine Winfield Jr. being stars up the gut of the defense. Vereen also said he believes second-round pick Benjamin Morrison is the cornerback with the highest ceiling among all NFL rookies at the position.
Long was in agreement with the Bucs’ selection at No. 17.
For those wondering, the 49ers defense came off the board next and the Bucs defense was the top pick among the NFC South teams. The Falcons were the No. 26 overall pick while the Panthers and Saints were the last two defenses off the board, repsectively.
Yeah, if the Bucs don’t win the NFC South, something very, very wrong went down.
June 18th, 2025 at 4:23 pm
I like Morrison ceiling too but I wouldn’t say it’s higher than Travis Hunter. It’s going to be interesting to see how the Jags use him. Someone suggested yesterday that they should put him in >35 yard-line to goal line on both sides of the ball. That sounds smart and is realistic. I don’t see anybody holding up for 17 weeks playing full time on O & D.
June 18th, 2025 at 4:32 pm
The Bucs’ defense ranked around 17th last year with injured Antoine, issues at LB, poor edge rush, no depth at CB, schematic issues… 17 is the FLOOR.
Since then:
Healthy Antoine
Healthy Dennis and upgraded depth
Reddick
New depth at CB
Todd playing tighter coverage
This has the makings of a TOP 10 defense this year. If the Bucs can stay top 5 on offense, this is absolutely a team that can make a Super Bowl run.
June 18th, 2025 at 5:03 pm
Will be drafting in about 2 months and with my last pick … Tampa Bay Buccaneers D. Buying the hype, as we know, so might as well go for that upside. Stay healthy and hopefully they are in a dogfight with the offense for who can have a better ranking, somewhere inside the top 10.
June 18th, 2025 at 5:08 pm
Bucs need to stop the Falcons QB this year and at least split with them.
For some reason the Bucs struggle against even mediocre QBs.
The Only QBs we dominate are the bottom barrel platoon guys who can’t even convert 1st downs for their teams. Thats easy.
Now its time to show they can answer to the top and middle QBs.
June 18th, 2025 at 5:21 pm
17 is a reach. I’d say closer to 22. They had the 29th ranked pass defense last year and 28th in interceptions. Yes, they ranked 4th against the run, but who on earth is going to even attempt to establish the run game when they can throw at will.
Every team has injuries, thats a lame excuse. The depth was trash and the scheme always ends up having to be dumbed down after the first injury and it ends up screwing the whole unit over.
The players are handicapped by the defensive coordinator.
June 18th, 2025 at 5:30 pm
We look at the Bucs through rose colored glasses. 17 seems right.
The reality is the defense was average at best. Bowles “scheme” (or lack thereof) was getting ripped apart by ex-NFL commentators every week. He rarely, if ever, adjusted to the shut down the other team’s stregnths. They’re horrible in the last 2 minutes.
The team has more talent this year but the common denominator is still in charge.
June 18th, 2025 at 5:57 pm
Looks Crystal Clear that gotbucs and Slypirate have hit the nail ON the head of the Truth.
And TO BE CLEAR….. Bowles EARNED THAT Slap in the face! No lies were told. It IS the reality for some years now.
MAYBE it’ll FINALY change this year. But I ain’t gonna hold my breath…. I wish I could could find some hopeium to drink but my bottle has Run Dry.. I believe I’m gonna go into “withdrawal” if Something doesn’t change SOON!
June 18th, 2025 at 6:13 pm
As high as #1 on offense. #12 on offense. Anything less than NFC Championship will be a disappointment.
June 18th, 2025 at 6:37 pm
@Jeebs the Honey Bear
I agree with your take 👍🏼
Everyone, including the coaches, know what our biggest issues were last year and it would appear they are focused on improving in those areas. It takes a minute to build a quality roster on both sides of the ball and offense got most of the attention last year.
Based on where the focus on FA and the draft was this off-season its obvious the D is getting the attention it needs now. I trust the professional football coaches to know what to do. Some people don’t. 🤷🏼
June 18th, 2025 at 6:37 pm
Points against is the stat that matters and somehow we scrapped hard enough to finish defensively right in the middle of the pack in the NFL. With third stringers littered all over the field. First stringers are significantly better than third stringers. Second stringers are better than third stringers. But what has to change is the attitude. The Swagger. The Ball Hawking mentality. The Physical, Violent nature of a top defense. The Good news is that Todd Bowles knows this. And he might just have the mix to pull it off this year. I’m expecting the defense to “shock us this season”. Oh, the thought of it just makes me want to up my bets!
June 18th, 2025 at 6:41 pm
I’m surprised they came out that high. Results matter.
June 18th, 2025 at 7:29 pm
If they don’t perform in the top 10-12 of defenses this year, Bowles has failed his DC job miserably, or they’ve been crushed by injuries.
June 18th, 2025 at 7:47 pm
Reddick is a big if, the rookies are a big if and Super Todd is a big if. IF all of these factors turn out to be good then we will see an improved defense but until I see consistency, I personally wouldn’t put them any higher than 25. They are a bad defense regardless of all the excuses the fan boys make.
June 18th, 2025 at 7:54 pm
Desmond Watson in coverage. Don’t laugh, with Bowles calling the defense it could happen…. lol.
June 18th, 2025 at 8:13 pm
Rich Kotite was a professional coach. He sucked at it, but he got paid to suck. I wouldn’t trust him either.
June 18th, 2025 at 8:44 pm
buc4evr – the Big Gator is our 3rd string deep safety. Bowles love the element of surprise. No one will be expecting it and it will fool Bryce Young into laughing so hard he’ll fall down.
June 18th, 2025 at 9:02 pm
This year the D will strive as a top unit remember this week10 when we have 8-2 record
June 18th, 2025 at 9:49 pm
17?
Top 10 this year. better CB play, SirV covering the middle with his speed and most importantly, they finally will have a 4 man pass rush
June 18th, 2025 at 10:05 pm
17 is about right based on LAST YEAR. I believe we had the #16 Defense overall based on points against – which to me is really the ONLY defensive ranking that truly matters…..
But these guys aren’t taking into account the vast defensive improvements I expect we will be seeing from the 2025 Buccaneers.
– Just having Winfield and Dennis healthy will make a world of positive difference as a starting point.
– Tykee Smith instead of whatever the hell Whitehead was doing at SS last year will be an improvement.
– Reddick instead of JTS at OLB is obviously a major upgrade – and I expect we will see the play of Diaby and Braswell improve as well… Oh and we drafted Walker who coaches are super excited about. Solid attention paid to upgrading the Edge rushers this past off-season…
– Drafting two promising CBs on day 2 this year is also going to pay big dividends. Even if neither starts game 1 – the rookies will push Dean and McCollum and Izien to be their best. As will Bryce Hall. Neither Hayes nor Funderburk will see the field on defense this year. The Defensive backfield WILL be substantially better and deeper than last year…. and an improved/more consistent pass rush will absolutely help the DBs to play more aggressively and make more plays on the ball – thus, more turnovers which will make coach Bowles smile…..
– And finally, Having Sirvocea Dennis available this year (fingers crossed) is going to be a huge upgrade vs what Britt and Russell were capable of in 2024. Not only that but both back-ups at MLB (Anthony Walker and Deion Jones) are better and more experienced than the guys we were putting out there last year….
DL is already a strength with Vea, Kancey and Hall as the established starters who combined for 20 sacks last year and were very good against the run. Adding Elijah Roberts in the 5th round may well have been a steal – he could turn out to be a nice chess piece this year and can likely bring some pressure from almost any spot on the line including outside where he played mostly in College.
Top 10 defense and perhaps better than that is what we will be seeing from the Bucs in 2025.
Bowles has enough talent at each level this year to play aggressively once again – which is definitely Todd’s forte. Todd is one of the better defensive coaches in the league and probably felt somewhat neutered last year without Winfield and having to play Britt, Hayes/Funderburk and Merriweather so much.
If the offense improves – or even is roughly the same as last year – the 2025 Buccaneers are going to be very tough to beat!
June 18th, 2025 at 10:08 pm
Wow. YaYa worked on his himself this offseason. Hope this lead to a great season.
June 18th, 2025 at 11:08 pm
Let’s “hope” for All these amazing predictions to come true. (That would Actually be Wonderful)
And for God Sake, Do Not remove.those pretty Rose Colored Glasses
SUPER BOWL OR BUST!
June 18th, 2025 at 11:59 pm
Todd wins Coach of the Year.
(Yes I’ve been drinking. Yes I’m hammered.)