Ronde Barber: Can’t Tackle? Can’t Play.
August 23rd, 2025
Should he be worried?
Saturday night in the WFLA-TV Channel 8 broadcast of the Backup Bowl between the Buffalo Bills and the Bucs, analyst Rondé Barber grew tired of all the sloppy tackling by Bucs defensive backs.
It seems the most physical defensive backs got in the game was one trying to land a punch on a Buffalo tight end.
Joe got tired of the display as much as Barber.
Late in the game, Barber had enough and warned that the sloppy tackling means Bucs backup defensive backs ought to have a couple of sleepless nights before the team cuts its roster down to 53 on Tuesday.
“It is just more missed tackles by this Bucs secondary,” Barber moaned. “Todd Bowles is very, very adamant that this team needs to be a better tackling football team.
“So all these guys that are on the field right now, if they’re not able to show [an ability to tackle] they’re not going to be an option for this defense. So keep an eye on any of these guys … the ones that don’t make … tackles are the ones that we probably won’t be talking about.”
Pretty strong words from Barber. And Joe doesn’t blame him one bit. Off the top of Joe’s head, Joe cannot recall Barber committing any glaring missed tackles years ago.
By Barber’s words, a guy who better be worried is safety Kaevon Merriweather. He had an atrocious ole’ of a missed tackle in the first half. He put his head down and tried to hit a Buffalo ballcarrier with a shoulder, not even attempting to wrap up, holding his arms down.
The ballcarrier blew past Merriweather.
If a high school kid tried that, he’d be benched. With that miserable missed tackle, Merriweather, by his own actions, gave up 10 yards on the play. Terrible.
It baffles Joe beyond words how guys simply don’t even attempt to wrap up. Hell, Joe learned how to do that in high school hitting tackling dummies. What the hell are owners paying defensive assistants six figures (or more) for?
August 23rd, 2025 at 10:47 pm
It’s still Sat night.
Did you accidentally upload this article too soon?
August 23rd, 2025 at 10:48 pm
The secondary and pass rush were horrendous tonight. I know these are soon-to-be cut guys, but it was embarrassing to see our guys get pushed around. The bulls 3rd string o-line bullied us.
August 23rd, 2025 at 10:55 pm
PLENTY OF SLOPY TACKLING ,REALLY BAD ! CANT COVER Q.B. ROLL OUTS EITHER .INTERESTING TO SEE WHO THEY WILL KEEP OUT OF THIS BUNCH.
August 23rd, 2025 at 10:57 pm
Bad news: No one tonight was very good at football. Good news: No one got hurt.😒
August 23rd, 2025 at 11:03 pm
Agree. People complain about meaningless preseason games, but the reality is they barely practice in the off-season, they don’t really hit much anymore, they’re down to three preseason games, and we wonder why they don’t know how to tackle.
Of course it starts in high school and college, but year after year after year after year, we are watching DBs and LBs, which is even worse, throw their shoulder into a runner and not wrap up.
I do not understand why it is still happening.
August 23rd, 2025 at 11:03 pm
Tackling was horrible. Defence sucked as a whole.
August 23rd, 2025 at 11:03 pm
Yup. Guess we will all die of the plague as a result.
August 23rd, 2025 at 11:04 pm
Merriweather is a lock to make the final 53
He had a good camp, he played good last season
This one game won’t change anything
August 23rd, 2025 at 11:25 pm
Rashad Wisdom looks pretty good
August 23rd, 2025 at 11:33 pm
Well looks like Shilo just sh*t the bed by throwing a punch, pretty sure JL TB have a zero tolerance undrafted rookies especially with ego the size of Texas.
I bet Deion chewed his ass up snd down on how selfish and incredible stupid that was. Bet other teams won’t touch him after that stunt.
Blew a golden opportunity kid, that’s on you.
August 23rd, 2025 at 11:33 pm
It seems to me that we are one of the top teams that the rest of the league is looking forward to picking through our cast-offs.
There should be a special comp pick awarded to the team that has the most “camp meat” picked up by other teams. Nothing special, maybe the end of the sixth round. It could be called the Brady comp.
August 23rd, 2025 at 11:39 pm
The Bills had injuries n still tackled like pros. No excuse for the lackadaisical performance by our defense tonight. Shame n embarrassment. Merriweather is garbage. The backups don’t possess a killer instinct.
August 23rd, 2025 at 11:49 pm
The leader of this team’s specialty is the secondary, yet we’ve seen a 29th ranked pass D 2 years in a row, continuous missed communication (although it being the same system for 6 years), countless missed tackles and soft play.
So either these D coaches can’t teach or can’t motivate. Or the system is too outdated or too complicated. Or the talent is overrated and overpaid.
Todd Bowles’ supposed strength and this team’s strength are completely opposite. Logic says this team has so much more potential. But it’s ok, Bowles is ‘a leader of men’ and ‘brings a good culture.’
August 23rd, 2025 at 11:54 pm
Thank you! There are other teams that have no issue with teaching guys how to tackle. Pittsburgh is another.
And this just in: Buffalo and Pittsburgh play in the same league as the Bucs and are under the same rules as far as padded practices, etc. Also, both are coached by defensive guys, as are the Bucs.
As Joe’s old man (who learned the following from his navy days when he was an officer in the Pacific Theatre on an air craft carrier) used to say, “Adapt, adjust, overcome.”
August 24th, 2025 at 1:22 am
Given the shoddy tackling by the defensive backups tonight, you can bet that Jason Licht will be scouring that waiver wire once cuts start being made. Not just help in the secondary but perhaps finding better depth on the OL too!
August 24th, 2025 at 1:27 am
Bowles should pick up defensive guys canned by the Steelers n Bills. 2nd, 3rd or 4th string, the culture n history for both teams is basic tackling.
August 24th, 2025 at 5:21 am
Thank God we have a head coach who’s a defensive guru. The defense as a whole looked lost last night, that’s on Todd. His defense is to complex for young players to grasp. I’ve heard to many third year players saying they’re just starting to get it, and play fast. The defense looked like their coach tonight, fat, and emotionless. The best thing Bowles can do going forward is promote Foote, or Caldwell to full time DC, and let them call it on Sundays. Each of them did a better job the first two preseason games than Todd did last night.
August 24th, 2025 at 5:28 am
The Bills have some QB decisions too. They are sort of in the same predicament we are in. Thank you Joe, for your dad’s service. He had words of wisdom.
I grew up in a family that lived, ate, and breathed sports especially football. And in NYS, the Bills were our team. Until the early 90s, when I changed over to the Bucs as my team after relocating here. Bills being secondary. And then a kid from Largo High being on the Bills as an assistant coach five years now. Rooting for him to keep doing well.
Unfortunately, after their Bills player pushed, shoved, and face masked Shilo and he was the only one to get ousted. I felt the refs were helping the Bills out already. Also disappointed was after Shilo left, some of the Bills players on the sidelines were waving and laughing. Theatrical. Pretty bad optics for the Bills. It’s almost like they were purposely trying to get at Shilo.
August 24th, 2025 at 6:34 am
The 2002 defense this is not.
August 24th, 2025 at 7:55 am
With 90 players on the roaster it’s difficult for the coaches to teach all the players better tackling technical skills.Some of the coaching comes from veteran players.
With the team going from 90 to 53 players coaches training tackling will improve.
Rhonde’s if you can’t tackle you playing days are in jeopardy.
Football begins Tuesday after 53 man cuts. 🙌
August 24th, 2025 at 9:14 am
This is not new to the Bucs….It’s obvious that Bowles doesn’t make them tackle in practice…..too many years of the same BS. It’s wrong to say that this is only a flaw with the backups…the stats prove differently. When you look at Bowles, especially when he’s on the field aginst the better coaches, he’s way over his head. There are way too many mistakes being made for players at this level and it pretty obvious that we’re being outclassed on a consistent basis.
August 24th, 2025 at 9:51 am
Did anyone see the Seahawks vs Packers game. The defense on both sides were hitting n wrapping up as if they were playing a conference championship to advance to the Super Bowl.
August 24th, 2025 at 10:36 am
Guess guys were saving themselves for the game against Atlanta
August 24th, 2025 at 11:18 am
Newsflash – a real coach teaches tackling in practice and demands wrapping up. We don’t have that, though.
August 24th, 2025 at 12:53 pm
It does not bode well! Tackling and personal discipline seem like team culture issues. Too many accolades maybe.
August 25th, 2025 at 9:29 am
If one or two guys are missing tackles, that’s on them. If everyone is missing tackles, that’s on the coaches. Hopefully it’s limited to just the fringe guys, but I am worried it isnt.