Pass Rush Always Helps The Secondary
April 28th, 2026
Bucs coach Todd Bowles.
Just once since Bucs coach Todd Bowles came to town in 2019 has his defense not been ranked in the 20s for passing yards allowed per game (generally bottom-third in the league).
That one season was 2022, Bowles first as Bucs head coach. They finished ninth-best that year in passing yards allowed per game.
So in the wake of last week’s draft, ESPN had one question for each team. The question for the Bucs was, has the team done enough in the draft to improve its normal woe-is-me pass defense?
Jenna Laine of ESPN seems to think if the backup cornerbacks are decent, the Bucs pass defense will improve.
Did the Bucs do enough to improve their pass defense?
The Bucs selected edge rusher Rueben Bain in the first round to help their pass rush, and they selected nickelback Keionte Scott in the fourth round. While the latter allows cornerback Jacob Parrish to compete for a starting spot on the outside with Zyon McCollum and Benjamin Morrison, corner is a position that’s frequently plagued by injuries. Many of the Bucs’ most challenging moments in 2025 came when reserves were exploited, such as the infamous third-and-28 and fourth-and-14 plays against the Falcons.
The Bucs allowed a 29.6% third-and-long conversion rate in passing situations in 2025 — eighth worst in the league.
While Laine makes solid points about backup corners, this is overthinking the issue.
Since both Bucs sacks king Shaq Barrett and Jason Pierre-Paul grew old, the Bucs simply have not had a pass rush, certainly not from the edges.
A secondary’s best friend is a vicious pass rush. So the best way to help the defense rather than going out and getting more scrubs for potentially a deeper bench, why not have Vita Vea, Calijah Kancey, YaYa Diaby, Rueben Bain and Al-Quadin Muhammad feast?
Joe has no idea why folks at One Buc Palace could not embrace an edge rush. It’s comforting to see the Bucs take a step towards that by drafting Bain. Maybe someone (Bowles?) has seen the light?
Last Friday when Bain came to town, Bucs coach Todd Bowles talked about how Bain would fit so well in the scheme Bowles wants to use. Bowles did not explain what sort of scheme that may be. Joe assumes it’s the same ol’ defense.
Well, six of the past seven years the Bucs finished in the bottom-third of the league in passing yards allowed per game, you’d think someone might suggest tweaking a few — a lot? — of things.
Whatever scheme they’re running, it is not stopping many quarterbacks.
One solution? Start putting quarterbacks on their arses. Regularly.
April 28th, 2026 at 7:13 am
Pass Rush Always Helps The Secondary
Not Last Season!!!!
PS It would be nice to add (not subtract) a new voice to the defensive side of things at One Buc Place!!!!
April 28th, 2026 at 7:18 am
Yes, the pass rush can only help that putrid pass defense of ours. Groundbreaking stuff here. lol
April 28th, 2026 at 7:24 am
Bowles has no idea how to stop a passing game he thinks he still playing against fullbacks and I formation offenses
April 28th, 2026 at 7:42 am
“Just once since Bucs coach Todd Bowles came to town in 2019 has his Bucs defense not been ranked in the 20s for passing yards allowed per game (generally bottom-third in the league).”
The very definition of insanity right? Keep doing the same thing and expect different results.
April 28th, 2026 at 7:43 am
Amen. Build a dominant & deep D-line and watch your LBs & secondary get exponentially better. Don’t let up Jason, stay hyper focused on that line. Your backups need to be ass kickers too. Send them in waves and the wins will pile up.
April 28th, 2026 at 7:47 am
It’s simple, you can’t make chicken soup without chicken. You need good players and the best ones are selected early. If you can get one out of the first round then you got lucky, the draft is always a crap shoot. The Bucs best players drafted have been on the offensive side of the ball, this year a top defender fell to them, and many will argue the best defender in the draft fell to them. They also picked up some other very good defensive players. This draft played out to the Bucs favor and they took advantage of it with solid picks. Bowles schemed up too many blitzes, exotic looks cause he didn’t have a consistent rush to get home. I give him credit for trying. Maybe he has it now and/or is at least trending up.
April 28th, 2026 at 7:47 am
I think the idea about this stop the run first style play is to contain mobile QBs. A scrambling QB is essentially a run play until he throws the football. The problem is getting home before the pass is released. A disrupted pass is a win also if it’s incomplete. It’s a win if a scrambling QB gets chased down before he can extend the play or run to the sticks. It’s a start but not a cure if the pass is thrown. They see the problem and tried to address it with the addition of 3 new CBs Parrish, Morrison, and Scott. Previously Zion, Izen, Smith in just over a year timeframe. It’s been a problem since Cupper Kupp took the SB away. Been trying to upgrade Dean and Davis for years to no avail. Had success against Hurts and Mahomes who are considered mobile. Fail against pocket stiffs like Stafford and Cousins.
April 28th, 2026 at 7:47 am
You have to get home with 4. Hopefully our off season addressed this.
April 28th, 2026 at 7:49 am
This stat can’t be true
Did Joe double check that
NO WAY the DEFENSIVE GURU could have a pass rush ranked in the 20s
If this IS TRUE ???? THEN NEVER USE DEFENSIVE GURU AGAIN
IF any other NFL team had a Defensive Coordinator ranked in the bottom quarter of the NFL in pass rush they would be gone. PLEASE tell me that’s not true.
April 28th, 2026 at 7:52 am
Ever hear of a leopard changing its stripes!? NOT HAPPENING!
April 28th, 2026 at 8:18 am
Has there been any talk on bringing Jason Taylor, the U’s DL coach, in to coach the OLB full time OR bring him in for OTAs, training camp, etc. (when not afrecting his “U” duties) on a coaching internship program?
April 28th, 2026 at 8:27 am
The term “exotic looks” is such an overused & inaccurate description when people discuss Bowles & his D scheme. The phrase you should be using is “players out of position”, because it don’t mean crap if you’re not stopping teams from converting. Can’t wait until we get a legit DC & HC in the building next off-season.
April 28th, 2026 at 8:28 am
And then we pick up the fifth year on oft injured Kancey. SMH. “Your best ability is availability”.
April 28th, 2026 at 8:28 am
The Bucs and other NFL teams historically have been at some of their best when their defense stops the run and makes the other team one dimensional and throwing the ball more often. Even if the other team gets yards from passing, as long as you get negative plays — sacks and turnovers — you are going to win as a team.
The problem with the Bucs the last couple of years is they were still bad when teams were passing against them and getting worse with teams running against them and ultimately were not getting many negative plays.
Historically, lots of teams successfully use the bend but do not break mentality.
Obviously, the Bucs in 2020.
But also:
2021 Chiefs — 27th in pass yards allowed.
2022 Chiefs — 18th in pass yards allowed.
2023 Lions — 27th in pass yards allowed.
2017 Patriots – 30th in pass yards allowed.
2011 Giants — 21st in pass yards allowed.
2011 Patriots – 31st in pass yards allowed.
April 28th, 2026 at 8:48 am
Bucs Pass Rush….rushes back the wrong way.
April 28th, 2026 at 8:52 am
Glad the Bucs are improving a putrid pass defense with the addition of new players and the subtraction of poor players. Unfortunately, retaining Todd Bowles as DC is a big mistake. It is said that good coaches make adjustments throughout games. No evidence that TB adjusts to anything. Still believe that a 4-3 front showing 5 or 6 at the line is a better scheme than whatever TB is running. Moreover, he had Winfield playing way back to presumably limit big plays. It didn’t work as Winfield repeatedly trailed big plays whether pass or run. Great defenses constantly attack and disrupt. Bucs under TB do neither.
April 28th, 2026 at 9:01 am
À team’s odds of getting a first down on 3rd and 9 are much lower than 3rd and 4. Stopping the run makes it easier to stop the pass. And the Bucs have not had pass rushers like they do now since 2021. When there’s less pass rushers you have to blitz more. Now Bowles won’t need to do that nearly as often.
April 28th, 2026 at 9:05 am
Maybe someone (Bowles?) has seen the light?
BINGO!!!!
Bucs signing AQM and drafting Bain represents this imo….
consistent pressure from the front 4 DL is more important than QBs “guessing” where the pressure is coming from….and in our case, QB knew pressure wasnt coming from the edges lol…
add in a blitzing nickel & LB in Scott and Trotter and now we can really get after it….Parrish and Zyon on the outside with Morrison rotating is decent but depth behind them are extremely thin…might need to bring in Vildor and Hall as the # 5&6 CBs
GO BUCS!!!!
April 28th, 2026 at 9:38 am
When you let 7th round rookies look like All Pros you need to find a new line of work cause DC is not a good fit for you
April 28th, 2026 at 9:54 am
Yeah that’s obvious
April 28th, 2026 at 10:19 am
Sign Rasul Douglas for depth
Sign Jonnu Smith at Tight end as he knows Robinsons scheme and could be a good TE. Time to get rid of Culp and Durham after that.
April 28th, 2026 at 10:44 am
That’s it’s. Get it the QB. Bowles defense worked and well when he had suh JPP shaq and vea feast on the Oline. Can Robinson channel his inner suh ? Can vea get back to being vea ? Can Bain be JPP ? Can yaya come out to half of what Shaq did ? Add on kancey and AQM. Things look a lot better than they did. Tome will tell tho
April 28th, 2026 at 11:13 am
Bowles is a defensive Guru.
Just ask Ewers and Cousins.
Todd made it really hard for them as they completely torched the pass defense.
Going 2-7 down the stretch with the 32nd ranked red zone defense should have gotten him run.
In the NFC South though, that kind of mediocrity is rewarded.
April 28th, 2026 at 11:15 am
I think we have greatly improved our Pass Rush. Others now will be pushed to up their game on our D Line. Another key is keeping Kancey healthy. He can ball. But he’s gotta stay healthy.
April 28th, 2026 at 11:24 am
Thank you my Joe. I think we both know what not to expect.
April 28th, 2026 at 11:28 am
So many people here focus on complaining and blaming.
Since Tom Brady’s Superbowl team left, when have we actually had a sack artist?
We didn’t.
Arians was strictly hands-off the defense when he was head coach. Todd Bowles was in charge of it. So saying he doesn’t get credit for those years is stupid.
After Brady left, the focus turned to building an offense around Baker Mayfield. Bowles could have insisted the Bucs address the defense instead, but he understood that building around Mayfield was more important.
And it paid off with 3 division titles.
Last year, we finally saw the effort to rebuild the defense (though not in the first round). The CBs needed to be drafted first. Why? Because more times than not, it takes CBs longer to develop into good players. We saw that with Ronde Barbe, with Dean, With Davis. So starting with the CBs was important.
This year, we FINALLY addressed pass rush in the first round AND in Free Agency. We added another CB as well.
So Bowles may be a bad head coach (or not) but no one can accurately say he can’t run a good defense…because he hasn’t had the talent to run one since Arians was here.
Now that he has the weapons, we should see the offense improve.
April 28th, 2026 at 11:30 am
Sure, Bowles is going to change…..he will be back running his same old garbage scheme and asking Bain to cover the other teams top wide receiver because he still thinks he can outsmart everyone……he should be out of a job….
“We gotta coach it better”
April 28th, 2026 at 11:44 am
Division Champs please
NO ONE CARES ABOUT DIVISION
Bowles would never reach the playoffs without winning t
The softest division football in NFL history
Bowles has Won one game in playoffs
No other team would keep this guy PERIOD even the JETS fired him !!!
April 28th, 2026 at 11:44 am
CLOWN WILL HAVE DE COVERING SLOT RECEIVER IN RED ZONE. JUST ASK YAYA… FIRE TOILET BOWLES!!!
April 28th, 2026 at 12:06 pm
People on here repeatedly and consistently prove they know little about football. The only way you get both edges and the whole defensive line rushing the passer in a 3-4 is to blitz. That’s a 5 man rush. 4 is standard. So one edge rusher or lineman needs to cover a zone when in zone and not blitzing. It’s standard for a 3-4 and all teams that use it do it. We may run a little more 4-3 this year.
April 28th, 2026 at 12:12 pm
I think that our defense has been terrible is the result of Bowles ego. He drafted a receiver last year, Wirfs a couple of years ago. I believe he felt that whoever he had on defense that he could somehow make it work even without premium picks and free agents. Hopefully he finally realized that he needed better players on defense and this off season seemed to get some. When he coaches defense with better players his acumen on that side of the ball should improve a lot.
April 28th, 2026 at 12:19 pm
If Bowles was unable to previously “coach it better” in spite of the need to do so, there’s a problem.
If the complexity of the defense was too difficult for players to understand at times and had players out of position and the scheme had become predictable and ineffective, there’s a problem.
Jason drafted and signed the new defensive players that are of a different makeup and character in hopes of different results.
I suspect the narrative this season will be this; “We have a talented group of young players that need time to develop and learn Bowles difficult defense but don’t worry next year will be great.”
History tells us this; Bowles will somehow manage to produce another 8-9 or 9-8 season. That’s IF all goes well.
There will be games that leave fans furious and shaking their heads.
Bowles will continue to say “We’ve got to coach it better.”
At least the defense isn’t likely to lay down this year and the offense is healthy and will probably at least be decent. Special teams surely will improve at least a little bit.
Therefore I predict Bowles will complete his contract and retire.
It could have been worse.
April 28th, 2026 at 12:33 pm
In years past and under a previous name I pontificated that the owners needed to avoid the coaching carousel that at the time I feared would happen once again. I described scenarios where I hoped the owners would avoid the horrible seasons of the past and at a minimum keep the team near or at a mediocre +-.500.
They have done just that, therefore I have no justification to complain.
Go Bucs !
April 28th, 2026 at 12:35 pm
notimpressed about winning the NFC South….as a BUCS fan, i expect to win the NFC South
but it will be impressive if we SWEEP the NFC South!!!!
that will show this team has a sense of urgency with players and coaches taking their game to another level…
i was down on baker and bowles after the season but im starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel….
as much as ive been frustrated with performance and “excuses” i can admit, injuries hurt both sides of the ball and we didnt have the horses on defense….special teams just flat out sucked lol
GO BUCS!!!!!
April 28th, 2026 at 12:43 pm
The geniuses are bewildered why we don’t have a sack artist.
His picture is at the top of the page.
April 28th, 2026 at 1:27 pm
No one can top the Bowlezo Reverse Pass Rush! A first in NFL history.
April 28th, 2026 at 2:17 pm
Grover and 3.28 y’all look good together.
April 28th, 2026 at 2:33 pm
Joe … ‘The question for the Bucs was, has the team done enough in the draft to improve its normal woe-is-me pass defense?’
Up until 2025, Todd Bowles’ defenses here have been very consistent in terms of the number of sacks they’ve generated each season. However, sacks by position group is all over the map.
o 2019: 47 sacks (DLine-6.5 .. OLBs-34 .. ILBs-4.5 .. Sec-2)
o 2020: 48 sacks (DLine-13 .. OLBs-18.5 .. ILBs-10 .. Sec-5.5)
o 2021: 47 sacks (DLine-15.5 .. OLBs-23 .. ILBs-6.5 .. Sec-2)
o 2022: 44 sacks (DLine-13 .. OLBs-16 .. ILBs-9.5 .. Sec-5.5)
o 2023: 47 sacks (DLine-11 .. OLBs-22 .. ILBs-8 .. Sec-6)
o 2024: 46 sacks (DLine-24 .. OLBs-12 .. ILBs-7 .. Sec-3)
o 2025: 37 sacks (DLine-10.5 .. OLBs-14 .. ILBs-6.5 .. Sec-6)
Bucs had a robust DLine in 2019 consisting of Vea, Suh, RNR, Gholston, Allen & O’Connor yet it only generated 6.5 sacks all season, the lowest of Bowles 7 yrs here. Yet the OLBs that same year (Shaq, JPP, Nelson & Nassib) generated a whopping 34 sacks, by far the most of Bowles 7 yrs here.
Turn to 2024 though and the reverse held true. Our DLine thrived with 24 sacks, by far the most of his 7 yrs here. Yet the OLBs did the worst that year, generating only 12 sacks. STILL, Bowles found a way to generate 46 total sacks that year, our average total for the 2019-2024 timeframe.
I think I’ve come to the conclusion that total sacks on the season comparatively little to do with how well our defense is performing in terms of Pass Defense. Well, other than on those specific plays where we drop the QB onto the ground before he throws the rock. Of course, Bucs have sacked opposing QBs on less than 5% of the defensive plays. The other 95% probably need a little more attention.
April 28th, 2026 at 2:35 pm
They drafted Bain, signed Mo, what else could they do? Oh bring in more edge UDFA, one from LSU, check. Nelly’s, back, Walker, and yes Braswell.
April 28th, 2026 at 2:38 pm
Bob I think they have been working on a long term plan to restock the cupboards with talent. We started with offense and corners because they take longer to develop and now we’re working on linebackers and pass rush while backfilling players that left. All told, this looks like a spectacular draft for meeting the best combination of value and need.
April 28th, 2026 at 2:51 pm
Such interesting stats Defense Rules! Based on this, **NOBODY** should be saying any longer that Bowles doesn’t change his defense based on the talents of the players he has or make any adjustments to à rigid system. It’s an entirely fluid system.
April 28th, 2026 at 3:17 pm
Bowles doesn’t change his defense based on the talents of the players he has or make any adjustments to à rigid system.
April 28th, 2026 at 3:36 pm
StPeteMatt … ‘**NOBODY** should be saying any longer that Bowles doesn’t change his defense based on the talents of the players he has or make any adjustments to à rigid system. It’s an entirely fluid system.’
Todd couldn’t have survived more than a year or two if he DIDN’T modify his defensive approach every season. NFL offenses are far too sophisticated to allow any coach to simply maintain the status quo.
I’m excited about the changes in defensive talent that I’m seeing coming onboard. We’ve gotten considerably bigger & nastier it appears, and that’s exactly what we were missing. Todd is ‘a thinker’ though, and I’m hoping that he doesn’t overthink this. No more ‘Camp Cupcake’ this summer; I’d be perfectly happy if Todd ran his camp like the Bear ran it in 1954 for ‘The Junction Boys’. Well, might allow some GatorAide in there (since this is Florida).