This offseason in Tampa, the Buccaneers cleaned house coaching wise to try and turn their franchise around. A franchise who hasn’t made the playoffs in 12 seasons and has been the bottom dwellers of the NFC South for most of the past decade.
They brought in “QB Whisperer” and 2x Super Bowl champion head coach Bruce Arians, stud defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh and drafted arguably the best linebacker in college football last season in Devin White.
Tampa also entered the 2019 season with more questions than answers. Is Jameis Winston a franchise quarterback? Can Tampa make a playoff push? Will Todd Bowles transform this defense? Among many others.
The answer so far to these questions? “Not sure.”
Who ARE the Buccaneers?
Looking at the Buccaneers schedule, you wouldn’t picture them dropping their first game of the season against the 49ers but winning on a short week in Carolina. You also wouldn’t think they would lose to a bare Giants team then turn around and beat the defending NFC Champion Rams at home and put up a franchise record 55 points. Winning games they should struggle in and lose games they should win. They’ve stopped two of the league’s highest regarded quarterbacks in Cam Newton and Jared Goff and made rookies Daniel Jones and Kyle Allen look like superstars.
Rocky QB Play
Jameis Winston’s season didn’t start out the way Tampa hoped, throwing three interceptions at home against the 49ers, two for pick-sixes. After a horrible game one, Winston would rebound in the next four games to throw for nearly 1,200 yards 10 touchdowns and only two interceptions. Things seemed to be looking up for Winston, who is in his contract year, until last week in London where he had seven turnovers. Five of those seven turnovers were interceptions and the other two fumbles, his first of the season. Tampa cannot succeed if they continuously turn the ball over and Jameis will be out of a job come next season if he continues to do so.
Offensive Line Woes
The Buccaneers offensive line isn’t a new problem. Since last season, the line has been a major issue causing Jameis to run for his life most of the football game. Still, Jason Licht chose to ignore this issue during the draft and instead picked up a few pieces in free agency. The offensive line held Aaron Donald for just one tackle in week four against the Rams but since then have given up 13 sacks in two weeks. Both starting RT and starting RG Demar Dotson and Alex Cappa were held out with injuries, but the lack of depth is now a glaring issue. Since then, Tampa had to call up a practice squad player to their active roster before Sundays game in London, who struggled mightily.
Lack of Secondary Leadership
When you have the worst pass defense in the NFL the year before, there’s nowhere to go but up. At least, that’s what the Buccaneers thought coming into the season. Currently, Tampa is giving up 30 points per game and over 300 yards passing per game. Their most veteran presence in a secondary consisting mostly of rookies and second year players, is fifth year corner Vernon Hargreaves. Hargreaves is top five when it comes to yards given up this season so far. In fact, other than Hargreaves, they have had mix of second and third corners between second year players Carlton Davis and MJ Stewart as well as rookie Sean Murphy-Bunting. At Safety, they have rookie Mike Edwards and Jordan Whitehead. While its still early and in a new defensive scheme, the lack of leadership is evident. Last week against the Panthers players were constantly throwing their hands in the air pre-snap, confused. Blown coverages have been another big problem as Tampa is top 10 in big plays given up.
Furthermore, Tampa is now 2-4 at the six-week mark after dropping two straight games. On a bye week this week, they’ll look to adjust the roster and clean up mistakes before taking on the Titans in Nashville on the next leg of their seven week long road tour. Titans game is a must win to avoid a 2-5 hole which likely ends Tampa’s season.
