Bucs OLBs coach and co-defensive coordinator Larry Foote – Picture by: Cliff Welch/PR
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Pewter Report’s Scott Reynolds solutions your questions from the @PewterReport Twitter account this week within the Bucs Mailbag. Submit your query to the Bucs Mailbag every week through Twitter utilizing the hashtag #PRMailbag. Listed here are the Bucs questions we selected to reply for this week’s version.
QUESTION: Mike Caldwell simply acquired employed as Bucs ILBs coach and George Edwards simply acquired promoted to defensive cross sport coordinator. Do you just like the Caldwell rent and do you suppose it is a good transfer for Edwards and the Bucs? Do you suppose Larry Foote will do a very good job with the OLB place?
Bucs HC Todd Bowles & OLBs coach Larry Foote – Picture by: Cliff Welch/PR
ANSWER: Todd Bowles deserves numerous credit score for making just a few vital adjustments to his defensive teaching workers this offseason. Shifting Larry Foote from inside linebackers coach to exterior linebackers coach to switch George Edwards was completely the appropriate transfer. Foote is a high-energy, hands-on coach and that’s the form of temperament wanted for that room. Move rushers are hunters. They hunt quarterbacks in a primal method. It takes a sure sort of mentality to be an efficient edge rusher, along with the technical work with regards to perfecting cross rush strikes and growing a rush plan. Foote has confirmed he might be extremely efficient in that position.
He coached Tampa Bay’s exterior linebackers from 2019-2021 when Shaq Barrett and Jason Pierre-Paul have been of their prime, racking up sacks, making Professional Bowls and serving to the staff win Tremendous Bowl LV in 2020 and get a franchise-record 13 wins the subsequent season. I did a Pewter Pulse video on Saturday for our PewterReportTV YouTube channel that you need to take a look at that goes into extra element. I’ll submit it on the backside of Bucs Mailbag.
As for Edwards, he didn’t have any background teaching edge rushers and I don’t suppose he was terribly efficient. The surface linebacker sack whole dropped from a mixed 22 in 2023 to only 12 final yr – led by Yaya Diaby’s 4.5 sacks. Bowles was proper to step in and re-assign Edwards to cross sport coordinator. Hopefully he might help in that space, because the Bucs cross protection was ranked thirty first within the league and the secondary solely recorded six sacks. If the cross protection doesn’t enhance, Bowles must make some extra teaching after 2025 and transfer on from Edwards and some others.
The return of Mike Caldwell is a welcome signal. He was an distinctive inside linebackers coach beneath Bowles and head coach Bruce Arians from 2019-21 earlier than transferring on to develop into the Jaguars defensive coordinator in 2022. Caldwell helped develop Devin White throughout his rookie season in 2019 when he was the staff’s first-round decide, and White performed his finest for Caldwell earlier than his performed declined in 2022. Once more, Bowles deserves kudos for shaking up his defensive workers. I’m very enthusiastic about these strikes. We’ll see the way it performs out in 2025.
QUESTION: It’s early, however do you will have any late-round draft prospects that you simply’re loving for the Bucs in rounds 4-7?
UCLA edge rusher Oluwafemi Oladejo – Picture by: USA Right this moment
ANSWER: Bucs normal supervisor Jason Licht has completed an incredible job digging for gold on Day 3. Cornerback Zyon McCollum, working again Bucky Irving, tight ends Cade Otton and Payne Durham and inside linebacker SirVocea Dennis are among the staff’s current hits on Day 3.
I’m knee deep in draft research proper now and might be interviewing numerous the prospects in Indianapolis on the NFL Scouting Mix this week. As for a few of my projected favorites for rounds 4-7, I’ve fairly just a few on the defensive facet of the ball: Edge rushers Antwaun Powell-Ryland from Virginia Tech and Oluwafemi Oladejo and defensive tackles Thor Griffith from Louisville and Jared Harrison-Hunte a defensive sort out from SMU.
I actually like numerous Day 3 linebackers, together with Ohio State’s Cody Simon, Iowa’s Jay Higgins, Cal’s Teddye Buchanan, and Oklahoma State’s Nikolas Martin. The Day 3 cornerbacks I’m excessive on are Kansas’ Mello Dotson, Cal’s Nohl Williams, Kansas State’s Jacob Parrish, Louisville’s Quincy Riley, and I additionally like Ohio State security Jordan Hancock. I detailed just a few of those gamers in a PewterReport.com article on Saturday – 10 Bucs Draft Sleepers Heading Into The Mix.
On offense, Illinois receiver Pat Bryant, Jap Washington receiver Efton Chism III, UNLV receiver Ricky White, Memphis receiver Roc Taylor, Texas Tech working again Tahj Brooks and SMU working again Brashard Smith. I’ve not studied offensive linemen or tight ends sufficient but to develop any favorites, particularly Day 3 guys.
QUESTION: All the time appreciative of suggestions from PR. If the Bucs offense wasn’t high 5 in lots of classes in 2024 would we be sitting right here questioning what Todd Bowles wants to do that yr to maintain his job? In lots of different years, his protection would have gotten him canned. What are the targets for 2025?
Bucs head coach Todd Bowles and FS Antoine Winfield Jr. – Picture by: Cliff Welch/PR
ANSWER: If Todd Bowles was simply the defensive coordinator final yr as an alternative of the pinnacle coach, he could not have returned for the 2025 season. The Bucs cross protection was horrible, rating thirty first within the league, permitting 245.3 yards per sport. Tampa Bay’s protection solely recorded seven sacks final yr, together with simply six from the secondary. Actually unacceptable numbers.
However Bowles did an excellent job of getting the staff centered following the bye week and rallying from a 4-6 begin to end 10-7 and successful the NFC South for a 3rd straight time with him on the helm. Credit score Bowles for making some vital teaching adjustments, and let’s hope that he and normal supervisor Jason Licht can actually concentrate on protection in free company and the NFL Draft and discover 4 or 5 new starters to improve the expertise.
Tampa Bay’s protection was ravaged with accidents final yr, particularly within the secondary. And I’m positive that performed a job within the Glazers deciding to present Bowles one other yr to see if the staff might be extra lucky health-wise in 2025. Accidents to free security Antoine Winfield Jr., who was an All-Professional playmaker in 2023, significantly damage the protection as he was not the identical participant he was the yr earlier than. After making him the league’s highest-paid security, the Bucs expect an enormous bounce-back yr from Winfield in 2025.
QUESTION: Assume Trey Hendrickson and Myles Garrett aren’t coming. How do you see Tampa Bay addressing edge? Wouldn’t be thrilled with overpaying Josh Sweat, and wouldn’t be thrilled with among the potential edges accessible at No. 19. Ought to we go one other place like cornerback, linebacker, offensive line or a talent place at No. 19?
Bengals OLB Joseph Ossai – Picture by: USA Right this moment
ANSWER: Drafting one of the best participant accessible within the first-round is all the time one of the best method, as drafting for want typically ends in NFL groups reaching and passing up extra gifted gamers. We’ll see what wants are stuffed first in free company. I might see the Bucs going with perhaps one splash free agent – maybe it’s inside linebacker Dre Greenlaw or cornerback Charvarius Ward, and we’ll see how huge the worth tag is for Jets inside linebacker Jamien Sherwood.
I do know that Jason Licht was struggled to draft efficient edge rushers exterior of Yaya Diaby, and that he has but to draft a double-digit sacker. Licht did have some free agent success with Shaq Barrett in 2019 as an unproven cross rusher, and traded for Jason Pierre-Paul in 2018. I don’t know if he has the need to throw $17 million or extra on the likes of Philadelphia’s Josh Sweat or Khalil Mack from the L.A. Chargers. I’d nearly relatively see Licht take a low-risk flier on Bengals edge rusher Joseph Ossai, who had 5 sacks final yr behind Trey Hendrickson and Sam Hubbard.
With Larry Foote now again teaching exterior linebackers, I feel Licht has much more religion in drafting one other edge rusher with a premium decide. If George Edwards was nonetheless accountable for that room, perhaps he doesn’t. I do know I wouldn’t. However I feel Foote will do a greater job of growing Diaby and Chris Braswell, final yr’s second-round decide. But including a confirmed veteran free agent to the room would have some profit from a mentor standpoint. I’m unsure if Barrett has something left within the tank and is value re-signing.
QUESTION: Your SR’s FAB 5 this week about Jason Licht was very regarding. The very fact you declare Licht received’t really do the excessive free agent spending due to his previous offers from 2014 is just not what I would like my GM doing, particularly at edge rusher which is a place he sucks at drafting. He must open the checkbook.
Bucs GM Jason Licht and proprietor Bryan Glazer – Picture by: Cliff Welch/PR
ANSWER: To be clear, Jason Licht hasn’t shared any of the staff’s free company plans or draft plans with me. I’m solely assuming what Licht will do after spending the final 11 years learning him and from some interviews I’ve had with him. In Friday’s SR’s FAB 5 column I wrote the next:
Licht’s huge free agent splashes who really hit during the last decade? Middle Ryan Jensen in 2018, defensive sort out Ndamukong Suh in 2019 and quarterback Tom Brady in 2020. All three of these former Bucs earned a minimum of $9 million per season.
However that’s it – that’s the checklist.
The final time Licht tried to make an enormous splash signing with an imported free agent was vast receiver Russell Gage in 2021, who signed a three-year deal value $30 million. It turned out to be a horrible transfer in hindsight and a waste of cash.
So why ask Licht, director of participant personnel Rob McCartney and the Bucs’ brass to do one thing that not often works? Not simply in Tampa Bay, however not often works across the league, too?
My level is that free company is filled with misses – not simply in Tampa Bay however across the league. And one of many examples I used was Philadelphia’s 2024 free agent class, which totaled 13 gamers and featured solely 4 hits. One of many greatest free agent misses in all the NFL final yr was the Eagles’ signing of defensive finish Bryce Huff to a deal value $17 million per yr. Huff was coming off a 10-sack season with the Jets, however solely had 2.5 sacks with the Eagles and was inactive for the Tremendous Bowl.
What I feel Licht will do is open the checkbook, however signal extra free brokers to cheaper, prove-it offers which have been profitable (see Shaq Barrett and Baker Mayfield) relatively than one or two high-priced free brokers. I feel a shotgun method would work higher relatively than making an attempt to place all the staff’s eggs in a single basket. We’ll see what occurs. Possibly I’m unsuitable and Licht will do what you need with some huge free agent splashes and shock me.
