If there is one thing I have come to realize is Preseason football does matter. Although the score and the record get washed away, what we see from our players is what we usually get in the Regular season. So when I look at our 2014 Tampa Bay Buccaneers and how they are going this Preseason, I am a little worried. There were a few questionable calls this off-season and right now we are getting the full picture of how questionable those calls were. Well, let's dive on into this.
We already know what we are going to get from Lovie Smith. He is known for having a very good defense and a so-so offense. From the moves he made this off-season, I would say we got more value in our defense than we have had in a decade but it's still questionable. With what we have seen in the short preseason so far, I don't think Michael Johnson has popped up on my radar at all for the pass rusher he was sold to be. He is stout at run defense but so is Adrian Clayborn and William Gholston, for a lot less cheaper. Clinton McDonald, Gerald McCoy, and Akeem Spence have filled up the center of this defense and provided a better pass rush than the defensive ends. Which is great but worries me greatly. Our Linebackers seem to be pretty good except for the awful biting at play-action. Mason Foster has shown he can play in the middle and Lavonte David is just a beast. Danny Lansanah has been a bright spot for this linebacker corpse with his training camp play and I hope he gets a spot. Considering we play a hybrid Cover 2, Johnathan Casillas will be a fine linebacker when in the game. What worries me on this team is the defensive backs. Alterraun Verner and Mike Jenkins have not played much this off-season. We will likely seen Verner next game but will he be healthy though the year with the same hamstring issues he has had a lot of his career? I just don't think we have as much depth as we think we do. I don't think I need to explain the safeties as they are the same as last year.
Overall, I do feel this defense will come together and be dominate. The defensive line is stacked but with average pass rusher's but good run stuffers. The linebackers get to the ball and cover there gaps when they know where the football is. And if they ever get healthy enough, the defensive backs should look great as always in Lovie's system. What I do see happening is that the Buccaneers will not have the pass rush we were spoiled with by Tony Dungy. However, I think the defensive backs will be able to stay on the receivers hips and it won't look that bad until we have Brees come in and find the holes in our defense.
The offense is another story. We don't need a Payton Manning or Drew Brees to win with Lovie's defense. Rex Grossman, of all people, took them deep into the playoffs. With Tedford's offense, or what we have seen from it, I think we will have a much better offense than last year. We all know that Josh McCown is a stepping stone for another QB in the near future. But with what I am seeing, he is much better than Grossman. Both had terrible O-lines but he has the reactive sense to get the ball out. Doug Martin looks like he is in good form. Backed up by Mike James and Bobby Rainey, we have a great farm of running backs that can tire down a defense if needed. I feel bad for Charles Sims but he was just a 3rd down back from what I have seen. The wide receivers are the bright spot of this offense. Vincent Jackson has always been a beast and Mike Evans is coming into his own quick. It would be nice to see more than a quarter of them on the field to see how well they do. I don't feel Chris Owusu earned his spot on the roster but Louis Murphy, who got a lot of flack from some people on here when signed, has shown he is a pretty good slot receiver when needed. I really don't know about the tight ends other than Austin Seferian-Jenkins is going to be pretty good. He seems like a Antonio Gates, Jimmy Graham, Tony Gonzalez mix. I am disappointing that Tim Wright might not make the roster due to his inability to block. Oh, and a quick shout out to Jorvorskie Lane for looking like our first good and true fullback in a while.
Now for the offensive line. You get your own paragraph. When we signed Anthony Collins, we has a small clue what we were getting and from the looks of it, he reminds me of Penn when he was just starting to get good. He doesn't always do good on his assignments but he makes up for it on other plays. Demar Dotson is the same way. Evan Dietrich-Smith has been having issues with straight on bull rushes from defensive tackles. However he is good at providing help for guards when he doesn't have a man on him. I fear that with the Falcons new 3-4 system he might have trouble with the nose tackle. Our guard situation was going to happen when Nicks and Joseph were injured early last year. We hoped for Nicks to get better and he didn't and we released Joseph when he only had one good leg. Then we decided to trade Zuttah, our starting center who would've moved to guard, for a draft pick later used on Kevin Pamphile. I agree with the trade because I remembered when Zuttah filled in at guard and he looked like Oniel Cousins in the regular season. Speaking of Cousins, I think he will be a thorn in our side all season. Whether it be for holding penalties or not blocking, he will probably bring back a few big plays by himself. Then we have unproven Patrick Omameh as the other guard. He looked reasonable but I feel they should let the rookies have a shot at starting too. But Lovie has always been tough on rookies and very few actually do start their first season with his teams. In the end, this offensive line will be our weakness. We knew it was coming but even then we couldn't stop it. Free agency wasn't filled with any "must have" guards. And I can understand the idea Licht and Smith had with the draft. In the 3rd round, we had a choice to pick Gabe Jackson, who doesn't fit our system, or David Yankey, who fell all the way to the 5th round, and instead we went with a specialty pick. If it's one thing the Bears had was Forte, who always caught the ball out of the backfield.
After the draft, I was excited to see our Buccaneers play ball and see what they could do. Well, we have more value on this team since the Dungy era. But like all football teams, we have holes or positions where we need help. Offensive Guard is one but it might be better next year when Kadeem Edwards comes into his own. Defensive End is another. We need pass rushers for the Lovie's Cover 2 to work and all we have is run stuffers. And lastly, we need a Quarterback. I like Mike Glennon and McCown but neither will let the offensive thrive compared to Cam Newton or even Matt Ryan. A couple things I would do this season is look to resign Gerald McCoy because he is the face of this franchise. Look for reclamation projects like the Larry English signing to find a pass rusher. We did it with Michael Bennett and Styles G. White. It's too bad they wanted so much money. There is a lot of other things too but it's only Preseason!!! I can't wait until September 7th!
Connect with Bucs Nation