"Next man up" is becoming the mantra of this team. Following the loss of Gerald McCoy, "Next men up" might be more appropriate for his position. Raheem Morris has the luxury of rolling out two different players with very different skill sets on Sunday in DTs Frank Okam and Michael Bennett.
Frank Okam was drafted in the fifth-round (151st overall pick) by the Texans in the 2008 Draft. He went on to play in 13 games for the Texans before being released on October 25, 2010. Okam signed with Seattle on November 2, but was released before playing in any games. He was signed to the Bucs' practice squad and promoted to the active roster on November 24 when Ryan Sims was released. Okam is a behemoth at 6-5, 350 pounds....and I've seen the guy up close and can attest to his sheer size. He looks like a stereotypical 2-gap player, but, even as big as he is, he's gotta a little bit of quickness, which might explain why he's being given a look at the 3-technique position rather than taking the nose tackle spot and sliding Roy Miller over to the 3. I expect to see him in more first/second downs and short-yardage situations.
Michael Bennett slid over from his defensive end position and gave the Buccaneers a huge boost in the middle after halftime. According to Raheem, the coaching staff had seen Bennett play inside a little bit during his time with Seattle and thought that his quickness inside could give them something they lost with McCoy against that Washington zone blocking scheme. Considering the sea-change of an improvement against the run in the 2nd half of that game, I'd say he made quite an apt adjustment (yea, yea....I know the Redskins inexplicably threw the ball too much in the 2nd half). I'd expect to see Bennett in at 3-tech on 3rd down and on typical passing downs/situations.