Quick Mid-Season Review

Currently the Tampa Bay Buccaneers hold the first pick in the 2014 draft. After spending so much money in the secondary to the tune of $137.25 million for safety Dashon Goldson and cornerback Darrelle Revis, we fans and much of the NFL had the premonition that the Bucs’ defense should be dominating this season. Revis made up a moniker of "No Fly Zone" to share his promise to Tampa as well as the league. With eight games completed, Tampa is still searching for its first win.

In 2013 the Buccaneers let go of defensive lineman Michael Bennett, who led the team in sacks with nine, defensive tackle Roy Miller, traded away cornerback Aqib Talib after the first eight games of 2012, and released cornerback Eric Wright due to not conforming to the Bucs’ culture because of a DUI (driving under the influence). What the team did was go out and sign two Pro Bowl players in safety Goldson and CB Revis, drafted CB Johnthan Banks, DT Akeem Spence, and DE’s William Gholston and Steven Means. The team also signed free agent Derek Landri.

As you can tell from the chart above, the defense has performed terribly as it is allowing more points this season than last season. The focus was getting top quality secondary personnel for the 2013 off-season. Apparently, spending more money does not equate a better performance. We can allude that 2012 defense is better than 2013 defense after 8 games. A better defensive line with a weak secondary has performed better than a weak defensive line with a great secondary.

In a previous article I wrote, I denoted that the defensive line’s sack rate has dropped from 77% of the team’s total sack production in 2012 to 41% this year.

Offensively, the Bucs lost old man tight end Dallas Clark by not re-signing him in the off-season. But offensive guard Davin Joseph would return from a season ending injury during the previous off-season we also have WR Vincent Jackson and RB Doug Martin returning in their second season as Buccaneers. Who would have thought that the only two offensive draftees in 2013 would make a significant impact for the team: 3^rd round pick Mike Glennon has been the starting signal caller since game four and 6^th round pick running back Mike James just had a breakout game with 158 yards of rushing on 28 attempts because Doug Martin was felled by injury.

The table reveals how miserable the offense has been. Davin is a shell of his former Pro Bowl self and OG Carl Nicks has been battling MRSA for most of the season as he has been in and out of the lineup. Former starter at quarterback Josh Freeman was released after three games as he lead the offense to score 17 points in game 1, 7 points against the Saints, and 3 points on the Patriots. Rookie Glennon has eclipsed Freeman’s highest total of 17 points three times in five games, including 24 points against the vaunted Seattle Seahawk defense.

The offensive line has been quite inept and the play calling has always been suspect, but the offense has been improving. Yet compared to the 2012 season, it looks as though we’ve faltered so far away. Although, if you compare the last six games of the 2012 season when the offense could only generate 17 points per game and when Glennon took the helm, the offense has improved by one whole point per game with 18 points. And yet it is amazing how far this offense has fallen from scoring 28 points per game average to only 15 points a game.

Eight games have come and gone. We are that much closer to the draft. We are that much closer to free agency. The impasse we may come to is what to do with the first round pick.