NFL Trade Rumors: Buccaneers trying to trade for an offensive lineman

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are not happy with their offensive line play, even though I'd say that's an overreaction driven by a poor diagnosis of what the problem is. As would Stephen White. As did Pro Football Focus, who only gave one player a negative pass-blocking grade against the Cleveland Browns: Ali Marpet. Even so, Jenna Laine reports the Bucs are looking to solve this problem by trading for a player.

Dissatisfied with the offensive line play? Bucs are too. That's why they're looking for help inside and willing to trade. Shopping now.

— JennaLaineBucs (@JennaLaineBucs) September 1, 2015

This is not going to work. For one, the problem with the offensive line really hasn't been the play of individual players. With the exception of Ali Marpet, none of the team's offensive linemen were beat especially frequently against the Cleveland Browns. And Marpet's problems are more a result of inexperience than inability, something that'll be fixed with time - and not all that much time, given how much he improved from game one to game two.

The issue with the offensive line and the blocking in general was that the protection was constantly overwhelmed by blitzes. The communication and the protection calls were off, and that was the main reason the Bucs gave up so much pressure. That's not something you fix by bringing in an offensive lineman who hasn't played in this system and needs at least a few weeks to acclimate to his new teammates.

Lest we forget, the Bucs did the exact same thing last year. They panicked about their offensive line play in the preseason, gave up far too much to take on Logan Mankins' massive contract -- and that then did absolutely nothing to solve the team's problems, both because Mankins took time to adjust to the scheme and players around him, and because Mankins wasn't the All-Pro he'd been years before.

And here's my other question: who exactly are you going to replace? Ali Marpet has shown he can physically handle this level of play and just needs some experience to get to a quality level -- experience he's not going to get on the bench. Donovan Smith has looked pretty good in preseason. You just signed Gosder Cherilus to play right tackle while Dotson is injured. You've been praising Logan Mankins and Evan Smith all offseason, and Dirk Koetter went out of his way to name the latter as a positive, too.

And what player are you going to replace them with? Where are you going to find an offensive lineman capable of starting this late in the preseason? Without giving up the farm to get him, that is.