The Tampa Bay Buccaneers managed to accomplish most of their goals in the 2024 off-season. They were able to keep the most important pieces to their 2023 campaign to deals that will allow the team to further extend the sudden championship window that revealed itself.
However, there’s one area of the squad where the team will find it difficult to improve now that most of the top talent in the 20242 free-agency class has been taken by rivals across the league.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers will find it tough to improve subpar pass rush in 2024
Leading Tampa Bay Buccaneers webzine JoeBucsFan.com wrote a piece that emphasized the “dire” need for a capable pass rusher to prevent opposing QBs from doing whatever they wanted under center.
The piece called for Buccaneers fans to look back to the Lost Decade, the period JoeBucsFan.com coined as the time when the team seemed directionless in their pursuit of a Super Bowl title. He emphasized that the Tampa Bay squads during this time had terrible pass rushers who weren’t able to stop divisional rivals and the rest of the league from doing whatever they wanted:
The Bucs had no pass rush. Just none. If the Bucs did get pressure it was more likely because an offensive lineman tripped.
And then there was the pass coverage, if that’s what you want to call it. Robert McClain and Vernon Hargreaves and Chris Conte ran around like chickens running for cover from a fox (and Hargreaves delivered his patented baseball umpire safe sign whenever a quarterback threw the ball 10 yards out of bounds).
It’s reasonable to blame the Buccaneers for their inability to compete for a talented EDGE during free agency. However, the team was doing everything they could to ensure Baker Mayfield, Mike Evans, and Antoine Winfield Jr. weren’t going anywhere.
How did the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ pass rush fare in 2023?
While it’s understandable that the Bucs could not focus on anything other than their prized free agents, there’s enough reason for a trusted voice like JoeBucsFan.com to voice out its concern over the Bucs’ pass rush.
The team allowed the third-most passing yards through 17 regular-season games at 4232 despite having the third-most blitzes run at 40.1% and the seventh-most sacks at 48.
The Bucs will have to make for their lack of free-agent acquisitions through the draft or the trade market if they want to address their lacking pass rush unit.
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