Day 6 Of Camp A Big One For Buccaneers’ Defense

The Buccaneers took the field at One Buc Place on Wednesday morning for day six of training camp, and there quite a few positives to take away from the defense’s work. Needing to rebound after years of subpar play, Wednesday was an encouraging day for the Tampa Bay defense.

Training camp rolled on for the Buccaneers on Wednesday morning as the team once again took the field in pads on day six. While it’s hard to read too much into what goes on during practices, the early part of camp has seemed pretty even between the offense and defense for Tampa Bay. While both sides had their moments on day six, it looked as if it was the defense’s day to shine, which is good news for defensive coordinator Mike Smith as the season inches closer.

As expected, consistent producers such as Gerald McCoy and Lavonte David had good days:

According to Buccaneers.com’s Scott Smith, McCoy was strong in one-on-one drills, which is no surprise. He has long been a force to be reckoned, especially in one-on-one situations. In the video from Pewter Report, David is seen making a good read before jumping the pass from Jameis Winston for an interception. While it is no shock that these two are looking good at camp, it’s still good to see that they are remaining consistent ahead of what is a crucial year for the Tampa Bay defense.

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Behind the two defensive leaders, the Bucs have plenty of guys that are still needing to rebound and further establish themselves as key parts of the defense. Defensive end Jacquies Smith has shown signs that he can be relied upon as a threat off the edge, but is still in the beginning stages of finding some consistency. Bradley McDougald is still fairly unproven, but Tampa Bay may be relying on him to be one of the starting safeties this season. Here, the two combined for a big play against the offense during 11-on-11 action:

There are multiple Buccaneers that fall into the category of being less-than-stellar under former head coach Lovie Smith despite having plenty of talent. Some of those players have a new opportunity to excel this season under new coordinator Mike Smith. Alterraun Verner and Akeem Spence both need to prove that they belong, and both looked good on Wednesday morning according to Pewter Report:

One of the newer names on defense this year is rookie defensive end Noah Spence, who has been talked about a lot early on in camp. The Bucs would love to have Spence step up this year to aid a pass rush that really needs improvement. He had another nice day on Wednesday, catching the eyes of both the media and the fans:

If all of these guys can step up for Tampa Bay in 2016, the defense will improve greatly. It’s still early and it’s only training camp, but Mike Smith’s group looked promising on Wednesday morning. Robert Ayers, Daryl Smith, Brent Grimes and rookie Vernon Hargreaves are some others who have had solid camps up to this point, which is a sign that this Buccaneer defense is set to be much more talented than it has been in the last few years.

Next: Buccaneers Training Camp: Notes And Quotes Day 6

The team will take the field for day seven of camp tomorrow morning at 8:45.