Buccaneers: What Are the Most Important Improvements After the Bye?
Bucs Need Their Health
The single area I want to see the Bucs improve on the most is health. This team has been one of the most injury bug bitten teams in the NFL this year, and with guys like Doug Martin, Charles Sims, Gerald McCoy and Robert Ayers missing time already it’s almost amazing they even have two wins.
Watching the match-up against the Broncos may have been the hardest to watch as the Bucs seemed to go down another player with each snap.
This team has a very winnable next few weeks with games against the Raiders, Falcons and Bears at home following a Week 7 trip to San Francisco.
If this team can get healthy and stay there for a few weeks then it’s fully feasible for this squad to rip off four in a row and get back into the fringe of the playoff hunt.
Three of the next five contests feature opponents who are bottom five in either passing or rushing defense, making the return of Doug Martin that much more important as he should be able to take advantage of poor run stopping ability across the line, and keep the balance for Jameis Winston to exploit weaker secondary units.
On the other hand, the Raiders have allowed Derek Carr to be the least hit quarterback in the NFL this season, so the Bucs need to get their defensive line healthy again to try and get pressure on one of the game’s most promising signal callers.
As bleak as this season was becoming for Dirk Koetter and company, the next month after the bye will be a make-or-break period for them, and if they can keep their players available throughout then things could turn up real quick.