Buccaneers: What Are the Most Important Improvements After the Bye?
The Secondary
A lot of the Bucs’ struggles have been due to key injuries. The loss of Robert Ayers affected the pass rush, the losses of Doug Martin and Luke Stocker affected the running game, while injuries to Louis Murphy and Cecil Shorts in addition to the stupidity of Austin Seferian-Jenkins left Jameis Winston with minimal weapons in the pass game.
The area that the Buccaneers need to improve the most in is the secondary. Vernon Hargreaves has been very good in his first five professional games, but we’ve seen Alterraun Verner struggle immensely and Brent Grimes have flashes of brilliance as well as frustration. However, the position where the Bucs struggle the most is at safety, where any improvements are a long shot.
Chris Conte has been putrid, Bradley McDougald has been a disappointment, and Keith Tandy is lucky to still have a job. None of them can cover in pass defense and it’s taking its toll. The corners can only do so much and when the safeties are blowing coverages and missing assignments it leads to big, demoralizing plays against this defense.
It’s about time to give the rookie Ryan Smith a chance back there. To see if he can light a spark in the secondary and boost the play of the defense.
I mean, it can’t be worse than what we’ve had back there already, right?