Buccaneers: Five defensive players to look forward to watching

Number Five – DE William Gholston 

In a time when pass rushing defensive ends make all the money, William Gholston proved that wrong for once. The Buccaneers re-signed Gholston to a 5 year, $27.5 million deal with $13.5 million guaranteed over the off-season. Some would say that’s an awful lot for a player who has only accumulated ten sacks over his four year career but Gholston brings a lot to the table. There’s a lot more that a defensive end can do than just rush the quarterback and sack him.

Gholston’s 6’6″, 281 pound frame has made him into one of the premier run defenders in all of football. He’s so big that playing some snaps at defensive tackle on passing downs is something Gholston is extremely comfortable doing. That is an asset to have a player of that talent able to rotate all across the defensive line depending on the situation.

It’s going to be interesting to see if Gholston will sack the quarterback more often this year, something him and the Buccaneers believe he’s capable of doing. He’s by no means slow for his size and with his athleticism there’s no reason for him to bump up his sack total to around five to six this year. Seeing his growth in that department is the main reason why I’m looking forward to seeing how he performs after his new contract.