Buccaneers: Five defensive players to look forward to watching

Number Three – DT Gerald McCoy

Being taken third in the 2010 NFL Draft as the second defensive tackle drafted behind Ndamukong Suh has made Gerald McCoy fly under the radar a bit throughout his seven year career. Playing for the most part bad Tampa Bay teams didn’t help his cause either. Anyway. McCoy has worked his tail off to become easily a top five defensive tackle in the league with his next step being to lead the Buccaneers into the playoffs. His desire to make more big plays while being a better leader has me excited to see if there’s a way to up his game to even higher heights.

McCoy was quoted saying this off-season, “The gist of what it is, is I haven’t done enough to lead this team.” He also went into how he needs to make more impact plays in the fourth quarter especially when the game is close. I absolutely love hearing this talk coming out of McCoy‘s mouth. He seems determined to get this team into the playoffs, something that hasn’t been done since 2007.

In the last four years, McCoy has sacked the quarterback over seven times every year but never reached ten. His total of 9.5 sacks in 2013 was the closest he has gotten to that mark. Gholston and the addition of Chris Baker clogging the middle of the line will give McCoy more room to attack the backfield. This might be the year that he surpasses ten sacks and has a career year, smack in his prime at the age of 29. This man has been a rock for the Bucs since 2010, experiencing a whole lot of losing, and him being a key part of playoff berth is something he deserves. I expect a huge year from number 93.