Buccaneers Round Table: Is T.J. Ward right about his comments?

Bailey Adams

Losing can sometimes bring out the worst in a team, and it seems like that’s what happened last weekend in Buffalo. Buccaneer safety T.J. Ward openly spoke of frustration with his playing time and Chris Baker took to Twitter to agree with him. While this all should’ve been dealt with internally, is the idea necessarily wrong? The simple answer is no.

When Tampa Bay signed Ward in early September, it seemed like they were getting a major upgrade at the safety position. Instead, we’re seeing him split snaps. Since his public comments on Sunday, I’ve seen a lot of people saying that if he doesn’t like it, he should play better when he is on the field. But I think those people are possibly forgetting how difficult it can be to get into a consistent rhythm when a guy is only playing minimal snaps as opposed to starter snaps.

Head coach Dirk Koetter acknowledged Ward’s playing time, saying his performance is what dictates his snap count. By that logic, is Chris Conte really playing so well that he deserves all the snaps he’s getting? The bottom line is that to make a true impact, Ward needs to be featured more in the defense.

So, yes, I agree with him. How he went about it might not have been the best, but he has a point. The defense has been a joke as of late. Are the coaches seriously thinking the unit would be worse off with a three-time Pro Bowl selection back there at safety?