The Buccaneers have the league’s most underrated defense
As the Tampa Bay Buccaneers get ready to take in the field in just a few months, all eyes will be on that flashy offense.
After all, the Buccaneers possess names like Tom Brady, Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Rob Gronkowski, Ronald Jones II and many others. As a result, many have deemed this Tampa Bay offense as one of the best in the league.
The truth of the matter, though, is that the team is not so shabby on the defensive side of the ball, either.
We’ve heard repeatedly about the potential explosiveness of the Buccaneers offense in 2020, but no one seems to give the defense the credit it deserves.
This 2020 Buccaneers defense is nasty
We’ll obviously see Tampa stick with that off-man 3-4 scheme as we’ve seen before. That will give the unit an opportunity to utilize two of the best pass-rushers in the league- Shaquil Barrett (who led the NFL in sacks a year ago) and Jason Pierre-Paul.
In addition, you’ve got a front-three that includes veteran Ndamukong Suh, rising star Vita Vea and William Gholston.
Once you get past the monstrous defensive line and the dangerous edge-rushers, though, you see what potentially could be the 1-2 punch of inside linebackers in the nation in Lavonte David and Devin White. It also should be noted that the Buccaneers built a nice amount of depth in the secondary and have plenty of young pieces that can hold their own, including Sean Murphy-Bunting, heading into this season.
This front-seven, though, doesn’t get near enough credit.
In my opinion, they rank up there with any other defensive unit in the NFL and yet we never hear them talked about. Though Lavonte David has been a multiple-year Pro Bowler, the vast majority of fans around the country wouldn’t even recognize his name.
The amount of unheralded talent on this defense is absurd and I really believe we’re going to see people blown away by the production and effectiveness of this unit during 2020.