If Todd Bowles really does want to improve the ground game for the Buccaneers, this proposed trade isn’t a terrible idea.
While Todd Bowles has made it clear that he wants the run game to be better more than he wants it to be used more often for the Buccaneers in 2022, there is a side of the fanbase that wonders if there are actually going to be changes on this side of the ball.
Byron Leftwich and Tom Brady have obviously been able to do a lot of great things during their two years together, so stepping in to change anything might be a mistake from the new HC.
The run game matters far less than the pass anyway, so focusing on keeping the ball in the air efficiently should still be the sole priority of this franchise.
Still, Bowles can make the run game better, and the rest of the offensive by extension through effectiveness of play calling, without actually changing the calls, and part of that can be accomplished through the following proposed trade from Kristopher Knox.
Listen, Saquon Barkley is not the player that he was when he entered the league. Major injuries and question marks about his health have made it seem that taking Barkely so high was a mistake for a team like New York that has no way to alleviate the stress on the running back, but there is still a part of his game that would thrive in Tampa.
Outside of Leonard Fournette, the Bucs don’t have a proven running back between the tackles. Giovani Bernard is not a genuine option to serve as a workhorse, Ke’Shawn Vaughn has shown very little during his time on the team, and the Bucs don’t have a great history of rookie running backs panning out.
If Fournette does go down again like he did last season, the Buccaneers will quickly be in a situation with a very shaky run game again.
As Knox pointed out, Barkely’s salary is not impossible for Tampa to manage if they do really care about running the ball, and putting Barkely in the second role will give the Bucs a perfect pair of bruisers to revitalize the run game if they still want a thunder and lightning dynamic.
This seems like a bit of a far-cry as a genuine proposal, but crazy trades like this have happened before. If the Bucs really do want to win during the first year with Todd Bowles, maybe a bit of crazy is exactly what they need, even if we don’t expect this to actually happen.
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