Where Does Bucs Defense Need To Improve Most?

All of the offseason roster moves were made with the idea of improving on a defense that was solid a year ago, but weren’t quite as dominant as some of the defenses Todd Bowles and his coaching staff have fielded in previous years. With new players in place, where does the Bucs defense go from here? What’s the biggest area the team needs to improve in?

“Third down defense, especially,”Bucs co-defensive coordinator and defensive line coach Kacy Rodgers said in an immediate response. “That’s the one thing that was glaring. You kind of go back through it – sacks, where we finished, rush defense where we finished, third down defense. Red zone defense was pretty good, but third down defense was an Achilles heel.”

To Rodgers’ point, the Bucs ranked 22nd in the NFL in defensive third down efficiency. The defense allowed third down conversions at a rate of 40%, putting Tampa Bay at the bottom half of the league. Only the 49ers, Packers and Eagles had worse third down percentages than the Bucs among teams that made the postseason.

Bucs Want To Become A Dominant Defense

While Kacy Rodgers was very direct on one specific topic, his fellow co-defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach, Larry Foote, had more to add about where Tampa Bay’s defense needs to improve. He also discussed the overall goals of the group heading into the 2024 season.

“We’re looking at all numbers – passing defense we got to do better,” Foote said. “That’s not just on DBs, it goes hand in hand – those that are rushing, linebackers underneath. But we definitely got to improve in that area. We did well with the points, takeaways, we just got to get off the field more, always.”

Tampa Bay allowed an average of 249.6 passing yards per game, which ranked 28th in the league last year. That was a dramatic rise in passing yards allowed from 208.8 passing yards allowed in 2022 when the Bucs had the ninth-best pass defense.

“We want to be dominant,” Foote said. “I look at it, we want to be a Top 5 defense. We want to win games, we want to shut guys out, no matter what we got to be able to respond. If the offense is not rolling, we got to take the ball away. Offense rolling, we got to still take the ball away. We got to just be dominant, we want to be a force to be reckoned with and have you guys (the media) talking about us more.”

With the new additions the Bucs brought in this offseason, they hope to get back among the other top defenses around the league. The good news is that the Bucs were the league’s fifth-best defense in terms of points allowed at 19.2 points per game.

But Tampa Bay allowed 343.1 yards per game, which ranked 20th. More yardage allowed was attributed to more third downs being converted against the Bucs defense. More pressure up front from the pass rush coupled with tighter coverage on the back end will only help Tampa Bay become better on third downs and limit passing yardage.

“When you go back to the pieces, every player that we added we consider a pressure player,” Rodgers said. “Whether you pressure the run or you pressure the quarterback or pressure receivers in coverage, we want to create pressure all the time.”