When head coach Bruce Arians took over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he brought in former Jets head coach and defensive guru Todd Bowles as his defensive coordinator.
The job was going to be tough, but it wasn’t too big. In Year Two, an infusion of youthful talent with playmaking ability has the Bucs’ defense trending upward.
In fact, Year One saw Bowles’ defense lead the NFL in rushing defense (73.8 ypg), first in defensive rushing average per play (5.1 ypp), and fifth in takeaways (28).
“It makes it a lot easier when you know what you’re doing, you know your responsibility and where you have to be – you play a lot faster,” said cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting, talking about the second year in Bowles’ system. “That’s just being in the system for another year and being able to add on to what we already did.”
Murphy-Bunting led Tampa Bay with three of their 12 interceptions and one of the Buccaneers’ two interceptions for a touchdown a year ago. The defensive secondary will be looking to increase that total.
“This year, we know what we have to do, so we can disguise it differently. We can show different things,” said Murphy-Bunting. “But ultimately, we know our responsibility will be something else.”
Arians and Bowles continued to solidify the defensive talent in the draft as they selected safety Antoine Winfield, Jr., out of Minnesota. Winfield’s father, Antoine, Sr., had a stellar 14-year career with the Buffalo Bills and the Minnesota Vikings.
Winfield, Jr., is tentatively set to start at free safety as he has had an impressive training camp thus far.
“My goal is to study and be the most prepared that I can be,” Winfield commented. “I have to do two different jobs, and I’m going to go home and study every day to make sure I get those jobs done. It’s difficult, but it’s part of the work.”
The elder Winfield prepped his son by giving him perspective on what he would see in the NFL. He started by discussing how much faster the game is and the variables which would make the former Gophers star a solid contributor right away.
“He also just tells me to continue focus working on my technique, learning the plays, learning the system and just continue to keep playing hard and everything will all work out at the end,” noted Winfield.
Maintaining the standard against the run could be a challenge as the pass defense continues to improve. The team gave up 270 yards per game through the air (30th) and 28.4 points per game (28th) followed.
The pass rush should once again be a key with Shaquille Barrett leading the front-seven with 19.5 sacks last season.
Looking at the schedule, Pat Mahomes, Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers and Jared Goff highlight the quarterbacks that the Buccaneers defense will see. In the end, a big time playmaker in taking the ball away needs to emerge in the secondary.
Going against the man they call the “GOAT” – quarterback Tom Brady – in practice should help the secondary emerge and be ready for the challenges against those signal callers.
“It’s not just a regular person or a regular quarterback; it’s a guy that’s won six championships,” said Murphy-Bunting. “It brings confidence; it brings intensity and it lets you know that you can make that play against anybody if you can make it against him.”
The depth has increased readily with Carlton Davis, Jr., and Murphy-Bunting potentially on the corners and with Jordan Whitehead and Winfield as the safeties. Mike Edwards, Andrew Adams and Jamel Dean will join Justin Evans as rotational players with the ability to make plays.