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Hall of Famer Ronde Barber, who spent his entire 16-year NFL career in Tampa Bay, on the Bucs' defensive woes this season: “It’s almost as if (Todd Bowles) expects every player to be able to do every position’s jobs, which in my opinion is ridiculous.” ©Jefferee Woo
Todd Bowles cleaned house, firing his offensive coordinator and four other assistants (two on defense, while two more quietly retired). But perhaps the biggest problem for the Bucs remains untouched: Bowles himself.
The blitz-happy head coach has refused to confront the flaws in his own defensive scheme, a system that creates more chaos for his players than for opposing quarterbacks. Missed assignments, bad run fits and blown coverages have become routine, directly costing the Bucs games. Bowles’ stock response to each new defensive collapse — including a 15-point meltdown in the final nine minutes against Atlanta on Dec. 11 — never changed.
“We got to coach better, got to play better,” he said, as if repetition alone might fix a scheme.
The Bucs finished 19th in total defense (337.2 yards allowed per game) but excelled in rushing defense (5th) while struggling in passing (27th) and red-zone defense (32nd).
Constructive criticism has come from all angles, including Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive back Ronde Barber, who spent his 16 NFL seasons in Tampa Bay.
Barber’s overall assessment of the Bucs defense is that it asks too much of too many players and lacks a base concept that can be executed with speed and quickness. In short, he doesn’t like it.
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“(There are) too many busts because it asks too many different players to execute too many different jobs,” Barber said. “Like an edge player turning into a zone dropper or a flat defender, which in itself is fine from a static sense — on paper — but there is a nuance to that job that an edge player cannot master without elite coaching, teaching, understanding. Same can be said for every other position.
“It’s almost as if (Bowles) expects every player to be able to do every position’s jobs, which in my opinion is ridiculous.”
Barber was a unique player who revolutionized the nickel cornerback position because of his multi-faceted abilities to tackle, cover in space, blitz and create turnovers with elite ball skills. It’s why he has a bust in Canton, Ohio.
But few players on any team can master that many responsibilities without elite coaching. Former Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin was Barber’s position coach for the formative part of his career.
Barber isn’t saying the scheme can’t work. The Bucs and Bowles shut down Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs in a 31-9 win in Super Bowl 55, holding Kansas City without a touchdown. But he argues they had more elite players.
The biggest breakdowns this season came in the secondary, despite having returning starters in cornerbacks Jamel Dean and Zyon McCollum and safeties Tykee Smith and Antoine Winfield Jr.
The examples are endless and some still burn fresh. Needing to win one more game to set up a winner-takes-all showdown with Carolina for the NFC South crown, the Bucs fell 20-17 to Miami in Week 17.
The Bucs offense drove for a touchdown on its first possession. But Smith took a poor angle while playing a deep half zone and receiver Theo Wease Jr. was able to get behind him. It created an easy deep shot from rookie quarterback Quinn Ewers for a 63-yard touchdown on third and 8 when the Bucs were in position to get their defense off the field.
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Barber said too often there are breakdowns. Some can be as simple as poor technique, like the Atlanta loss. They allowed a 14-yard completion on a third-and-28 situation and a 21-yard completion on fourth and 14 during the final Falcons’ drive, the second of which fell on backup cornerback Kindle Vildor.
But too often, Barber said, a blown coverage will happen, and players will stand there, palms up, looking at each other and wondering what happened.
As Barber said, Bowles wants to bring some kind of pressure on every play. The Bucs recorded a 38.9% blitz rate, second-highest in the NFL.
But with every pressure, players have a new responsibility to fill in those gaps left in the defense, and some lack the skill-set to accomplish it.
“To really understand what I see as flawed, and what my buddies on the other teams confirm, you kind of have to know,” Barber said. “Almost every call is essentially a pressure — even if it’s just simulated pressure (four-man rush). So, they don’t really have a ‘base’ defense they can rely on, that they’ve done repeatedly and have full control over (such as Tampa 2, Seattle 3 etc.)."
The Bucs haven’t had an edge rusher reach double-digit sacks since Shaquil Barrett had 10 in 2021. The Bucs hoped to change that by signing Haason Reddick to a one-year, $14 million contract.
Reddick struggled to stay healthy, missing four games with injuries. He finished with only 2.5 sacks, the fewest of any season of his career in which he played at least 11 games.
Bowles often asked his outside linebackers, who essentially are 4-3 edge rushers, to drop into coverage.
It’s also worth noting that the Bucs haven’t drafted an edge rusher who could get more than five sacks. In fact, the last player to be drafted with double-digit sacks in a season was Warren Sapp.
Bowles’ firing of defensive backs coach Kevin Ross and the retirement of safeties coach Nick Rapone were steps in the right direction. The Bucs could replace Ross with assistant defensive backs coach Rashad Johnson, a former Alabama star who played for the Cardinals.
There’s every expectation that Bowles will continue to call the plays on defense. But as Barber says, to be effective, the Bucs will need elite coaching, elite players or both.
“Now finally, if they had top-tier talent, they might be able to overcome this,” Barber said. “The Vikings are a great example and their scheme is more refined, using only a few guys to catalyze their chaos.
“Or if the league hadn’t evolved to deal with 3-4 defensive fronts so well, this might work like it had when Todd was younger.”
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