After watching opposing QB's make long distance phone calls in the pocket last year, the Bucs have stated repeatedly that their primary offseason goal is to upgrade the pass rush. To accomplish that goal, we signed Carter and Chukwurah. The former is a tough vet but is clearly on the downside of his career, the latter is at best a special teams ace/wave pass rusher. Lets face it, Carter is an aging but productive player with FL ties who wants to play another year or two in the sun before he retires. Chuk is a fav pupil of Coyer but is a tweener who lacks the ability to be a full-time starter at OLB or DE. Neither has any upside to speak of. Meanwhile, we lost White to Detroit's deep pockets, Spires and Rice are another year older and Rice is coming off his worst year as a pro. BTW, with Carter now in the mix, our top 3 DEs are all in their early to mid thirties. This aging and underachieving unit is in desperate need of a couple young guns to upgrade the pass rush. At #4 we are in prime position land the draft undisputed top pass rusher, Gaines Adams Check the stats, you wont find another college DE with better numbers over the past two years (22 sacks and 32.5 TFLs).Â
http://www.nfldraftcountdown.com/scoutingreports/de/gainesadams.htmlConcerned about his size? At 6-5 260, he compares favorably to the size of some of the league's best DEs including Taylor, Kearse, Umenoria, Ogunleye, Little, Burgess, Suggs, Abraham and Rice. Â
Ability to the play the run? No doubt pass rushing is his strong suit, but plenty of the league's top DEs are like that. That's always going to be the bread and butter of DEs. That's why they get paid the premium dollars (sacks). Just as long as he isn't a liability against the run its not an issue. Adams has always posted respectable tackle numbers and I'm confident in the ability of Coyer and Kiffen to add discipline to his run support skills. Besides, Adams is essentially a Rice clone and Simeon was never exactly a demon against the run. But Simeon is better in that area than given credit for and it was Simeon's speed of the edge and backside pursuit that has made the defense hum until recently. Adams has the potential to have the same impact.
Gruden himself stated in his book that after the QB position, an elite pass rushing DE was the most important position on a football team. Thus why should we bypass the opportunity to add an elite pass rusher like Adams? Why would we take Russell, Quinn, Thomas or Peterson over Adams? We have a plethora of millionaire QB's, a recent top 5 pick invested in former rookie of the year Cadillac Williams and good FA money invested in cool-hand Luke to start at LOT.Â
All that being said, Calvin Johnson is the lone player who should be ranked above Adams on the Bucs draft board. With our well documented offensive woes, Gruden's favortism towards the offense and Johnson's unique skill set, I can understand why this regime is so high on Calvin. He'll be a Buc if he's still on the board when we are on the clock. But if he isn't, if Al Davis surprises everyone by taking CJ over Russell or ATL leapfrogs us to draft their hometwon hero, we shouldn't throw in the towel. Adams' youth, speed, athleticism and pass rushing ability will go a long way towards upgrading our AARP front 7. Add some variation of Griffin, Meriweather, Harrell, Mebane, Tyler, Hughes with our next few picks and we'll have the makings of a fine young defensive core for years to come.Â
