The PewterReport.com Roundtable features the opinions of the PR staff as it tackles a topic related to the Tampa Bay Bucs each week.

This week’s topic: Where do the Bucs need the biggest upgrade?

Scott Reynolds: Offensive Line
It might be crazy to think that the offensive line needs the biggest upgrade in Tampa Bay when the Bucs have the second-best offense (430.1 ypg) in the league behind Kansas City and the NFL’s top-ranked passing attack (331.4 ypg), but I believe this trumps other pressing needs at running back and in the secondary for several reasons. First, Tampa Bay has the league’s 27th-ranked rushing attack (98.7 ypg) and the 29th-ranked rushing average (4.0 avg.) despite ranking 18th in the league in rushing attempts (324). Simply put, the Bucs can’t run the ball very well. There is a reason why rookie Ronald Jones looks like a bust. He’s been tackled in the backfield way too many times dating back to preseason.

I know Tampa Bay is a pass-first team, but a good deal of the called runs, including stretch zone plays and tosses where the offensive line has to move laterally, just don’t work. For some reason they are called over and over again and rarely ever gain positive yardage. That’s on stupid play-calling from run game coordinator George Warhop, whose unit really struggles with zone blocking schemes.

But it’s not just the run-blocking that is an issue with the Bucs offensive line. Tampa Bay has surrendered 36 sacks this year, which is about middle of the pack in the NFL, but a far cry from the likes of New Orleans (14), Indianapolis (16), Pittsburgh (18) and New England (18). And the Steelers and the Colts actually throw the ball more than the Bucs do. Tampa Bay is also ranked 29th in the league in QB hits with 94, which is worrisome. Ten of those hits and four of those sacks came in last week’s 28-14 loss to New Orleans.

Bucs RT Demar Dotson – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

It’s hard to find reliable sack statistics in order to assess blame. According to Stats Inc., left tackle Donovan Smith has given up a career-high 5.5 sacks this year, while right guard Caleb Benenoch has just been awful, allowing 8.5 sacks. According to Stats, Inc., right tackle Demar Dotson has surrendered 1.5 sacks, left guard Ali Marpet has allowed one sack and center Ryan Jensen has given up half a sack. I can’t believe those numbers.

The problem is that’s only 17 sacks from the starting offensive linemen out of the 36 the Bucs have surrendered, and I can’t believe blocking backs and tight ends account for 19 other sacks. So I can’t fully invest in the Stats Inc. numbers. What I do know is that Smith is nothing more than an average left tackle that has concentration lapses five to six times per game that usually cost this team dearly. He’s given up the most sacks of his career in a contract year, which is a sin in my book.

Dotson is 33 and his body is breaking down. I don’t know if I can trust him to be a 16-game starter next year. The Bucs need a new right tackle in 2019. Benenoch hasn’t gotten better this year and is simply an awful right guard. He needs to be replaced, and the problem is that rookie Alex Cappa apparently isn’t much better at this stage. Jensen is decent, but not the best center in the league despite being paid like it, while Marpet is a Pro Bowl-caliber guard and really the only good lineman on the squad.

The Bucs could use another starting-caliber tackle or two, and a new right guard is a must. But perhaps more important is that Tampa Bay needs a new offensive line coach, because outside of Marpet, Warhop has done a poor job of developing the talent he’s been given, which has been six draft picks over the last five years. Whoever the head coach is in Tampa Bay next year, Warhop needs to go.

Mark Cook: Coaching – What Good Is Talent If The Teaching Is Poor?
I think it goes without saying there are plenty of areas of the team that need to be upgraded. And offensive line is a big one. The problem is trying to revamp nearly an entire offensive line in an offseason. So maybe the Bucs keep some core pieces, and then find someone who can teach the ones who have struggled.

I like George Warhop. I have found him to be honest and to the point when I have had the chance to speak to him one-on-one. And the man knows more about football than most of us combined. But at the end of the day the results are what they are – not good.

Bucs OL coach George Warhop – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Somewhere the principles of his coaching philosophy aren’t sound or just aren’t a good fit for the personnel he has to work with. I don’t know the reasons why it isn’t working, but the fact is, is just isn’t. Two quarterbacks have been benched this season because of multiple interception games. But no offensive lineman has been benched after multiple mistakes in a game whether it be sacks or penalties or both?

It doesn’t appear there is a whole lot of accountability along the offensive line. And yes, it could be argued that despite the errors, the current five starters give the Bucs their best chance to win. But what does that say about coaching even more? That there are five starting guys with zero players capable of stepping in? That too goes back to coaching in my opinion. It isn’t just about getting the starters to play at their top potential, it is also about development of players.

Something has to change and the way things are going it will happen quickly once the season ends. But it won’t be the players who end up getting fired. It will be the ones leading and teaching them. The results speak for themselves.

Trevor Sikkema: Mentality
I’ve talked about this quite a bit recently, as the Buccaneers will finish with yet another disappointing season, but the mentality of this team and this franchise has to change. That change might come from coaching, so it sort of ties into what Reynolds said above, but something has to be the catalyst for change. I feel as though general manager Jason Licht has tried to get fresh faces from winning teams and successful backgrounds onto the Buccaneers and into that locker room to try to be the seeds of the roots of change in mentality, but it just hasn’t happened.

I’m also not here to say that Dirk Koetter is the entire culprit for this. The players seem to really like him. I mean, heck, when he said that he hoped his team would be known as a “bad ass football team,” that was awesome. That’s the stuff you love; the stuff that doesn’t have a loser’s mentality to it. But for whatever reason, this team just cannot translate it to the field. They can’t take their love for their coach and their desire for winning and turn it into results. It’s always something holding them back.

Bucs head coach Dirk Koetter – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

The second that Tampa Bay starts to lose momentum in games, the trains goes off the rails. It’s like the Bucs are afraid to fail more than they want to win. That’s what it feels like it’s been like for the Buccaneers in big games over the last few years.

The teams they had before these last two years weren’t good enough. Basically every team since this 2018 team was so poorly organized and poorly run that they never had a chance. This year they did. They had the talent, they had what we thought were the right coaches. But in the end, it was just the same old Bucs.

I don’t know what it will take. Maybe it’s an entirely new coaching staff. Maybe it’s some even bigger shake-ups on the roster. But whatever it is, this team buys into its mediocrity. The players would never tell you that, but the way they just let the Saints run all over them the second momentum started slipping their way told you more than their words could.

I’m sure they’re tired of talking about it. Heck, I’m sure they’re tired of reading people like me write about it. But until they actually go out and change it on Sundays, what more can I write? This team was a talented group with a bright future and an unexpected 2-0 start that all became wasted in the end. It has to change somewhere.