Bucs HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: USA Today

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Pewter Report’s Scott Reynolds answers your questions from the @PewterReport X account this week in the Bucs Mailbag. Submit your question to SR each week via X using the hashtag #PRMailbag.  Here are the Bucs questions we chose to answer for this week’s edition.

QUESTION: How does Todd Bowles still have a job? Like what exactly does he do well? Giving up 849 yards and 72 points in two games is absurd. For the most part, his defense is healthy. I like the offensive unit, but the Rams will beat him as well.

ANSWER: Compared to what the Bucs offense has suffered through on the injury front, yes, Todd Bowles’ defense is reasonably healthy this year. Losing cornerback Jamel Dean to a hip injury on the second play of the game certainly didn’t help. He’s been a big-time playmaker on defense this year. But outside of Dean, defensive tackle Calijah Kancey and outside linebacker Haason Reddick, Bowles has had the rest of his starters at his disposal over the past two weeks.

The problem is that not enough of the team’s playmakers are making plays. Safety Tykee Smith is the best player on defense this year – by a long shot – and he can’t do it all by himself. Antoine Winfield Jr., Vita Vea, Lavonte David, Zyon McCollum and Yaya Diaby have been relative no-shows in the playmaking department in the last two losses. Between their talent and salaries, that should be enough so-called star power for Bowles to work with.

Bucs HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: USA Today

But it can’t just be one guy. When the Bucs were winning Super Bowls in 2002 and 2020 those defenses had five stars that were regular playmakers. In 2002 it was defensive tackle Warren Sapp, linebacker Derrick Brooks, cornerback Ronde Barber, safety John Lynch and defensive end Simeon Rice. In 2020 under Bowles it was edge rushers Jason Pierre-Paul and Shaq Barrett, defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh and linebackers David, who was younger and in his prime, and Devin White (before his ego ran amok).

Out of those handful of stars, Tampa Bay would usually have two or three of them each game making big plays – sometimes it was four out of the five. But this year, it’s been just one player on defense – sometimes two, like it was in New Orleans with Winfield and outside linebacker Anthony Nelson both had big days. The players must step up, but Bowles needs to put his players in position to make more plays, too. At the end of the day, as the head coach and defensive play-caller, it’s Bowles’ responsibility.

QUESTION: Welcome everyone to the Todd Bowles mid-season slump, and save me the B.S. about the Bucs being 7-5 with the 2020 team. This team is not winning a damn game in the playoffs with Bowles as head coach. He is the definition of mediocrity. When is enough gonna be enough?

ANSWER: Well, I hate to break it to you, but if the Bucs lose to the Rams next week in Los Angeles – as I expect them to – and then beat the Cardinals at home the following week – as I expect them to – Tampa Bay will be 7-5. And you are correct, that will be the same record that the 2020 Bucs had. There’s no denying that.

A way healthier team with Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, Antonio Brown, a younger (and healthy) Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, and more difference-makers on defense only won seven of the first 12 games that year. That Bucs team struggled to beat great teams, too – which has been the issue this year, right? The Bucs’ losses this year have been to the 8-2 Eagles, 6-4 Lions, 9-2 Patriots and the 7-3 Bills.

Former Bucs QB Tom Brady and Saints DE Cam Jordan – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

In 2020, the Brady-led Bucs lost to a Chiefs team that finished 14-2, got swept by a 12-4 Saints team, lost to a 10-6 Rams team, and even lost to a mediocre Bears team that wound up 8-8. The Saints actually kicked the crap out of the Bucs at Raymond James Stadium that year on Sunday Night Football, 38-3.

So in some regards, there are some real parallels that can be drawn from the 2020 team to this year’s team. And in some ways, a 7-5 record this year – if that can be attained – would be even more impressive given the enormous amount of injuries this team has had to deal with.

But unlike 2020, I don’t see this year’s team having enough firepower on offense or defense or healthy bodies to win the Super Bowl, or even advance past the NFC Divisional playoffs unless Tampa Bay somehow gets incredibly healthy in short order and really makes some serious strides defensively.

I define mediocrity as 8-9 or 9-8 (with no playoffs) in the current NFL age. I think the Bucs are better than that under Bowles. This is a good team. But the question is, can it ever become a great team under his leadership? I have a feeling we’re not going to find out this season.

QUESTION: Trying to not overreact but it just seems this team will only always be good under Todd Bowles – not great. Can almost never put a complete three-phase game together. Way more often than not, whenever the Bucs get recognition they then blow it against a top team or on national TV.

ANSWER: Todd Bowles is ultimately going to be judged by his postseason record at the end of the day. The regular season wins and NFC South division championships are great, and he should be recognized for winning one more game each year. This year I’m expecting at least 11 wins, which is still attainable with the remaining schedule – even if the team loses in Los Angeles. That would be one more win than last year’s 10-7 team. But I can also see the 2025 team being one-and-done again in the postseason.

Tampa Bay has been good under Bowles, but not great. A 1-3 record in the postseason is not great, and if the Bucs are one-and-done again with another Wild Card loss in the first round, how long will the Glazers accept “good” rather than striving for greatness? I saw them fire Tony Dungy because he was just 2-4 in the postseason in Tampa Bay, including going 0-2 in a pair of one-and-done seasons in 2000 and 2001.

Bucs ILB Lavonte David and HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Yet the Glazers have fired plenty of head coaches, and it doesn’t always work out for the better. Raheem Morris led to Greg Schiano and Schiano led to Lovie Smith. Schiano won just four games in 2013, yet Smith came in the next year and was even worse – going 2-14 in 2014. Three years of mediocre football under Dirk Koetter followed Smith and that created a decade of darkness – a stretch of 11 years in which the Bucs failed to make the playoffs.

The Glazers have to own that too, and strike the delicate balance between chasing greatness while avoiding the darkness. What’s worse? Being good every year and never being great – or being awful?

At the end of each season, only one team is crowned with true greatness – winning a Lombardi Trophy. There are plenty of franchises that have yet to win it all in the modern era – Atlanta and Carolina within the division, as well as powerhouse teams like Buffalo and Detroit, in addition to teams like Jacksonville, Tennessee, Houston, Cleveland, Cincinnati and the Los Angeles Chargers. It will be interesting to see how the Bowles era plays out in Tampa Bay.

QUESTION: A lot of the current problems can be traced back to injuries, but not special teams. It seems like a low hanging fruit that needs to be fixed. How has the team been so bad at that, and why hasn’t it been improved at all?

ANSWER: I’m done with special teams, to be honest. That blocked punt for a touchdown resulted in a 31-26 loss to the Eagles. And it was ridiculous that the Bills had four – FOUR! – kick returns of 41 yards or more in the 44-32 loss at Buffalo. After the second big kickoff return, head coach Todd Bowles should have ordered special teams coordinator to kick the ball out of the end zone and start playing defense at the 35-yard line – rather than midfield. That would’ve saved between 10-20 yards of field position.

Bucs HC Todd Bowles and ST coordinator Thomas McGaughey – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

But between those gaffes on a terrible special teams unit, two blocked punts and a blocked kick earlier in the season, Tampa Bay’s special teams unit has been a weakness this year. Not that the Bucs need special teams to be a strength, but it has to at least be neutral. Instead, special teams has hurt the Bucs more than it has helped.

Unless special teams suddenly becomes a team strength – and I’m not holding my breath – Bowles needs to consider firing special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey at the end of the season. What we’ve seen this year is just unacceptable.

QUESTION: We all know about the organization’s “I am that man” player profile, but like you, I am worried that we have too many guys who are good players and not necessarily effective leaders. It seems we have a lot of high character guys, but if the organization is always looking for someone to fit that profile, what percentage of the player pool is the organization eliminating or not considering? I feel like this is something that could be having a serious impact on roster construction.

ANSWER: I’ve thought a lot about this and the conclusion I’ve come up with is that the front seven on defense lacks an alpha playmaker. There is not a difference-maker up front on the current roster. With 1.5 sacks this season, Haason Reddick is not the pass rusher the Bucs hoped he would be when he signed a one-year, $14 million contract. At age 30, Vita Vea is very good, but he’s not a game-wrecker week in and week out.

Yaya Diaby is more like Carl Nassib than Jason Pierre-Paul or Shaq Barrett. Calijah Kancey can’t seem to stay healthy. Logan Hall and Chris Braswell are not nearly as good as their second-round draft statuses would indicate. Neither are starting-caliber players. Anthony Nelson is a reserve outside linebacker, but not a starter.

Bucs DT Ndamukong Suh and OLB Jason Pierre-Paul – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Linebacker Lavonte David is a shell of his former self at age 35 and will not be a better player next year at age 36 – if he decides to play one more season. SirVocea Dennis is far closer to being Mason Foster than he is Shelton Quarles, and nowhere near Hardy Nickerson. There is no one on Tampa Bay’s front seven that scares me if I’m an offensive coordinator. There is no player along the defensive line that will put consistent pressure on the quarterback down-in and down-out, game-in and game-out.

Yes, Jason Licht has drafted a lot of good, high character guys. But he hasn’t found enough difference-makers up front. There really isn’t a guy in the front seven that plays with an edge. The guy who plays with the most edge is safety Tykee Smith, who has been the Bucs’ best defender this year. But he’s not in the front seven – he’s in the secondary.

Sometimes acquiring a prick can wreck a locker room, and that’s what Licht has successfully avoided in recent drafts. But sometimes a prick is what is necessary to hold guys accountable and strike a little fear in the Bucs defensive huddle among teammates – and especially in opposing offenses. Nickerson and Warren Sapp were those guys back in the 1990s. Pierre-Paul and Ndamukong Suh were those guys a few years ago. That’s what is missing on this Bucs defense – and those kind of guys are hard to find.