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About the Author: Taylor Jenkins

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The Tampa Bay Bucs have played half of their schedule so far this season and find themselves on a four-game losing streak with a 2-6 record. The Bucs have had a tumultuous travel schedule, where they haven’t played at home in Raymond James stadium since September.

PewterReport.com offers its midseason grades for each Bucs unit and the coaching staff. On Saturday we offered up grades for the offense and on Sunday we’re dishing out the grades for the defense.

Take a look and see if you agree, and share your thoughts in there comments section below.

Defensive Line

The Bucs rank 24th in the NFL with 19 sacks on the season, despite outside linebacker Shaq Barrett still leading the league with 10.5 QB takedowns. Moving in from their edge rushers, the Bucs have gotten just a half of a sack each from Ndamukong Suh, Vita Vea and Beau Allen along the interior defensive line although Vea does rank second on Tampa Bay’s roster with seven quarterback hits.

Bucs Dt Vita Vea

Bucs DT Vita Vea – Photo by: Mary Holt/PR

Where the unit has continued to shine the most has been stopping the run, where they remain among the league’s best as a unit, allowing just 78.1 rushing yards and less than one rushing touchdown per game. Vea and Suh have consistently been as disruptive up front as advertised while Rakeem Nunez-Roches, Will Gholston and Beau Allen have been effective rotational players who have stepped in and allowed the line to continue it’s success without skipping a beat.

Grade: B+

Outside Linebackers

Despite cooling off in the second quarter of the season, much like the rest of the Bucs’ pass rush, Barrett continues to lead the league with four forced fumbles and 10.5 sacks as previously mentioned. With the next-highest sack total on the team being Carl Nassib with three and the Bucs sitting at 24th in the league with just 19 sacks through eight games, the return of Jason Pierre-Paul couldn’t come any quicker.

Bucs Olb Jason Pierre-Paul

Bucs OLB Jason Pierre-Paul – Photo by: Mary Holt/PR

Pierre-Paul wasted no time reminding everyone of the talent that was missing as he recovered from an off-season neck injury, getting a sack and a half and three tackles for loss in his first two games back. His three tackles for loss ranks third on the team.

Anthony Nelson has largely been a rotational piece, accumulating just five total tackles on the season, but given his scarce chances he has still managed to come up with a forced fumble and pass breakup.

The outside linebackers have also played in big role in the Bucs’ ability to stop the run, but their lack of sacks will need to improve in the second half of the season with an inexperienced secondary behind them.

Grade: B

Inside Linebackers

While Lavonte David suffered a knee injury in preseason and Devin White was forced to miss time due to a knee injury of his own, both starting middle linebackers have played up to expectations through the first half of the season for the Bucs.

Lavonte49Ers

LB Lavonte David – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

White has had his growing pains, as any rookie in his situation would, but has really started to come into his own over the past two games while David has looked as good as ever in defensive coordinator Todd Bowles’ scheme.

White is coming off of a game against Seattle where he landed on Pewter Report’s most impressive list with two forced fumbles, a half of a sack and a team-high 12 tackles. On the season White has also totaled 35 tackles with a half of a sack while David leads the team in total tackles with 61 in addition to notching five tackles for loss, five quarterback hits, three passes broken up and an interception through eight games.

Behind White and David even veteran Kevin Minter has played well, despite struggling in coverage, both as a rotational player and when he was thrust into a starting role to fill in for the Bucs’ rookie middle linebacker.

Grade: B+

Cornerbacks:

To say that the Bucs’ cornerbacks have played poorly through eight weeks would be an understatement. For a unit that was supposedly “fixed” during training camp, Tampa Bay is currently allowing 293.5 passing yards per game, a number that now ranks them dead last in the NFL. At 2.8 passing touchdowns allowed per game and the league’s top run defense up front, you could also credit a large portion of Tampa Bay’s 31.5 points allowed per game to the secondary as well.

Bucs Cb Sean Murphy-Bunting

Bucs CB Sean Murphy-Bunting – Photo by: Getty Images

From a turnover standpoint, the Bucs have forced just five interceptions on the season but only two have come from Tampa Bay’s cornerbacks. Vernon Hargreaves brought in a pick-six against the 49ers and Sean Murphy-Bunting hauled in his first career interception against the Saints while the Bucs’ other three interceptions, all coming in their game against the Rams, were credited to Barrett, David and safety Jordan Whitehead.

Tampa Bay has allowed over 300 passing yards in five of their first eight games and their youth will continue to prove an issue as the trade deadline has come and gone while rookie Jamel Dean is primed to make his second consecutive start with second-year defensive back Carlton Davis ruled out for Sunday’s matchup against the Arizona Cardinals.

Grade: F

Safeties

Jordan Whitehead has been the bright spot among the Bucs safeties as he ranks second in the team with 40 total tackles, first on the team with eight passes defended and has added a tackle for loss and interception.

Rookie Mike Edwards has seemed to struggle getting acclimated with the speed of the NFL, set back initially by a hamstring injury in the preseason before eventually being surpassed in the starting lineup by Andrew Adams who rejoined Tampa Bay shortly after the 2019 season began.

Bucs Ss Jordan Whitehead

Bucs SS Jordan Whitehead – Photo by: Getty Images

Edwards has two passes defended and a tackle for loss on the season while Adams has notched a lone pass defended and tackle for loss of his own, adding a forced fumble in Week 8 against Tennessee.

Edwards will need to shore up his tackling before he slides into a full-time role while Adams has been a serviceable replacement for the time being, but the unit is still part of a secondary that can’t seem to stop any passing attack or force teams to settle for field goals as opposed to getting into the end zone.

Grade: D

Special Teams

At punter, free agent addition Bradley Pinion has been below average during his time in Tampa Bay. Pinion ranks 30th out of 33 eligible punters with an average punt distance of 43.2 yards per punt, but distance isn’t everything, Pinion also ranked 29th in percentage of punts inside the 20-yard line at 30.3 percent. Pinion’s saving grace comes in the fact that he handles both kickoff and holder duties for rookie kicker Matt Gay.

Bucs K Matt Gay

Bucs K Matt Gay – Photo by: Getty Images

Moving on to the kicker position, Gay has done very well in his first year of NFL action. After a preseason that included two game-winning kicks, Gay missed two extra points and a game-winning field goal in his second regular season game before drilling over 20 consecutive kicks before his next miss in Week 9 against Seattle.

Gay’s 84.2 percent field goal percentage puts him in the top half of the league, sitting 11th among kickers who have attempted 10 or more field goals on the season, while only Greg Zuerlein, Brett Maher and Joey Slye have converted more than Gay’s three field goals from 50 or more yards out.

Grade: B-

Coaching

Todd Bowles entered his tenure with Tampa Bay with a large task at hand, to repair one of the worst defensive units in the league while also transitioning it to a 3-4 scheme.

Given the tools at Bowles disposal, he’s done a decent job with Tampa Bay’s defense but the results have been similar to years past as the defense remains the team’s Achilles Heel. The front seven has been dominant, if not the league’s top front when it comes to stopping the run, and the Bucs have steadily increased their turnover production from a year ago, taking the ball away 1.6 times per game as opposed to their mark of 1.1 takeaways per game in 2018.

Bucs Dc Todd Bowles

Bucs DC Todd Bowles – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Unfortunately for Bowles his defense has largely been hampered by the inexperience in the Bucs’ defensive backfield, a unit that’s allowing a league-worst 293.5 passing yards per game in addition to 31.5 points per game with only three interceptions.

Bowles has had his hand forced, increasing his blitz percentage and simplifying the defensive gameplan to run primarily man coverage in an attempt to cover up for the lackluster unit but the results haven’t remained the same.

Bowles’ biggest challenge over the second half of this season will be coaching up a young secondary to show vast improvement and reveal just how drastic the changes within the unit will be this upcoming off-season.

Coaching: C+

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Bucs Olb Carl NassibBucs vs. Cardinals Game Day Inactives
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