After reading some of the feedback here, I went and re-watched what Bowles said after drafting Bain: “Bain fits the scheme because he can play both ways along the line”.@firebowles2026 - that’s not a scheme change. That’s playing scared.
Yup.
We've seen it his entire head coaching tenure here.
He can swing inside, play outside, I think Bowles has even tried that with some others we’ve had, but none that can stand up grown men & move them like a forklift (maybe he won’t do it as often as he did in college).
Bowles doesn’t have to take him off the field, just move him up and down the line, right?
I have to think Bowels knows what he has in Bain, he knows Bain is not going to offer a single thing by dropping into coverage.
@firebowles2026 - that’s not a scheme change. That’s playing scared.
It's both. He still went away from single high pressure packages
I have to think Bowels knows what he has in Bain, he knows Bain is not going to offer a single thing by dropping into coverage.
“Hold my beer”
- Bowles
Hah!I have to think Bowels knows what he has in Bain, he knows Bain is not going to offer a single thing by dropping into coverage.
“Hold my beer”
- Bowles
Bowles isn't going to stop using fire zone blitzes dropping OLB in coverage in the flats but the guys blitzing need to slam hard and fast while the CBs have to play tighter zone coverage over the top.
Basically if a QB is trying to throw over the head of a dropping OLB in coverage they need to thread the needle between the OLB and CB. And if the CB is playing off coverage that is right there a failure because the OLB has no help over the top and the blitz package has to hit home or else that is an easy pitch an catch for the QB to execute with a simple lob pass into the flats 100% of the time.
Basically the CBs whether they are playing man, cover 3 or off coverage has to play tighter or else dropping OLB in coverage is pointless because you have no squeeze over the top to protect the OLB dropping into zone coverage.
Similar problem with ILBs in coverage because the CBs and safeties are playing too soft. And Bowles has stopped using robbers in the middle of the field to discourage teams from exploiting the ILBs coverage by lobbing passes over the top or mid field. Ever since Mike Edwards left the firs time around Bowles stopped using zone robbers mid field which is why teams have not stopped attacking mid field.
Hopefully with Scott in the fold Bowles can use more big nickel or three safeties and keep Scott, Smith or Winfield Jr near the LoS to disrupt these easy mid field passes making them effectively the third LB on the field with Anzalone and Rozeboom.
With that said my frustration is partly with Bowles play calling but more so because he isn't holding his players accountable enough for sloppy play. Failure to rotate in the secondary when Bowles features so many blitzes is not acceptable. Even in pee wee football you know that if a CB or safety blitzes you need to rotate coverage.
I'd have to look it up but Bowles went completely away from the blitz the back half of the year
Bain’s technical focus is second to none. It comes from Coach Taylor. I hope we have someone on the staff that can continue the teaching. Or go get Aaron Taylor from the Hurricanes.
Bain and Scott are students of the game and self starters so I am not worried about them needing "coaching". With that said Rashad Johnson seems capable of unlocking Scott's potential along with Atkins. And Bain has Larry Foote to lean on.
That is the theme with this off season with players that are self starters like Rozeboom, Anzalone, Robinson, Muhammed, Roches and Killebrew. Killebrew is a special team ace and has Danny Smith to assist him to teach special teams concepts. Roches is a known quantity with the organization while Rozeboom, Robinson and Anzalone have been studied for a while for their attention to detail while playing aggressively as NFC adversaries.
Even Trotter, Hurst and Schrauth are technically sound players that understand the nuances of the game. Capehart and Sharp are the only true "raw" players that need coaching and of those two players Capehart displays top end traits even as a rotational player/special teams play. So Sharp is the only real player that the Bucs acquired this off season that needs coaching up by coach Peele.
But with that said we need to see progress with Kancey, Diaby, Dennis, McCollum, Morrison, Parrish, Smith and Winfield Jr if this team is to go anywhere. Mauch and Barton are in the same boat with Irving Jr and Egbuka and McMillan.
If most of these young players stall than the Bucs lose all the momentum they had slowly emerging from cap strain the last few years and will be back to square one.
Bowles was bad in NY.
Bowles is bad in Tampa.
Why does anyone think this will change?
@alldaway - I’ve seen your last few messages and was holding off any response, but you got me now. Your comments about coaching not being as important and it’s about the players is so off. Coaching makes all the difference in football. From positional to coordinators to head coach. You see examples of this every year as new coaches come and go, and it makes all the difference in the world.
The fact that Bain has had a HoF d-line/edge coach, is the reason he is who is right now. That power was matched with technique he learned under Jason Taylor.
Now he has Markus West & Larry Foote… upgrade incoming, or more of the same?
@alldaway - I’ve seen your last few messages and was holding off any response, but you got me now. Your comments about coaching not being as important and it’s about the players is so off. Coaching makes all the difference in football. From positional to coordinators to head coach. You see examples of this every year as new coaches come and go, and it makes all the difference in the world.
I disagree.
The Seahawks did have good coaching but they were stacking talent on defense since 2020, and it showed when they played last season. Stack talent and the coaching can take any .500 team over the top.
@alldaway - totally wrong my friend. You must not have played a second of football your whole life. You don’t see coaching affects on these teams every year? I played and coached long enough to see it. Football, more than any sport, demands excellence in coaching no matter what type of talent is on the roster. Sorry, wasting my time on this one.
@alldaway - I’ve seen your last few messages and was holding off any response, but you got me now. Your comments about coaching not being as important and it’s about the players is so off. Coaching makes all the difference in football. From positional to coordinators to head coach. You see examples of this every year as new coaches come and go, and it makes all the difference in the world.
I disagree.
The Seahawks did have good coaching but they were stacking talent on defense since 2020, and it showed when they played last season. Stack talent and the coaching can take any .500 team over the top.
How do you explain teams like Jacksonville, who went from 4-13 to 13-4 in one season with a new coaching staff? They mostly had the same players, but the coaching staff changed completely.
There are regularly teams that outperform the previous season after a coaching change. Obviously talent is important, but the good coaches get the best out of the talent.