I'd be interested of the opinions of board posters.
The Bucs defense has no problem with its identity, because they have the players to fit what they are trying to do, and they are succeeding.
The offense is another story. Not a story of failure to produce, but of failure to adapt. The Bucs have an explosive pass first offense. But while the defense was evolving over the course of the season, the offense hasn't evolved. It gets plenty of yards and scores. But the assumption was that with our offense, we just need a competent defense to win games. That didn't turn out to be completely true. When the offense needed to adapt and change, to have more balance they didn't. Whether they couldn't or just didn't want to I'm not sure.
Going into this offseason I'm wondering what the Bucs need to do or are going to do about their offensive identity. Here is my breakdown by position.
QB: Can the Bucs adapt their offense to their QB? When Winston was turning the ball over, the Bucs refused to adapt to that. They still "kept on chucking" as I posted a while back. If they keep Winston around for another year, are they going to be able to adapt the offense to reduce the turnovers? As was mentioned on the radio, Winston has always thrown a lot of INTs, but the most before this year was 18. Under the Arians offense it got worse. I almost think we could roll with 18...but not 30. If you keep Winston what changes are you going to make to limit the INTs? What if we end up with a Dak Prescott or Teddy Bridgewater or other ball control QB Do the Bucs still have to change their style of play?
Receivers: Two pro bowler. But Winston missed Adam Humphries big time. How many fewer INTs would Winston if he had Humphries? Can the Bucs find that safety valve? Speaking of safety valves, aren't the TEs supposed to be used for that? I really don't believe the lack of TE production is about Brate and Howard as much as how they were or were not used. Was Winston just not looking for the safety valves, or is this something about how Arians and his offense don't utilize them?
O-Line: The O-line was underrated. If the offense is scoring points, the offensive line deserves credit. They are definitely a pass blocking O-line, and struggled with the run blocking. But they barely tried to establish the run. They gave up quickly. Is this because of the abilities or lack thereof of the O-linemen to run block, or because of the offense? My question is can you just draft or pick up a run blocking tackle and just plug him in and become a better run blocking team, or do you have to also change how the whole line does its job? And will the Bucs be interested in doing that?
With all the questions being asked of Arians about which players they are going to keep, I'd like one reporter to ask him what adjustments are you going to make to the offense to adapt to the players?
