PewterReport.com is beginning a new feature off an an old one this week called the PR Roundtable. In the new edition of the Roundtable the staff will take just one topic each week and share some brief thoughts. Take a look and tell us what you think, and share your feelings on the topic in the comment section.

This week’s topic: What is the one gift you would like Santa to deliver to the Bucs for 2018?

Publisher Scott Reynolds: Christmas is less than a week away and the Bucs sure have been naughty this year, disappointing in a season full of high expectations with only four wins when some (including this guy) were projecting 10 victories this year. Still, they deserve a few presents, especially because they have played with pride despite being out of playoff contention for several weeks now and haven’t given up. So what do the Bucs need the most in 2018? I’d say a new coaching staff.

Jameis Winston showed why he should still be considered one of the up-and-coming franchise quarterbacks in the league in Monday night’s 24-21 loss to Atlanta, completing a career-high 77.1 percent of his passes for 299 yards with three touchdowns and no turnovers. He just needs a new voice, one that can push him towards greatness and demand more out of him. I feel like Winston has plateaued and a quarterback guru like Jon Gruden has a great deal of appeal to me, especially given his fondness for the Bucs’ No. 1 overall pick in 2015 and his desire to develop a young quarterback. Gruden turned Rich Gannon and Brad Johnson into Super Bowl-caliber quarterbacks and squeezed all the talent he could out of the likes of journeymen Brian Griese and Jeff Garcia in Tampa Bay.

Gruden isn’t just an offensive-minded coach. He’s a head coach that demands accountability from the defense and the offense, and was the catalyst for Tampa Bay’s No. 1 ranked defense in 2002 by challenging the defense to score nine touchdowns, which the unit did with three defensive scores in Super Bowl XXXVII. Gruden will attract an all-star staff that will want to work for him and take this underachieving team to the next level.

There are going to be between six and 10 head coaching vacancies in about two weeks, including one in Tampa Bay I believe. I can’t think of six really good head-coaching candidates, to be honest, which is why I think having Gruden come back to the Bucs makes sense. The timing is right. While it wouldn’t be the most popular move with every Bucs fan, Gruden would be the best present for the organization, especially the Glazers, who would like his star power to help fill Raymond James Stadium back up to capacity, and his coaching acumen to help get the Bucs back to the playoffs.

Editor Mark Cook: 
Dear Santa,

Please send a pass rusher. Pretty please. Bradley Chubb would be nice.

Signed,
The entire Bucs organization and their fans

P.S. Enjoy the milk and cookies on the table. Cold beer and a Brocato’s deviled crab are in the fridge.

If Jason Licht, or whoever is the general manager of the Buccaneers, spends all seven draft picks on defensive players next April, I wouldn’t complain one bit. Sure the Bucs need some help on the offensive line, but Monday  night showed, even with a makeshift line it can do enough to give them a chance to win. The same can’t be said about the Bucs pass rush.

Let me be clear, the Bucs will not, can not, become a playoff team with the current roster of pass rushers. Doesn’t matter if Vince Lombardi came back with Don Coryell running the offense and Buddy Ryan running the defense, they won’t be more than a .500 football team without controlling the line of scrimmage and getting pressure on the quarterback. Especially when they play six games a year against Drew Brees, Matt Ryan and Cam Newton.

Enter North Carolina State defensive end Bradley Chubb. My 17-year old son used terms like “beast” and “lit” and while I couldn’t tell you exactly what it all means, it sounds like a pretty good fit when talking about of Chubb and his ability. Maybe. As an FSU fan I personally witnessed Chubb single-handily beats the Seminoles. One on one, double teams, tight ends chipping. It didn’t matter. Chubb was an unstoppable force.

There are plenty of needs on this football team, but none more than a pass rusher. Chubb is the guy who could make an impact right out of the gate.

Intern Austin DeWitt: If I could gift anything to the Buccaneers this offseason it would be a true RB1. Even before being a healthy scratch against Atlanta for a violation of team rules, it was reasonable to believe Doug Martin would not be in Tampa after this year. We’ll always remember those two great years Martin had, but what we’ll remember even more is the other four years that weren’t so great.

I think the Bucs like what they have in Peyton Barber. For right now he is the best running back on this team and deserves to start. However, moving forward into 2018 I don’t believe this team can be successful hinging its run game on the back of Barber. Every good backfield has depth and Barber has flashed in recent weeks showing great potential as a solid back up. He hits the hole, or lack thereof, and takes defenders with him. If the Bucs end up with the right guy, Barber could play a key role in a lethal tandem.

 When I say that I would gift the Bucs and RB1 I don’t mean taking Saquon Barkley in the first round. This team has very obvious problems rushing the passer that need to be addressed in the first round. On top of that, it has been proven that there is no need to spend a first round pick on a running back. For every Ezekiel Elliot, Todd Gurley, or Leonard Fournette in the first round there is a Le’Veon Bell, Kareem Hunt, or Devonta Freeman in the second round or later. Of this year’s leading rushers, there is only one back in the top five that was drafted in the first round and four first round backs in the top 10. While that number gets a bit higher when expanded to the top 10, it still shows that it isn’t necessary to spend a first round pick on a running back. That said, no one wants to see a repeat of Jeremy McNichols in the fifth round, either.

The sweet spot for running back seems to be somewhere between rounds 2-4. There are some very intriguing names in this upcoming draft that could be an option for the Bucs in those rounds. Draft stock will rise and fall a lot between now and draft day, but backs like Bryce Love, Rashaad Penny, Damien Harris, Kerryon Johnson, Sony Michel and Nick Chubb are all names to look out for when the Bucs are on the clock on day two.

Beat writer Trevor Sikkema: For my Christmas list for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, I’m going a bit outside the box.

The team certainly needs a new voice in the locker room, as Scott has pointed out, and Mark and Austin have identified some player needs that should be addressed as well. But, my Christmas wish for the Bucs is for some new uniforms.

That’s right, you heard me. The Buccaneers changed their uniforms to what we currently see today back in 2014. I wasn’t a fan then, and I’m not much more of a fan now. There’s too much going on. I don’t mind some of the ideas of the uniforms
individually such as the desire to combine some of the classic feels with the new age colors, but all of it at once is too much. If anything, they should have emphasized colors in entirely different uniform kits. How can a uniform combo have the colors red, white, pewter orange and chrome? That doesn’t make sense.

I’m much more of a clean uniforms kind of guy. I love the Bucs color rush jerseys because it’s all one dominant color. If the Bucs main uniforms were the color rush red and the color rush white, Santa would make my eyes happy. What they try to do now is just too much. It took them two years to come up with the final design of the uniforms, and I can say that I’ve created better uniforms in Madden in two hours – you know, that is until Madden took away the ability for you to create custom uniforms and teams because they don’t want you to create a product better than their own that might make you like what they do less and therefore lessen the chance of you spending money on their product. Oh, I’m sorry, was that too real? I digress.

Bottom line, they could have contacted me and saved a lot of money. The Bucs have cool colors, just don’t use them all at once. Let it be clean like the color rush.