FAB 2. Bucs’ 2019 Midseason Awards

Tampa Bay is at the midway point of a disappointing 2019 season. Before the second half of Bruce Arians’ initial season begins, let’s dish out the Bucs’ 2019 Midseason Awards.

BUCS 2019 MIDSEASON OFFENSIVE MVPs
WRs Mike Evans and Chris Godwin

Bucs WRs Chris Godwin and Mike Evans – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Both Bucs receivers have been excellent through the first six games and deserve to share the honor. Godwin leads the team with 54 catches, while Evans is second with 50. Evans has 842 receiving yards, which is second in the NFL, while Godwin is fifth in the league with 766. Evans has seven touchdowns, which is tied with Detroit’s Kenny Golladay for the most in the NFL, while Godwin is tied with six others with six scores. Tampa Bay has only had one pair of 1,000-yard receivers in the same season. Godwin and Evans are each poised to go over 1,500 yards, which would be a stunning accomplishment.

BUCS 2019 MIDSEASON DEFENSIVE MVP
OLB Shaquil Barrett

Three years ago the Bucs pass rush was abysmal and defensive line Jay Hayes was fired after the team recorded a league-low 22 sacks. The Bucs already have 19 sacks at the midway point of the 2019 campaign, and Barrett has over half of them with 10.5 sacks, which leads the league. Barrett has been a sack machine this year, and also leads the team with four forced fumbles in addition to his first career interception.

BUCS 2019 MIDSEASON SPECIAL TEAMS MVP
K Matt Gay

For most of the last decade the Bucs have struggled mightily at the kicker position. Just two years after general manager Jason Licht was criticized for trading up in the second round to draft kicker Roberto Aguayo, Licht bucked the critics and spent this year’s fifth-round pick on another kicker. Outside of a costly last-second miss against the Giants in Week 3, Gay has proven to be reliable, connecting on 84.2 percent of his field goals with just three misses out of 19.

MOST IMPROVED OFFENSIVE PLAYER
RB Ronald Jones II

Bucs RB Ronald Jones II – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Jones is the runaway winner in this category, and emerged as the Bucs’ starting rusher in Seattle. He leads the team with 381 yards and three touchdowns while averaging 4.1 yards per carry. More importantly he’s caught eight passes for 124 yards (15.5 avg.) and hasn’t had a single drop yet. Jones is on pace to have over 1,000 total yards from scrimmage this year. Not bad for a guy that looked like a bust as a rookie last year.

MOST IMPROVED DEFENSIVE PLAYER
SS Jordan Whitehead

Whitehead has been the most consistent player in a very inconsistent secondary, and just edges out nose tackle Vita Vea for this award. Whitehead is second on the team with 39 tackles and leads the Bucs with eight pass breakups. He also recorded his first career interception in the first half of the season and has contributed a fumble recovery, too.

MOST DISAPPOINTING OFFENSIVE PLAYER
TE O.J. Howard

Howard, Tampa Bay’s first-round pick in 2017, has loads of talent, but has been lost in Bruce Arians’ offense. Through the first six games of the year before injuring his hamstring, Howard has just 13 catches for 176 yards (13.5 avg.) and no touchdowns. But Howard’s lack of production can’t just be attributed to offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich. Howard has a team-high three drops, including one that resulted in a Week 1 interception, in addition to a costly fumble in the red zone against San Francisco.

MOST DISAPPOINTING DEFENSIVE PLAYER
DT Ndamukong Suh

This could be any member of the Bucs secondary, but let’s go in a different direction. Suh has 17 tackles on the year and started the season with a couple of splash plays in the first four weeks, recovering a fumble in a Week 2 win at Carolina and having a scoop-and-score against his former team out in Los Angeles. But since then Suh has recorded just 10 tackles and half a sack. While he has drawn double teams and contributed to the league’s top-ranked run defense, Suh is also making $9.25 million and more splash plays are needed to justify his huge salary. Fellow lineman Will Gholston makes half of what Suh makes and has 21 tackles and a sack through the first eight games.

BEST ROOKIE
K Matt Gay

Gay edges out rookie middle linebacker Devin White, who is fourth on the team with 35 tackles and second on the Bucs with two forced fumbles, in addition to a sack. Yes, Gay has been that good. In fact, he is the league’s 14th-ranked kicker, which is quite remarkable considering he’s a rookie. He’s also connected on 91 percent of his extra points with two misses through the first eight games.

BEST FREE AGENT ACQUISITION
OLB Shaquil Barrett

Bucs OLB Shaq Barrett – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

The sixth-year pro out of Colorado State has been the free agent find of the year in the NFL. Barrett is one of the league’s most compelling stories as he’s nearly recorded as many sacks this year (10.5) as he put up in five years with the Broncos (14). Barrett signed a one-year deal in Tampa Bay and the Bucs want to keep him off the free agent market in 2020.

WORST FREE AGENT ACQUISITION
WR Breshad Perriman

Perriman signed a one-year, $4 million deal to help the team make up for the loss of speedster DeSean Jackson and reliable third receiver Adam Humphries. But in just six games, Perriman has only seven catches for a disappointing 58 yards (8.3 avg.), and he’s supposed to be a deep threat. Perriman has struggled to get open at times and has just one touchdown, which came off a lucky bounce at Seattle last Sunday.

BUCS’ RECORD DOWN THE STRETCH
4-4 record to finish 6-10

It’s not inconceivable to see Tampa Bay go .500 down the stretch, especially with a pair of games against 1-7 Atlanta on the schedule, in addition to 3-4-1 Arizona this week. The Bucs have had the league’s hardest schedule for the first half of the year, but things might get easier over the second half as Tampa Bay only faces three teams with winning records to finish the season.