FAB 2. Bucs Miss JPP’s Leadership In The Offseason – Again

With 21 sacks in his first 26 games over the past two years in Tampa Bay, outside linebacker Jason Pierre-Paul has provided the outside pass rush the Bucs have desperately needed. After all, it was Pierre-Paul’s 12.5 sacks in 2018 that ended the team’s double-digit sack drought that spanned over a decade back to 2006.

Bucs legendary DT Warren Sapp and OLB Jason Pierre-Paul – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

But Pierre-Paul brings much more than just speed, strength, length and an ability to bend and get to the quarterback. He brings a tremendous amount of vocal leadership to Tampa Bay – the kind of leadership that has been missing for decades.

JPP is a throwback – an old school player who was raised on the game of football in New York by the likes of Super Bowl champions Osi Umenyiora and Justin Tuck. As a first-round pick out of USF in 2010, Pierre-Paul was held to a very high standard in the Giants locker room.

The Bucs haven’t had a player quite like JPP since the days of Warren Sapp, Derrick Brooks and Ronde Barber in the early 2000s. Those Bucs legends held every player in the locker room accountable. Tampa Bay has struggled over the past decade without that kind of leadership, failing to make the playoffs since 2007.

As Pierre-Paul enters his third season in Tampa Bay fresh off a two-year, $25 million contract, this will be the third offseason in which the Bucs have missed his leadership.

After general manager Jason Licht traded a third-round pick for him in 2018, JPP spent most of the spring moving his family down to Florida and caught the tail end of the offseason workouts and the team’s mandatory mini-camp. Last year, Pierre-Paul missed the entire offseason, training camp and the first six games of the year due to a fractured neck that he suffered in an offseason car accident.

This year it’s the COVID-19 pandemic that has forced the cancellation of all NFL mini-camps and OTAs. Instead of being able to work with young pass rushers like Anthony Nelson, Kahzin Daniels or Quinton Bell, or have meaningful conversations on the field, in the classroom and on the practice field with emerging leaders like Devin White or Vita Vea, JPP is resigned to having those impactful interactions with young players in training camp.

Bucs OLB Jason Pierre-Paul – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“JPP is the type of guy that no matter when he arrives it’s like he’s never missed a beat,” said Bucs defensive lineman Rakeem Nunez-Roches. “He’s a natural born leader the way he approaches work every day. He’s a guy with high energy. If there is something you can do better or correct he’s going to help you and I love that about him. He sees the game from a different perspective. Every day you are going to learn something from him. He will speak his mind. Whatever is on JPP’s mind you’re going to know – good or bad.”

Pierre-Paul is not afraid to tell it like it is, and has been seen on the sidelines getting in his teammates’ faces – both on offense and defense – imploring them to step up their game.

“That’s just me, period,” Pierre-Paul said. “I feel like no matter what, just the football drive that I got is different. Everybody is built different and I just think that I’m built different in just the football drive that I’ve got, nobody has it in the NFL. That’s basically it, and I can sit here and tell you that. … I don’t like to lose.”

Tampa Bay head coach Bruce Arians didn’t really have any exposure to Pierre-Paul until his return from his neck injury last October, but marveled at how quickly he asserted himself as the leader on defense.

“There’s no doubt how much we missed his energy in September until he came back in the building and was there every day,” Arians said. “Even myself, I didn’t know how much energy he would bring. It was amazing the energy he brings and he’s still playing at an extremely high level.”

Carl Nassib stepped up his leadership last offseason in JPP’s absence and was named a defensive captain alongside linebacker Lavonte David. But from the minute Pierre-Paul returned to the lineup at Tennessee he recorded a sack on his second play back and re-emerged as a leader on defense.

With Nassib moving on to Las Vegas this offseason, look for JPP to be named a team captain along with David in 2020.

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

“He’s great in the locker room,” Bucs defensive coordinator Todd Bowles said. “He’s a great leader. He understands the game and he can bring guys along with him, and we have quite a few young guys over there that he can bring with him.

“The energy he brings – when he gets to full tilt, you can see he is going to be a force. Right now, the energy he brings, the experience he brings and the way he approaches the game and attacks the game I think is energetic enough for a lot of guys in the locker room.”

The Bucs suffered a pair of narrow defeats in Pierre-Paul’s first two games back in action, losing at Tennessee, 27-23, and at Seattle, 40-34 in overtime.

With four straight losses and a 2-6 record heading into a Week 10 home game against Arizona, Pierre-Paul addressed the team prior to kickoff.

“Before the game, I told everybody, ‘This is our win or lose season.’ If we lose this game, it’s over [and] it’s done with,” Pierre-Paul said. “There isn’t any more coming to work and trying to – if we lose this game, it’s over and done with. You might as well just come in and do your job – [there] isn’t any playoffs [or anything]. I’ve been here and I’ve seen it, and guys responded well. That’s the way to finish a game. We should’ve been finishing like that, but guys responded to Bruce [Arians] and everything, and we’re just rolling.”

The Bucs beat the Cardinals, 30-27, and went 5-1 over a six-game span to get to 7-7 before dropping two close home games to the Texans and the Falcons. With Pierre-Paul in the line-up last year the Bucs went 5-5 and got back into playoff contention in early December.

Pierre-Paul went down swinging, notching a season-high three sacks against Houston and two more sacks against Atlanta in the season finale.

Bucs OLB Jason Pierre-Paul – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“The only player that will hold guys as accountable as JPP is Lavonte David, but he’s not as vocal,” Nunez-Roches said. “Lavonte will hold you accountable, but he’ll address you behind the scenes or in the huddle. JPP will call you out on Front Street. He doesn’t care where you are. You could be in the bathroom, walking into the shower or in a meeting. He might be walking past your meeting and he’ll stop and tell you about yourself. But we need that. We need that bluntness, that brutal honesty and fire that he brings.”

Unfortunately due to COVID-19, the Bucs will have to wait until late July when training camp starts to feel Pierre-Paul’s fire again.