Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Defensive line gets epic makeover

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers set out to change their defensive line this offseason, and they definitely accomplished that. We examine the moves…

Many teams set out to get better in free agency, but very rarely do we see a complete overhaul like what the Tampa Bay Buccaneers did to their defensive line.

When you look at some of the numbers from their 2017 season, it’s easy to see why they wanted to make significant upgrades.

In 2017, the Bucs had 22 sacks as a team, 11 of which came from interior players Gerald McCoy (6) and Clinton McDonald (5) who is now a member of the Denver Broncos.

The most sacks for an edge player last season came from Will Clarke, who finished off the year with 2.5 takedowns of the quarterback.

So how did they set out to improve this unit?

Not only in terms of purely getting sacks on the quarterback, but guys who flat out put pressure on every single snap. The Buccaneers upgraded their edge presence by bringing in Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Vinny Curry, who has not necessarily been a ‘sack artist’ in his NFL career, but who has been a terror for opposing quarterbacks.

On the Philadelphia Eagles’ vaunted defensive line last season, Curry led the team with 17 hits on opposing quarterbacks. He notched just three sacks, but he was constantly affecting the opposing team’s passing game.

The Bucs also brought in Curry’s teammate with the Eagles, defensive tackle Beau Allen. Allen has been a reserve, but looks more than ready for a starting role and charted 19 hurries on opposing quarterbacks as a reserve.

Along with Curry and Allen, the Bucs made a trade with the New York Giants to get defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul, who has been one of the premiere pass rushers in the NFL since he entered the league in 2010.

Pierre-Paul has 62 sacks in his NFL career, and has nine in each of the past two seasons. The Buccaneers would gladly take nine sacks from the quarterback position right about now, and didn’t really have to overpay to get him.

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After trying and failing to acquire Robert Quinn from the Rams, the Buccaneers may have actually lucked out a little bit by being able to get Pierre-Paul at roughly the same price (third and fourth round pick) for a guy who has proven he can still be a double-digit sack guy or close to it.

The Buccaneers made a very underrated addition to their defensive line, signing veteran Mitch Unrein, who has become one of the most reliable run-defending tackles in the entire NFL.

Unrein’s 2017 season was cut short, but it was the best of his NFL career. He’s playing at as high of a level as a two-down run defender as any player at his position in the league.

The combination on the interior of Gerald McCoy, Unrein, and Allen will give the Buccaneers flexibility and they’ll have depth to rotate all throughout the course of a game. This will obviously help keep McCoy fresh.

In addition to the depth they now have on the interior, the Bucs have the luxury of depth on the edges, with Pierre-Paul and Curry in the starting lineup and guys like William Gholston, Noah Spence, and Will Clarke providing rotational depth.

In the NFL, you have to be able to put pressure on from the inside out for four quarters. The Buccaneers have done more to accomplish that in less than a month than any other team has done to improve a single unit in the entire league.

Tampa Bay now has draft flexibility, and a unit that can now make everyone else in their defense that much better.

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