Bucs Mailbag: Coaching Staff Shakeup, Day 3 Draft Sleepers

Bucs OLBs coach and co-defensive coordinator Larry Foote – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

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Pewter Report’s Scott Reynolds answers your questions from the @PewterReport Twitter account this week in the Bucs Mailbag. Submit your question to the Bucs Mailbag each week via Twitter using the hashtag #PRMailbag.  Here are the Bucs questions we chose to answer for this week’s edition.

QUESTION: Mike Caldwell just got hired as Bucs ILBs coach and George Edwards just got promoted to defensive pass game coordinator. Do you like the Caldwell hire and do you think this is a good move for Edwards and the Bucs? Do you think Larry Foote will do a good job with the OLB position?

ANSWER: Todd Bowles deserves a lot of credit for making a few necessary changes to his defensive coaching staff this offseason. Moving Larry Foote from inside linebackers coach to outside linebackers coach to replace George Edwards was absolutely the right move. Foote is a high-energy, hands-on coach and that’s the kind of temperament needed for that room. Pass rushers are hunters. They hunt quarterbacks in a primal manner. It takes a certain type of mentality to be an effective edge rusher, in addition to the technical work when it comes to perfecting pass rush moves and developing a rush plan. Foote has proven he can be highly effective in that role.

He coached Tampa Bay’s outside linebackers from 2019-2021 when Shaq Barrett and Jason Pierre-Paul were in their prime, racking up sacks, making Pro Bowls and helping the team win Super Bowl LV in 2020 and get a franchise-record 13 wins the next season. I did a Pewter Pulse video on Saturday for our PewterReportTV YouTube channel that you should check out that goes into more detail. I’ll post it at the bottom of Bucs Mailbag.

As for Edwards, he didn’t have any background coaching edge rushers and I don’t think he was terribly effective. The outside linebacker sack total dropped from a combined 22 in 2023 to just 12 last year – led by Yaya Diaby’s 4.5 sacks. Bowles was right to step in and re-assign Edwards to pass game coordinator. Hopefully he can help in that area, as the Bucs pass defense was ranked 31st in the league and the secondary only recorded six sacks. If the pass defense doesn’t improve, Bowles needs to make some more coaching after 2025 and move on from Edwards and a few others.

The return of Mike Caldwell is a welcome sign. He was an exceptional inside linebackers coach under Bowles and head coach Bruce Arians from 2019-21 before moving on to become the Jaguars defensive coordinator in 2022. Caldwell helped develop Devin White during his rookie season in 2019 when he was the team’s first-round pick, and White played his best for Caldwell before his played declined in 2022. Again, Bowles deserves kudos for shaking up his defensive staff. I’m very excited about these moves. We’ll see how it plays out in 2025.

QUESTION: It’s early, but do you have any late-round draft prospects that you’re loving for the Bucs in rounds 4-7?

ANSWER: Bucs general manager Jason Licht has done a great job digging for gold on Day 3. Cornerback Zyon McCollum, running back Bucky Irving, tight ends Cade Otton and Payne Durham and inside linebacker SirVocea Dennis are some of the team’s recent hits on Day 3.

I’m knee deep in draft study right now and will be interviewing a lot of the prospects in Indianapolis at the NFL Scouting Combine this week. As for some of my projected favorites for rounds 4-7, I have quite a few on the defensive side of the ball: Edge rushers Antwaun Powell-Ryland from Virginia Tech and Oluwafemi Oladejo and defensive tackles Thor Griffith from Louisville and Jared Harrison-Hunte a defensive tackle from SMU.

I really like a lot of Day 3 linebackers, including Ohio State’s Cody Simon, Iowa’s Jay Higgins, Cal’s Teddye Buchanan, and Oklahoma State’s Nikolas Martin. The Day 3 cornerbacks I’m high on are Kansas’ Mello Dotson, Cal’s Nohl Williams, Kansas State’s Jacob Parrish, Louisville’s Quincy Riley, and I also like Ohio State safety Jordan Hancock. I detailed a few of these players in a PewterReport.com article on Saturday – 10 Bucs Draft Sleepers Heading Into The Combine.

On offense, Illinois receiver Pat Bryant, Eastern Washington receiver Efton Chism III, UNLV receiver Ricky White, Memphis receiver Roc Taylor, Texas Tech running back Tahj Brooks and SMU running back Brashard Smith. I have not studied offensive linemen or tight ends enough yet to develop any favorites, especially Day 3 guys.

QUESTION: Always appreciative of feedback from PR. If the Bucs offense wasn’t top 5 in many categories in 2024 would we be sitting here wondering what Todd Bowles needs to do this year to keep his job? In many other years, his defense would have got him canned. What are the goals for 2025?

ANSWER: If Todd Bowles was just the defensive coordinator last year instead of the head coach, he may not have returned for the 2025 season. The Bucs pass defense was terrible, ranking 31st in the league, allowing 245.3 yards per game. Tampa Bay’s defense only recorded seven sacks last year, including just six from the secondary. Truly unacceptable numbers.

But Bowles did a very good job of getting the team focused following the bye week and rallying from a 4-6 start to finish 10-7 and winning the NFC South for a third straight time with him at the helm. Credit Bowles for making some necessary coaching changes, and let’s hope that he and general manager Jason Licht can really focus on defense in free agency and the NFL Draft and find four or five new starters to upgrade the talent.

Tampa Bay’s defense was ravaged with injuries last year, especially in the secondary. And I’m sure that played a role in the Glazers deciding to give Bowles another year to see if the team can be more fortunate health-wise in 2025. Injuries to free safety Antoine Winfield Jr., who was an All-Pro playmaker in 2023, particularly hurt the defense as he was not the same player he was the year before. After making him the league’s highest-paid safety, the Bucs are expecting a big bounce-back year from Winfield in 2025.

QUESTION: Assume Trey Hendrickson and Myles Garrett aren’t coming. How do you see Tampa Bay addressing edge? Wouldn’t be thrilled with overpaying Josh Sweat, and wouldn’t be thrilled with some of the potential edges available at No. 19. Should we go another position like cornerback, linebacker, offensive line or a skill position at No. 19?

ANSWER: Drafting the best player available in the first-round is always the best approach, as drafting for need often results in NFL teams reaching and passing up more talented players. We’ll see what needs are filled first in free agency. I could see the Bucs going with maybe one splash free agent – perhaps it’s inside linebacker Dre Greenlaw or cornerback Charvarius Ward, and we’ll see how big the price tag is for Jets inside linebacker Jamien Sherwood.

I know that Jason Licht was struggled to draft effective edge rushers outside of Yaya Diaby, and that he has yet to draft a double-digit sacker. Licht did have some free agent success with Shaq Barrett in 2019 as an unproven pass rusher, and traded for Jason Pierre-Paul in 2018. I don’t know if he has the desire to throw $17 million or more at the likes of Philadelphia’s Josh Sweat or Khalil Mack from the L.A. Chargers. I’d almost rather see Licht take a low-risk flier on Bengals edge rusher Joseph Ossai, who had five sacks last year behind Trey Hendrickson and Sam Hubbard.

With Larry Foote now back coaching outside linebackers, I think Licht has a lot more faith in drafting another edge rusher with a premium pick. If George Edwards was still in charge of that room, maybe he doesn’t. I know I wouldn’t. But I think Foote will do a better job of developing Diaby and Chris Braswell, last year’s second-round pick. Yet adding a proven veteran free agent to the room would have some benefit from a mentor standpoint. I’m not sure if Barrett has anything left in the tank and is worth re-signing.

QUESTION: Your SR’s FAB 5 this week about Jason Licht was very concerning. The fact you claim Licht won’t actually do the high free agent spending because of his past deals from 2014 is not what I want my GM doing, especially at edge rusher which is a position he sucks at drafting. He needs to open the checkbook.

ANSWER: To be clear, Jason Licht hasn’t shared any of the team’s free agency plans or draft plans with me. I’m only assuming what Licht will do after spending the last 11 years studying him and from some interviews I’ve had with him. In Friday’s SR’s FAB 5 column I wrote the following:

Licht’s big free agent splashes who actually hit over the last decade? Center Ryan Jensen in 2018, defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh in 2019 and quarterback Tom Brady in 2020. All three of those former Bucs earned at least $9 million per season.

But that’s it – that’s the list.

The last time Licht tried to make a big splash signing with an imported free agent was wide receiver Russell Gage in 2021, who signed a three-year deal worth $30 million. It turned out to be a terrible move in hindsight and a waste of money.

So why ask Licht, director of player personnel Rob McCartney and the Bucs’ brass to do something that rarely works? Not just in Tampa Bay, but rarely works around the league, too?

My point is that free agency is full of misses – not just in Tampa Bay but around the league. And one of the examples I used was Philadelphia’s 2024 free agent class, which totaled 13 players and featured only four hits. One of the biggest free agent misses in the entire NFL last year was the Eagles’ signing of defensive end Bryce Huff to a deal worth $17 million per year. Huff was coming off a 10-sack season with the Jets, but only had 2.5 sacks with the Eagles and was inactive for the Super Bowl.

What I think Licht will do is open the checkbook, but sign more free agents to cheaper, prove-it deals that have been successful (see Shaq Barrett and Baker Mayfield) rather than one or two high-priced free agents. I think a shotgun approach would work better rather than trying to put all of the team’s eggs in one basket. We’ll see what happens. Maybe I’m wrong and Licht will do what you want with some big free agent splashes and surprise me.

 

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