For the past few seasons, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ defense has fought through the challenge of operating without a truly dominant edge defender. Tampa hasn’t had a pass-rusher capable of single-handedly taking over games since the heydays of Shaq Barrett.
Many fans may be heading into the 2025 offseason expecting Jason Licht to invest heavily in the position group, seeing that Tampa Bay’s defense is forced to send extra defenders at opposing quarterbacks in order to generate any consistent pressure and that excessive blitzing has a tendency to leave the team’s coverage on the back-end exposed— Despite being tied for sixth in sacks, the 2024 Tampa Bay Bucs ranked near the bottom of the league in both completion percentage and pass yards allowed.