Buccaneers suffer two major blows on Day 3 of free agency that leave them with nearly zero options for a serious upgrade
The Buccaneers watched Trey Henrickson and K’Lavon Chaisson come off the board Wednesday morning.
Free agency got off to a really rough start for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after the franchise had to watch legend Mike Evans walk away and join the San Francisco 49ers.
Still, there was reason for optimism with the thought the Buccaneers would “level out” Evans’ departure with an exciting free agent signing. The thought was snagging one of the top linebackers or EDGE guys, or both, would help mitigate the pain and sadness that accompanied the loss of Evans.
The Buccaneers signed linebacker Alex Anzalone, who was certainly a top-5 option, leaving them with EDGE as the next priority. And when considering the available names at the time (like Trey Hendrickson, Odafe Oweh, and others), hope remained that Jason Licht would sign one of them.
Well, that didn’t happen and the Buccaneers just watched both Hendrickson and K’Lavon Chaisson, the top-2 remaining pass rushers, fly off the board early Wednesday morning, as Hendrickson signed with the Baltimore Ravens and Chaisson signed with the Washington Commanders.
What pass rush options do the Buccaneers have left?
The short answer is: not many.
The only proven guys left are old, over-the-hill players like Joey Bosa, Kyle Van Noy, Von Miller, Jadaveon Clowney, Bradley Chubb, or Cameron Jordan. The younger guys are Arnold Ebiketie and A.J. Epenesa.
None of those guys are needle-movers in terms of what they can do on the field. Sure, there are a few big names comprising the list, but that’s not what the Bucs need. They need both a big name and big on-field production and there are zero guarantees any of those guys can provide the latter.
The only difference-maker left on the board, is Maxx Crosby. At this point, it’d be worth the investment to bring in arguably the NFL’s best pass rusher. Yes, Crosby just failed a physical, but that was expected. Reports state all teams involved with the trade talks knew he wouldn’t be ready until June or July, so it’s not like last night’s developments, in that regard, were a shocker.
Jason Licht needs to pull the trigger on the move because they aren’t going to find anyone who can step in and make a sizable difference like Crosby will, at this point.
Why does it look like the Buccaneers sitting on their hands?
It’s a question that only Licht can answer, but remains worth speculating on. To be frank, I have no clue why they haven’t at least made one move to upgrade the EDGE position, something they said is an offseason priority.
But I’m also willing to bet the whole Crosby deal threw a big wrench in a lot of teams’ plans. There was a lot of smoke around Hendrickson and the Buccaneers and it’s quite intriguing that he’s all of a sudden a Raven, now.
Make no mistake – we will see much of the same from Todd Bowles’ defense if they fill the void with just solid players. It’s painfully clear the Buccaneers’ approach to the position simply doesn’t work, at this point, and they need to change it up. Yet, they refuse to.
If you’re a Buccaneers fan, you’re rightfully frustrated. This has to be one of the more irritating Buccaneers offseasons in recent memory when adding in the Bowles situation, Evans leaving, and now this.
There’s still time to turn things around, but I wouldn’t hold my breath and it’s shame it’s playing out this way.