Edge rushers Yaya Diaby (right) and Chris Braswell.
It’s obvious the Bucs have had systemic problems under Todd Bowles.
Many teams have some, but they get hidden when the club is winning.
The Bucs were not a winning team this season. In fact, they had an epic collapse and no football-savvy individuals watched the Bucs in the second half of the season and walked away saying, ‘Man, the Bucs really get after it and play like a bunch of rabid, physical dogs. What a hungry team.’ (See Miami with the entire season on the line.)
Soft!
This is why Joe believes the Bucs overrated the leadership on their roster. Folks at One Buc Palace thought it was elite; it proved to be something far less.
YaYa Diaby spoke out yesterday to Ch. 10 sports director Evan Closky. It seems Diaby sees players that don’t care enough.
“The scheme, you know, is a lot for certain guys and I feel like it’s a lot for you and this is your job, you shouldn’t be here,” Diaby said.
“It’s not going to be easy everywhere you go, you know. And Coach Bowles put us in positions to be successful and if you’re not bought in, like I said, you shouldn’t be here.”
This is one reason Bucs legend Rondé Barber barked on his WFLA streaming show repeatedly about how Todd Bowles should simplify his defense. Too many weren’t executing.
Joe assumes Bowles was too stubborn to do that — in part because Bowles was seeing players do one thing in practice and another in games.
The latter, if true, speaks to the team’s collective focus, and a lot of that is on leadership from coaches to players. Again, Joe is confident the Bucs overvalued their leadership. And only very late in the season did it seem players got benched for screwing up.
Too little. Too late.
To whom was Diaby referring? Joe will take one easy target: invisible second-year edge rusher Chris Braswell. Why? Because Diaby is around Braswell daily and coaches often have said Braswell is still learning his role. Perhaps he needed to try a little harder.