Welcome Zyon McCollum

[Bootz]

I hope Zyon continues to improve and becomes an all pro.

I think everyone hopes that of every player on this team.

[Phantom]

Can Ko Kieft be all pro? Who am I kidding?

[Bootz]

Can Ko Kieft be all pro? Who am I kidding?

We hope he can

[mdb1958]

Can Ko Kieft be all pro? Who am I kidding?

You can't throw it to him late as he doesnt create enough separation.

[Doctor]

Defensive coaches have put out some good pressers recently. One thing that is clear from all of them is that OBP does not share the boards concern for outside CB or Zyon in the least. You may as well tell them we have Sauce and Reed.

[Ken]

If they did, they also probably wouldn't say so. Just sayin.

[Doctor]

Well a lot of them had Zyon pegged as the guy to take the biggest leap last year so I'm sure they feel more vindication than concern.

[Bootz]

Well a lot of them had Zyon pegged as the guy to take the biggest leap last year so I'm sure they feel more vindication than concern.

You can't have vindication without evidence. And you can't have evidence without playing games. In simple terms their pressers mean absolutely nothing in May.

[Doctor]

Zyon was literally our lead CB last year.
You have 92 targets of evidence, 17th most last year. In it he allowed a team best 59% completion on all those for a QB rating of 91.
AWJ was 68% on his 44 targets QB rating 102, Dean allowing 66% on 56 targets QB rating 111, Davis allowing 61% on 83 targets QB rating 96.

So he performed at a better rate than his current teammates across twice as many data points of evidence.

Yes, we very much love our outter shell of Zyon-Whitehead-Winfield Jr-Dean.

[Snake]

Providing that information without any context is ridiculous.

[Doctor]

Do you believe OBP lacks context???

[Snake]

I am not anti-whatever the Bucs trying to do with their secondary, by the way. I think the unit will be less talented this season than it was last season. Davis is too good of a player for that not to be the case. But there is an argument to be made about the scheme and fit, and if the drop in talent is going to manifest in a meaningful way. if bowles continues to run with the zone scheme. Which Cheb was privy to before pretty much anyone else, and pointed out during the Arians era. It is a unit of sure tacklers and physical players. Which is great. But you can only cover grass for so long.

Just pray for the front seven doing their job. Lacking an elite pass rusher means everyone needs to chip in. Kancey needs to step up. Braswell needs to be ready asap. Nelson and JTS are who they are. Also, that McCollum and Dean can play man adequately when called to do so. Because they will be.

[Doctor]

Everyone "runs with the zone scheme". Not a single NFL team runs more man than zone and the entire NFL is 70% zone on average. We still play more man than most and still do it way better than most. But there is no world where you can get away with not running zone a lot and running it well, period.

[Snake]

Everyone "runs with the zone scheme". Not a single NFL team runs more man than zone and the entire NFL is 70% zone on average. We still play more man than most and still do it way better than most. But there is no world where you can get away with not running zone a lot and running it well, period.

That’s the point. The NFL defensive meta is zone. Teams separate themselves in part by how well they can run man defense in crucial situations. The Bucs project to be worse in that regard now.

We shall see.

[Doctor]

Projected by whom?? We were literally one of the best man defenses last year. Zyon was a big part of that. We got cooked in Zone. Whitehead and the nickle kids are going to help with that.

[Snake]

And they just traded their best cover man.

[kaimaru]

And they just traded their best cover man.

We had 1126 defensive snaps last year. Antoine Winfield played 1100. Carlton Davis missed 37% of defensive snaps (715 snaps played). He has missed major snaps the last 3 years. CD3 looked worse in zone than he ever had last year. Maybe the injuries slowed his reaction and closing ability. IDK. But even if he was still our best cover corner, what is the point if he's our worst corner on zone and he's injured for 1/3 of those ~30% man covers? @Snake

[Snake]

There’s a reason a better team than the Buccaneers that is closer to contending for a Super Bowl just acquired him.

[kaimaru]

There’s a reason a better team than the Buccaneers that is closer to contending for a Super Bowl just acquired him.

They played man 47.1% of the time last year. He might not even be on the field on zone or he may play limited zone. We are also paying most of his salary this year. We got a mediocre draft pick not bc they were eating a big salary (they owe him 4.8 million. Peanuts). No it's bc he might be a part time player and his injury history.

We played zone 79% of the time last year. 79%! He is not our best player if we play nearly 80% zone (79% is per Rick Stroud in 2023 through week 17).

I feel like you will say Scotty Miller was our best receiver in 2020 bc he was the best go route runner...

[Backside]

There’s a reason a better team than the Buccaneers that is closer to contending for a Super Bowl just acquired him.

And spent their top two draft picks on CBs...

[Snake]

There’s a reason a better team than the Buccaneers that is closer to contending for a Super Bowl just acquired him.

And spent their top two draft picks on CBs...

With at least three WRs on the field in what, 75% of plays? It makes sense teams are adding heavily to secondaries.

They whiffed on Okudah. They’re back on the saddle.

[Buc2]

Look. We all know that every team in the NFL is better at drafting, trading, and picking up free agents than the Bucs are. It's science.

[Bootz]

Projected by whom?? We were literally one of the best man defenses last year. Zyon was a big part of that. We got cooked in Zone. Whitehead and the nickle kids are going to help with that.

What are Zyon's statistics in man coverage?

[Bootz]

There’s a reason a better team than the Buccaneers that is closer to contending for a Super Bowl just acquired him.

And spent their top two draft picks on CBs...

Along with shipping Okudah like @Snake mentioned, they also released Cam Sutton, who they signed to a 3 year deal for $11mil AAV in 2023. They had one of the worst CB rooms in the league and aggressively addressed the position. Davis/Arnold/Rakestraw are 1-2-3 cod them this year. They literally had no incumbents.