The Tampa Bay Buccaneers added multiple new weapons to their Defensive Line in the offseason, which was much-needed, as their Defensive Line was one of the worst in the NFL last season. So General Manager Jason Licht acquired Florida’s native son Jason Pierre-Paul, Vinny Curry, and Mitch Unrein via Free Agency and picked up another very promising weapon in the Draft by selecting Vita Vea with their first round pick.
Now, on paper, this new Defensive Line looks like it should be one of the best in football, there is no doubt about it. However, we all know things do not always work out that way.
OTAs and Mini Camp gave people a first look at how these players fare together. So far, coaches and players have been impressed by what they have seen from this new unit, especially Defensive Tackle Gerald McCoy seems thrilled with what he has seen so far.
“I’m excited about the progress that we’ve made up to this point. You can see guys’ improvement, guys taking to coaching. Coach Buck (Brentson Buckner) is teaching and we’re just going to keep building off of that. There’s a lot of work to be done. We did what we could without pads. Everybody knows that when training camps comes, it’s just different. It’s real football then. Even then it’s not real because you can’t tackle. D-linemen, we can’t finish until we get in the game. That’s the only time we can finish. But up to that point, you can do what’s necessary, but when training camp comes, we’ll see what we’re made of.” – Via Carmen Vitali Buccaneers.com Contributor
McCoy is not the only one who is excited about what he has seen so far. Coach Dirk Koetter also expressed that the new additions to the team have made quite a statement so far.
“I think what we learned is the new additions are going to help us a lot, not only the free agents but the draft picks,” Koetter said. “Jason Licht did an awesome job with the guys he added to our team…” – Via Carmen Vitali Buccaneers.com Contributor
Hopefully, they can keep up the good work and this will translate into success as soon as the season starts.
