Jason Pierre-Paul to Have Immediate Impact

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This offseason, Tampa Bay traded away a third round pick for Jason Pierre-Paul, a Florida native who is very familiar to Raymond James Stadium, as he played there in college for the South Florida Bulls. Undeniably, the 6’5” Defensive End is one of the best players at his position. During his very impressive eight years with the New York Giants, Pierre-Paul recorded an eye-popping 58.5 sacks in 111 games. In addition to that, he recorded 433 tackles and 47 defensed passes.

Now that he is with the Bucs, having a terrifying combination of players next to him in the defensive line certainly will only improve his stats. With Gerald McCoy, Vita Vea and Vinny Curry playing alongside Jason Pierre-Paul, the Buccaneers should have one of the best defensive lines in the NFL (on paper, at least).

Jenna Laine, a staff writer from ESPN, considers Pierre-Paul a key component on this new Buccaneers squad in order to turn this team around. See article here

The Bucs are hoping he can be the force off the edge that they’ve so desperately needed since Simeon Rice; they haven’t had a double-digit sack guy since 2005. When informed of this, Pierre-Paul even said, “We’ve just got to change that.” His availability and consistent pressure alone will be huge for a defensive line that has been marred by injuries to its starters over the past two seasons and only produced 22 sacks last season. Pierre-Paul played more snaps (964) than any other defensive end in the league in 2017. “I think I played every snap,” Pierre-Paul said. “That says a lot right there. That just tells you that no matter how tough the game is going or [if we’re] winning, I want to be out there.” – via Jenna Laine, ESPN staff writer

Definitely,  the Bucs need a player to finally record at least ten sacks a year. With the new and improved defensive line, chances for that to happen are as good as they have not been in a long, long time.

With Winston being suspended for the first three games this year, the defensive line simply can not afford to be mediocre in September. Could Pierre-Paul end up being just another free agency bust the Bucs once had high hopes for, like Chris Baker was last year? Of course, he could. However, odds are he will play lights out back home with the assistance of his highly dangerous new teammates. There is absolutely no reason or indication to believe Pierre-Paul will not thrive with Tampa Bay.

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