The Buccaneers defense is very solid.
They do indeed run a 4-3. Their DT Gerald McCoy is a wrecking ball with 7 sacks in the year. Their rookie DE Noah Spence has 5.5 sacks on the year. The former Giant Robert Ayers has always been solid and has another 5.5 sacks on the year. Their DL has a deep rotation of very solid players.
Keon Alexander, their MLB is a very good player. 104 tackles and 3 sacks on the year. He's a versatile player that is good in man and zone coverage as well as the run game.
Their secondary is very good as well. Brent Grimes has been a consistently good corner for years in this league. He has 3 picks on the year. The rookie Vernon Hargreaves has been playing well. Their FS is really solid and is second on the team in tackles.
The Buccaneers have a good team right now that is getting better. I think they will be a contender for as long as Winston is their QB.
I'll add on to this. The Bengals have played a lot better lately, but they're playing some of the worst offenses in the NFL, and as of this moment I can't really say they're on par with any position group of the Bucs.
Atkins is a great player, but McCoy is better. Ayers is incredibly underrated and was nursing an ankle injury for a while, once he got "healthy" he's been one of the most efficient pass rushers in the NFL on a per snap basis. Dunlap is talented, but Ayers has been a beast the last month. I really wanted him in FA but alas. If there's any evidence that he's now healthy, it's that of his 5.5 sacks this year, 4.5 of them came in the last 5 games. Dunlap has 7 on the year, but Dunlap also has 250 more snaps, and Ayers has some ridiculous amount of hits/pressures the last month. If they put him over Free, he's going to have trouble.
Spence that rookie pass rusher that dropped who had a lot of talent but some question marks, is depth at DE and is pretty good too.
McDonald their 1T came from Seattle, he missed a lot of the season but finally came back a month ago. Right around the time they started turning it around. He's not overly talented, but he's probably been better than Peko (Bengals) this year. Obviously he's been helping their line.
Their SDE is very good against the run. Luckily, he might be out. Gholston doesn't get a lot of sacks, but he stuffs the run, gets tackles, and has a lot of tackles for loss. He's great for what they try to do. Michael Johnson for the Bengals is okay, but Gholston is better for TB. I don't really know anything about the backup.
LB, probably the most athletic sideline to sideline LB duo in the NFL and they're both 3 down LB's that can play the run and cover. They're a big reason this defense is so good because Smith likes to let his LB's make plays, and man he's got the guys for it. Where the Bengals lack speed at LB, the Bucs have it in spades with David/Alexander. David's combine 40 is a joke, that guy looks like the fastest guy on the field at times. He's a really, really good LB. He's not the biggest guy, but it doesn't really matter. I think he got drafted same year as McCoy, not bad. Kwon is basically a David mold, it's not fair really. Leads the team in tackles i think and fast, very fast.
Grimes is playing like a true #1 CB, Hargreaves is playing well, Verner is capable. They have a good safety duo, Conte was on those Bears defenses Marinelli coached that were always tops in the league. They started off slow but they picked it up. Bengals aren't as good in the secondary.
They've been the best pass defense in the league the last month or so. Pass rush, turnovers, speed. They're a better secondary than Cincy, have a whole different level of speed at LB, and are dominating the passing game at the LoS.
They're tops, or right there, in the league in just about every passing stat, including least amount of third downs converted.
They can be run on though, where the Bengals have a little more beef at LB completely sacrificing athleticism, the Bucs sacrificed a little bit of size for guys who fly all over the field. And they did play against Brees, Wilson, Rivers when they weren't playing great.
And their offense is just really odd, they should be scoring points but they don't.
