The Buccaneers signed several high-profile free agents before the 2014 season with designs on taking a step forward in the standings and it’s fair to say that they didn’t work out as planned for the team picking first on April 30.
Tackle Anthony Collins, defensive end Michael Johnson and quarterback Josh McCown won’t get a chance to improve on things in Year Two as the Bucs have already released all of them. That leaves cornerback Alterraun Verner as the biggest name left, although he wasn’t much better last year.
Verner admits that his play “came nowhere close to my expectations,” especially when it came to generating takeaways in Lovie Smith’s Cover-Two scheme. Verner said that he can’t explain exactly what went wrong, but says that injuries were a part of the problem on defense in Tampa.
“My expectations for myself in the defense based on them signing me was to be a playmaker,” Verner said, via PewterReport.com. “Looking at Charles Tillman, Tim Jennings and Ronde Barber were able to do in the past in this defense, that’s what I had envisioned. Creating a lot of takeaways by forcing fumbles and getting interceptions. The interceptions were the main thing. I was expecting to have a real, real high interception total. I thought our pass rush was going to be awesome with Michael Johnson, Gerald McCoy and Clinton McDonald and there would be so many opportunities because of that. Then we get into the season and Adrian Clayborn is hurt in Week 1 and he’s out for the year. Michael Johnson is battling an ankle injury all year. Gerald McCoy gets injured at the beginning and Clinton McDonald gets injured at the end. Then I get injured. Our whole defense was injury-filled and we never got to collaborate like we wanted to.”
Verner said that he thinks this offseason’s acquisitions will have more success because they are more familiar with the defense and it would certainly help if the offense is more successful. The Bucs were on defense for more than 33 minutes a game on average, so holding onto the ball would take some pressure off the unit this time around.
That said, the defense still fell short of expectations and that leaves a lot of work to be done on both sides of the ball when Tampa’s offseason program starts Monday.
