Is it Time to go All in?

With the off-season about to get into full swing in a few weeks, many Bucs fans are talking about what direction this team should take. Personally Im excited to see what route Bucs Gm Jason Licht decides to take as the last two off-seasons he has built the foundation through the draft while adding key depth and role players through free agency. The question I ask now, "is it time to go all in"? I say yes and no as I believe it is time to be more aggressive in free agency and the draft as long as it is what is best for the team. With expectations growing, along with the core players having more experience and are now ready to take that next step, it might be time to speed up the process and go for it all.

I expect Licht to follow what he did last off-season in terms of re-signing his own, adding good starters/role players via free agency and then finding core players through the draft. The big topic has been about adding more weapons on offense in which the unit had some setbacks and could be much better with a few more pieces to work with. With that being said, I would like to see the Bucs go after these positions via free agency: WR, DL, DB and perhaps OL. Then go after those positions in the draft as well including the RB and TE position which are probably the two deepest positions in this years draft.

The Bucs did this last year by adding CB Brent Grimes and DE Robert Ayers via free agency and then went on to draft CB Vernon Hargreaves and DE Noah Spence. This allowed Hargreaves and Spence to grow into their roles and eventually became big pieces of the defense in their rookie years. At the same time, the defense got instant impact from Grimes and Ayers whom both helped this defense become one of the better units in the league down the stretch of the 2016 season. Now the Bucs can do the same on offense this year by adding some impact players via free agency.

Some names I like for WR are Desean Jackson, Kenny Stills, and Pierre Garcon. Any of those 3 would be a big help then in addition add a guy like Cordarrelle Patterson to help with special teams and the team instantly becomes more dynamic. Then add some pieces to the defense by going after a Dontari Poe or even Calais Campbell to help the front four, and then go after a playmaking safety in either Eric Berry or Tony Jefferson to help solidify the secondary. If the Bucs could pull off some of these moves and then go into the draft and double down on a few of these positions there depth would be tremendously improved. So will the Bucs go all in? Is it time Bucs fans to go for more than just making the playoffs?

Will The Bucs Be Able To Run?

Many Buc fans feel as if the bucs won't be able to run the ball against this very formidable Cardinals defense but is that really the case? The Cards were ranked 6th against the rush last year and the biggest reason behind that is the 6'8 300 pound monster Calais Campbell. Its no surprise that he eats up space and does extremely well clogging holes, making it hard for running backs to run his way. So what can you do to counter act that? Run away from him.

Every defense has their strengths and weaknesses and obviously Campbell stopping the run is one of them. Looking at the Patriots game you can see former Buc and now starting running back for the Patriots LeGarrette Blount gained the most yards when running away from Campbell and at Chandler Jones. Jones although an extremely gifted pass rusher and athlete, isn't strong against the run. Its a lot easier to push 265 out of the way than 300, just a simple observation.

This is why the bucs must start fast and establish the run game by targeting Jones early. Make Campbell work to chase the play down from behind. The game of football is all about finding mismatches and using your strengths to beat the other teams weaknesses. The bucs Oline is a strength even though they did get Winston a little banged up last week yet they didn't allow a sack. The Oline will need to show up big time this Sunday so that the Bucs can dictate the pace of this game.