Dein erstes Forum » When the Buccaneers were

When the Buccaneers were the only NFC South team to win in week 13 Gerald McCoy Jersey , it felt pretty unusual. Things got back to normal in week 14, with Tampa Bay losing and everything going the Saints’ way. With a Carolina loss, New Orleans was able to clinch the division before its game was even over. The Saints went on to win anyway, effectively ending the Bucs’ playoff hopes. Winning, clinching the division and ending a rival’s season? That’s not a bad Sunday.Let’s check out the what went down in the NFC South during week 14.New Orleans Saints (11-2)The Saints survived a poor first half to pick up a 28-14 road win over the Buccaneers on Sunday. Drew Brees and the offense started slow for a second straight week, picking up just three points in the first 30 minutes. They trailed 14-3 until over halfway through the third quarter, when a Taysom Hill blocked punt set them up with good field position. Brees found Zach Line for six, then Alvin Kamara took the two-point conversion in to bring New Orleans within three. From there, the Bucs fell apart. By the end, the Saints had scored the final 25 points of the game to crush Tampa Bay’s already-slim playoff hopes.Brees finished the day 24-of-31 for 201 yards and two total touchdowns, but did turn the ball over twice. Mark Ingram led the team in rushing with 52 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries. The New Orleans defense was the story, shutting out the Bucs in the second half while finishing the day with four sacks and 10 quarterback hits. Up Next: at Carolina Panthers (6-7)— Monday Night FootballCarolina Panthers (6-7)The Panthers continued their free-fall on Sunday afternoon, losing 26-20 to the Browns on the road. The loss was Carolina’s fifth straight after a 6-2 start to the season. The two teams went back and forth early on, heading into halftime in a 17-17 game. Carolina won the third quarter 3-0, with former Buc Chandler Catanzaro connecting on a 30-yard field goal. But the Browns shut out the Panthers in the fourth quarter, putting up nine unanswered points to win the game. Carolina outgained Cleveland 393-348, but couldn’t get anything going offensively in the second half. One last drive ended in a Cam Newton interception, sending the Panthers under the .500 mark.Newton threw for 265 yards and the interception on 26-of-42 passing. McCaffrey carried the Panther offense once again, rushing for 63 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries while catching six of his seven targets for 38 yards. Catanzaro was two-for-two on extra points and two-for-two on field goals in his Carolina debut.Up Next: vs. New Orleans Saints (11-2)— Monday Night FootballAtlanta Falcons (4-9)The Falcons lost their fifth straight game on Sunday, falling 34-20 on the road against the Packers. Atlanta took an early 7-0 lead on a 16-yard touchdown pass from Matt Ryan to Julio Jones, but Green Bay came back and scored the next 34 points to take a 34-7 lead into the fourth quarter. The Falcons scored the final 13 points of the game, but it wasn’t nearly enough. They outgained the Packers 344-300, but turned the ball over twice in the loss. One of the turnovers was a 22-yard pick six by Bashaud Breeland in the second quarter.Ryan completed 28 of his 42 passes on the day for 262 yards and three touchdowns, but did get picked off for a touchdown. Ito Smith was Atlanta’s leading rusher, going for 60 yards on 11 carries, while Julio Jones caught eight of his 11 targets for 106 yards and two scores. But overall, the Green Bay offense was too much. With the loss, the Falcons are still alone in the NFC South basement.Up Next: vs. Arizona Cardinals (3-10) Should players be paid for what they’ve done, or what they will do? Well, if you’re Le’Veon Bell, you want to paid for what you’ve done.If you’re a first-round draft pick, you’d like to be paid for what people think you will do.The right answer? There isn’t one. It’s a balancing act of rewarding past behavior and securing future contributions. Every situation is unique.Get it wrong, and a general manager not only puts the future of their franchise at risk, but their own career.Every year, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers pay their players to perform. Winning is what matters most, but the value of a player lies in a non-specific calculation of value vs expense.Bottom line, if a player isn’t performing up to his paycheck, then he isn’t worth the money he’s being paid.This is true of all professions really. But in the NFL, we all know how much each and every one of them is making. And in this series, we’re going to take a look at some of the biggest names on the 2018 roster to find out whether the Buccaneers got ripped-off, got a bargain, or if they got what they paid for.Since he cost the Bucs the most in salary cap space on the defense this year, we’re starting with...Defensive Tackle, Gerald McCoyKim Klement-USA TODAY Sports2018 CAP EXPENSE: $12.75 MillionTEAM COMPARISON: 2ND ON TEAM; 1ST ON DEFENSELEAGUE COMPARISON: 57THPOSITION COMPARISON (DL): 14TH; 6TH AMONG *DTsAs the most expensive player on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ defense for 2018, its no surprise there was a ton of pressure on Gerald McCoy to lead from the front - literally and figuratively - and become the first Bucs defender to notch double-digit sack numbers since Simeon Rice last did it in 2005. The franchise quarterback was suspended, and his future in doubt. A new defensive tackle had just been drafted, and a veteran defensive end by the name of Jason Pierre-Paul was brought in via trade by general manager, Jason Licht. Finally, the defensive line was going to help carry the load, and they were led by McCoy.Did the line produce fair value for the investment put in to it by the Bucs? More importantly, today, did McCoy?TEAM PRODUCTIONMcCoy played in fourteen games for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2018 Lavonte David Jersey , missing some time due to injuries. Nothing out of the ordinary in the NFL business unfortunately.In fact, no other defensive tackle on the roster played more in this battle of attrition. McCoy led all interior defenders with 28 tackles (17 solo, 11 assists), six tackles for losses, and six sacks.He was also the only defensive tackle listed with a recorded pass deflection.Expanding the view to the entire defensive line, McCoy finished tied for third in tackles, tackles for losses, sacks and pass deflections.To answer the question about whether or not he earned his top earnings spot on the team is difficult. Not all positions play the same way, and not all stats are easily compared.However, when you consider rookie defensive tackle Vita Vea tallied half the sacks in around half the starts (Vea started eight games, McCoy had fourteen), and that both Vea and McCoy had the same amount of tackles - with Vea having more solos - and then add in that Vea had just two fewer tackles for losses, it’s hard to justify McCoy’s top spot on the team.It’s hard to be king. Just ask Simba. Or any other king, fictional or not.Where McCoy gains back much of his value though, is in pressures. He may not have become the first double-digit sack guy since 2005, but he led the team in quarterback hits with 12.Only he and Jason Pierre-Paul had 20 or more. Nobody else had more than fourteen.LEAGUE PRODUCTIONSolid tackling is a thing of beauty. Quick, tell me the NFL record for tackles in a single season.....If you’re a Bucs fan, you might know it off the top of your head. Because it belongs to Hardy Nickerson who tallied 214 in 1993. Since 1993, no single player has even come close to breaking the record. Ray Lewis has the most since ‘93 with his 156 tackles in 1997.So, safe to say, teams aren’t paying defensive linemen to break tackling records. They’re paying them for sacks and for quarterback pressure. Emphasis is on sacks though.That single-season record is held by Michael Strahan, who recorded 22.5 - kind of - in 2001. Since then, six other players have had twenty or more sacks in a single season. Four of them being defensive lineman, including Aaron Donald who had 20.5 just this year.No surprise then, that Donald also led the NFL in sacks this season.McCoy on the other hand, finished 37th in the league in the same category, and tied for eighth among defensive tackles, with his six sacks in 2018.Here’s a final stat people seem to love. McCoy was paid over $2 Million per sack this season. Donald made less than $500,000 for each of his.Grain of salt: this is cap cost, not bonus, incentives, etc.CONCLUSIONStats don’t tell the whole story. They never have. What they offer is just one lens to view a multi-layered picture through.The value of a player extends beyond the field of play. Which is why it was news when the team didn’t vote McCoy in as a captain for the 2018 season.Prior to this season, McCoy had been a captain on the team for six straight years. Every year since 2012.McCoy played it off. He had to. But if you don’t believe it wounded his ego just a bit, I doubt you’ve ever been in a locker room.In January of 2018, McCoy was a Pro Bowler and a Pro Bowl captain at that. One year later, he’s not a Pro Bowler, not a captain on any team, and is on the lips of just about every Bucs fan, media member or casual observer wondering if and how the team might open up some more cap space for 2019.Pro Football Reference founder, Doug Drinen, has developed his own equations to measure what he calls, Approximate Value (AV). In it, Drinen tries to put a number value to players for their holistic contributions to the team.For 2018, McCoy - the leagues fourteenth most expensive defensive lineman and Tampa Bay’s second-highest cap investment - tied for 343rd with a value of six. So, how did the Bucs make out with this investment for 2018?VERDICT: OVERPAIDTampa Bay didn’t get ripped off, by any means. McCoy’s 38 quarterback pressures tallied by Pro Football Focus consisted of his six sacks, twelve hits, and 20 hurries.Those are solid numbers and places him 19th among interior defensive linemen. However, he was paid to be Top-10 on the interior and Top-15 on the defensive line among his NFL counterparts. Which he simply wasn’t.What does it mean for the soon to be 31-year old and his future in Tampa Bay? Well, that decision is Jason Licht’s. The vote is yours. So, what do you think?