New York Giants Week 12: Scouting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Defense

The New York Giants get set to take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Tommy DeVito's first start of 2024. What are they looking at in that unit?

Oct 21, 2024; Tampa, Florida, USA; Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Yaya Diaby (0) celebrates with defensive tackle Vita Vea (50) after sacking Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson (not pictured) during the first quarter at Raymond James Stadium. / Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images

The New York Giants made a massive change during the bye week and will have Tommy DeVito replace Daniel Jones at quarterback against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. So what will DeVito and the Giants offense be up against this weekend as far as the Bucs’ defense goes?

Personnel

You can’t talk about this Bucs defense without the man that makes it all possible: interior defensive lineman Vita Vea.

Vea is hovering right around the top of the great to bottom of the elite tier of defensive tackles right now and he’s played dominant football in the past few weeks.

The rest of the interior defensive line features a mix between Calijah Kancey, Anthony Nelson, and Logan Hall depending on the situation.

Kancey missed the first half of the games so far this year but has been a pretty consistent interior pass-rusher throughout the early part of his career.

Nelson and Hall are unspectacular but have each shown flashes of being able to take over stretches of games. Their mass on the interior could cause problems for a Giants team that likes to run between the tackles.

The Bucs have Yaya Diaby and Joe Tryon-Shoyinka as their stand-up edge rushers and Diaby has been a force this season.

Diaby doesn’t get nearly the credit that he deserves as a pass-rusher or setting the edge in the run game.

Tryon-Shoyinka is yet to reach the ceiling that he possessed when he was drafted out of Washington. 

Lavonte David and KJ Britt are the Buccaneers linebackers with David playing the majority of the snaps there with Britt playing in base fronts.

David is the main blitzing option from the second-level but unfortunately for the Bucs, he’s also the only viable coverage option in that room.

Both linebackers are a major reason that the Bucs defense has given up big gains in space consistently as they’re just not built to operate in space frequently at this point.

David and Britt have a combined 26 missed tackles on the season with missed tackle rates of 18.5% and 15.3% respectively.

In the secondary, Zyon McCollum and Josh Hayes started on the outside in week ten against the 49ers but there’s no guarantee that’s the duo this week.

Following the team’s bye week, starting cornerback Jamel Dean has been activated off of the injured reserve but his status is still up in the air. 

McCollum has been listed as having a hamstring injury and will likely be a game-time decision this Sunday as well.

Troy Hill, who has played almost exclusively in the slot and hasn’t played for the Bucs yet after spending the first six weeks of the season with the Panthers, is expected to see significant snaps if either Dean or McCollum can’t go.

Christian Izien has been playing significant snaps in the slot as of late and that will likely continue with Jordan Whitehead and Antoine Winfield Jr. manning the safety spots.

Winfield Jr. has been dealing with injuries throughout the season and has looked like a shell of his 2023 self but it wouldn’t shock me if he bounced back to elite form in any game now.

Scheme

The Bucs operate out of a 3-4 when they’re in base defense and they operate out of that base more than almost any other team.

Despite having a reputation as a defense that blitzes incessantly, Todd Bowles has been more conservative in 2024 than ever before.

That’s not to say that they don’t blitz often as they’re up at 29.7% of their pass defense snaps this year, good for 11th-highest in the NFL but that’s down from the 40.4% they posted in 2023.

Coverage-wise, the Bucs are tied with the Panthers for having the highest percentage of their defensive snaps being Cover 3.

The difference between the Bucs and the other cover 3-heavy teams that the Giants played (Panthers, Steelers) is that the Bucs rarely play man defense, when they aren’t in cover 3 they stay in zone but it’s cover 2 or cover 4.

The Bucs defense also has a fatal flaw: they allow the fourth-most yards after the catch in the NFL and worth noting is that they have played one less game than the three teams ahead of them. 

Overview

With DeVito at the helm, the Giants will need to put him in the best position possible to succeed to start his tenure as starter off strong.

This week that means to take what’s there underneath and do it quickly. The Bucs allow the most passing yards per game on passes where the ball is thrown in under 2½ seconds.

I would expect to see RPOs called early and often where DeVito can hit the underneath receiver with catch and run opportunities.

The Bucs are a middle of the pack run defense but I think the plan needs to be to attack out wide to avoid Vea and to get around any blitzers from the interior and potentially create explosives. 

The Bucs are one of the best interior run defenses and one of the worst run defenses outside the tackles which is the polar opposite from the Giants that like to run inside the tackles.

I would also look to see some creativity with getting pass-catchers the ball out of the backfield, whether that’s using Tyrone Tracy, Malik Nabers, or Wan’Dale Robinson there.

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