Mason Foster's Increasing Role

           

            With the recent announcement that Mason Foster would be calling the defensive plays for the Buccaneers’ defense, also came some concern—well, at least from me. For the past two years, Lavonte David has been the defensive player to wear the green dot and, therefore, diagnosing the plays and putting the defense in proper alignments. Some may look at this and say ‘Well, the defense hasn’t been very good the past two years, so what’s the big deal?’ To those people, I will make a case for David retaining this duty.

In David’s rookie season, he was given the duties of diagnosing plays and putting the defense in position. The previous year, rookie Mason Foster had been given the same responsibility; however, the two rookies led their teams to completely different on-field performances in those respective years.  In Raheem Morris’ final year as head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the 2011 Buccaneer defense was among the worst in the league, allowing the most points (494), yards per play (6.3), and most rushing yards and TDs (2,497 and 26), before ultimately quitting in their then head coach.  While losing their final 10 games, the defense played pathetically as they gave up and average of 34.9 points per game, including 30+ points in 7 of the final 10 games, with highlights such as this and this, among others. (To all who have forced themselves to forget about this season, I apologize for the reminder.)

To be clear, there were many things that went wrong with that season. It was a season in which second-year WR Mike Williams was overwhelmed as the team’s No.1 WR and received very little help from anyone on the offense and Josh Freeman regressed as he tried to do too much with too little on the offensive side of the ball. On the defensive side, Gerald McCoy was lost with a season-ending injury in Week 9 and the team managed a miserable 22 sacks on the entire season, with Adrian Clayborn accounting for one-third of that total. The entire defense was beyond mediocre, from front to back and their embarrassing performances greatly contributed to Morris’ dismissal and the hiring of Greg Schiano.

Once Schiano & Co. came to Tampa, Lavonte David was drafted and Foster was relieved of his duty to set up the defense—a duty that was given to the rookie outside linebacker from Nebraska. In David’s first year, the Buccaneers saw their defense go from worst to first in run defense, which can greatly be attributed to the front seven’s work in that phase of the game. In his second year wearing the green dot, David had ridiculous production as he and Foster both enjoyed career years and the defense as a whole ranked 17^th in total yards allowed per game (15^th against the run). The difference in the defenses that were led by Foster compared to those that David led is clear, although it may be unfair to attribute the disparity solely to which linebacker was wearing the green dot.

As Foster wore the green dot, a far less talented roster surrounded him. Geno Hayes and Quincy Black were the starters at the outside linebacker positions, while oft-suspended Tanard Jackson and Cody Grimm and over-the-hill Sean Jones were starting safeties and Gerald McCoy spent a large part of the season on IR and Brian Price probably should have joined him. In David’s time calling the defensive adjustments, the roster was much improved from the previous year. At safety, Mark Barron and Ronde Barber were the starters, while Gerald McCoy enjoyed his first two 16-game seasons (resulting in two Pro Bowl selections and an All-Pro selection).

With that said, I still would prefer to see David continue to make the defensive adjustments; however, I understand the change. The nature of the Tampa 2 calls for it, as the middle linebacker covers the deep middle and must diagnose the plays just as the QB does on offense. With the clearest viewpoint of any position on the field, Foster will have a large amount of responsibility. In his fourth year, Tampa Bay fans must hope that he can fulfill those duties if the defensive prowess that has eluded the Bucs since their Super Bowl championship is to return under Lovie Smith.