Kyle Riddle’s Rundown: The Offensive Line

During the first half of the game against the Browns, we saw the Bucs had one glaring weakness that was finally exploited by the Browns defensive front, that being the Bucs offensive line. The Browns had 5 sacks by the end of the first half alone against the Bucs starting offensive line.

The Bucs starting O Line unit played awful against the Browns front 7. LT Donovan Smith, who the Bucs resigned after offering him a big payday looked completely out of his league. Against the speed rush, Smith was totally overmatched and has shown season after season this is his biggest vulnerability. Along with Smith RG Alex Cappa, who showed so much promise this offseason, also looked completely lost at times allowing several sacks himself.

The Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht decided not to address this obvious weakness during the offseason, and Jameis Winston’s body is going to pay a price. Arians offense likes to take shots down the field, and that involves having his QBs take for than 3-step-drops. These plays take time to develop, and if Winston is under constant pressure, he won’t have enough time to throw. The Bucs have 30 million dollars invested in the left side of the offensive line so it would be nice to see some result, but if Friday was a preview, then the future looks bleak.