ORLANDO, Fla. -- Tampa Bay Buccaneers Ring of Honor member and Pro Football Hall of Famer Warren Sapp had some scathing remarks about the Bucs' struggles on defense in 2017.
Sapp told Spectrum Sports, "I'm lost. I'm as lost as any fan. And I know defense when I'm looking at it. It just doesn't make sense."
The Bucs finished with 22 sacks in 2017, dead last in the NFL. It was also the fifth-lowest of any team in the past eight years and the lowest for the Bucs since at least 2001.
Warren Sapp = frustrated #Bucs fan pic.twitter.com/a8ZfQ3p0Zp
— Spectrum Sports 360 (@SpecSports360) January 24, 2018
By comparison, Sapp had a career-high 16.5 sacks in 2000. The year the Bucs won the Super Bowl, they had 43. The Jacksonville Jaguars had 55 in the regular season this season.
The Bucs also surrendered 378.1 yards per game, more than any other team in the league.
"It really does not make sense what they're doing on a play-in, play-out basis," Sapp said. "But hey, somebody is making a lot more money than me doing it. So I'm gonna hope that they can fix it, because what we saw this year was disgraceful, absolutely disgraceful."
Despite poor production, the Bucs opted not to make any changes to their coaching staff. They believe that with a healthy roster and some new additions, including making defense more of a priority in the draft, they can rebound under defensive coordinator Mike Smith.
"We hate to let everybody down," said general manager Jason Licht. "We know we didn't meet expectations. Simply put, this is a results-oriented business and the results weren't good enough for the fans, for us. I've used the word 'brutal' a few times. It was not fun. I can put it to you that way. But I can tell you that we've been working extremely hard here in this building, even before the season ended, to fix the problems that we had so we can get to where we think that this team is capable of performing."
