Is Bucs NT Vea Struggling In New Role?

The Bucs have made several changes to their defense this year. We have documented a good bit of it. They targeted younger, faster players on their front-seven. To start the season, they used more two-high looks (although that has tapered off as the season has moved on). One of the more noticeable changes has been right front and center. Defensive tackle Vita Vea has moved away from his two-gapping, nose tackle role into more of a single gap three-technique role. The numbers bear it out.

As you can see, since 2019 Vea has gradually moved away from playing over the opposing offenses center and has more and more played in the “B” gap as he is being asked to attack the outside shoulder of offensive guards more. And with it there have been noticeable changes in head coach Todd Bowles’ defense. The most apparent change has been in Vea’s ability to pressure the quarterback.

Over the course of 2019 and 2020, when Vea lined up in the “A” gap over 40% of the time, Vea’s pressure rate versus quarterbacks was over 11%. That is elite for an interior lineman. But over the last two seasons, as he has lined up in the “A” gap less and less (34% of the time in 2021, and 26% thus far this season), his pressure rate has steadily fallen.

Bucs NT Vita Vea and Ravens QB Lamar Jackson – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

The casual fan may not have noticed. One of the most cited traditional stats in football for pass rushers is sacks. And Vea through eight games has already set a career high with 4.5 sacks.

But on a play-per-play basis Vea is not affecting the passer to his own career standards. Vea’s ability to win as a pass rusher has always been predicated on his powerful bull rush. He could easily overpower centers coming straight through them. Centers are often the smallest players on the offensive line. This presented a mismatch Vea could exploit. And with Vea’s limited pass rush arsenal he benefited from having the shortest path to the quarterback being lined up as inside as possible.

Now as he is playing further away from the quarterback in the B gap between the guard and tackle his limitations in technique and speed are themselves being exploited.

Here is an example of two different pass rush attempts. The first is from the Baltimore game where he is heads up on the center.

Working one-on-one against center Tyler Linderbaum Vea is able to push past the Ravens rookie. By the time the left guard tries to help it’s too late. Vea is moving up field to quarterback Lamar Jackson for the sack.

Now compare that to this rep from the Green Bay game where he is pass rushing from the right guards outside shoulder as a 3T.

You can see while Vea got some push he did not impact quarterback Aaron Rodgers because there is just too much ground for him to try and eat up at his speed. While head coach Todd Bowles is trying to implement a creative pass rush scheme, he is in the process hurting the pass rushing effectiveness of his $17 million man.

And it’s not just when he is lined up outside the guard. Vea is being asked to attack that way from the 1-technique as well. And the results aren’t pretty.

Vea Struggling As A Run Defender As Well

In addition, the Bucs run defense has taken several steps back. In 2020 the Bucs defense held opponents to just 3.8 yards per rushing attempt. That was good for second in the NFL. In 2021 that number rose to 4.2 yards per attempt and their ranking fell to 11th.

This year? The Bucs are 24th in the NFL allowing 4.8 yards per rush attempt. Some of this can be attributed to a change in focus. The Bucs have made several moves that would lend themselves to putting an additional emphasis on stopping the pass over the run.

But that doesn’t fully explain a full yard per play difference. Again, I will point to the way he is being asked to play as at least a contributing culprit. Watch how comfortable he is attacking a run play when he plays from the “0” heads up.

On this play he is allowed to essentially latch onto the center Linderbaum and then immediately look into the backfield. Vea doesn’t have to worry about the offensive line movement because he can feel Linderbaum’s body weight shift to know how to respond. In the meantime, he can watch running back Kenyon Drake and react to him specifically. In this case, Vea watches Drake slide back to the strong side and before attacking him for a minimal gain.

Now let’s contrast that to when Vea is asked to play a single-gap role.

Here he is playing as a 1-technique against Carolina’s outside zone scheme. Because of this Vea isn’t able to make contact with an offensive lineman off the snap. He can’t use the lineman’s weight distribution to “feel” the play. And ultimately Vea is unable to read the running back in the backfield.

He ends up guessing there will be a cutback. And in preparing for it he stops moving with the play and ultimately cuts off his backside help while creating a hole running backs dream of for Chuba Hubbard that leads to a 60-yard gain.

Keep It Simple (You Know The Rest)

Vea is a tremendous nose tackle. He has a limited skill set due to his massive size. But he can execute it at such a high level that it doesn’t matter. Vea has tremendous power that he can use to bull rush and make life uncomfortable for opposing quarterbacks. He couples that with an ability to clog up the middle of the field as a space eating run-stuffer.

This year the Bucs have tried to get Vea to evolve into a single-gap penetrator. And the results have not been great. With a 3-5 record halfway through the season, it stands to reason that they may want to put one of their stars in the best place for him to succeed. And I argue that starts right in the center of the defensive line with Vea playing in the A gap more often.