IR status and coaching

[Alaskan Grizzly]

As expected Roquan Smith was put on IR.  Former Buc and former Sooner OLB Devonte Bond was signed to the team in his roster spot.  Looks to be a speed rusher so maybe competition for Floyd during the offseason? 
 

With Smith out on IR, the defense has lost Trevathan, Amukamura and Hicks (to name key pieces) on the defensive side of the ball and their replacements;  KPL, Tolliver and to some degree Nichols have all stepped up and played pretty darn well. That I think is a credit to Pagano and his ability to coach his side of the ball. 
 

And to be fair and not lost in all this is the sudden resurgence of the offense with credit thrown towards Nagy.  On the offensive side they’ve lost Long, Gabriel, Burton and Shaheen and are finding gems in players like Wims, Ridley, Brauneker,  Holtz and Horstead.  And after reshuffling the line and recalibrating himself, found that he has a serviceable OLine and a potentially decent QB if he plays to their strengths. 

[adam]

Slowly but surely we have lost a ton of starters from our original 53-man roster. On offense, we have lost Long, Massie, Burton, Shaheen, Gabriel, and Trubisky to injuries. On defense, we have lost Nichols, Hicks, Trevathan, Smith, and Prince. That's basically half the starters from both sides of the ball with several missing 4+ games. 

The one silver lining is we might have some good depth with fresh legs. At this time of the season, players start to get dead legs, especially in the cold weather. Also, most players who have played every game are beat up in some way shape or form. Now you bring in some fresh bodies who are way closer to 100% than the guys they replaced. The draw back is they won't know all the plays and won't have the same chemistry as the starters. KPL looked really good and hopefully with 1st team practice reps he can get in a groove. One interesting fact is that KPL and Kwit practiced together a lot as the backups, so they have a good working relationship. 

Bond is just a bottom end of the roster type of guy. Has never had a sack in the NFL in limited playing time in TB. I am assuming he would be filling more of a special teams role so KPL and Kwit don't have to do double duty all the time.