In June, Buccaneers coach Greg Schiano said that defensive end Da’Quan Bowers has to “go through the pain” of being an every-down player.
With the first preseason game just around the corner, Schiano is still looking for confirmation that Bowers will do that. Schiano said Tuesday that he believes Bowers will make the leap from situational player to lineup fixture, but also spent some time at practice castigating the defensive end for taking “the path of least resistance” during a run drill. Schiano needs to see maximum effort play after play before he’ll be convinced that Bowers is who the Bucs need him to be.
“I want to see him play hard play after play after play after play,” Schiano said, via Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times. “He needs to string together some plays where he’s going at a high level.”
Schiano called Thursday night’s game against the Ravens “the perfect situation” to assess where Bowers is at this point in his challenging transition. The success of the Bucs defense will likely have a lot to do with the answer to that question since there isn’t another end who projects to be that kind of anchor on the line opposite from Adrian Clayborn.