One member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense has provided the Kansas City Chiefs with some early bulletin board material ahead of the Week 4 game between the two teams.
The Chiefs last faced the Buccaneers in Super Bowl LV with a patchwork offensive line after an Achilles injury to former No. 1 overall draft pick Eric Fisher in the AFC title game. It was a tough game for the offensive line, which allowed Patrick Mahomes to be pressured on 52.5% of his dropbacks.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Buccaneers LB Shaq Barrett was asked about how different the Chiefs’ offensive line is from the one they faced in the Super Bowl.
His answer was rather disrespectful.
“I really don’t think it’s too much of a difference,” Barrett said with a chuckle. “I think we have a lot of favorable matchups. I think we really have an opportunity to dominate the game. I think we’ve got an opportunity to really impose our will as pass-rushers, as edge rushers in this game. We can really have like a coming out party. I know we had six sacks the other game, but we can really have a coming-out party as edge defenders in the position group for this game.”
It’s one thing to have confidence in your ability, but this seemed to be a little bit smug. Failing to acknowledge that the Chiefs have four significant upgrades on the offensive line (Orlando Brown Jr., Joe Thuney, Creed Humphrey and Trey Smith) is a bad look for Barrett. It should provide some extra motivation for an offensive line group that was already motivated coming off a bad performance against the Colts in Week 3.
Patrick Mahomes was asked about Barrett’s comments during his press conference on Wednesday and exuded nothing but confidence in K.C.’s O-Line.
“Yeah, man, I trust those five guys that we have out there,” Mahomes said. “I feel like we have one of the best offensive lines in the league and we’ll go in there with that mindset.”
The Packers managed to hold the Buccaneers to just 14 pressures and one sack in Week 3. Perhaps there is something that Kansas City can glean from Green Bay’s success.
