Beau Allen: How extensive will his role be in the Bucs' new defense?

When Allen signed with the Buccaneers in the early hours of unrestricted free agency last year, it looked like he would be the front-runner to start next to McCoy in the middle of the team's 4-3 front. That picture was muddied, however, when the team later selected Vea with its top draft pick. Allen did enter the regular season as the starter but that was at least partially due to Vea's long absence with the aforementioned calf injury.

Allen opened eight of the first 10 games, missing two due to injury. In late November, however, the Buccaneers put Vea into the starting lineup and he responded so well that he remained there for the last six games. Allen averaged just under 34 defensive snaps per game during his eight starts but only 19 per outing over the last six weeks. In the end, Vea had the more robust stat line, with 28 tackles, three sacks, four tackles for loss and four quarterback hits compared to 20, zero, two and three for Allen.

Still, Allen was a coveted target for the Buccaneers a year ago, in part because he had been such an effective run-stopper in a rotational role in Philadelphia. Sacks were never a big part of his output with the Eagles – two in four years – but he was still a valued contributor. He also just turned 27 in the middle of last season. The Buccaneers will have a new defense in 2019 under Head Coach Bruce Arians and Defensive Coordinator Todd Bowles, and some of the team's linemen will likely have different roles than in the past. It will be interesting to see how and how much Allen is utilized by the new staff.

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Jeremiah Ledbetter: Will his late season promotion in 2018 prove to be more than a cameo on the active roster?

Ledbetter, whom the Buccaneers signed to their practice squad at the start of the regular season, is coincidentally the son of a former draft pick of the franchise. In 1983, Tampa Bay selected Weldon Ledbetter in the seventh round but the Oklahoma tailback never got into a regular-season game for the Buccaneers or any other NFL team.

The younger Ledbetter has already surpassed his father in both regards, having played in 17 regular-season NFL games, including one last year for the Buccaneers. He was also a draft pick, going in the sixth-round to Detroit in 2017 out of Arkansas. Ledbetter made the Lions' roster and played in all 16 games as a rookie but was cut at the end of his second preseason in Detroit. The Buccaneers signed him to their practice squad and that one game in a Tampa Bay uniform came in the season finale after he was promoted in late December.

Ledbetter doesn't have much NFL production to speak of yet, with 14 tackles and half a sack for the Lions plus one stop in that last contest for Tampa Bay last year. But he does have a spot for a third consecutive training camp, as he heads into the 2019 offseason still under contract with the Buccaneers. McCoy and Vea look like the surest starting candidates – though in what sort of three or four-man line configuration is still to be determined – but there are likely to be some changes to that unit overall. With a strong enough camp, Ledbetter could get back on an opening-day roster, as he was two years ago.

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Gerald McCoy: What will we call McCoy in the Bucs' new defense?