Through the first three practices in their 2025 training camp, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have run with a starting safety duo of 2023 first-team All-Pro Antoine Winfield Sr. and promising second-year man Tykee Smith. It’s an interesting combination – and potentially a very impactful one on the back end of the Buccaneers’ defense – because Smith’s early body of work reminds a lot of onlookers of none other than Winfield.
A second-round draft pick in 2020, Winfield stepped right into the starting lineup as a rookie and almost immediately began making splash plays, particularly in the postseason. After two strong seasons from Winfield, the Buccaneers, recognizing the impact he could make when deployed near the line of scrimmage, moved him into a hybrid role in which he played slot corner in nickel packages. The results were fine if a little underwhelming – he did have 4.0 sacks – and the experiment was scrapped after one year. Winfield went back to playing in a pure safety role and exploded in 2023, filling every column in the stat box and earning that much-anticipated All-Pro selection.
The Buccaneers took Smith in the third round in 2024 and gave him a shot to compete for the slot corner job. He did, in fact, win that competition, and while kept him out of the lineup at times, he did have the occasional splash play, finishing with two interceptoins, three forced fumbles, seven passes defensed, four tackles for loss and two quarterback hits. His play, in fact, drew comparisons to how Winfield impacts the game.
Now Smith appears to moving from the slot to the safety spot next to Winfield. While it’s far too early in his development to make any more comparisons to Winfield’s career, Smith thinks the pairing is going to work out well for both of them.
“That has been a blessing, for us to be doing similar things,” said Smith. “That has been a blessing not being able to just contain one of us. We always have to hold it down and get a block and blitz too. That has been a blessing, [that] we have been similar in playstyle together.”
It helps that this is not a completely new venture for Smith. He started his collegiate career at West Virginia and during two seasons there started in a traditional safety role, earning second-team All-America honors in 2020. In 2021, seeking a “bigger stage” and a new challenge, Smith transferred to Georgia and moved into the “STAR” role in Kirby Smart’s defense, where he played in the slot. In 2023, he led an elite Bulldogs defense in tackles (70), tackles for loss (8.5) and interceptions (four).
The Bucs clearly could leave Smith in the slot and feel good about the production he would provide. However, they have a lot of other options at that position while the safety spot next to Winfield was wide open with Jordan Whitehead not returning. The Buccaneers’ coaching staff is confident Smith can handle the safety role based on his earlier experience at West Virginia.