Getty
Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerbacks Zyon McCollum and Jamel Dean and edge rusher YaYa Diaby.
Under everyone’s nose, while we were all watching football sail through the air, defense snuck in and took over the NFL.
The last 2 Super Bowl champions — the Philadelphia Eagles and Seattle Seahawks — won with mediocre/average quarterbacks and elite defenses.
For the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who eked out a 38-35 win over the Super Bowl champion Seahawks in Week 5, this year’s Super Bowl only seemed to underline the point that they are as far away from being title contenders as pretty much any team in the NFL.
Mainly, that’s because of how unbelievably average their defense is, was and will likely continue to be — an uninspiring group led by head coach Todd Bowles, who made his name as a defensive coordinator yet refuses to employ one when he’s the head coach.
How did the Buccaneers get so bad on defense? And how can they fix it?
Those answers might be years away.
Bucs Being Bad on Defense Starts in Secondary
The Buccaneers have developed a knack for paying defensive backs big money and watching their play drop off almost immediately.
Cornerback Carlton Davis signed a 3-year, $44.5 million contract extension in 2022 and was traded to the Detroit Lions a few miserable seasons later.
Cornerback Jamel Dean signed a 4-year, $52 million contract extension in 2023 and the team was so unhappy with his play they negotiated a way for him to become a free agent after this season instead of playing out his deal.
Now, he’s the one player they probably need the most in the secondary but he’s gone.
Safety Antoine Winfield Jr. signed a record-setting 4-year, $84.1 million contract extension before the 2024 season and responded by missing a career-high 8 games.
Cornerback Zyon McCollum signed a 3-year, $48 million on September 5 and had arguably the worst season of his pro career as he missed 5 games and ended the season on injured reserve.
McCollum’s deal might be the worst of the bunch, and puts the Buccaneers in a financial bind they might not be able to get out of … even if they should try to do so at the earliest possible opportunity.
Buccaneers Biggest Weakness: No Edge Rushers
The Buccaneers thought they were making a splash in free agency when they coughed up a 1-year, $14 million contract for edge rusher Haason Reddick, who proceeded to miss 4 games due to injuries and had just 2.5 sacks.
The Buccaneers have zero juice at edge rusher headed into 2026 and haven’t had a player with double-digit sacks since Shaquil Barrett‘s 10.0 sacks in 2021.
Want another example of how important the Buccaneers being able to get to the quarterback is? In 2020, when the Buccaneers won the Super Bowl, they had 4 players with at least 6.0 sacks. They haven’t matched that stat once in the 5 seasons since.
In The Athletic’s first post-Super Bowl mock draft, the Buccaneers were projected to do the smart thing and use their first 2 picks on defensive players — Georgia linebacker C.J. Allen in the 1st round at No. 15 overall and Oklahoma edge rusher R Mason Thomas in the second round at No. 46 overall.
Tony Adame covers the NFL for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Washington Commanders, Dallas Cowboys, Baltimore Ravens, Philadelphia Eagles and Denver Broncos. A veteran sports writer and editor since 2004, his work has been featured at Stadium Talk, Yardbarker, NW Florida Daily News and Pensacola News Journal. More about Tony Adame
More Heavy on Buccaneers
Loading more stories