Throughout the 2025 NFL season, SB Nation’s Doug Farrar will write about the game’s Secret Superstars — those players whose performances might slip under the radar for whatever reasons. In this installment, we turn our attention to Tampa Bay Buccaneers edge defender Anthony Nelson, who currently owns the city of New Orleans after what he did to the Saints on Sunday. It was a historic performance for a defense in need.

Before the 2025 season started, Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles was less than happy about his overall pass rush, and the normally taciturn coach had a lot to say about it.

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“It doesn’t reaffirm it,” Bowles said at the 2025 scouting combine, when asked whether the Philadelphia Eagles’ ability to demolish enemy quarterbacks without blitzing reaffirmed the importance of pressure without sending extra defenders. “We’ve been talking about it all year. We can cover guys, but when we don’t get there, sometimes it’s a problem and sometimes the quarterback got out of the pocket, and we did get there and the ball was out. I’m not saying it was all the time, but we just want to be able to do both.”

Last season, the Buccaneers blitzed on 34.2% of their snaps, which was the third-highest rate in the NFL, and their 24.3% pressure rate ranked ninth, which was the source of Bowles’ frustration. The 2025 Bucs are still working to turn it around; they have blitzed on just 26.9% of their snaps, and they’ve pressured opposing quarterbacks 18.4% of the time, which is about middle of the pack. As much of an adventurous blitzer as Bowles can be, like any other coach out there, he would prefer not to have to send extra guys just to get any pressure.

Sunday’s game against the then 1-6 New Orleans Saints seemed to be a relative walk in the park, but you know what they say about trap games… and with all the injuries Tampa Bay is dealing with right now, there’s always that concern. In the end, there wasn’t — the Bucs kicked the Saints to the curb, forcing the benching of starting quarterback Spencer Rattler in favor of rookie Tyler Shough, who fared no better.

New Orleans’ quarterbacks were sacked five time and pressured on 22 of their dropbacks in a 23-3 Bucs win, and Bowles was specifically happy that these Bucs rank third in the NFL with 25 sacks, behind only the Denver Broncos and the Los Angeles Rams, and not one of his defensive players has more than four quarterback takedowns on the season.

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“It means they are starting to work together,” Bowles said on Monday of his pass-rush group. “They are working together, helping each other out, getting sacks and there [are] not any selfish sacks going on. People are setting people up, and people are taking double teams for other guys, and that is good to see.

“I like that we are getting home. [It] does not matter where they come from. If one guy has 40 sacks and everyone else has none, I am happy for that. As long as we can get the sacks, it really does not bother me where [they come] from.”

One of the unexpected sources against the Saints was veteran edge defender Anthony Nelson, who had his first start of the season while Haason Reddick was dealing with a sprained ankle and some knee soreness. Nelson, the 2019 fourth-round pick out of Iowa who is now on his third contract with the team after re-upping this past offseason to a two-year, $10 million deal with $5.5 million guaranteed, led the way in all possible ways.

Nelson has been a fine and underrated pressure generator at times throughout his career, but Sunday’s game was entirely ridiculous. Not only did Nelson have two solo sacks and five total pressures, he also came up with a forced fumble and a pick-six in which he scored the rare trio of pass deflection/interception/touchdown return.

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Rattler must have been wondering what kind of alien he was dealing with.

Nelson became the fourth player in recorded NFL history to come up with two sacks, a forced fumble, and a pick-six in the same game, which is quite the note for one’s resume.

“You definitely get into that zone and a lot of it has to do with the guys around you,” Nelson said postgame. “We have a lot of guys going after the ball, getting strips and punching out and some that were close that ended up being incompletions, so when everybody is doing it, it gets contagious and you can feel it. It gives you confidence.”

The 6-2 Bucs now have a much-needed bye; an extra week for everybody to get healthy (or at least healthier). Bowles said on Monday that the hope is that Reddick will be ready for the team’s next game against the New England Patriots on November 9.

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But if Reddick isn’t? Well, it’s good to have a backup who’s coming off a career performance in which he single-handedly housed an entire NFL offense.