{"id":827970,"date":"2026-03-22T22:49:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T22:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/827970\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T22:49:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T22:49:18","slug":"tough-guy-tykee-smith-joebucsfan-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/827970\/","title":{"rendered":"Tough Guy Tykee Smith – JoeBucsFan.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\tTough Guy Tykee Smith
\nMarch 22nd, 2026 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Bucs defense was a soft unit last season, but that doesn\u2019t mean every player was a feathery presence, or that each guy was as brittle as Jamel Dean.<\/p>\n

(Yes, Dean found a way to leave a critical Week 17 game (shoulder) and miss the must-win affair in Week 18. Anyone want to bet he\u2019s absent in January next year for the Steelers? Joe will take that wager.)<\/p>\n

One guy who is not soft is safety Tykee Smith. Yes, Smith\u2019s second season was marred by a shoulder injury \u2014 Joe was told late in the season Smith could barely raise his arm above his head \u2014 but he was a physical force when healthy and productive.<\/p>\n

That was a message delivered firmly last season by Hall of Fame cornerback Rond\u00e9 Barber on the WFLA-TV<\/a> streaming show that bears his name.<\/p>\n

The Bucs legend said Antoine Winfield, Jr. gets all the chatter because he\u2019s very good and highly paid, but Smith is the more imposing presence.<\/p>\n

\u201cTykee might be the most physical player on our defense. Right?\u201d Barber said. \u201cI don\u2019t know what his actual numbers are but I stand next to him on the sideline and I\u2019m like, \u2018Dude, this dude is a physical presence.\u2019 And then you watch him throw like guards and tackles around; he threw a tackle out of the way [last season] and made a tackle. I\u2019m like, \u2018Alright, he\u2019s just different.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Winfield and Smith are similar athletically with Smith being about an inch taller, per draft combine measurements. But Smith does seem to have a more dawg in him.<\/p>\n

Smith dealt with injuries (and illness) in his rookie year (2024), as well. Perhaps 2026 will be his true breakout season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tough Guy Tykee Smith March 22nd, 2026 The Bucs defense was a soft unit last season, but that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2077],"tags":[211,2599,2598,7,6,704,250,2597,2596],"class_list":{"0":"post-827970","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","8":"tag-buccaneers","9":"tag-bucs-message-boards","10":"tag-bucs-news","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-tampa-bay","14":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","15":"tag-tampabay","16":"tag-tampabaybuccaneers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116275273944069885","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=827970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}