Todd Bowles On The Hot Seat, CB Concerns, Dime Defense

Pewter Report’s Scott Reynolds answers your questions from the @PewterReport X account this week in the Bucs Mailbag. Submit your question to SR each week via X using the hashtag #PRMailbag. Here are the Bucs questions we chose to answer for this week’s edition.

QUESTION: How hot is Todd Bowles’ seat heading into the 2026 season? Four of the first five draft picks were spent on defense, and the consensus was the Bucs had a top 5 draft class. An above average defense is now a requirement surely, right?

ANSWER: Todd Bowles does enter the 2026 season on the hot seat after last year’s 2-7 collapse down the stretch that led to Tampa Bay finishing 8-9 and missing the playoffs. Another losing season this year and the Bucs have to make a change, especially after all of the defensive additions this offseason. The biggest problem with Bowles’ defense over the last couple of seasons has been the lack of a consistent and effective pass rush. Tampa Bay’s pass rush should be much better this year due to a lot of different factors.

The first of which is the new outside linebacker additions of first-round pick Rueben Bain Jr. and veteran Al-Quadin Muhammad. Bain was regarded by some as the best player in the 2026 NFL Draft and is coming off a 9.5-sack season in Miami. Muhammad had a career-high 11 sacks last year with Detroit and is an experienced veteran. Both players play with a nasty edge, which Tampa Bay has been missing since Ndamukong Suh and Jason Pierre-Paul were with the team back in 2021.

Then throw in the fact that Yaya Diaby is coming off a very good season as the team’s leading sacker with seven, and is entering a contract year, and this has the makings of a much better edge rush in 2026. Certainly better than last year when the outside linebackers totaled just 14 of the defense’s 37 sacks.

Additionally, the Bucs will get a “bonus draft pick” in David Walker, last year’s fourth-round selection who missed all of last year with a torn ACL in training camp. Walker is back and should provide a better pass rush as a reserve than either Anthony Nelson or Chris Braswell did last year. If defensive tackle Calijah Kancey can stay healthy for a majority of the season and provide immediate pressure up the middle that will only aid the outside linebackers in their pursuit of the quarterback.

Veteran linebacker Alex Anzalone is an upgrade over Lavonte David, who was 33 and injured last year, and SirVocea Dennis, especially in coverage. Plus cornerbacks Jacob Parrish and Benjamin Morrison should be better in year two after showing some promise as rookies. And Tykee Smith should be even better in his third year in Tampa Bay and entering his second season as a safety. Better coverage on the back end will only help out the team’s pass rush up front.

I would say Bowles’ defense should be at least above average – if not good in 2026. He needs to incorporate all of these new pieces into his defensive scheme quickly and just call some good games. No more excuses now for Bowles.

QUESTION: Really think the draft and free agency improved the pass rush, but what are your thoughts on the secondary still being a concern?

ANSWER: There is no doubt that the Bucs’ front seven received most of the attention this offseason in free agency and in the NFL Draft. And that was the smart play because the front seven was a huge letdown last season, especially with outside linebacker Haason Reddick proving to be an expensive free agent bust. Add in the fact that defensive tackle Calijah Kancey missed 14 games due to a pectoral injury, and inside linebacker Lavonte David was a shell of his former self at age 33 and was dealing with a lingering knee injury and the front seven needed to be revamped.

But it wasn’t like Tampa Bay’s secondary didn’t have its own issues, either. Injuries at the cornerback position were a problem last year, and the secondary was a big let down in the Bucs’ loss on Thursday Night Football against the Falcons when the defense failed to get a stop on third-and-28 and fourth-and-14. Veteran starter Jamel Dean left via free agency and veteran reserve Kindle Vildor wasn’t re-signed due to his poor play last year.

The cornerback position lacks experience outside of Zyon McCollum, who is entering his fifth season after a down year in 2025 after signing a lucrative contract extension. Benjamin Morrison and Jacob Parrish will battle for the right to replace Dean on the outside in their second season, while Keionte Scott was drafted in the fourth round and could take over at nickelback.

I think the Bucs have some legitimate depth at nickelback with Parrish, Tykee Smith and JJ Roberts all capable of playing that position if Scott isn’t up to the challenge or gets injured. But where Tampa Bay lacks depth is at outside cornerback, especially from an experience standpoint. The Bucs added Chase Lucas and Kemon Hall in the offseason, but neither has much experience on defense – mostly just on special teams. Josh Hayes is entering a contract year, but he’s mostly known for being an ace special teams gunner and not for his pass coverage on defense.

Tampa Bay would be wise to add a veteran with experience to slot in at CB4 on the depth chart. The team has done this in years past with Bryce Hall in 2024 and even with Vildor last year, although he wasn’t very good. Rasul Douglas and Mike Hilton are still available, but would either play special teams over the age of 30? And would either be effective on special teams because that’s what type of role CB4 would have to play? That’s what makes it tough to find a veteran cornerback for depth purposes.

QUESTION: With Keionte Scott’s addition and questions about Josiah Trotter coverage abilities, can we expect more usage of a dime package? Especially since all four middle DBs (Keionte Scott, Jacob Parrish, Tykee Smith, and Antoine Winfield Jr.) are also pretty decent blitzers and really good assets against the running game?

ANSWER: Possibly, and I would love to see it. Yet Todd Bowles typically runs a way more nickel defense than he does dime defense. The Bucs ran just 27 plays in dime defense in 2024 (2.54% of the snaps) and only 11 in dime last year (1.1% of the snaps). Last year Tampa Bay ran nickel defense 61% of the time, which was a decrease from deploying nickel 70.4% of the time in 2024. The difference, of course, is that nickel defense features four defensive linemen, two linebackers and five defensive backs, while dime defense features six defensive backs, and typically one linebacker and four defensive linemen up front.

The reason why the Bucs ran less nickel last year – and also less dime – was because they were in base personnel more often due to the league-wide trend of teams deploying more 12 (two tight ends) and 13 (three tight ends) personnel packages. If that trend continues in 2026, there won’t be much of an increase in dime usage because that would create a huge size disadvantage that would favor opposing offenses.

I think that’s why Bowles and general manager Jason Licht drafted a bigger middle linebacker like Missouri’s Josiah Trotter, who is 240 pounds. Trotter can help combat an expected increase in usage of 12 and 13 personnel in 2026 because he is a stack-and-shed linebacker who is big enough and physical enough to take on offensive linemen at the second level.

I like the fact that the Bucs are forward-thinking here and are getting ahead of the curve with NFL offenses leaning into heavier tight end usage rather than drafting an undersized linebacker who might be great in coverage, such as Pittsburgh’s 6-foot-1, 220-pound Kyle Louis. Even Pitt knew that Louis wasn’t big enough to play in the box to stop the run on a regular basis and often had him playing the overhang linebacker position in the slot.

I think Bowles might deploy a dime secondary that features safeties Tykee Smith and Antoine Winfield Jr., outside cornerbacks Zyon McCollum and Benjamin Morrison, as well as interior slot defenders Jacob Parrish and Keionte Scott to combat third-and-long situations against offenses running 11 (three receivers) or 10 (four receivers) personnel. But I doubt that would be a regularly deployed package, and probably wouldn’t rise above 2-4% usage given Bowles’ track record.

QUESTION: Curious, what is the process for election into the Bucs Ring of Honor? It almost seems there is no rhyme or reason with players such as James Wilder and Hardy Nickerson still on the outside looking in. Love your content and SR’s occasional rants!

ANSWER: Thank you for the kind words. As for the process that goes into the Bucs Ring of Honor, I honestly wish I knew. It’s kind of a closely guarded secret, and you are correct – there is no rhyme or reason when it comes to the decision-making process. I know the Glazers ultimately decide on who gets in, and perhaps Brian Ford, the team’s long-time COO, might also have a say.

Sometimes the team has elected two members of the organization into the Ring of Honor at the same time. Sometimes the team goes years without an induction. Super Bowl-winning head coach Bruce Arians got into the Bucs Ring of Honor immediately after retiring, while legendary defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin had to wait decades to get in despite having more wins as a Buccaneers coach (head coach or assistant) than anyone else in franchise history.

Simeon Rice, the most recent inductee, also had to wait decades to get into the Ring of Honor. And I think Hardy Nickerson, a five-time Pro Bowler and one of the most important parts of Tampa Bay’s turnaround under former head coach Tony Dungy, is long overdue for his induction into the Ring of Honor. He should be the next inductee in my opinion and it’s a crime he’s had to wait this long.

As for former Buccaneers running back James Wilder, I’ve heard that he likely won’t get inducted for some personal reasons despite him still being the record-holder for the most rushing yards in franchise history among other distinctions. Nickerson may be the last member who regularly wore the Bucco Bruce uniforms to get in. After him, the next round of inductees could be the likes of Tom Brady, Shaq Barrett, Lavonte David, as well as Mike Evans once he eventually retires.

STATEMENT: Would like a Pewter Report Podcast episode dedicated to special teams. Focus on failures last year and how those issues are being addressed for next year.

ANSWER: This is a great topic for an upcoming Pewter Report Podcast episode for sure. In order for us to really speak intelligently about the Bucs special teams we’ll have to speak to new special teams coordinator Danny Smith. We’re expected to speak to all of the assistant coaches and coordinators later in May, so we’ll tackle this topic after Smith’s press conference. Stay tuned.