The Buccaneers left Week 1 with a loss, but they also left with a piece of NFL history.
Tampa Bay fell to Cincinnati, 33-27, yet rookie second-round pick Josiah Trotter turned in a debut that nobody in league history had ever matched. Greg Auman of Fox Sports reported that Trotter became the first player in NFL history to record both a pick-six and a sack in his NFL debut.
That kind of start jumps off the page no matter who does it. For a rookie linebacker making his first NFL appearance, it’s even more striking.
Trotter’s day was packed with impact plays, and PFF highlighted the stat line that helped define it: a pick six, a sack and seven tackles. The Buccaneers may have lost the game, but their young defender announced himself in a big way.
For Tampa Bay, the performance stood out even more because the defense was under pressure for much of the afternoon. The Bucs allowed 26 points to Cincinnati, and the offense did the unit no favors. A Baker Mayfield fumble turned into a Bengals touchdown, adding another costly swing in a game Tampa Bay needed to handle better if it wanted to start the season on the right foot.
Still, Trotter gave the Buccaneers something real to hang onto. The son of former Philadelphia Eagles All-Pro linebacker Jeremiah Trotter looked every bit like a player who can affect the game in more than one way. He turned an interception into points and also got home on the quarterback, flashing the instincts that made Tampa Bay use a second-round pick on him.
One game doesn’t decide a career, of course. But it absolutely can reveal why a team believes in a player, and Sunday did that for Trotter. If he builds on this kind of performance, he has a chance to become a key part of the Buccaneers’ defense for a long time.
The defeat also doesn’t leave Tampa Bay buried early in the season. The rest of the NFC South lost in Week 1 as well, so the Buccaneers are still within range despite the disappointment. And because Cincinnati is an AFC opponent, there’s no divisional damage to make up there.
The result stings. The debut, though, was unforgettable. For Tampa Bay, Josiah Trotter’s first NFL game offered a historic silver lining and a promising glimpse of what could be coming next.
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