Todd Bowles didn’t just like what he saw from Josiah Trotter in the Buccaneers’ season opener. He sounded genuinely fired up about it.
The rookie linebacker delivered a debut Tampa Bay won’t forget, even if the Buccaneers left Cincinnati without a victory. Trotter became the first player in NFL history to record both a pick-six and a sack in his first-ever game, a ridiculous start for a second-round pick who stepped right into the spotlight while the Bucs’ offense coughed up four fumbles and the pass rush struggled to bother Joe Burrow.
On a day when most of the attention was supposed to land on first-round pick Rueben Bain Jr., it was Trotter who took over the conversation. Bain managed just one tackle, while Trotter kept making plays and kept Tampa Bay hanging around. If that kind of performance carries over, the Buccaneers may have found a serious piece for their defense.
Bowles was asked about Trotter after the game, and he leaned into the rookie’s mix of calm, intelligence and energy.
"It was amazing. I mean, he handles himself so well.
You can tell he's a rookie in terms of how much, I guess, a childlike nature he has, you know, like a giddiness about him…Like, he's definitely joyful when he's out there on the field. He's a thinker, he's really, really smart, and it's his background, too.
It's the way that he approaches it. He also wants to compete with his brother (Philadelphia Eagles LB Jeremiah Trotter Jr.) a little bit.
So, him making plays, I mean, it's only the beginning for him."
That family connection matters here. Josiah and Jeremiah Jr. are both sons of former Philadelphia Eagles four-time Pro Bowl linebacker Jeremiah Trotter, and that pedigree was obvious enough in camp that defensive tackle Rakeem Nunez-Roches called the rookie an "alpha amongst alphas."
Bowles also broke down the pick-six itself, pointing to a rep Trotter had seen in practice. He had been late on it before. This time, he got it right.
"He read it [perfectly]. I mean, we all kind of covered down, and it was a play that he had gotten in practice, and he was a little bit late on it.
He told me afterwards that he was late on it in practice. He was going to make sure that he was never late on it in a game, and he wasn't."
Trotter may have entered the season flying under the radar because he was drafted alongside Bain, but that won’t last long after Sunday. He’s now on the league’s radar, and Bowles may have uncovered the Buccaneers’ long-term answer at inside linebacker after Lavonte David retired in March following 14 Hall of Fame-worthy seasons in Tampa.
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There is still development ahead, as Bowles made clear, but the early usage suggests the Bucs are willing to trust Hurst quickly. For a young receiver trying to carve out a role, the combination of playing time and a solid debut matters, especially on a team that will keep looking for reliable options to complement its passing game. The question now is how much more the rookie can add as the season moves along. [Read more 🡒]