The Buccaneers spent 2026 trying to give their defense a fresh start. They brought in young talent through the draft, added help in free agency and shuffled the coaching staff in search of a better mix. But even with all those changes, Todd Bowles is still the man steering the ship on defense - and after last year’s mess, there’s no escaping the pressure on his side of the ball.
The biggest alarm bell is the one that kept ringing in the red zone. Tampa Bay allowed touchdowns on 69.77% of red zone trips, the worst mark in the league.
That’s not just a bad number. That’s a defense getting carved up when the field shrinks and every snap matters.
Bowles’ scheme has to be cleaner there, because a unit that keeps bending until it breaks isn’t going to hold up for long.
Fixing that kind of problem is going to take more than one tweak. The Bucs need better communication to avoid coverage busts.
They need more disruption from the front seven so quarterbacks have less time to pick apart the defense. And they need their outside corners to hold up when they’re left on an island.
Some of that is about personnel, but some of it is about putting players in the right spots and getting the calls right.
Linebacker is another area that could shape how this defense looks in 2026. Last offseason, coverage at the position was a real problem with Lavonte David and SirVocea Dennis.
David retired, Dennis was replaced, and Tampa Bay used a draft pick on Josiah Trotter. He’s a MIKE linebacker, though, which means his game is more about blitzing and attacking run gaps than living in coverage.
The question is whether he can handle that part of the job well enough as a rookie. Being decent in coverage is one thing.
Being a weak link is another.
The Buccaneers also added Alex Anzalone to handle coverage duties as the main linebacker, but he’s already 31. If his coverage slips, Trotter may not be able to cover for it, and the whole issue could surface again fast. That makes Trotter’s Year 1 development a bigger deal than the Bucs probably want.
Then there’s the situation with Jacob Parrish, which might end up being one of the trickiest lineup calls on the roster. Tampa Bay drafted Keionte Scott to play nickel in 2025, and that pushes Parrish outside after he spent last season working in the slot. Now he’s competing with Benjamin Morrison and Zyon McCollum for an outside job.
If Parrish wins one of those spots, the Bucs get a clean answer. If he doesn’t, they’ve got a player who was too good at nickel last year to just sit and wait for an injury. That leaves Bowles with choices: keep rotating him in the way he did with Morrison and Jamel Dean last season, move him back inside for some snaps, or use him more in dime looks.
Parrish played well as a rookie and looks set to play well again. The real question is where exactly he fits in this rebuilt defense.
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Bucs Rookie Just Drew A Comparison No Linebacker Can Ignore
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Josiah Trotter, the son of former Eagles linebacker Jeremiah Trotter, is drawing plenty of attention for what he might become in the NFL. Former Buccaneers guard Ian Beckles has already put a heavyweight comp on him, and it is the kind of praise that instantly raises the stakes for a young defender trying to carve out his place in Tampa Bay. [Read more 🡒]