Making A Case For Bucs Safety To Receive NFL Honor
December 10th, 2021
Defensive Player of the Year?
Just judging the Pro Bowl balloting, Joe will guess this guy doesn’t make the Pro Bowl this season, which is sad.
So how wild would it be — and telling how dumb so many NFL fans are outside of Florida — that the Defensive Player of the Year wouldn’t even make the Pro Bowl?
If Conor Orr of SI.com had his way, Bucs second-year safety Antoine Winfield would be named the NFL’s “Defensive Player of the Year” for his play this season.
For those who watch All-22 film regularly, Orr believes there is a player that jumps off the screen in how he changes games. And that is Winfield. And for Orr, Winfield’s play is worthy of the NFL’s top honor for a defensive player.
Winfield was a bit of a late entry for me but after finally, mercifully figuring out how to navigate the hell that is NFL Game Pass this year, it was a treat to watch the breadth of his work and how his presence in center field helps direct the ball to where defensive coordinator Todd Bowles would prefer it to go. Statistically, Winfield has cut his average yards per target and opposing quarterback rating in half this season, while maintaining his competitively high tackle numbers. It shows some serious instinct that a player often starting 15-17 yards off the ball when he’s playing deep center is still allowing only about 10 yards a completion when directly targeted. On a lot of routes he’s changing direction more than the average cornerback. The ease at which he uses his body positioning to take away certain completions while maintaining eyes on another part of the field is impressive and isn’t going to show up on a box score.
Joe has to admit to not knowing Winfield’s assignments on each play. That’s where some of these armchair Bill Walshes trip over themselves. So Joe cannot honestly say that by watching All-22 it can be determined what a guy’s specific assignment is or if a dude is freelancing. Maybe Orr has Bucs defensive coordinator Todd Bowles’ number and texted him for confirmation.
But it still is cool to Joe that someone sees great things from Winfield. If he has a few more picks like he had at Indianapolis, where Winfield looked like Ed Reed, maybe that may get him a Pro Bowl nod someday.
And who knows, maybe “Defensive Player of the Year.”
Joe is very grateful Winfield plays for the Bucs. He is simply a baller.
Interesting stat I just found and not what I expected given the Bucs’ injuries in their secondary…The Bucs’ defense has allowed the lowest completion percentage this season on passes of 25 or more air yards (18.2%…just four completions on 22 attempts). League average is 33.1%
— JennaLaineESPN (@JennaLaineESPN) December 9, 2021
December 10th, 2021 at 11:23 am
And he’s the reason for the “taunting rule” which cost us a game vs the Saints & will cost us the #1 seed and a 1st Rd bye and ultimately cost us the Superbowl
December 10th, 2021 at 11:26 am
We may need his services against the Bills this Sunday because Josh Allen loves to throw the ball.
Some of his Interceptions have been spectacular.
December 10th, 2021 at 11:45 am
Probably our best player in the secondary. Plays like he’s twice his size.
December 10th, 2021 at 11:45 am
Quite obviously, since he was penalized in the SB for taunting….he is not responsible for the rule.
December 10th, 2021 at 11:57 am
Gotta wonder if all the injuries in the secondary have limited how Bowles has been able to use Winfield this season. He’s also great in the box and a good blitzer. If he were able to display these skills more he may have more splash plays and then could be considered for DPOY.
Loving these new stats on our deep ball percentage. I know a lot of posters here bash Todd Bowled and our pass defense but, imo, it could’ve been much worse. Winfield has been outstanding and has kept the patchwork secondary from just giving up touchdowns in waves. This defense is far from the Mike Smith debacle and once the secondary is fully healthy we’ll see even more big plays from Winfield.
December 10th, 2021 at 12:01 pm
B… S!
How about blaming the guy who got called for taunting? Shading Winfield might be even dumber.
December 10th, 2021 at 12:17 pm
I love me some Antoine Winfield jr as much as the next buc fan, but the idea that anyone other than TJ watt winning DPOY this year is delusional.
December 10th, 2021 at 12:47 pm
You’re off your Lithium again aren’t you Pete. Actually Pete , you give nut jobs a bad name. So you need to apologize to all the other wackos out there who say irrational things.
December 10th, 2021 at 1:06 pm
@Leighroy Says:
Myles Garrett seems to have been a bigger, thicker body on the edge for Cleveland and still is making a lot of impact plays such as sacks, QB hits, tackles for loss. Is it delusional to think he may be in the running?
It seems that Pittsburgh defense is set up to get more stats, i.e. sacks, TFL, QB hits then Cleveland’s
Team Sacks:
Pittsburgh 37, Cleveland 31
Team TFL:
Pittsburgh 72, Cleveland 56
Team QB hits:
Pittsburgh 77, Cleveland 78
But in the more important Scoring Defense:
Cleveland’s team defensive (12th), Pittsburgh (24th).
Sacks:
Watts 16, Garrett 12
TFL:
Watts 16, Garrett 15
QB Hits:
Watts 27, Garrett 28
So I might give it to the guy who still gets great individual stats and also helps his team be a better than average defense. But to me, it is still up for debate.
December 10th, 2021 at 1:15 pm
It goes unnoticed that if a runner gets a whole, AWJ is there to stop him. What could be a 20 yard run or a TD is 7 yards. His technique is perfect – every time.
December 10th, 2021 at 1:20 pm
Agree with Leighroy; Winfield is having a very good year, but Defensive Player of the Year? Nah, not THAT good a year. My vote right now would go to Watts.
Pittsburgh drafted TJ Watts in 2017 with their #30 pick.
And to think, in 2017 Bucs drafted OJ Howard with their #19 pick. Yup, those were the good old days. Oops. make that the not-so-good old days.
December 10th, 2021 at 3:54 pm
Sometimes you make sense Pete, WAY off on that take buddy.
December 10th, 2021 at 4:08 pm
I think Diggs gets it with his 9 or whatever INT’s
December 10th, 2021 at 5:16 pm
the guy who cost us the Saints was Devin White -taunting Ingram. his 2 personal fowls cost 30 yrds–one third team penalties of 90 yrds…….
December 10th, 2021 at 5:28 pm
Love those Golden Gophers
December 10th, 2021 at 5:32 pm
The Taunting rule wasn’t created after Winfield. Taunting has always been a personal foul penalty, suboxone Pete.
December 10th, 2021 at 6:03 pm
Geno….
Why does anyone here give a crap about Garrett and TJ Watt? Just curious as to why you went to all that trouble to show us some thing that no one here really cares about.
As for Winfield, DPOY is just stupid talk. Pro bowl safety I think is a big stretch also. He has definitely improved but when the past defense is in the bottom half, it’s hard to put any DB on your team in a pro bowl.
Maybe next year if the pass defense improves greatly we will see Davis and Winfield make a pro bowl
December 10th, 2021 at 10:28 pm
Oh come on!!! Defensive player of the year???? Thats not even a discussion.
Laughable
December 11th, 2021 at 12:13 am
It went unmentioned but Winfield made several nice open field tackles on Jonathan Taylor. Missing on any of them would have meant a sure housecall
December 12th, 2021 at 6:03 am
All that think Winfield not in play for dpoy just doesn’t kn football
December 12th, 2021 at 9:34 am
DPOY awards usually go to the guys that get the sacks not always. Diggs might get it with all those ints idk how his tackles look but that guy is a ball hawk.
December 12th, 2021 at 10:09 am
Well, Joe, no one has ever accused Pete of being smart. So making a dumb comment like that is par for the course.