“I Really Want Him To Stay At Free Safety This Year”

March 28th, 2023

Say goodbye to Antoine Winfield playing nickel cornerback this season, Todd Bowles told Joe this morning at the NFL Annual Meeeting.

“I really want him to stay at free safety,” Bowles said of Winfield.

That’s the goal, Bowles said before he added that the starting nickel likely is not on the roster.

Joe will have more on this later today.

14 Responses to ““I Really Want Him To Stay At Free Safety This Year””

  1. BucfaninMi Says:

    I saw say goodbye to Antoine Winfield. And was officially done with this team! Luckily I read on!😂

  2. BA’s Red Pen Says:

    Good move. I’d rather see Winfield mossing receivers down field than seeing him get kneed in the head and concussed playing run support up by the line of scrimmage.

  3. Bucsfanman Says:

    Good. We need to make sure we maximize each player’s talents. This is not a team that can afford a whole lot of “tinkering.” Especially on defense!

  4. Ugotrobbed Says:

    Branch at 19??

  5. Goatfarmer Says:

    No matter. The coverage busts will continue to come more frequently, the Bucs could have Ronnie Lott, John Lynch, Ronde Barber, Darrelle Revis, and Deion Sanders back there and they would blow the coverage because it’s not effectively taught. Now those five would just agree amongst themselves how to play it and ignore Bloweszo, but mere mortals will not.

  6. Dooley Says:

    We need a FS-SS hybrid that can play the single high as well as he can be a presence in the box, so we can keep rotating coverages on the fly and keep Antione Winfield from wearing too many hats at once. Ideally, we need to draft a player with the mentality/box prowess of Whitehead, but the ability to play coverage on the back end like Edwards & Winfield. The goal at safety moving forward is to have two viable options that can be interchanged at FS-SS as the huddle breaks and can further the tendency Bowles has of using his safeties to confuse QBs and/or give them pause pre-snap.

  7. HC Grover Says:

    Sounds good, now get an extra safety.

  8. Pickgrin Says:

    Wow Goatboy – you really are a piece of work….

    There are enough areas from last season where criticism of Bowles head coaching capabilities could be seen as warranted.

    But you basically lose all credibility by claiming that Todd Bowles is bad at teaching defense and defensive scheming to defensive backs.

    It is beyond laughable for you to say that – its just sad really. It’s basically Bowles Derangement Syndrome at this point with you.

    EVERYONE who has anything at all to do with the NFL knows that Bowles is among the best in the league at working with defensive backs and teaching them sound defensive concepts.

    Yea – Yea I know better than to feed the troll…. So hat tip to goat flucker for sucking me into such a useless and preposterous ‘debate’….

  9. BUCman Says:

    Yes, last year was clearly a mistake to play him at nickel corner. Looking forward to seeing him back at Free safety where he can be dominate. Would love to see Brian Branch fall to 19 but not counting on it.

  10. 80forBrady Says:

    “Bucs could have Ronnie Lott, John Lynch, Ronde Barber, Darrelle Revis, and Deion Sanders back there” That would be awesome- Get them all on the TB-12 method and sign them up in free agency. Those guys played when the salaries were low so they can cash in now.

  11. Duane Says:

    Pickgrin – with the Goatf***er it’s not even Bowles derangement symptom. He’s simply a nutbag who should be booted from these threads as the number one troll and gasbag in these comment threads, which is really saying something considering some of the other regulars here.

  12. 1993BucsFan Says:

    Landing Brian Branch at pick 19 would really possibly give us the best secondary in the league. The guy is a legit nickel cornerback / strong safety with enough athletic ability to play deep. He came in as a freshman and started games for a program like BAMA that says a lot. Each year his production grew (He finished last season with 90 tackles, 14 tackles for loss, 3 sacks, 7 pass breakups, and 2 interceptions.) This guy may just be the safest pick in the draft.

    I think it’ll be interesting if Bijan Robinson is still available too. He is listed on everybody draft boards as a top 10 prospect and I would agree his talent is rare. I would prefer either one of these 2 guys as I believe they’ll have the biggest impact as far as helping to transform our team year 1.

  13. jimm Says:

    well if bowels is acknowledged as a defensive backfield whisperer … somebody please explain why the secondary coverage breaks down what seems like often and seems out of place on many plays.

    is it the students? the teacher/designer? the difficulty of the scheme? the zone concept handled by press coverage players?

    especially under realtime game pressure. see la rams/dallas cowboys/1st kc game 2020

  14. Eckwood Says:

    He should hv never been playing nickel and the coach just told on himself pure government protection style when he says I don’t want him there with less secondary talent ……..
    Bowls you’re the one that created him playing nickel you dumb ars, you’ve got three good corners , maybe 4 and safety depth ,,, he should never be there at least hardly ever ya dum jock player popularity ass kissen idioittingbowles.