“It’s Time To Take Over Some Games”
July 6th, 2025
Joe sees greatness in Calijah Kancey, when he’s not wearing street clothes injured, and so does a former Buccaneer.
Kancey is explosive and productive, a special talent at defensive tackle who has proven worthy of a 2023 first-round pick at No. 19 overall.
Now it’s time for Kancey to hit another level — more impact plays and more health. That’s the next step in his development, says ex-Bucs guard Ian Beckles (1990-1996).
Beckles hosted a rare offseason edition of his In The Trenches podcast and called out Kancey as a Bucs player that needs to step up in his third season — like a legend did before him.
Talking about players who “need to step up” this season, Beckles spent a lot of time on No. 94.
“Calijah Kancey, I see signs of greatness but I don’t see it enough,” Beckles said. “I think your development is going the way it should go; now it’s time to take it to the next level. Warren Sapp, his first year, he was almost silent. Second year he started to make a lot of noise and by the third year, you couldn’t not hear his name. I believe this is Calijah’s third year, it’s time now. It’s time for you to start taking over some games. You’re making plays, but it’s time to take over some games.”
Joe can’t argue with Beckles here. Kancey is knocking on the door of greatness.
As for making more plays, Joe can only imagine how Kancey whiffing on Washington quarterback Jayden Daniels in the backfield on 3rd-and-1 with a minute remaining in January’s playoff game has tortured Kancey all offseason. Heck, it’s tortured Joe.
If Kancey makes that play, Washington attempts a much tougher field goal and the Bucs would have gotten the ball back. Instead, Daniels got a first down and Washington doinked in a short field goal to start the Bucs’ long offseason.
Jayden takes it himself!! 1st down and in FG range with less than :40 to go 👀
📺: #WASvsTB on NBC
📱: Stream on @NFLPlus + Peacock pic.twitter.com/YFb1x4TrHq— NFL (@NFL) January 13, 2025
July 6th, 2025 at 11:20 am
If only he was better against the run. LOL
July 6th, 2025 at 11:59 am
Hell that play still haunts me. On the bright side, Kancey got a QB pressure to end the game. I hope he starts out his first play this season blasting through the line like that!
July 6th, 2025 at 12:07 pm
Our depth on the interior d line is the one area of concern. I think Kancey, and Vea are great. Hall is an average player which isn’t a bad thing. The talent drops off immensely after our starters though.
July 6th, 2025 at 12:25 pm
Meh, less of an indictment on Kancey and just more of the shoulda, coulda, woulda that happened in the 4th quarter of that game. Yes, you want to make the stop there, but you also want to get more than a turnover & 3 points on the only offensive possessions in a quarter you started with a 4 point lead. Shoulda, coulda, woulda.
July 6th, 2025 at 1:09 pm
Kancey did his job where are the OLBS
July 6th, 2025 at 1:16 pm
If the Bucs push this offense the way that it is built to be pushed, their opponents should find themselves forced to play in exactly the ways that make it easier for a player like Kancey to take over games.
Throw out the throttle. Straight pipe the offense’s fuel pump to the carburetor and add a blower!!!
July 6th, 2025 at 1:16 pm
one miss of a fast slippery qb should not define a good season he had
July 6th, 2025 at 1:42 pm
Gut feel is that Kancey does a LOT better when he’s on the field with Vea. No way to prove that from any of the stats that I have access to, but maybe JBF pays for some access to stats that could determine how well Kancey performed when he was on the field with Vea versus when he wasn’t.
July 6th, 2025 at 1:48 pm
Mike Florio just published an interesting piece titled ‘Which teams are legitimately in the Super Bowl window for 2025?’. Believe it or not, the Bucs actually made it into the picture … somewhat.
In talking about NFC contenders, he writes ‘In the NFC, it’s the Eagles, Lions, Rams, 49ers, and Commanders. Maybe the Buccaneers. Maybe the Vikings.’
Hey, I’ll take a ‘Maybe’ in July.
July 6th, 2025 at 1:52 pm
@ KE
Absolutely. Kancey did his job!
Kancey penetrated, delayed Daniels’ attack on the line of scrimmage, and established inside containment.
Hall also did well – he pushed the guard into the backfield also delaying Daniels’ attack on the line of scrimmage. And, Hall disengaged and maintained containment against the cutback as he closed in for the tackle.
Unfortunately, the tackle did a great job against David who was lined up on the end of the line. The tackle gave a head fake to the inside supporting the decoy run to the opposite side. David bit on that, and the tackle got control of David’s outside shoulder eliminating outside containment. Then, the tackle rode David right out of the play.
Britt never seemed to see the play, and Winfield and Josh Hayes bit so hard on the fake to the other side that David was overmatched by the tackle and had no help with the numbers favoring the offense on that side of the field.
The Bus still held the play to a short gain – it wasn’t bad defense. They just needed a special play at that point in the game, and they didn’t quite make it.
In hindsight, lining Hall up outside of David might have defeated the play. But, David on the outside was probably better for backside pursuit and pass coverage if the RB had run a route to the outside on that side of the field.
July 6th, 2025 at 2:12 pm
Defense Rules. So we get a maybe out of Florio. And the Vikings get another maybe. The Vikings have a QB that’s never played a game in the NFL. We had a winning record last year against those teams he ranked above us. And of the five ahead of us only the Niners beat us last year during the regular season. And they beat us on a last second field goal where we didn’t get the ball back. Evans and Godwin both missed the game. We’re the best team going into the season. May not be leaving the season. I sure don’t need Florio telling me about something that he’s obviously too lazy to research.
July 6th, 2025 at 3:14 pm
He ain’t knocking on the door of greatness yet. Kancey is still in the Uber on the way to the party. He makes 1 or 2 plays a game and that’s it. He needs to make many more.