It All Began With Anthony Nelson
October 26th, 2025
Anthony Nelson holds the ball aloft after walking into the end zone with his first NFL pick-six Sunday.
Veteran Bucs outside linebacker Anthony Nelson had his first start of the season. He may never forget it. Bucs fans will remember his start for a long time.
Nelson single-handedly blew up two of the slimy Saints’ first three possessions. And Nelson accounted for the winning score, all by himelf, too.
With the game scoreless early in the second auarter, slimy Saints quarterback Spencer Rattler rolled to his right and uncorked a pass from the slimy Saints-1. He tried to throw over Nelson, even though he had 90 percent of the field where Nelson wouldn’t have had any impact.
The 6-7 Nelson looked like he was going up for a rebound. He tipped the ball to himself at the 5. He then boxed out and muscled his way past a desperate Rattler and walked into the end zone like he was walking to the fridge to grab a beer.
Nelson claimed he didn’t remember his first interception since high school.
“I hit the ball up and I guess I caught it because I don’t remember what happened,” Nelson said. “I just remember getting across the goal line and being in the end zone.”
It gave the Bucs a 7-0 lead and that’s all the Bucs needed as the defense locked down New Orleand for a 23-3 win.
Nelson’s pick-six wasn’t the first time he tormented Rattler. On New Orleans’ first possession, Rattler ran for about seven yards when Nelson ran him down from behind and punched the ball out with Lavonte David coming up with the ball.
Nelson had himself a day. He had four tackles, two sacks, two quarterback hits, two tackles for loss, a pass defensed, a pick and a forced fumble.
About the only thing Nelson didn’t do was wear the green dot and call plays.
“We fed off of ‘Nelly,'” Bucs safety Antoine Winfield said, who also had a wonderful day that would have been historic if not for the incompetence of NFL zebras.
“We were flying around, taking the ball away,” Nelson said of the Bucs defense. “Everybody was. It was good to get it started and fun to be aggressive on defense.”
The four takeaways today were the most the Bucs had since Christmas Eve 2023 when the Bucs had four in a win over the Jags.
Could Nelson finally be the guy who the Bucs have been looking for forever to be a steady impact player on the edge? Remember Nelson also had a game-saving forced fumble at Carolina in overtime last season that saved the Bucs’ NFC South title.
ANTHONY NELSON PICK-6! WOW! 🤯
TBvsNO on FOX/FOX Onehttps://t.co/HkKw7uXVnt pic.twitter.com/bI9AhPHJtk
— NFL (@NFL) October 26, 2025
October 26th, 2025 at 8:14 pm
That would be cool.
October 26th, 2025 at 8:16 pm
He should be the starter.
October 26th, 2025 at 8:19 pm
Who knew he was jj watt
October 26th, 2025 at 8:20 pm
impressive athletic move for a big guy
October 26th, 2025 at 8:20 pm
The NFL officiating is nauseating. There was never a whistle blown on the Winfield scoop and score. Something has gotta give with this horse s*it!!!
October 26th, 2025 at 8:21 pm
Would love to see the officials grades published weekly for all to see. Light/Bowles should call the refs out for the incompetence the last to weeks and the Glazers should cover the fine.
October 26th, 2025 at 8:21 pm
Bowles is going to have to find a way to get this guy more playing time. All he does is make plays. He’s big, disruptive, athletic, smart. He’s got to play more.
October 26th, 2025 at 8:26 pm
Every time he gets a shot…look it up
October 26th, 2025 at 8:28 pm
Uh No Joe, that Edge would be Brasswell. Remember Licht said he would be all over the place this year. Only heard his name in trash time when he jumped off sides. Face it Licht can’t evaluate Edge rushers
October 26th, 2025 at 8:30 pm
Nelson will rotate with reddick and yaya just like Dean Morrison and Zyon
the defense is starting to come into its own!!!!!
Even roberts is taking snaps from hall
GO BUCS
October 26th, 2025 at 8:36 pm
Start him more
October 26th, 2025 at 8:39 pm
I took a look at the stats and there wasn’t a single stat for Braswell.
I thought he was supposed to be playing today.
October 26th, 2025 at 8:44 pm
Braswel is my fault guys….i pushed for him and sometimes dudes turn into duds…my bad….but learned from it and doing better now…exhibit A Elijah Roberts.
October 26th, 2025 at 8:44 pm
We started JTS instead of Nelson
We start one season wonder Haason Reddick instead of Nelson.
They start big potential, low production YaYa instead of Nelson.
They wanna start big potential, sleeps on the field Braswell instead of Nelson.
This team wouldn’t know a pass rusher, if one walked up and bite me on the arse,
Coach Bowles is a fantastic defensive Coach.
Jason Lyght is extremely good at evaluating and drafting talent.
But damn, both of’em are terrible when it comes to pass rushers.
Here, let me help.
Start Anthony Nelson. Every week. He’s what you wish those other guys would be.
October 26th, 2025 at 8:44 pm
So we have been hearing for 100 years that we have no pass rusher. We sign Reddick for 14 Million?????? The whole time having Nelson??? Make me see it???
October 26th, 2025 at 8:45 pm
How does no ref blow a whistle, and then even though the right call was made originally, they turn it over with no evidence of a whistle. Someone who didn’t blow a whistle claimed he did? When? So glad that turned out to be inconsequential.
October 26th, 2025 at 8:50 pm
2 games in a row the refs have screwed us. Enough is enough. Nothing we can do but JOE there’s gotta be a way to be so annoying about it the refs have to answer. Like the saying goes squeaky wheel gets the grease lol
October 26th, 2025 at 8:51 pm
Amazing day for Nelson! But chill out people. This isn’t the first time he’s started a game or played a bunch of snaps. Nelson has been here for years, he didn’t suddenly become an ALL-PRO over night.
This is like people last year after Tucker had a big game vs the Saints, and people being convinced that Tucker could start for any team in the league, and saying he’s worth a 1st round draft pick, and other silly things.
Not saying Nelson is like Tucker, that would be a huge insult to Nelson, he’s a lot better than that. But a big game vs probably the worst team in football having a terrible day doesn’t mean you’re suddenly on the HOF watch list. But it does earn you more playing time, and I’d love to see him produce and take the job, that would be amazing if he can keep it up vs better teams. I’m pretty sure we’ll see him a lot more vs the Pats, and we’ll see.
Personally I take back what I said about Nelson, about him being a slow and lumbering giant (although I did say I do like him as a backup). He does seem to end up with stats, and today he made plays to go along with that, and this is a career defining moment for sure. Congrats to him, seriously, a huge day and the Bucs don’t get the W without him … well probably don’t get the W, I don’t know the Saints were truly awful.
October 26th, 2025 at 8:52 pm
Much LUV for Nelly’s game. Dude just always seems to flip the switch and heat up once we hit that second half stretch—it’s like clockwork with him
October 26th, 2025 at 8:57 pm
Stfu Aqua!!!!!!!!
Finish eating your crow!!!!!!
GO BUCS
October 26th, 2025 at 8:58 pm
Hey HaterLung-
No one here cares about your opinion. You burned that bridge a long time ago, now please continue to make yourself scarce.
October 26th, 2025 at 9:08 pm
“Rod Munch Says:
October 26th, 2025 at 8:51 pm
Personally I take back what I said about Nelson, about him being a slow and lumbering giant (although I did say I do like him as a backup).”
See, HaterLung, Rod is almost as insufferable as you, yet has the maturity to admit to all that he was wrong. As you seem to be incapable of such an act of humility, it’s more proof that you’re an emotional adolescent, too insecure to admit any wrongdoing. You have been exposed, kid.
October 26th, 2025 at 9:12 pm
I’ll take production over potential every time! Bucs coaches are making bad personnel moves (at least on edge rushers)!
NFL officiating should be investigated…but they won’t be!
Ridiculous!
October 26th, 2025 at 9:26 pm
Hey Joe, Buccaneers third in league in sacks. Who needs edge rushers. This is the Bowles way!
October 26th, 2025 at 9:48 pm
They won the game. It was never really close. Albeit, an awful
Saints team. Still fun to watch the defense dominant in new orleans.
Next 3 games are tough. Probably 1-2 following. If offense can get
Healthy they should win out after that.
Keep Nelson on the edge he earned it. Reddick s best days are behind
Him. The blitz packages today were executed perfectly.
October 26th, 2025 at 9:58 pm
He’s always played well when he was in there. Go Nelly!
October 26th, 2025 at 10:08 pm
Did Licht draft this guy? Can’t be,……….Licht can’t draft OLB’s. (SARCASM!!!)
October 26th, 2025 at 10:31 pm
Nelson stepped BIGTIME today. Hats off to him. We need and have earned this bye. Heal up and lets get ready for the 2nd half. Good job thus far.
October 26th, 2025 at 10:49 pm
All through Nelson’s career he has produced with limited snaps. He isn’t flashy or the greatest athlete but he might be our best edge rusher at this point. Keep him on the field
October 26th, 2025 at 11:09 pm
he needs to get more snaps than Reddick. Actually, ideally, they need to trade Reddick and a second round pick to get Trey Hendrickson or were the third round pick for Bradley Chubb
Or does Tennessee have any edge guys?
They also need to look at signing a receiver because Mike and Jalen are probably gone most of the season and we don’t really know how healthy Godwin is
October 26th, 2025 at 11:23 pm
Humorless, ignorant, arrogant and also illiterate is a challenging way to go through life but explains a lot. The words “I was wrong” apparently require too much CPU time to process for the cheerleaders.