Bruce Arians Talks Pass Rush, Calijah Kancey Return
December 6th, 2025
Calijah Kancey
The Buccaneers’ senior advisor to the general manager was chatting publicly this week.
He’s Bucco Bruce Arians, a Super Bowl-winning head coach for the good guys in red and pewter.
Joe thinks it’s so cool how Buccaneers Ring of Honor general manager Jason Licht is so big on work-life balance, letting Arians work from the golf course and Pat McAfee’s studio every week, and do national interviews.
Arians visited The Rich Eisen Show yesterday (Joe listens on the SiriusXM app) and was asked about the 2025 NFC race and who he likes as a top dog to win the NFC.
Arians said his choice is Tampa Bay but that sort of conflicted with what he said a minute earlier.
“Right now I know this: you don’t want to play Seattle at home. You don’t want to play Detroit at home,” Arians said. “You don’t want to play really any of the really good teams at home, especially Denver, people that have that speed pass rush. Like [Thursday] night was a great example. Dallas has been playing great but those [offensive tackles] had no chance.”
Edge rush, you say?
Exciting to Joe was Arians’ reasoning behind standing behind his Bucs. It included referencing a return of defensive tackle Calijah Kancey this month.
“I’m a little bit of a homer,” Arians said. “I think the Bucs with Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Jalen McMillan and then even Calijah Kancey, all maybe coming back in the next two weeks. I think the Bucs could be getting healthy at the right time. Get a couple of wins under their belt and, you know, have those two games with the Panthers and see who goes. Again, home field advantage in the playoffs is huge.”
Obviously, Arians has great intel. So Joe is feeling the fantasy on this fine Saturday. A Kancey return could be the desperately needed spark the Bucs defense needs to win in the postseason.
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December 6th, 2025 at 4:45 pm
You don’t want to play any of the good teams anywhere! The Bucs are not a good team at all.
December 6th, 2025 at 4:46 pm
Hey C. K. Can ya imagine the adrenaline rush in confidence injected to our Hearts if you can come back soon..
December 6th, 2025 at 4:50 pm
So Joe is feeling the fantasy on this fine Saturday. -Joe
Be careful Joe. You know what they say about hoping.
December 6th, 2025 at 4:55 pm
Bucs D needs to put in the effort – some of the tackling is awful.
Back to basics
December 6th, 2025 at 4:59 pm
Kancey will just blow out another calf or some other part of his brittle body when he tries to return.
December 6th, 2025 at 5:00 pm
Kancey would be huge for this pass rush! Cant wait to see him fresh and go hard this month!
December 6th, 2025 at 5:29 pm
One good thing about these super long seasons, (think 18 games and 2 bye’s) players that used to be out for the year now come back for the playoffs.
December 6th, 2025 at 5:36 pm
I don’t think they actually realize how much Kancey is missed & they really should consider moving him to DE & keep Roberts with Vita. Then have Roberts with Vita & then have Kancey with Yaya & stop dropping them into coverage.
December 6th, 2025 at 5:37 pm
I agree the Bucs shouldn’t want to play any of those good teams.
!!!
December 6th, 2025 at 5:55 pm
Tony….you might be on to som
December 6th, 2025 at 5:55 pm
Something
December 6th, 2025 at 6:08 pm
Block, tackle, catch- and win football games. Fail at any of those three regularly and you are in big trouble.
December 6th, 2025 at 6:11 pm
I like the idea of trying out Kancey at edge. Roberts is definitely an asset you want on the field as much as possible. Could try flipping Roberts to Edge too sometimes. After all, he played it in college. Maybe rotate the two.
December 6th, 2025 at 6:27 pm
Kancey was the first pick the year I became a Buc fan. He has had injury misfortune but he’s the most explosive player on our DLine. Him with the pectoral and our rookie Walker with the knee has been a brutal hit. It’s not only the offense been hurt by injuries. Hope Arians is right about Calijah coming back.
December 6th, 2025 at 6:44 pm
Jason can’t draft pass rushers
tell me I’m wrong?
December 6th, 2025 at 6:50 pm
The Bucs advancing into the playoffs comes down to how many injured players return healty in December. How their conditioning improves and most importantly their mental health will be hugh factors if the Bucs are One and down, NFL Championi or Super Bowl 🏈 winners.
This team doesn’t feel like the 2020 team that won it all. Hopefully we won’t know about the 2025 Bucs until February 2026
December 6th, 2025 at 6:55 pm
Remember the impact of Vita returning in the 2021 super bowl run.
December 6th, 2025 at 7:06 pm
Kancey’s spark will indeed help pass rush at just the right time
Hopefully Reddick can step it up pronto
December 6th, 2025 at 7:45 pm
Top Shelf pass rushers are on bad teams unless those teams players push it to the top, the hope of every team but too many are stuck on teams that are either outright bad or have not enough talent to get to the super bowl. Detroit, Cleveland, Houston to name a few, the good, The Bad and The Ugly. Look at all the KC teams and to an extent the Patriots teams. They had a great QB and enough talent through the team to make them perennial powerhouses. That has to do with more than talent, it’s desire, there’s injury luck, some breaks during the year but most of all want to. And coaching…