Tykee Smith’s “Hawk Percentage”
January 29th, 2026
Bucs have a hawk in the secondary.
Joe is not anti-stats, but sometimes they make Joe laugh.
One stat the Bucs apparently use Joe never heard of before: “Hawk Percentage.” It’s a calculation using a combination of passes defensed, picks and targets. This is supposed to give folks an idea how much of a ballhawk a defensive back is.
And apparently, Bucs safety Tykee Smith is a hawk.
(Hey, this stat seems to have merit, unlike the nonsense passer rating stats that Joe Buck can’t begin a broadcast without, or the utterly worthless PFF tribe offensive line grades.)
Per the Bucs, Smith’s hawk percentage is 26.3. So what? Per the Bucs’ media relations staff, Tampa Bay is fifth-best in 2026 among all safeties with at least 30 targets.
Now that’s impressive.
Joe saw a comment on this here website yesterday complaining that the Bucs drafted Emeka Egbuka over hard-hitting safety Nick Emmanwori, who eventually went to Seattle, thus, Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht needs to be dragged down Waters Avenue behind a pickup, or at least fired as a result.
Well, the Bucs weren’t in the market for a safety because they apparently felt comfortable with Antoine Winfield and Smith at safety. Joe thinks they were right.
The Bucs have a lot of problems, especially on defense. Safeties aren’t a problem.
January 29th, 2026 at 1:35 am
Emmanwori also plays slot cb and LB…..and for the record, im not one for wanting Jason to go anywhere….i just felt D wouldve been better spent on a first for Emmanwori or Schwesinger, both top 5 finalists for dyoy…but Egbuka is also a top 5 finalist for oroy, so we still nailed a good one.
January 29th, 2026 at 1:52 am
With the eventual retirement of evans E² was the right choice. The unsurety of Godwin returning 2 form McMillan a question mark it’s a damn good choice. Needed 2 double dip on lb tho.
January 29th, 2026 at 2:29 am
People forget that the Egbuka is the only reason we finished 8-9 and not 3-14.
January 29th, 2026 at 2:41 am
Tykee is a great player. Fantastic 3rd round pick. Has exceeded expectations! We need more like him! Just finished Raise the Flag. Stopped watching it after 3rd and 28. Fix it Bowles! You’re out of excuses. You start the offseason on the hot seat! Let’s get some better defensive coaches in here. You did ok with the OC and STC hires. Fix your defense. The money is there or at least more than the last 4 years.
January 29th, 2026 at 2:58 am
Tyke is a winner.
January 29th, 2026 at 3:17 am
“Joe saw a comment on this here website yesterday complaining that the Bucs drafted Emeka Egbuka over hard-hitting safety Nick Emmanwori who eventually went to Seattle“
First off, we picked Egbuka 19th overall
Emmanwori went 35th overall in the 2nd round
The pick was at 35th belonged to Titans
Our pick was 53rd in the 2nd
Seattle swapped their 52nd pick ahead of us in the 2nd and paired that with a 3rd round to move up to 35th overall.
Even if we did that, means no Parrish in the 3rd for us.
Also means no Morrison, but we’d have Egbuka.
Unless the commenter meant we should’ve picked Emmanwori 19th overall, not only do you lose Egbuka, but you miss out on everybody drafted in between them.
Gotta think about these things, we didn’t need a safety THAT bad.
January 29th, 2026 at 4:14 am
@WBL agreed our safeties were good even have guys that could slide 2 safety if we need. Tbh oline and linebackers were alarmingly thin. I still believe we needed 2 develop sean tucker more
January 29th, 2026 at 8:13 am
The question should be asked, put Emmanwori on this team with this pass rush, does he look nearly as good?
And Alternatively, put Tykee on the Hawks this year. How do you think he would look there?
January 29th, 2026 at 8:52 am
WBL’s comments show that the draft is far more involved than what we realize sitting here vs being in the draft room, depends on what other teams want, where they are leaning towards certain picks, even the same player. What we need and can leverage and so on. To say we should have drafted this guy or that guy is nonsense with out first hand knowledge of the events, but that’s the world we live in today. That’s why BPA is talked about so often. Can we make ourselves more available in certain spots? Sure depending on what you have to give to get. Also the strength of this team was built from the offensive side because they were stacking players on that side of the ball, some on purpose I believe and partly because of the players available where they drafted. I think Morrison will be fine, he was thumping guys at the end of the year because he was finally healthy. I would take E2 over Emmanwori still, he had a better year and will be better going forward. He also helped more than Emmanwori would have this year.
January 29th, 2026 at 10:10 am
This whole story 🧢🧢 Tykee be lost back there, dude is a liability fr. He blows a lot of coverages he takes bad angles ALOT and he’s slow asf can’t keep up with no one in pass coverage. His tape shows it all
January 29th, 2026 at 11:10 am
Smith gives up on plays far too easily. When you watch the highlights of many of the long TD runs Smith is leisurely jogging even when he has a possible angle to stop the runner.
January 29th, 2026 at 11:11 am
That’s one good thing for the team. Everything else fell off into the ocean depths.
January 29th, 2026 at 2:12 pm
Yeah, that was the deal with Emmanwori. We didn’t need a safety. Soon people think he can beef up a little and play LB, but still. I believe that would’ve been a lot more of a ‘luxury pick’ with where he went in the draft. Nice Player for sure tho! The Tykee stats doesn’t surprise me. He is a hawk. A good football player. Seemed to kind of give up on plays early though, but last season was tough on everyone.