Unsettling Take From Dan Campbell
April 9th, 2026
New Bucs inside linebacker Alex Anzalone.
When fans think of tough-guy NFL coaches demanding aggressive play, most put Lions head coach Dan Campbell in their top-5 or top-10.
Right or wrong, that’s the perception of how Campbell runs his team and what he demands of players.
So with that in mind, the Bucs added two Campbell players in March for key roles: edge rusher Al-Quadin Muhammad and inside linebacker Alex Anzalone. However, Campbell said last week his 2025 team wasn’t “salty” enough and he’s focused on adding edgy players so the team can recover the swagger and fire it had a couple of years ago.
That stuck out to Joe because the Bucs believe Muhammad and Anzalone bring an edgy/fiery/nasty factor that’s been lacking on the Bucs. So why did the Lions let them leave?
“Everybody wants talent, I’ll always want talent, but it’s always nice to have a little bit of saltiness to you over the talent that lacks saltiness because that’s what we were in ’22, and a part of ’23,” Campbell said via ProFootballTalk.com. “We had talent, but we had some salty guys and we were highly competitive. We were willing to make it work, figure it out, so just getting a little bit of that edge back.”
Bucs fans should find out rather quickly whether Muhammad and Anzalone represent an upgrade from the defensive softness they’ve become too used to.
April 9th, 2026 at 9:31 am
What else is he going to say?
April 9th, 2026 at 9:37 am
The coaches have to coach it better, and the players have to play it better. Every time I hear that this season I’m doing a shot.
April 9th, 2026 at 9:38 am
Joe pities your liver.
April 9th, 2026 at 9:38 am
Or coach will get them salty. Like Evans, he was so salty from 3-28 he left. Thanks Coach. It’s a Bucs life
April 9th, 2026 at 9:44 am
said all last year BUCS have too many nice guys….
Bucs only had 2 bad@$$es on the team last year…1 went to san fran and 1 went back into retirement(JPP)
no sense of urgency, no “juice”….
just a bunch of nice guys with a “moxy” QB who gets himself hurt lol
GO BUCS!!!!!
April 9th, 2026 at 9:49 am
Let’s give them a chance before we start passing judgement.
April 9th, 2026 at 10:27 am
I think Dan Campbell was disappointed with the outcome of the season
The Lions were the overwhelming favorite to win the NFC
And they didn’t even make the playoffs, that’s a tough pill to swallow
But his words, are only words
They added Christian Izien, that addition puzzle me
April 9th, 2026 at 10:49 am
Braswell will add some salt this year.
April 9th, 2026 at 10:51 am
What exactly is he going to say? he’s probably very disappointed that he lost those two players.. when a team loses players it always sounds as if the coach let them go. What if the player wanted to go somewhere else which could be the case here?
April 9th, 2026 at 11:00 am
Todd the Charmin Dispenser will have them resembling cup cake bakers by October. Never fear.
April 9th, 2026 at 11:12 am
Red Skeleton Says:
April 9th, 2026 at 10:49 am
Braswell will add some salt this year.
_______
Salt?
More like Mrs. Dash!
😄
April 9th, 2026 at 11:26 am
Nothing worrying in that to me at all. Coaches these days rarely say anything worth writing down anyway.
Go Bucs!
April 9th, 2026 at 11:47 am
from a career standpoint – replacing Evans as best franchise receiver may never happen.. but on a singular season impact he is right. 1100 yards and 8-10 TDs can be found relatively easily. Finding ILB to get you 120 tackles, 12TFL, 4 sacks, 7 QA bits, an int, 5 pass deflects, 3 forced fumbles – thats an average Lavonte season and would be hard to expect even a guy like Sonny Styles to do that.