Bucs Tackling Fixes Outlined
May 23rd, 2026
Joe had the misfortune of re-watching the Week 17 Bucs-Dolphins game yesterday.
The Bucs didn’t tackle well in that game early, and there were many other troubling tackling spots. Nobody left the stadium that day saying, ‘Man, those Bucs really swarm to the ball and tackle with great technique and aggression.’
This week at One Buc Palace, inside linebackers coach Mike Caldwell was asked about how the team will fix its tackling woes.
Caldwell had an interesting opening to his reply. “It’s something that is hardly every practiced,” he said.
Well, if that’s the case, then adapt training camp to make sure you actually tackle.
“You can drill it, and we drill the heck out of it,” Caldwell continued. “But at the end of the day, the more people you get around the ball and just going through the fundamentals we teach them day after day after day and, you know, you gotta have your hair on fire to run to the ball. And you gotta trust that if I take my shot, my teammate’s going to be right there and he’s going to be able to counter what I don’t do.
“So that’s the thing. We just want to continue to harp on, ‘Everybody get to the ball. Get to the ball good things happen.’ And once you get to the ball, get there in a nasty attitude and let’s knock it out.”
Joe places a lot of stock in free agent inside linebacker Alex Anzalone. He can tackle. And he plays to a high standard. He should be a one-man tackling fix in a lot of ways, and rookie Josiah Trotter can tackle and play with his hair on fire.
That doesn’t mean those guys won play mistake-free ball, but Joe thinks that duo will rise above tackling coaching that hasn’t been effective the past two seasons.
It’s felt a lot like guys were tuning out the repetitive messages from Caldwell and others.
May 23rd, 2026 at 11:28 pm
The players have to have the “want to”. I believe we have many more players now with that attitude:
Ansalone
Trotter
Smith
Tykee
Bain
Muhammed
Robinson
Nacho
And…
Parrish
Roberts
Walker (hopefully)
Will Braswell, Winfield, Morrison, and MCullem step up?
Let’s add some FA talent in the backend.
May 23rd, 2026 at 11:32 pm
Joe you seriously need an editor.
May 23rd, 2026 at 11:42 pm
Left out Vita and Yaya – my bad. We have plenty of the right attitude. If Kancey stays healthy, we’ll be much improved on D. Let’s see Bowles get back to playing ‘20 defense. Breese, Rogers, and Maholmes didn’t have fun against that.
May 24th, 2026 at 1:21 am
74 Buc Fan … Winfield & Brasswell are both excellent tacklers. Jury’s still out on Morrison & McCollum.
May 24th, 2026 at 1:27 am
Mike Caldwell … “It’s something that is hardly every practiced.”
That doesn’t make a lick of sense since he goes on to say “we drill the heck out of it”.
May 24th, 2026 at 1:32 am
Let’s face it . Our coaches are inadequate.
May 24th, 2026 at 1:44 am
I saw McCollum not wrap up numerous times last year when he should have. He did the dive and hit the guy with your shoulder and pray he falls down thing. Unfortunately it worked those few times, but if he keeps that up it’s only a matter of time before he causes a big play for the other team.
May 24th, 2026 at 5:20 am
If even one player is showing signs of quitting (especially team captains), then the entire team follows. Let’s hope all of these issues have been resolved. Good luck changing the culture! Your coaching career depends on it!
May 24th, 2026 at 7:00 am
I agree the late season poor tackling looked to be the team just going through the motions. I hope any sign of quit is rewarded with bench time and replacement. Quitting is a losers disease and it spreads. The quit is what bugs me the most about last year.
May 24th, 2026 at 7:34 am
Buc1987, you’ve got to learn to live with it. It use to drive me nuts. Doesn’t Joe have someone read over his posts before they go hot? But after a few years, you just learn to read over the errors, because you know what he means.
May 24th, 2026 at 7:35 am
What’s that saying…. You play like you practice.
May 24th, 2026 at 7:54 am
Defensive issues in a nutshell – “hardly every practiced”. Lazy coaching.
May 24th, 2026 at 8:58 am
Not only was the defense not tackling we were out coached on defense. The defensive backfield was out of position and couldn’t stop plays from gaining the 10 yards needed for the first down. Teams just marching down the field and scoring. Ugh!
May 24th, 2026 at 9:15 am
I’ve kind of always thought that the practice squad was partly there to provide live tackling dummies.
May 24th, 2026 at 9:19 am
We certainly will have a revamped defense. I wonder what kind of attitude they guys will have by game 11. Will they have a killer instinct. Or will they be emotionally drained. It is a long season now.
May 24th, 2026 at 9:22 am
The pursuit was also greatly lacking at times. On a whole, certain players would just slowly jog leisurely toward the ball carrier if the guy made it past him and let teammates further down field handle it. If you’re too tired to pursue take a breather and let your backup play a few plays.
May 24th, 2026 at 9:26 am
It’s very difficult for the players to put heart and maximum effort into something they don’t believe in and last year the players played like they did not believe in the scheme they were in.
May 24th, 2026 at 10:02 am
We had Monte Kiffin and one of the greatest defenses in NFL history!
Our defensive coaches are NOT smarter than Monte Kiffin.
None of them!
Why aren’t Bowles and Licht emulating Monte Kiffins practice strategy!?
Idiots!
“If you want to be the best, learn from the best.”
Bowles is not bad.
But he ain’t no Monte Kiffin!!!!
May 24th, 2026 at 10:11 am
When what you are doing in practice is not working on the field, then you need to change what you are doing in practice. Football is a game of tackle the other guy. Swarming to the ball is great, but when you don’t get him th the ground, then swarming was of little use. The Bucs have been a poor tackling team for a few years now. It is obvious just swarming to the ball is not enough. With that said I have not seen a lot of swarming to the ball either.
Bottom line the team is not tackling well and things need to be done to address that. Doing the same thing over and over again without results I believe is called insanity. So Coaches it is a tackling game practice it. All the great defenses do. I don’t know what else you need to be made aware of. The Bucs don’t tackle well pretty simple. That is a fact
May 24th, 2026 at 11:00 am
Tackling is a painful process. You initially make contact, wrap up and end up on the turf with a 200+ pound man’s arms and legs violently hitting you. Or full weight landing on top of you. It’s even worse on turf.
That’s why bored guys like McCollum just throw a shoulder in there and hope for the best.
I don’t think lazy, bored and frightened of pain can be coached away. Just fire them.
May 24th, 2026 at 11:13 am
What is the penalty for having too many padded practices? I say break the rules and get as nasty as possible!!!
May 24th, 2026 at 12:51 pm
Pretty bad omen of things to come. When asked what the coach is going to change, he essentially says he’s not changing anything, just gonna repeat the same tired message and expect different results:
“just going through the fundamentals we teach them day after day after day…We just want to continue to harp on, ‘Everybody get to the ball.”
May 24th, 2026 at 4:21 pm
Tackling would improve if the Bucs practiced tackling. Sounds like the coaching is not performing their duties very good.
May 24th, 2026 at 6:12 pm
Tackling has nothing to do with bowles Shula Lombardi etc.. its all about the player you want to or not which play to take off..Bowles cant change a man for who he is other then letting them ride the pine
May 25th, 2026 at 4:45 am
Team sport, one needs to hit the ball carrier and stand him up/stop is forward momentum while the rest of the team swarms to ball and knocks him down, way too make on field spectators last season
May 27th, 2026 at 1:41 pm
Sounds like excuses and more of the same to me Joe. We need real solutions to sloppy tackling. It starts with the want to.
Go Bucs!