Maxx Crosby Talks Keys To Stopping Joe Burrow, Bucs’ Week 1 Opponent
May 25th, 2026
Some say Bucs rookie inside linebacker Josiah Trotter can’t cover.
Joe will reserve judgment until after seeing Trotter in a Tampa Bay uniform against legitimate competition.
But what certainly will be rough on Trotter is facing the Bengals on opening day in Cincinnati. Joe Burrow is a special quarterback, a surgeon in his prime with stud receivers. The Bucs might need a miracle to beat the Bengals if their defense looks like it did far too often last season — soft zones and soft pass rush.
Speaking on The Rush With Maxx Crosby podcast, Lavonte David shared a story of how the 2012 Bucs defense stymied Peyton Manning in the first half of a game at Denver.
Tampa Bay held the Broncos to seven first-half points, and David noted the Bucs defense did a great job of freezing until Manning barked out a play.
The goal was simple. Don’t tip off Manning as to what might be coming.
Well, then came the third quarter. David explained that Manning somehow completely figured out the Bucs defense during the halftime break. Denver came out and had two quick touchdown drives en route to a 31-23 win. And Manning was barking out what was coming from the Bucs.
Host Maxx Crosby, the beastly Raiders edge rusher, told David that his Manning story describes Burrow.
“[Joe Burrow] plays like a OG, like Drew Brees or any of those guys. If you want to sit in a Cover-3 or a Cover-2, he’s going to fuc*’n pick you apart the whole time,” Crosby said. “There’s like four or five [quarterbacks] in the league right now. If you want to sit there and not disguise and do that, they know exactly what you’re running. You gotta disguise and you gotta get pressure, and you gotta be in his face to throw off his rhythm.”
Anyone remember the last time the Bucs played the Bengals? In 2022, Tom Brady and the Bucs jumped out to a 17-3 halftime lead. Then Burrow threw four second-half touchdowns.
Bengals win. In Tampa.
What an opening test is coming for the Bucs defense. As Crosby said, the defense will need “disguise and pressure” to slow Burrow down.
May 25th, 2026 at 11:41 am
Hopefully the Bucs new and improved pass rush comes to life in game 1 – and sets the tone for a 50+ sack season by relentlessly harassing Joe Burrow into multiple mistakes that help Tampa Bay secure their first victory of the 2026 season.
Offense probably needs to score at least 28 points in game 1 as well to achieve that result.
May 25th, 2026 at 11:54 am
Bowles can’t rely on his signature soft zone defense when facing Burrow, it will be shredded. However, Bowles usually have some tricks up his sleeve in week 1.
May 25th, 2026 at 12:13 pm
Pickgrin … ‘Offense probably needs to score at least 28 points in game 1 as well to achieve that result.’
I’m even a tad less optimistic Pickgrin … I think we’ll need 37 to beat them. Joe Burrow only played 8 games last season, and the Bengals scored 27 PPG average in those 8 games. But interestingly, Cleveland held them to only 16 pts in 1 game then 18 pts the next time they played them, plus Baltimore held them to 0 pts. So in those 3 games they only scored a total of 34 pts, but in his other 5 games the Bengals scored 180 pts, or 36 PPG average. Feast or famine?
Worst case, 37 pts SHOULD give us a great chance of beating them. Bengals only scored more than 37 pts in 1 game with Burrow at the controls. No pressure Baker, 5 TDs and a FG is enough. You got this.
May 25th, 2026 at 12:29 pm
Unless the Bucs have 2 corners that can cover what the front 7 do won’t be enough. The Bucs offense will need to score plenty and often including having the ball last. If the Bucs continue with the current fantasy that McColumn is suddenly going to emerge from last year and Morrison is suddenly going to become elite Burrow will have a big day..
I am interested in seeing what the Bucs do with their secondary this year because as we speak it is awful and to add there is no depth. Yes the first game will tell a lot about the season and this secondary
May 25th, 2026 at 12:34 pm
DR – it was a somewhat disguised if/then statement….
IF the defense gets 3 or 4 sacks and sufficiently harasses Burrow into making some mistakes (aka turnovers) – THEN the offense would likely need to score “at least 28 points” to secure a week 1 victory…..
No harassment? Then yea – we’d likely need 40+points to win an offensive shoot out in Cincinnati.
May 25th, 2026 at 12:41 pm
Bucs need to control the clock and have the running game going. The less Joe Burrow and our defense are on the field the better.
May 25th, 2026 at 12:42 pm
Football 1 – a strong pass rush tends to make average DBs look good – and good DBs look great.
I am confident that Parrish, McCollum, Morrison and Scott have more than enough talent to play well IF the Buccaneers pass rush is better than average….
May 25th, 2026 at 12:49 pm
I will never understand why we didn’t keep Izien.
Go watch last season again.
Like the dolphins game.
Winfield gave up a 3 and 12 on the Dolphins goal line.
The previous play, Izien made a fantastic play to stop the Dolphins for no gain.
Izien was one of our only players to play hard on every snap.
I thought he had a great rookie year at nickle back.
Then he had a great year playing for an injured Winfield. He even outplayed Winfield.
He must have made Bowles mad.
He was one of my favourite players.
Now he’s on the Lions.
I will miss you Christian Izien!!!
May 25th, 2026 at 1:02 pm
Note the trend outlined in the article. Good 1st half, poor 2nd half. This is kind of analogous to last season on a whole, and what I have always believed to be Todd greatest shortcomings…he fails to adjust. In short, when playing great QBs maybe 2 entirely different gameplans per half or change up the looks presented from first to 2nd half. Unfortunately, this is thr harbinger to how and why Todd is regularly outcoached in game (nm player development)
May 25th, 2026 at 1:06 pm
@Teacherman, I absolutely agree. Other than Dean, imo, Izien was our greatest off season loss. Especially after losing Dean. I know losing Evans is emotionally draining, but he missed half the season last yr and the WR room is much deeper than the secondary
May 25th, 2026 at 1:26 pm
90% of division games are close Baltimore Cleveland pitt same division
May 25th, 2026 at 1:29 pm
Make all qb’s uncomfortable! They come back to earth
May 25th, 2026 at 2:09 pm
Off-topic but, did anyone expect Torts’ Vegas Golden Knights to man-handle Colorado? The Avalanche were my pick to win it all. Wow. I think injuries caught up to the Avs at the wrong time. So much is health and luck in the playoffs.