Say Hello To Tackling
May 23rd, 2026
Tackling will be better.
In the history of football, inside linebackers are supposed to be the ultimate warriors. Anyone who gets near them is supposed to go down.
And as much as it pains Joe to type the following, Bucs inside linebackers last year were bad at tackling. Yes, that includes a guy Joe believes should be in the Hall of Fame, Lavonte David.
Man, that’s just so weird. David made his bones as a tackler. As always, Father Time is undefeated.
David, per Pro-Football-Reference.com had 13 missed tackles last season. In 2024, he had 14. As long as Pro Football Reference has been tracking missed tackle stats (2018), David’s previous high-water mark for missed tackles was 10 (2019 and 2020).
SirVocea Dennis? Yeah, he was rotten at tackling last season. He had 15 missed tackles, damn near one a game. Dennis played in 16 games.
New inside linebacker Alex Anzalone is known for being a solid tackler and his stats demonstrate this. Last year, Anzalone had five missed tackles in 16 games.
So if Anzalone can play defense this year like he did last year in Detroit, the tackling on the Bucs will be that much better.
Back in 2023, Anzalone had a whopping 22 missed tackles. That sort of tells Joe teams were either running at him for some reason or Anzalone was getting to the ball a lot but not being able to finish the job. Or both.
May 23rd, 2026 at 5:30 am
Joe … ‘Back in 2023 Anzalone had a whopping 22 missed tackles. That sort of tells Joe that teams were either running at him for some reason, or Anzalone was getting to the ball a lot but not being able to finish the job. Or both.’
I love your bottom lines Joe. Looks like 2023 was a horrendous year for Alex in some ways; guess is that the opposing offenses were picking on him for some reason. Apparently it worked. Alex had 129 tackles (85 solo) that year, the most of any year in his career. In addition he got charged with 22 missed tackles like you said. Plus he was targeted 80 times in the passing game, by far the most of his career, and gave up a whopping 546 yards. Of interest, only 156 yds were in the ‘air’, while the remaining 388 yds were YAC (kinda maybe explains a lot of the missed tackles?).
But why were his stats so badly skewed in 2023? His 22 missed tackles that year equals the TOTAL of what he had in 2022 (10), 2024 (7) and 2025 (5). My guess is how Detroit was using him. He blitzed far more in 2023 (75 blitzes) than he did in any other year. Paid off in some stats (3 sacks, 12 QB hits, 7 TFLs) but the blitzing (and fake blitzes) might’ve cost him being in the optimum position to make tackles & defend passes. Regardless, his tackling & pass coverage results in 2024 & 2025 look to be much better, so that’s a good thing.
May 23rd, 2026 at 6:33 am
Some good points made guys. To add to the conversation Alex Anzalone has a long history of being injured. Dating back to college. During the four year span he missed 20 games. Drafted in round 3 in 2017 by the Saints.
2017 – IR
2018 – Full
2019 – IR
2020 – Full
Detroit 2021 – IR
2022 – Full
2023 – Full
2024 – IR He was activated for the season finale on January 4, 2025
May 23rd, 2026 at 6:50 am
Starting to think the biggest singular problem with the D last year was ILB play
May 23rd, 2026 at 7:38 am
No… the pass rush was definitely an issue. We’ve got way better players in both areas now.
May 23rd, 2026 at 8:17 am
InwoodJeremy … Good info. I always get most concerned with leg injuries for some reason, but that’s not what Anzalone had any of his injuries. He had 3 separate shoulder injuries (2017, 2019, 2021) that landed him on IR, plus a broken arm (2024). Guess that’s one of the dangers if you’re a LBer making a ton of tackles.
May 23rd, 2026 at 8:21 am
Beej … ‘Starting to think the biggest singular problem with the D last year was ILB play’.
I agree with you Beej. Our pass rush left a lot to be desired obviously, but the ILBs are supposed to be the ‘cleanup guys’. Instead other teams picked on them relentlessly in the passing game and probably forced them to focus more on their coverage responsibilities than they normally would.
May 23rd, 2026 at 8:41 am
@DR: “Of course we picked on the Bucs ILB’s. That Sir Dennis dude can’t cover spit” signed Kirk Cousins.
“But he can block his a$$ off” signed Jalen Hurts.
May 23rd, 2026 at 8:53 am
Well if you really look at it last year the LB play was bad, front line rush was bad , cb and at times safety play were bad. In conclusion the whole defense was simply bad. They were so bad I don’t know if one can be singled out as the worst. I think they all competed. Let’s be honest the last few years this defense has been bad. The defense may have peaked last year. The scary thing about Anzalone this year, if he is injured who subs in for him? . Then think about this we have 2 awful corners McColumn, Morrison, if one of them gets hurt , who subs in for them. That is right we still have 2 bad starting corners with no depth behind them. Yes the D line now appears to have the most depth. When you look at this defense to me it is hard to see more than 6, 7 wins at most. Face it this defense is going to need another year or two to become respectable. I don’t know how 10 wins and more are projected. Well, ok the offense is scoring 40 plus points a game. In that case maybe.
May 23rd, 2026 at 9:01 am
David was out of gas last year and was a liability, but he did win the Seahawks game with the doink Int. LB play can only get better.
May 23rd, 2026 at 9:14 am
Looks like he plays a full season after he comes back from IR.
He was on IR all last season, So maybe I’ll have a good season this year.
May 23rd, 2026 at 9:32 am
The Defense was actually great last year, according to Munch. He has stats to back it up.
Well, other than 3rd and 28 and 4th and 14. And Zyon being bored. And the wooden Indians on the sidelines with no energy after a crucial first down by the Offense. And the loafing by David and Winfield. The Stevie Wonder coverage by SVD. The latest in the Invisible Man known as the Edge Rusher.
Other than that, great Defense. Look at the stats. Stats are important.
May 23rd, 2026 at 11:02 am
Play the game with robots! UGH
May 23rd, 2026 at 4:22 pm
AWESOME!
May 23rd, 2026 at 8:35 pm
SirVocea Dennis was very good – 13th of 88 – at rushing the passer with 19 pressures and 4 sacks on 81 pass rush snaps.
Dennis was a near average starting quality “second best” run defender – 42nd of 88 – with a positive of 10 tackles for loss and a negative of 14 missed tackles.
In pass coverage, Dennis was a liability. With David also a liability, and with the majority of snaps played in coverage, one very down, there was an opportunity to exploit either David or Dennis or both. With Anzalone replacing David, there should be a way to scheme assignments to protect Dennis in pass coverage. In fact, by hiding coverages, it should be possible to bait some throws at Dennis that someone else can jump.
And, if Trotter plays coverage like he did in the 2nd half of 2025 and it translate well to the NFL, last year’s weakest position should be on of strength.