Todd Bowles: Josiah Trotter “Can” Cover
May 8th, 2026
“Not worried” about Josiah Trotter’s pass defense.
After Day 2 of the draft, Bucs vice president of personnel Mike Biehl was peppered with questions about Bucs’ second-round pick Josiah Trotter’s perceived inability to cover in pass defense.
Biehl bristled and stated the belief Trotter is subpar in pass coverage is a “misnomer.”
Today, Bucs coach Todd Bowles was more forceful.
“I mean, he’s not Derrick Brooks or Lavonte David,” Bowles began. “That’s not his style, but he CAN cover. [Missouri] never asked him to cover.
“I’ve seen him cover before. I’ve seen him work out, probably in high school, just by default [by] being at a place at the right time.
“But, you know, he’s a very capable cover guy. He’s a good 4.6 [speed], this guy. And he can hold his own and he understands angles. And I’m not worried.”
There you have it. If the coach isn’t worried, then it’s all settled.
Bowles painted a picture of Trotter to be more versatile than his draft evals suggest. Bowles even said Trotter can play outside linebacker and rush from the edge, if needed.
Versatility is nice, but Joe wonders why it seems just using one dominant guy and letting him eat in a way that best fits his skills is such a mortal sin?
May 8th, 2026 at 7:36 pm
I seen him play at Missouri.
He didn’t look lost to me at all
He was doing his job, what they asked if him
And they mostly asked him to shoot gaps, blitz the QB
And that’s what he did, but he did cover backs at times
May 8th, 2026 at 7:38 pm
“”asked of him “”
May 8th, 2026 at 8:15 pm
If you look at his stats, he got better and better covering in his new system (he had just arrived at Missouri at the beginning of last year) over the course of the season. Makes sense and a great sign for the future.
May 8th, 2026 at 8:23 pm
Well they had other players available and wanted him. Hopefully they are right and he will learn the coverage aspect. He is pretty young so his ceiling is up. Unfortunately for me Bowles and Licht said Dennis could cover and was a good LB. However, we all learned Dennis could not cover anyone unless they fell down after the snap. The same goes for Britt. With that in mind no wonder people doubt, myself included. To add to that the news we were given is he is good against the run but has problems in coverage. So after seeing Britt and Dennis we can’t help but go. Really!!. Then even worse Morrison and McColumn can’t cover either. That’s who Licht and Bowles put on the field, So yes people are skeptical.
I think Trotter will be ok. McColumn , Morrison ah not so much
May 8th, 2026 at 8:30 pm
I think Trotter will be a good NFL LB, perhaps not in this system, but I’m not down on Trotter individually – just the fit here.
With that said, Bowles also told us that KJ Britt could cover, when all you had to do was watch him play for a few snaps and you could see he was way too slow to cover. Trotter is not KJ Britt slow, but his college tape makes you genuinely question if Trotter has the speed and quickness to be a good coverage LB. I think he can be OK at coverage, but the issue is that everyone wants to chase our LB’s out of town the second they get beat in coverage, which is why White, Britt and Dennis were all non-stop bashed (although White was, by far, the best coverage LB out of the 3, and wasn’t actually bad at it, regardless of what the low IQ dopes claim).
May 8th, 2026 at 8:40 pm
Here we go with the Toddisms, according to Todd – Trotter can part the Red Sea. He just wasn’t asked to.
May 8th, 2026 at 9:27 pm
Stevie Wonder can cover,if the Dline does its job
May 8th, 2026 at 9:46 pm
He’s only 21, plenty of time to develop. Not yet worried about his coverage skills. He can’t be worse than Dennis.
May 8th, 2026 at 10:12 pm
[First off, Joe quoted Bowles directly from today. Joe was sitting 10 feet from him. And Joe can write whatever the hell he wants to write. You have zero idea who Joe talks to off the record. And who the hell are you to tell anyone what they can write? If you think other sites are so much better, then go read them. Everybody wins. — Joe]
May 8th, 2026 at 10:15 pm
The defense will be great ! That is if all the rookies scored 50 on their Wonderlik test.
May 8th, 2026 at 10:29 pm
“There you have it. If the coach isn’t worried, then it’s all settled.”
Yeah, we really should listen to the Guru that orchestrated not one but two losing seasons in four years.
And the sparkling playoff record of 1-3. All this winning is getting old.
Even Belichick couldn’t deliver Brady a losing season.
Todd said hold my beer.
May 8th, 2026 at 10:33 pm
I thought I read he can’t cover but rather is a downhill run stopper.
I’m sick of having a coach with delusions. It’s like he has dementia. Over it.
May 8th, 2026 at 10:49 pm
Oh boy, now he’s a part time OLB!?
I won’t read into that too much and just use the word versatile for Todd.
Typical Bucs and Bowles. Brought in a bunch of guys they think can play 3 positions.
They love Jack of all Trades, Master of None! Which is absolutely ridiculous, but hey, why not put a college RT at LG and a college LT at RG and cross train the nickel to be a safety and drop your best pass rusher into coverage to fool the D.
May 8th, 2026 at 11:03 pm
Devin White was a top 10 pick that had 4.4 speed and looked lost in coverage….not buying what Bowles is trying to sell.
May 8th, 2026 at 11:21 pm
When Bowles has the talent on defense, he is a good coach. Around the league, he is considered an excellent defensive mind. If you don’t think so go watch the Super Bowl against Kansas City and the NFC championship game. But he needs a complimentary offense. Last year the offense continually sputtered and the pass rush was non-existent. Everything this year points to better personnel on defense.
May 8th, 2026 at 11:40 pm
Just……I mean…just……
Oh man.
May 8th, 2026 at 11:43 pm
I have no doubt he said it…I recall him saying something similar about Denis etc. Maybe hes right this time. Maybe Anzalone will cover and Trotter will go down hill at first. WTF knows at this point? I guess we’ll have to see.
May 9th, 2026 at 2:27 am
To my eye it wasn’t so much that SVD couldn’t cover as much as it was he couldn’t tackle. As far as coverage goes, I don’t remember as much about that because I was preoccupied with terrible angles and horrendous tackling. I’m pretty sure he blew quite a few assignments, but when the pass rush is as bad as ours was somebody will eventually find an open spot. Besides, Dennis contributed mightily to our below par run defense. If there’s one thing I agree with Bowlz about it’s having a good pass defense is pointless if your opponent can just run all day. Passing league or not. In fact I get disappointed if an opposing receiver gets a little cushion and catches a pass. What really cheeses me off is when nobody covers a guy at all. That happens an awfully lot lately.
May 9th, 2026 at 2:35 am
SVD was a 5th round pick, so it’s actually amazing that he can play at all. He’s probably going to at least make the team. We don’t have a ton of depth there.
May 9th, 2026 at 6:39 am
Trotter was never tasked with covering before, so he sucked at first, got progressively better in the second half of the season. It’s not like we’re asking him to redesign the wheel
May 9th, 2026 at 9:40 am
Anzalone. Trotter. Rozeboom. SVD.
That’s a very solid MLB group.
Anzalone, Rozeboom and SVD have started a lot of games.
Trotter looks legit.
If only we had invested in CB like we did at LB and DT this off-season.
May 9th, 2026 at 11:17 am
It sounds like Bowels is reaching.
May 9th, 2026 at 11:27 am
It’s what you want. Someone known for certain strengths, and instead of having them do those things, Todd has them doing “other things.” Genius like this is rare.
May 9th, 2026 at 3:21 pm
I was afraid Bowles would say this…Expect more of the same of what we’ve seen the last few years. Did Bowles say Bain will be good in coverage, too? 🙄
May 9th, 2026 at 3:26 pm
Rod Munch: Devin White was terrible in coverage the last few years on the Bucs. I don’t need PFF to tell me that, I watched the games and he didn’t pass the stink test. He was about as bad as PFF says below.
In the 2025 season with the Las Vegas Raiders, Devin White received a 36.1 PFF coverage grade, which ranked 79th out of 88 qualified linebackers. Despite high tackle volume, he struggled in coverage, allowing a 92.5 passer rating when targeted and finishing with one of the lowest coverage scores among NFL linebackers.
May 10th, 2026 at 10:57 pm
What a fargin disaster. You Pollies are going to have a great time stacking the 2026 excuses for failure.