Todd Bowles Says Keionte Scott Not Limited To Nickel Corner
May 9th, 2026
Cornerback indecision.
OK, Joe is sensing something weird coming from the Bucs.
Part of it, perhaps a big part, might be because it is early May. The season doesn’t kick off for another four months.
But it is beginning to sound as if KitKat-eating Bucs coach Todd Bowles does not have a projected starting-five defensive backs in his mind — or at least he’s not telling anyone.
Bowles seemed to be all over the map yesterday talking about Keionte Scott, the nickel corner the Bucs got out of Miami in the fourth round.
Scott, Bowles said, shouldn’t be pigeonholed into just a nickel/slot role. And last year’s nickel, Jacob Parrish, who played really well, might play outside corner and he might play some nickel corner.
“[Scott] probably even with his size, he plays more like a linebacker, and Parrish plays a great nickel and Parrish is a cover guy,” Bowles said. “Parrish is tough and he can tackle.
“[Scott is] one of the few guys that runs a 4.3 … that plays a 4.3. You can really see it in his play, in his explosion. He’s very instinctive and Parrish was All-Rookie, and still, he’s still gonna play [at nickel] as well, but we’re gonna get him some more outside reps.
“We’re gonna start Keionte out as a nickel, and we’ll see if he evolves to whether he becomes a safety or a corner from that standpoint, and go from there.
“But you know, he’s really a guy that can play all over the place. … So he gives us a lot of options.”
Bowles also noted he will give Scott a spin at outside corner, as well.
And yes, Zyon McCollum has played nickel corner. It almost seems like Bowles is going to throw six guys out on the field this summer and the five best will start.
It seems weird to Joe that the Bucs couldn’t study film, pick players’ positions and have those guys work at that specific position just for the sake of streamlining and allowing guys to develop and grow at a specific position.
Bowles said he’s looking for versatility for a reason.
“I mean, we got to move our guys around,” Bowles said. “Because when you make cuts, you don’t have that many. So we got to be able to have some versatile pieces.”
Notice Bowles hasn’t said this about Antoine Winfield or Tykee Smith? So yeah, Joe gets the versatility thing. But Bowles’ words come across as if he’s fully unsure about his starting corners.
If that’s a correct observation, it’s understandable. On May 9.
May 9th, 2026 at 12:17 am
Here we go .. chess pieces.. blah blah blah.
May 9th, 2026 at 12:21 am
He most certainly should be, he was God awful as an outside CB
May 9th, 2026 at 12:35 am
Well everyone else disagrees and says he’s nickel only
May 9th, 2026 at 1:14 am
Bowles is great at confusing his own defensive players and those of us that actually watch the scoreboard.
He just sucks out loud at trying to confuse opposing offenses.
Other than that hey fantastic. A modern day Guru!!!
Ask Cousins or Ewers and they’ll tell you. They couldn’t believe their eyes.
Can we please get another extension please for our beloved HC\DC?!!!
May 9th, 2026 at 1:42 am
I don’t think it is anything weird, when I heard him mention it at the Press Availability, I merely thought of when Bowles liked to use the 3 Safety Look with Winfield, Whitehead and Edwards. Plus, if an Offense lines up with 4 or 5 WR sets, we have him and Parrish playing inside and either or both could blitz(or threaten to.
May 9th, 2026 at 2:07 am
TB_MikeB Says:
“Well everyone else disagrees and says he’s nickel only”
Ohly those who don’t bother investigating. He play nickle well…but he’s best as a blitzer/LB. He and Bain had some cool moves together. He’ll be a slash player.
May 9th, 2026 at 2:09 am
LynchMob50, when he had talent, the defnse was great (durind Arians’ reign).
May 9th, 2026 at 2:33 am
When your defense is a train wreck, look to the conductor.
May 9th, 2026 at 2:54 am
I don’t agree at all that Scott is just a nickel corner. But like Joe said, it’s better to have him concentrate mostly on one thing. A little basic knowledge of the rest of the defense is fine for emergencies, but you can worry about that when the need arises. And who knows? He might just play very well at outside corner too. He reminds me very much of Parrish. Well, bowlz has the OTSa to try to figure out how to misuse him.
May 9th, 2026 at 5:28 am
Idc if vita plays safety. if it gets us 10-11 wins. Im on board. Beggars cannot be choosers. Just get the best 22 players on the field. However that looks.
May 9th, 2026 at 6:15 am
In the box safety and nickel….and he’s healing a wrist….dont get cute for now Todd.
May 9th, 2026 at 6:21 am
It’s not hard at all to understand Todd Bowles’ desire for versatility among his players. Each position group has a very limited number of players on the active roster, and versatility is essential because of injuries. And yes, the Bucs have taken a beating in recent years when it comes to injuries.
But injuries aren’t a linear issue. Some years a lot fewer guys get hurt. Some years, for some reason, the brunt of the injuries seem to fall on key starters and/or on some position groups more than others. And looking at Todd’s years here as the DC, the fewer injuries we have, the better our defense does. The fewer starters who get hurt, the better our defense does. Whodathunkit huh?
Looking at the yearly recaps of Bucs’ injuries, they show the games missed as a result of players on IR, Out, Doubtful & Questionable. Interesting injury numbers year-by-year when compared to our defensive rankings (Points Allowed):
o 2025: Ranked #20 (411 pts) … 176 Games missed (injury)
o 2024: Ranked #16 (385 pts) … 204 Games missed (injury)
o 2023: Ranked #7 (325 pts) … 105 Games missed (injury)
o 2022: Ranked #13 (358 pts) … 177 Games missed (injury)
o 2021: Ranked #5 (353 pts) … 133 Games missed (injury)
o 2020: Ranked #8 (355 pts) … 169 Games missed (injury)
o 2019: Ranked #29 (449 pts) … 204 Games missed (injury)
Bucs best 3 years defensively when they ranked in the Top-10 (2023, 2021 & 2020) coincided with the lowest number of games missed due to injuries. In Todd’s case, what that implies to me is that when he’s got his starters (mostly veterans) available, his defenses are quite good. But when his starters start falling like flies, it’s Katie bar the door.
May 9th, 2026 at 6:23 am
Don’t forget about injuries…
Remember what our o-line looked like the first few weeks.
It’ important to have versatile players throughout the entire roster.
May 9th, 2026 at 7:05 am
We will probably see more Dime defense
Those are the vibes I’m getting
May 9th, 2026 at 7:17 am
We’re playing defense this year?
May 9th, 2026 at 7:47 am
DR- it’s always been injuries and depth that have been the real challenge/problem. With that chart, you’ve proven it 100%! Thanks. Turns out I was right all along. 🙂
May 9th, 2026 at 8:13 am
DR I’d be curious what it would look like broken down further by offensive and defense injury games missed (separately) vs. offensive scoring for the year and defensive preventing scoring+rankings for each for each year. But the relationship is already obvious.
May 9th, 2026 at 8:29 am
Scott may have to replace McCollum at some point. It only makes sense to cross train at outside corner. It’s not that different of a position comparatively speaking. He doesn’t have to play there much to be ready. Actually, smart planning by Bowles.
May 9th, 2026 at 8:53 am
I think Keionte Scott is a better SS than CB
May 9th, 2026 at 9:07 am
He’s not a LBer, he’s not an outside corner, he’s a natural nickel. Put him there, leave him there. Stop the BS moving players around. Bowles isn’t fooling anyone but his own players. Like our picks, don’t trust Bowles to put them in a position to succeed. I gringe when Todd talks about moving Bain inside on passing downs, what? We finally draft a capable edge, and chips ahoy wants him rushing inside on passing downs? Go ahead Todd, screw this up. Why didn’t we fire this clown?
May 9th, 2026 at 9:13 am
Morrison, McCollum, Parrish, & Scott will all get reps this season.
The versatility comes in when game planning for a specific opponents.
So at the very least, at this stage of the offseason program it’s justifiable to test Scott out, but I think as long as he’s on the field he can find the ball and make a play on it.
May 9th, 2026 at 9:36 am
I want more dime packages.
With only 1 LB and 1 moneybacker like Scott or Tykee at LB. They can blitz better than SVD.
Give me 6 DBs and Anzelone on 3rd down.
I’m tired of 2 slow linebackers getting burned on 3rd down.
I want more DBs on the field on obvious passing situations!
I said the same thing last year!
May 9th, 2026 at 9:44 am
Lord help us if Bowles starts having players moving all over the line. Has Bowles ever succeeded moving players to a position they did not play in college?
May 9th, 2026 at 9:44 am
I sure hope Bowles is looking at his corner possitions because as I have said over and over, currently he needs 2 caliber, 2. caliber starting cornres.Hopefully Parrish can play one. It would be great if Scott could play corner. Presently we have players beside Scott who can play nickel. Outside of maybe Parrish, we have zero , I repeat zero corners. Surely Bowles knows he can’t start the season with either Morrison or Mc Column starting, unless they have some kind of miracle that occurs from last season. They are just awful as of today.
May 9th, 2026 at 9:45 am
Reading Bowles’ own words from the three posts Joe put out so far today this is my take; uncertainty.
Bowles continues to make the same mistakes over and over because of his own uncertainty in his system and players and himself.
How can the players play with confidence if they detect a lack of confidence and certainty in their HC ?
Here comes the new boss same as the old boss.
What is it that’s said about doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results ?
May 9th, 2026 at 10:39 am
TB is sooo hard to listen to!! His defense plays the way that his press conference’s go…confused! Geeeze!
May 9th, 2026 at 11:32 am
“ Bowles said he’s looking for versatility for a reason. “
Yes. Confusion. Confuse the opposing QB. Kirk Cousins was bewildered. He couldn’t believe that he had wide open guys on 3rd and 28 or 4th and 14 when he was tossing for 1500 yards against the genius’s cover nobody defense. So, 2026, more Bucs standing around not knowing what they’re doing play after play.
Thanks, Jason. We lose Mike Evans and now we have confirmation that the defense will not change. Awesome.
May 9th, 2026 at 11:59 am
Teacherman … ‘I want more DBs on the field on obvious passing situations!’
I admit that I’m not sure what an ‘obvious passing situation’ is any longer. I’ve seen drives where our opponent (and us) will run on every down, then next drive they may pass on every down. I’m sure that the defenders on the field have an easier time ‘predicting’ what’s coming than we do, but even they seem to get fooled regularly. Probably helps explain all the explosive runs & passes we surrendered last season.
That said however, I’d like to see us keep DLinemen fresh, yet still field a quality interior Run Defense & Pass Defense. Assuming that we keep Vea, Robinson, Kancey, RNR, Capehart & Roberts, we SHOULD be able to sub frequently & still provide a quality defense. I personally like sticking with 3 DLinemen, 2 OLBs & 2 ILBs … as long as those 2 ILBs can play BOTH the run AND the pass. If the can’t, time to find new ILBs.
May 9th, 2026 at 12:39 pm
Sounds like he is going to making Jacks of All trades, Master of NONE! This will likely be the final straw that broke the camel’s back on Bowles demise at the end of this year.
May 9th, 2026 at 2:56 pm
Bowles playing checkers everyone else playing chess. It’s a Bucs life.
May 9th, 2026 at 7:37 pm
Lakeland
I agree
And I think T.Smith is a better FS than SS….Winfield better step up our he’ll be the odd man out…especially if Morrison shows he belongs…
GO BUCS
May 9th, 2026 at 9:44 pm
Move rhem arou d coach..change positions. Yeah why not ypur track record is flawless doing that nonsense
May 10th, 2026 at 10:44 pm
It used to be an idea that Bowles was too smart to translate his scheme to the players. Too genius.
It’s ow beginning to look like the problem is actually the opposite. Clearly.
May 11th, 2026 at 5:09 pm
I don’t know why this is surprising to anyone.
Bowles has changed his nickel every single season.
He also talks about liking versatility and wanting guys who clan play multiple positions every single season.
It sounds great in theory- you can move guys around and confuse opponents. But in reality, most of the time it’s too complex and our defenders end up out of position.