Todd Bowles Thinks Josiah Trotter Will Have Better Career Than His Pro Bowl Dad
May 14th, 2026
Rookie inside linebacker Josiah Trotter.
Tampa Bay head coach Todd Bowles is not holding back when it comes to 2026 expectations for the 2026 season, and for his young players.
Heck, Bowles was talking Super Bowl yesterday (see story on the home page).
While talking to The Jim Rome Show yesterday (SiriusXM Ch. 161), Bowles seemed to go all-in on his second-round pick, Josiah Trotter, the All-SEC linebacker out of the University of Missouri.
“I think he’s going have a better career than his dad had, and his brother had, hopefully,” Bowles said.
Trotter’s dad is four-time Pro Bowl linebacker Jermiah Trotter, who also was named All-Pro for the 2000 season alongside Ray Lewis and Buccaneers legend Derrick Brooks.
High bar!
“We think [Josiah Trotter] is very intelligent,” Bowles continued. “He can run. He’s got size. He’s going to strike you. And he’s a modern day football player and we think he’s very physical. I think from a physical standpoint he’s a lot like [Rueben] Bain.”
Joe loves the hype. But reality needs to be considered. Even Jeremiah Trotter needed a year to make his mark. He barely played as a rookie before exploding onto the NFC scene in 1999.
May 14th, 2026 at 3:46 pm
More Bowles fantasy nonsense being spewed by compliant lapdog sports media.
You guys really need to call him out when he has one of these sugar induced episodes.
Are the Glazers handing out medical grade gummies to the staff at OBP??
If I had no idea what happened in 2025, I’d think Bowles had this team right on the cusp of a title. Based on the uber positive ramblings.
That or he’s had a stroke after his 100th Kit Kat of the day.
May 14th, 2026 at 3:48 pm
Josiah Trotter has everything it takes to be a good Mike LB
He’s young, he don’t have to be rushed into stardom
May 14th, 2026 at 3:55 pm
I’m not going to lie at first I got caught up in what certain people were saying that we took Trotter early but that quickly went away after I started to learn more and more about Trotter and the more I watched him the more I liked an thought we got the right guy 1st off his pedigree is great his Dad was great and his brother is playing for the Eagles and Trotter might be the best of all he has the Speed an toughness along with the Attitude to be great
May 14th, 2026 at 3:57 pm
Vast majority of drafted players develop over year one and two. That’s pretty much the reality.
Making the playoffs this season should be the goal and a Super Bowl in another year or two. Bucs need to get the team younger throw the draft
May 14th, 2026 at 4:02 pm
Building confidence!!!!!
This kid will be counted on all season…I think he’ll be great ASAP
GO BUCS
May 14th, 2026 at 4:03 pm
Offseason Hype and Postseason excuses – The Todd Bowles Method
Rinse and repeat
May 14th, 2026 at 4:04 pm
We drafted him, so he must be great!
Reminds me of those pee wee football dads who embrace their inherent bias by thinking their QB son will have a better career than Tom Brady.
Fine, think what you want.
Just prepare yourself for a sting when reality bites.
May 14th, 2026 at 4:04 pm
Bowles won’t be around to see it.
Tomlin will get the kid there.
May 14th, 2026 at 4:26 pm
If everything goes right, this kid stays healthy and gets some good work during the preseason, he can out perform his brothers’ first 2 years of production as a rookie. Start with junior, then try to get to dads’ level
May 14th, 2026 at 4:54 pm
I would be far less excited to have Tomlin than Bowles. He’s a super boring football coach.
May 14th, 2026 at 4:55 pm
‘Joe loves the hype. But reality needs to be considered.’
I get the feeling, for some reason, that Todd Bowles cannot win. Forget games, he can’t win in the media. When he’s ‘negative’ (like after several games) folks were all over him for throwing players under the proverbial bus. When he’s ‘positive’ it’s ‘hype’ and he’s chastised for being too positive. And if he’s ‘in the middle’ he’s poked fun at for being ‘stoic’.
I’d bet that Todd has gotten to the point where he really doesn’t give a sh1t what the media or fans say about him. There’s only 1 way for him to really ‘win’ … and that’s to pile up wins on the field. I for one HOPE that he does exactly that this year because that’d mean that my Bucs were the ones who really won. Todd’s got too much class to do this, but if the Bucs have a great year, I wouldn’t blame him for leasing a billboard & posting a giant picture of him flashing the middle finger to all who’ve been flashing the middle finger at him for the past several years.
May 14th, 2026 at 4:58 pm
Sorry Joe. Sometimes the unnecessary criticism of Todd Bowles gets me carried away.
May 14th, 2026 at 5:43 pm
Saskbucs Says:
“Offseason Hype and Postseason excuses – The Todd Bowles Method
Rinse and repeat”
Well said sir. Hit the dart board bulls eye on that one.
That’s all you get with the Toilet Bowles.
Unrealistic uber positive Pom Pom waiving lemming speak.
Then we step on a rake half way through the season and never recover.
It’s the low expectations of a fraud that has no clue what he’s doing.
May 14th, 2026 at 6:08 pm
I said before the draft that Trotter’s like he’s going to be a good NFL MLB, he just plays like one – the type of guy you put in a 4-3, and he’s just a really good solid NFL LB.
But I also said I don’t think he works at all in Bowles 3-4 since I’m not sure Trotter has the speed and coverage ability you need. I had Trotter on my do not draft list for the Bucs purely because of fit.
I can already hear it now, the first time he gets beat in coverage, all the same people that wanted White, Britt and Dennis ran out of town are all going to be demanding Trotter’s head as well.
In any case, I’m not going to take part in they lynch mob since they’re just boring. He will get beat, every LB gets beat at some point, when that happens just chill out and remember the kid is a rookie, and is very young. The big thing I’m going to personally look for is if he has the speed required in Bowles 3-4 – and if Bowles will make adjustments if not. I will say Trotter is NOT KJ Britt slow, he’s more of an average speed guy, but NFL TEs have gotten a lot faster in the last few years, and I think that’s where he might struggle. But we shall see, I could be wrong, and there are legit NFL scouts I’ve read – that aren’t hacks – who do think he has enough speed and quickness to do the job.
May 14th, 2026 at 6:10 pm
LynchMob there’s no way to prevent injuries. They either happen or they don’t. These last couple seasons they have happened- in DROVES. A season without injuries will be a wildly successful one.
May 14th, 2026 at 6:25 pm
Tomlin is a tough minded coach.
You never heard of bored, soft Steelers.
Besides, taking a year off and looking at the game from the outside will do wonders for Tomlin’s perspective.
Rating Bowles above Tomlin is laughable, on multiple levels. One of the biggest mistakes glacier ever made was not hiring him sooner.
May 14th, 2026 at 6:48 pm
Stpetematt … ‘LynchMob there’s no way to prevent injuries. They either happen or they don’t.’
For most injuries I agree with you Matt. But there is some percentage that IMO are preventable. Whether that’s 10%, 20%, 30% or whatever, I have no idea.
Examples: Some guys are out there playing hurt but ‘gutting it out’. Might be because of loyalty to the team or they’re being VERY protective of their starting position. It really doesn’t matter; what does matter is that IF they were at 100%, chances are the injury wouldn’t have happened because they’d react faster or whatever to avoid that particular injury situation.
I’m also convinced that field conditions make a significant difference in terms of injuries. Not being able to cut properly to avoid a brutal hit or whatever (to include losing one’s footing on some particularly bad fields) can be devastating. Fans might chock that all up to ‘bad luck’, but sometimes ‘bad luck’ gets a significant boost from ‘bad decisions’.
May 14th, 2026 at 6:56 pm
IF Bowles uses him correctly, he should be good. There’s probably a better chance that Bowles runs the same slop defense we’ve seen the last 2 years, though.
May 14th, 2026 at 7:05 pm
“Might be because of loyalty to the team or they’re being VERY protective of their starting position.“
More importantly, performance incentives. Don’t play, can’t make that extra pay. and more than their own pride, don’t get it twisted every player in the league loves their pockets just the same.
There literally recent examples, I think it was the end of 2020 and 2021 where guys were actively gettin guys to ring w/e bells they had in their contract.
Heck even last year, Shepard got close enough to his bonus, but didn’t quite get there and our front office honored it anyway.
May 14th, 2026 at 7:49 pm
Defense Rules, WBL
You could prevent a ton of injuries by simply making the player wear their pads the way they were designed to be worn. A knee pad is not a thigh pad for example. I can’t even count how many times I’ve seen (mostly WR)with their kneed pads hanging out of the bottom of their pants not even touching the knee. Let alone covering it. Then there are the ones that figure it’s optional equipment and don’t even wear ones they’re supposed to at all.
Oh well that’s my vent…sorry, but that crap just burns my rear like a 4 ft flame
May 14th, 2026 at 8:12 pm
If Trotter struggles in coverage the league will start targeting him. Just like they did with Devin White. Bowles defensive scheme requires linebackers to be in coverage often. I hope the kid is highly successful. But honestly I don’t think his skill set fits our scheme. Unless the plan is to drop the edge rusher into coverage every third down.
May 14th, 2026 at 10:16 pm
These guys just drafted may well be the second coming of Brooks Lynch and sapphire but
Brooks Lynch and sapp got their first hc fired.
Rookies rarely win super bowls
May 14th, 2026 at 10:43 pm
“I think he’s going have a better career than his dad had, and his brother had, hopefully,” Bowles said.
Bowles you don’t think he’ll be better and hope at the same time.
I can’t wait until this clown is gone.
May 15th, 2026 at 12:09 am
Reality needs to be considered when todd “I’ve never led a team to more than 10 wins in 8+ years as a HC” bowles starts rambling about SB’s. Jesus this dude can’t be gone soon enough
May 15th, 2026 at 12:26 am
Ok yeah, lousy field conditions I’m sure raise the chances of a lower limb injury and the Bucs field has not been so hot for some time now. And I do agree playing injured also raises the chances of worse injury. I was speaking more generally of the lousy luck the Bucs have had these past two seasons. They are definitely due for a much healthier season this time!
May 15th, 2026 at 8:45 am
Defense Rules Says:
May 14th, 2026 at 6:48 pm
I wouldn’t blame him for leasing a billboard & posting a giant picture of him flashing the middle finger to all who’ve been flashing the middle finger at him for the past several years.
—————————————————————————————–
Regardless of what he does this year, and I hope we do great, it won’t change the fact that his horrible 3rd and 28 defense caused us to lose the playoffs. I’m sure he recognizes that the criticism is justified.
May 15th, 2026 at 12:00 pm
It’s awesome that Coach is practicing stand up comedy. He will definitely need some alternative career options after 2026.
May 15th, 2026 at 12:32 pm
not with you there coach.
May 15th, 2026 at 12:47 pm
Anybody else remember who was guarding Joe Jurevicius in the middle of the field during the 2002 NFC Championship game? Jeremiah Trotter… they left him all alone to cover Joe on that short cross… and the rest is history.
May 15th, 2026 at 1:43 pm
The rookie wall is real.
We need to rest him during the pre-season.
If we are going to rely on him for a 17 game season.
We need to give him some time off to relax and recuperate.
The draft process is grueling and exhausting.
If we are going to count on a rookie LB to help us win the NFC South and hopefully a Super Bowl, we need to give these rookies some time off!
May 15th, 2026 at 6:16 pm
@DR, that was great. ‘Twas the first time in a long time that I LOL at a comment. 🙂