Antoine Winfield “Had To Make Up For Everybody Else”
July 21st, 2026
A better defensive front should help, but will it be enough to free safety Antoine Winfield, Jr.?
Joe brings this up because Todd Bowles talked about how Winfield often was restricted to a centerfield role last season — because he had an incapable cast around him.
“Because [Winfield] was the oldest, obviously, and he was the smartest back there and he had to man the middle of the field to make up for everybody else,” Bowles told Sports Day Tampa Bay.
The head coach explained his run defense has changed mightily and is still evolving.
“When we first got here back in 2019, we had [Ndamukong] Suh, we had [William] Gholston, we had [Vita] Vita, we were huge. And then after Suh was [Akiem] Hicks, so we had a huge team and then so we started getting all the outside runs and the quick throws outside,” Bowles said. Everybody started zone blocking us and reaching us and [our defenisve linemen] were getting hooked by the zone-block schemes because the linemen were faster and our interior was not. So we had to go out and get [Calijah] Kancey and Logan Hall and those type of guys that can run sideline to sideline.”
Now, the Bucs are bigger at defensive line and outside linebacker, Bowles noted, and at inside linebacker. So improvement is expected against the run, at minimum.
As for Winfield, he is being paid the salary of an elite player and needs to be put in position to make impact plays. If he has another season of playing a lot of clean-up duty, what’s the point?
Winfield was in a centerfield role to make a play on the critical 4th-and-14 against the Falcons in December. The throw from Kirk Cousins was past the first-down marker and Winfield broke late and didn’t get their in time.
That, among many other plays, cost the Bucs the playoffs.
July 21st, 2026 at 3:29 pm
“Everybody started zone blocking us and reaching us and [our defenisve linemen] were getting hooked by the zone-block schemes because the linemen were faster and our interior was not.”
Translation, when you run more zone, you effectively take a gap and put it on wheels so the DL now has to go from coming down hill to moving laterally while maintaining gap integrity. Makes for high probablity of leaks in the front and it 100% makes it harder for your 2nd level defenders to shoot gaps as the right side A-gap is now where the left side A-gap was pre-snap. Guys get washed out in these instances.
That’s where Robinson, Trotter, and Keionte Scott come into play for us this season.
July 21st, 2026 at 3:38 pm
Todd Bowles … “Because [Winfield] was the oldest, obviously, and he was the smartest back there and he had to man the middle of the field to make up for everybody else.”
Wow! Bowles surely isn’t including Tykee Smith in that ‘everybody else’ so I guess he’s talking about McCollum, Morrison, Parrish & Dean. Seems obvious from that comment that he had Winfield on a leash last season to protect against screw-ups from the rest of the Secondary. And probably those of the ILBs also.
Also seems obvious that Bowles was bastardizing the defense to compensate for the lack of talent. Since these guys are pros, they obviously sensed that. Can only wonder to what degree THAT impacted their performance.
July 21st, 2026 at 3:41 pm
Warren Brooks Lynch … Great analysis. Hadn’t thought about the impact on 2nd level defenders, but it makes perfect sense.
July 21st, 2026 at 3:46 pm
AWJ was the best player on the team 2 years ago. He won (saved) 4 games with heroic plays.
Last year he had less of an impact and maybe this is why. Too many holes.
Tykee Smith was the best player on the team last year.
So … If the defense plugged the gaps, as suggested, the Bucs have the best Safety duo in the league. Two guys that can make plays that change games.
That’s something to be excited about.
July 21st, 2026 at 3:53 pm
AWJr. was pathetic last year. Even playing 17 yards back as a so called “centerfielder”, he ended up trailing countless long pass plays and runs. Get rid of this guy for a few draft picks assuming the rest of the league hasn’t figured out what an overpriced dud he has become.
July 21st, 2026 at 4:03 pm
5-12
July 21st, 2026 at 4:12 pm
I believe I’d include Lavante and SVD with “everybody else”
July 21st, 2026 at 4:51 pm
Beej nailed it. AW JR wasn’t covering up for the secondary as much as he was for the 2 LBers that were huge liabilities in coverage.
July 21st, 2026 at 4:54 pm
Nothing was Todd Bowles fault for the defense being a leaky boat filled with holes.
He’s an absolute genius and a defensive guru. That is beyond contesting.
If the players just did exactly what he told them we’d have 6 straight titles.
It truly is that simple. The entire NFL is clamoring for his services.
Licht was smart to lock him down with another extension. Pure brilliance!
July 21st, 2026 at 5:09 pm
he is grossly overpaid-Sorry just telling the Truth like the name says.
July 21st, 2026 at 5:14 pm
More lame excuses.
July 21st, 2026 at 5:18 pm
So Licht sucked at replacing the big guys?
July 21st, 2026 at 5:26 pm
Winfield is the 3rd highest paid Safety in the league and had better start to show what he supposedly has-tired of the excuses.
The best tackling LB in football and very good cover man Jordyn Brooks was available from the Dolphins at the trade deadline and GM Licht did not make the deal so that some of the holes in our sinking ship defense could have been filled and we would have been in the playoffs.
Subsequently had we made the playoffs and stiffened the D by adding Brooks would ME13 have stayed? We will never know , but it goes from NFW to more of a coin flip.