“Live Tackling Matters”
July 25th, 2026
Todd Bowles’ teams have started 2-0 in each of the past four seasons. Last season it was 3-0.
It’s been a stunning display of readiness for Week 1. But what about after that?
Joe can’t pinpoint why the Bucs have an annual swoon. Have the Bucs been ready for the rigors of a long season?
Hall of Fame Bucs cornerback Rondé Barber was on SiriusXM NFL Radio this week talking about how softer practicing has changed the game.
Maybe things will change this season, but the Bucs rarely if ever tackle to the ground in training camp and players are not fighting for every blade of grass as a matter of policy. That’s not unique to Tampa Bay, though practice intensity varies across the league.
“Live reps matter, like live tackling matters. You don’t get that really in [training camp] anymore,” Barber said. “Most of the time they’ll have pads on and a lot of walkthroughs and whatnot right now. But like, knowing how to hit, get hit and go to the ground, it’s a learned act. Like it’s not something you can just do.
“In football, you can’t, you cannot, I’m telling you, you cannot just turn a switch and say, ‘Now I’m in tackle mode.’ Like, it, like it takes reps, it takes practice, it takes like, you know, time on task, to like get the feel for what it’s like to hit different people and get hit. I think we’re losing a little bit of that. It’s not disappointing; it just kind of is what it is. But I think that the cumulative effect on the game, I don’t think that it’s necessarily positive.
Ira Kaufman, the venerable JoeBucsFan.com columnist, said this week that he believes Bowles will have tougher practices this summer, in part, because he’s feeling the win-now pressure as it relates to his job.
That was an intriguing take in light of the Bucs pursuing tougher-minded players and more physical guys this offseason.
Barber said joint practices — the Bucs are planning two each with the Jets and Jaguars this summer — can make a signficant impact.
“I love joint practices,” Barber said. “I mean, put it this way, I never got to play [much against] Dan Marino, but I joint practiced with that dude a bunch when I was a young player, and it was awesome. I think it creates some natural competition. There’s a certain feel that you get against another team that you don’t get seeing the same guy every day. I think it’s great. … And I think it only helps.”
Joe loves the joint practices. The vibe is productive and guys visibly work harder. Everything feels more like gameday of a team that cares.
Avoiding the midseason nosedive, aka playing consistent football, should be a top priority for Bowles and friends this season. That’s a great thing to figure out in Year 5 of a regime.
July 25th, 2026 at 7:41 pm
Wrap up and finish! Simple
July 25th, 2026 at 8:27 pm
With the Bucs having a soft coach who has soft practices and “walk throughs” (aka not doing jack sh!t), what do you expect?
July 25th, 2026 at 8:35 pm
The players union has done away with the old school practices and I’m not sure I want to see us hammering our teammates too hard anyway. They’re never going to allow as much frequency or intensity as they did back in the day….like it or not they’re trying to protect the players.
Joint practice is a whole different creature….aren’t we joint practicing Jax this year too?
Preseason games are more good reps (for some) too.
We’ll be ready
July 25th, 2026 at 9:43 pm
Simple T Says:
“they’re trying to protect the players”
Yet the result seems to be the opposite….
I say all the ‘soft’ practices and extreme limitations on tackling in the offseason, during training camp and in practices throughout the regular season are creating MORE injuries than ever before. Especially at the beginning of the regular season – when multiple starters on multiple teams across the league seem to drop like flies during the first couple of games – because their bodies are not in any way ‘conditioned’ to the hitting and tackling that “real” football requires….
July 25th, 2026 at 9:52 pm
Has nothing to do with our mid season collapses. Like the article says most teams have soft practices they can only have so many per the cba. I think our losing streaks are the exact result of a stubborn coach. We start out hot he thinks his team is great and can just keep on winning without changing anything. As the teams are changing to stop our offense and to beat our defense he stays the same. It’s his inability to gameplan is his downfall. Old school coaches just think beat my defense I’m not changing it on a weekly basis per the team I’m playing it works against everyone. We look the same every week. Very rarely do us fans not know what play is being run. Easy for a team to gameplan against us when they know we aren’t changing much at all from week to week. Except for the Carolina fist game debacle where Bowles wanted to run it 40 times regardless if it worked because we beat them last year doing that. That was a great example of a stubborn coach
July 25th, 2026 at 10:01 pm
The Bucs were a prime example of this phenomenon in 2025…..
By the end of game 2 last year – the Bucs had already lost Mauch and Kancey for the season and Goedeke was also injured and out of the lineup for 6 weeks. I think Evans made it to game 3 before he suffered a hamstring injury that sidelined him for the next 3 games.
Bodies that aren’t in “football shape” are prone to more frequent and more serious injuries while playing the game for real on Sundays. That’s my observation from watching 50+ years of NFL football – and you will never convince me that drastically reducing the amount of time players are “allowed” to practice hitting each other and tackling is somehow”protecting” those players……
July 25th, 2026 at 10:34 pm
I think this era of football has far more injuries than in the past when real hitting was allowed in practice. It seems like the majority of our players get hurt during the first part of the year. Some don’t even make it out of training camp. If Rhonde knows this, why doesn’t the ex-players in the NFLPA know this.
I think they should take away the helmets and the hard pads. Then, players wouldn’t throw themselves around so recklessly.
July 25th, 2026 at 11:07 pm
Seasons are longer so more players get hurt. In 2024, we lost both safeties and Dean leading to a 4 game losing streak and in 2025 we lost almost the whole offensive line and Dean and Reddick and still various WRs and Irving and…the list goes on during our late slide. It’s a long season like a war of attrition. So they better train and train hard. And definitely get into football shape.
July 26th, 2026 at 1:14 am
A question for Joe,
Do you know if the Bucs use vibration plates at their training facility? It should help strengthen soft tissue without contact and help “tweaked” tissue to heal.
July 26th, 2026 at 1:22 am
Never heard of “vibration plates” before. We’re not allowed anywhere near a trainer’s room or weight room.
July 26th, 2026 at 2:20 am
toopanca –
My guess would be yes.
I heard the Bucs are (or were) the only team that has 3 Cryo chambers… so pretty sure they have at least a couple nice vibration plates somewhere in the training/recovery room.
July 26th, 2026 at 5:20 am
I’ve seen the game go from 10 games, to 17. Kind of doubles the chances for injury during a season. Players are faster, stronger, and are big investments with big salaries. I can see both sides of the argument, there has to be a balance. I’m a 71 year old surfer. I try to stay in shape for it. Yesterday I surfed for the first time in a long while. I have to choice wisely on what I can handle these days. After a short session my body is killing me! Working out is fine, but there is no substitute for the real thing.
July 26th, 2026 at 6:02 am
This is a tough call for players because no one wants to lose their entire career during practice. What is concerning is how many players these days are getting injured compared to years ago. Probably a combination of things, but for me it’s the lack of activity during players down times. Back in the day before video games and cell phones, NFL players spent time playing basketball, swimming, working out, running, and basically any outdoor activity. Now it’s straight to XBOX or PlayStation. Basically, they’re going from zero to 100 miles an hour back to zero for long periods of time. A lot of people will be like no way! When you think about it though there are only two common denominators; diet and inactivity.
July 26th, 2026 at 7:08 am
Hodad—
“I’ve seen the game go from 10 games, to 17.”
The last time the NFL played a 10 game season was in 1945 when they played ten during the war years from 1943-1945.
Considering you were old enough to watch (in person, no TV)/listen (radio)/read (newspaper) during that time frame, and you were … let’s say nine years old, that’d put you in the neighborhood of 90 today.
Hang in there, old timer. And cudos to your NFL dedication for following the sport all those years.
They say the greatest game ever played in the “olden days” was the 1958 NFL Championship game between the Colts and Giants. That was a sudden death, 23-17 overtime win for the Johnny Unitas lead Colts over the Giants in muddy Yankee Stadium.
Do you remember it? They say 45 million watched on the still relatively new medium, something called television.
July 26th, 2026 at 7:11 am
Back “in the day” many pro football players had actual jobs away from football, like pre 1970. Do away with all the mini camps and rookie camps, come in the 2nd week of July and go from there. Too many games is hurting the players and all these games on different days of the week, lets play all over the world crap is not good for the end product. Practices are a dress rehearsal for the real thing. They have changed the NFL to almost a flag football game, everyone celebrates after doing the mundane as if they just scored or did a great thing, SMH. Go look at that clip from this site a few days ago about Shula during his Colts coaching days allowing cameras in the camp.
July 26th, 2026 at 7:23 am
@JA, that was awesome! Way to call out clear BS.
July 26th, 2026 at 7:47 am
Hodad,
You being a 71 year old surfer gives this 58 year old scuba diver reason for hope.
But since my perfect seas are like glass, we probably won’t ever meet in the water.
July 26th, 2026 at 7:55 am
Harry—
Let’s face it, “old” Hodad could possibly be 90, but to claim to remember games from 1945 is a highly dubious assertion.
My thinking is most 90 year olds don’t spend much time on this website, but again, ya never know!
The Joes appeal to all ages with their rapier wit and inside info. The way they suck us all in to redundant Baker arguments is a thing of beauty!
The ‘he sucks vs he’s great’ arguments go on like they were powered by a perpetual motion machine.
Played golf with a 92 year old when I was a last minute coax into a scramble a few weeks ago.
We’d have to point him in the right direction on occasion, and he dressed head to toe in all black with a heat index of 110, but he hung in there by living to play another day. His son also played, and he was 72!
Curious to hear Hodad’s thoughts on the 58′ championship game. And not an A.I. recap.
July 26th, 2026 at 8:03 am
Drunk—
Lighten up on the eye openers! Hodad is 90 if he’s a day.
If he remembers 10 game schedules in 1945, he’d have to be at least 9 years old to have any lucid recall ability. That puts him emerging from mommy in the delivery room in 1936.
2026—1936=?
Of course, he could be 89 if he was born after July 26.
I’m not calling him out per se, just asking for an anecdote or two from the “old days.” I love American history!
July 26th, 2026 at 8:06 am
NFL please expand rosters. Expand practice squad. Allow teams to cultivate and hold more talent.
July 26th, 2026 at 9:16 am
The NFL has played at least 14 or more Regular season games since 1961.
And back in the 60s – there were 6 pre-season games – that all players played in btw….
So the # of games played per year has not really changed at all in the last 65 years….
G-Buc – I agree that rosters should be expanded. But the problem with that is less $ available per player – so salaries would temporarily have to go down a bit to accommodate more players per team. Few if any current NFL players would want that I’d guess…..
July 26th, 2026 at 10:47 am
LOL Ronde was choosing his words very very carefully there. Players union and Roger would get him fired and put the Glazers on Roger’s naughty list. Soft, Sloppy football due to the freaking CBA! Add ridiculous rule changes that have favored the offense for the last decade? The product has gone down hill Ronde.
Watching some old clips and Ronnie Lott was in one. He would be crucified in Roger’s NFL! He was not a dirty player but he did nail people.
Go Bucs!
July 26th, 2026 at 6:42 pm
Does any one know what are the days they practice in pads?
July 26th, 2026 at 6:44 pm
What days are practices in pads?
July 26th, 2026 at 7:31 pm
Bowles has no use for tackling. He asks them to do other things.
July 27th, 2026 at 11:11 am
Joe I hope that there’s no more see you Wednesday crap either. Tackling huh? What a concept Joe, it got bad last season and I think that should be spoken of and worked on during each week. Especially those who tend to give a reciever 10 yards at the snap. Everyone misses a tackle here and there also BUT let’s think about how to put Robinson from Atlanta on the ground once before we die. Tackling come on man lol. You have a pretty good team coach , let’s keep it all in check this year, you got some new assistants. Let’s Go Bucs !!!!