“Now The Real Fun Starts”
September 9th, 2026
Everyone at One Buc Palace, it seems, has been wowed by how rookie inside linebacker Josiah Trotter opened eyes in practice with physical play and a dawg mentality.
Baker Mayfield even called Trotter an as*hole recently.
Today, new Bucs inside linebacker and team captain Alex Anzalone, the March free agent signing, talked about the other side of Trotter, the cerebral and steady player.
“I think that the biggest thing for him is consistency,” Anzalone said of Trotter. “We do have a defense that does put a lot on a guy like him. At the linebacker position we do different things and he’s stepped up to the plate, and now we just have to see where he takes it. Now the real fun starts.”
Anzalone is right. The hype and fantasy for the Bucs defense gets real in a hurry against the high-octane Bengals offense on Sunday.
Trotter is going to flash, Joe believes, but it’s that consistency Anzalone references that’s most important.
If Trotter and fellow rookie starters Rueben Bain and Keionte Scott can be consistent, the Bucs defense should be much improved.
September 9th, 2026 at 5:55 pm
Trotter’s been called physical, cerebral and an asshole. Finally, a complete scouting report.
September 9th, 2026 at 6:02 pm
Hahaha!
September 9th, 2026 at 6:04 pm
Unfortunately, Bain will prob be a shell of himself for a few more weeks, but I think Trotter and Scott will ball out.
Hopefully I’m wrong about Bain’s shoulder.
September 9th, 2026 at 6:13 pm
I think we are putting too many expectations on the rookies. It becomes more difficult for them with Bowles’ crazy defense.
September 9th, 2026 at 6:38 pm
We Had a few rookies that did well at key positions in 2020 if I remember correctly, expectations need to be High and not “too much” for them. You were drafted high for a reason, Ball Out!
September 9th, 2026 at 6:41 pm
Hope I’m wrong, but relying on rookies aging free agents and the mediocrity that was already here doesn’t sound super great. Especially with a scheme that is known to be difficult and a guru who can’t seem to pull it off.
September 9th, 2026 at 6:47 pm
Josiah Trotter biggest issue is “Biting on play action”
But, l think he’s getting better at being patient
And stop being so aggressive, sometimes you can be too aggressive
He’s learning to stay in his zone, and protect his zone
September 9th, 2026 at 7:09 pm
Hate to see Bain on there
September 9th, 2026 at 7:09 pm
Whoops, wrong thread.
September 9th, 2026 at 7:16 pm
I didn’t see anything at all impressive in the preseason, but then again he only played about a dozen snaps. That seems unwise for a rookie who you think is going to be your starter. In his defense Rozeboom is no slouch so if he’s ahead of him that’s a good sign.
Regardless, we’ll know all we need to in about a dozen plays on Sunday. The first 6 and the last 6.
September 9th, 2026 at 7:27 pm
Bakerrrrrr I can’t believe Jason Licht actually paid you all that bread
Congrats
Now go win us a damn Super Bowl
Lead us Bake !!!
Cmon man …. Give us a hell of a season
Remember WEEK 1 playoff bye is the GOAL
HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE IS THE GOAL
SUPERBOWL IS THE GOAL
NOT AN NFC SOUTH TITLE
It’s a Bucs Life
September 9th, 2026 at 7:55 pm
Trash talk is cheap… show us something.
September 9th, 2026 at 8:12 pm
Stiff hips poor in zone and coverage overall. Even bowles said stone hands.
September 9th, 2026 at 8:13 pm
I fully expect this group on fans in here will overreact to some of the rookies on Sunday. Give them to learn the ropes. There will be ups and downs with these rookies. But I fully expect a much better all around defense, especially come November.
September 9th, 2026 at 8:13 pm
But he is hype heavy shoulder
September 9th, 2026 at 8:31 pm
If Bains shoulder isn’t completely right, he should chill out and play limited snaps if any. Play the long game.
Shouldn’t be like years past where we can’t replace him in the interim. Muhammad, Nelly, Walker can get after it.
September 9th, 2026 at 8:35 pm
In all the hype machine David Walker is forgotten about. I hope he balls out and shines real bright for the Bucs.
September 9th, 2026 at 8:37 pm
Come on Joes, why do comments go into moderation that are plain vanilla. You let these raving lunatics go on and on, they ruin your comment section and they never get censor.
September 9th, 2026 at 8:46 pm
I’m taking the over on this game and think whoever has the ball last wins.
The bengals are not fast starters. Even last year when they won their first two they didn’t play well.
September 9th, 2026 at 8:51 pm
Fanofdabucs: I just want to see 100% effort and 0% “boredom”.
September 9th, 2026 at 8:58 pm
Good team this season,Way better next!
September 9th, 2026 at 9:22 pm
Joe wishes he knew. Because it’s much more a pain in the arse for Joe than it is you.
September 9th, 2026 at 9:34 pm
Outside of somebody like Lavonte David, I’m start to think Anzalone is the perfect vet to help Trotter get his feet wet as a pro. First, he can help mask the coverage concerns by being that the same way we had Lavonte take coverage responsibilities over White/Britt/Dennis. Second, seeing how Anzalone thrives(sorta) in coverage he’s serves as on-the-job trainer in the sense these guys will be on a tablet mid-game breaking down looks. Lastly, Anzalone can also help interpret playcalls in real-time, so when it’s time for the rook to get into passing lanes he’s doing it with some keys from AA.
I’m not looking for splash plays with Trotter, starting out playing good, assignment based ball and leading swarms is what I want form the jump. I’ll take all the sexy stuff as a bonus.
September 9th, 2026 at 9:42 pm
Joes—sent you an email with several options to mitigate your WordPress “moderation” problem. Unsure if the fix is within, but worth the look.
September 9th, 2026 at 9:58 pm
Todd Says:
“Trotter’s been called physical, cerebral and an asshole. Finally, a complete scouting report.”
Man, Todd…you are hitting it this week, lol. So many great one-liners!
September 9th, 2026 at 10:00 pm
Finally all the prognosticators can shut their mouths and be forced into dealing with reality.
No more if, should, could, might, probably, maybe, hopefully…..etc etc etc.
The over the top Polly positive mindless lemming speak will be silenced by the inept decisions of Todd Bowles.
Can’t wait!!! Then we can move on to a REAL HC and DC. 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡
September 9th, 2026 at 10:00 pm
JA Says:
“Joes—sent you an email with several options to mitigate your WordPress “moderation” problem. Unsure if the fix is within, but worth the look.”
In my younger days I was a WordPress code-writer. I recently read that it uses AI now. I’d never be able to master it again at my age.
September 9th, 2026 at 10:03 pm
While running errands today, I was listening to the recent ‘Mic’d up” videos on the Bucs website. Trotter is one of them.
September 9th, 2026 at 10:07 pm
You could do it if you wanted Bonzai, it’s not bad.
September 9th, 2026 at 10:08 pm
Just read of PFT:
“With the new money, that’s $192 million over for years, for a true average of $48 million annually.”
Click my name for the link. It breaks down the contract, and it’s not as bad as some think.
September 9th, 2026 at 10:38 pm
Yea Dennis I don’t get it…there’s no reason to believe this guy doesn’t get exposed in the passing game.
September 9th, 2026 at 10:42 pm
Joe has been cautious with the Bain hype so that the pressure on him is reduced. Instead, Joe is hyping Trotter. I HOPE Joe is right about Trotter but Trotter’s production in two ‘worthless’ games against 2nd and 3rd team players was only two tackles. I HOPE Joe is right and Trot gets more than two tackles against the Bengals.
September 9th, 2026 at 10:44 pm
You just see the Patriots completely quit on defense.
Because we all know if you’re beat on defense, it’s because you quit, not that you got beat.
September 9th, 2026 at 10:53 pm
Buccaneer Bonzai Says:
September 9th, 2026 at 10:08 pm
Just read of PFT:
“With the new money, that’s $192 million over for years, for a true average of $48 million annually.”
Click my name for the link. It breaks down the contract, and it’s not as bad as some think.
————–
You’re talking cash outlay, the cap hits, which is what Bucs fans actually care about, is different – and actually worse:
2026: $49.975M
2027: $61.975M
2028: $61.975M
2029: $61.200M
This is based off the info provided by PFT.
At the same time, the Bucs aren’t playing any tricks with the numbers – best we can tell – which means the Bucs are still giving themself an out after this year. As I stated in a different thread, the Bucs could actually trade Baker next season (before the 5th league day) and only have a $30M cap hit – which is very doable if they were in a situation to have to do that. Again, not saying that is going to happen or is likely to happen, just interesting the Bucs clearly craved an out into the deal.
With that said, if Baker performs well this season and can “stay healthy” and the Bucs are winning, they’ll almost certainly redo his deal again to free up cash next year. But they’re giving themselves just a small amount of room to navigate should the worst happen.
September 9th, 2026 at 11:54 pm
Rod Minch, something’s not fully transparent with that.
2029 Season isn’t guaranteed for Baker ???
I guess your number for 2029 would be a worse case scenario for Baker assuming he’s still the QB and no contract changes are taking place…
I don’t see any way that Bucs brass would sit there with that much cap hit for him…..
Yeah, I see some tweaking in the future on his contract if he doesn’t get cut before deadlines….
September 10th, 2026 at 1:32 am
Bucfan1988 – Above, those are just cap hit numbers, not guarantees. I did a much longer detailed post in the ‘Jason Licht: Team Glazer Phone Call Sparked Weekend Talks With Baker Mayfield Camp’ article – I just didn’t want to bore everyone by posting the same thing again already. But I used the PFT numbers to do a detailed breakdown covering cap hit, guarantees, when the Bucs can make a move if they had to, etc.
Again, the most interesting thing to me is the Bucs clearly gave themselves outs by not using trickery – which I assume they’re going to save for next year if Baker has a good year. Not that they’ll do a new deal, but they’re restructure the deal, freeing up money by adding void years, signing bonuses, etc. And that doesn’t mean this year is a one-year deal, Baker still gets his money the next two seasons, but the Bucs structured it so they could trade him and not bankrupt the teams cap for years to come.
September 10th, 2026 at 6:39 am
watching the game last night those were two good defensive teams and the both hit hard, hope the bucs can play like them
September 10th, 2026 at 7:29 am
Baker would most certainly be here in ’27 anyway, any QB we draft wouldn’t be ready by then (I doubt Daniels will ever be)