Antoine Winfield Usage Must Be Examined
October 30th, 2026
It’s hard to say big-money Bucs safety Antoine Winfield, Jr. has been missed the past three weeks as he sat out with a rib injury.
In fact, the Bucs defense seems to have improved with his replacement on the field, Ifeatu Melifonwu.
Winfield is expected to return to the starting lineup Sunday against the Falcons. Frankly, Joe is almost nervous about that.
Melifonwu has played very well (heck of a veteran summer pickup by Buccaneers Ring of Honor general manager Jason Licht), and the absence of Winfield had Todd Bowles using playmaker starting safety Tykee Smith in different ways.
Bowles acknowledged on his Coaches’ Room radio show this week that Smith has been maximized.
“With [Winfield] down, we’ve kind of been using Tykee all over the place,” Bowles said.
Now what? Winfield is highly versatile, but Bowles still has been using him a lot in the centerfield role that hurt his playmaking. Of course, some of that is on Winfield. It’s unclear how Bowles will proceed, but it’s certainly time to get Winfield more involved.
In his last 17 games, Winfield has two quarterback hits, two interceptions, one tackle for loss and zero forced fumbles and zero sacks. Paltry numbers for a once feared playmaker.
Bowles has to get more out of him.
October 30th, 2026 at 10:45 am
The defense is completely irrelevant in the two lone wins in seven games.
Our opponents in those two games had league worst run defenses.
All we did was use Bucky as a bell cow and it worked out.
Plus, both offenses played like crap the entire time and never once threatened to take back the lead.
Not to mention all the dumb luck over those two wins.
But that perfectly sums up the Bowles regime. Dumb.
October 30th, 2026 at 10:48 am
to me, the backend is playing much better without tweeze. I honestly think he doesn’t communicate well with the DBs or can’t decipher the offensive setup well enough. I mean lets be honest, his claim to fame is chasing down people from behind at the goal line and getting a fumble. Am I missing anything else other than the peace sign to Cheetah?
October 30th, 2026 at 10:53 am
Winfield is an excellent blitzer and good run defender. Need to have him around the LOS more this week, creating havoc.
October 30th, 2026 at 10:56 am
Huh? The defense has been relevant in every game. Theyre playing extremely well and one of the best units in the league.
ProffeserVonBrainStorm Says:
October 30th, 2026 at 10:45 am
The defense is completely irrelevant in the two lone wins in seven games.
Our opponents in those two games had league worst run defenses.
All we did was use Bucky as a bell cow and it worked out.
Plus, both offenses played like crap the entire time and never once threatened to take back the lead.
Not to mention all the dumb luck over those two wins.
But that perfectly sums up the Bowles regime. Dumb.
jug2 Says:
October 30th, 2026 at 10:56 am
Defense is playing well. Frankly I care more about overall results than any single player.
October 30th, 2026 at 10:56 am
There always seems to be a blind spot with fans when it comes to safeties. If your safety is the key playmaker on your defense, it sucks. They line up the furthest from the ball. It’s not rocket science. Every other position on defense is more important than your safety.
October 30th, 2026 at 11:03 am
The defense is so good it puked up the lead in the 4th quarter at 16-3, then looked toothless in OT vs the Steelers.
Some of you have Stockholm syndrome. It’s really pathetic.
Defense wins championships. This defense has a .285 win percentage so far.
Under the Bowles regime that’s considered HOF numbers.
October 30th, 2026 at 11:13 am
He needs to spy and be glued to Pitts all day long, along with some LB help!!! Let London get his, we need to stop Pitts and that will help keep Bijon under control!! Go Bucs
October 30th, 2026 at 11:14 am
“Now what? Winfield is highly versatile, but Bowles still has been using him a lot in the centerfield role that hurt his playmaking. Of course, some of that is on Winfield.”
Same thing we’ve done with our safeties in the past. You start juggling their responsibilities and making the QB account for who’s at the top of the coverage and who may be coming. It’s the versatility Bowles has always tried to get out of that room, and even with Winfield coming back we’ve legit got 3 viable safeties that can bring some value. Does that sound familiar scenario to anybody?
Winfield was used to keep a lid on our defense to start the season, what was also going on while he was available was the spotty play from our off ball LBs, namely Alex Anzalone trying to find his footing in the scheme to start the season. I wouldn’t say the defenses play improved w/o Winfield, but I would say the defenses play stabilized a little bit while he wasn’t in the line up.
Before injury, Winfield was up there as one of the top run defending & against the pass being asked to limit vertical plays. When you think of what we ask Tykee, Trotter, & Keionte Scott to do as extra box defenders makes needing Antoine in the box/as a blizer less necessary and obviously with a change in proximity in the action it’ll effect his stats/opportunities to make splash plays. I firmly believe getting Winfield back makes us just a little better and with the defense playing the way it has the last 2-3 games it’s more likely Winfield comes back and thrives within the system instead of just being a safety(pun intended) measure capping the top of the secondary.
70% of Winfields’ snaps in games he’s played he’s operated as a deep safety and in the games he’s played we ran Cover 3 51% of the time. This past game against Carolina we ran Quarters(what some of ya’ll call prevent D) for pretty much the entirety of the 2nd half.
Tykee however, has spent 25% of his reps as a box defender and has lined up as a slot CB on about 55%(how he got that pick off Bryce Young) and about 17% of his snaps as a single high safety. So I expect at some point after the return of Winfield we get back to rotating these 2 as far as giving Winfield some of the shares as that extra defender and coming down hill as often as we keep him back to play centerfield.
Do I think Ifeatu Melifonwu is “better” than Antoine Winfield? Hell no, but I do think Melifonwu can be a Mike Edwards type of 3rd option for us with Tweeze back. Imagine, having more talent in the safety room than you can put on the field at once, it’s worked out for us in the past. Kind of have the same problem in the OLB room to be honest.
October 30th, 2026 at 11:19 am
ProffesserVonBrainStorm … ‘The defense is completely irrelevant in the two lone wins in seven games.’
The Bucs’ defense held 2 teams both ranked in the Top-10 to only 13 pts then 16 pts in our 2 wins . Our defense forced SEVEN turnovers in those 2 games. Results like that are anything but ‘completely irrelevant’. But I’m sure you already knew that.
What I don’t know is why you spent your time making a comment like that. Statements like that are truly ‘completely irrelevant’ because they have no basis in fact.
October 30th, 2026 at 11:19 am
Will never get the image of him out of position a step behind Kuup against la. Why was he out of position on that crucial play? Was that the same call that was 3-28. We should move on. Just saying. It’s a 3-28 Bucs life.
October 30th, 2026 at 11:26 am
Warren Brooks Lynch … Nice analysis. There MIGHT be something more at play here though.
The young players out there MIGHT have been deferring more to Winfield (as a team captain) for leadership on the field prior to his injury. Without Winfield in there, MAYBE they were forced to change that and to rely more on each other rather than looking to one guy. I’ve seen that happen before in both sports & in my former profession. It can result in different communications’ dynamics, and sometimes better ‘cohesion’ as a unit (Secondary in this case obviously).
MAYBE it resulted in better ‘versatility Bowles has always tried to get out of that room’ that you noted.
October 30th, 2026 at 11:28 am
Winfield like The Receivers is another puzzle. I don’t think he has been missed while out . His replacement certainly has been playing well and is making plays.Ronde keeps saying Winfield is a great player?. So is Winfield ‘s silence due to his use? I can say this you almost don’t want him to return because the defense has been playing so well without him. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Yes I am puzzled the same way I am puzzled about the pass game?
October 30th, 2026 at 11:37 am
We made this guy the highest paid safety in the league and Melifonwu who signed a 1.25 million dollar contract in the offseason who has had literally less than 5 months of experience in Bowles defense is outplaying him. Now THAT’S sad.
October 30th, 2026 at 11:40 am
He is officially the most overpaid guy on this team
October 30th, 2026 at 11:41 am
ProffeserVonBrainStorm Says:
October 30th, 2026 at 10:45 am
The defense is completely irrelevant in the two lone wins in seven games.
—————————————————————————————–
The Bucs have the #3 ranked defense in the NFL.
October 30th, 2026 at 12:02 pm
“The young players out there MIGHT have been deferring more to Winfield (as a team captain) for leadership on the field prior to his injury. Without Winfield in there, MAYBE they were forced to change that and to rely more on each other rather than looking to one guy”
I mean, I don’t think it was just the young guys. As our FS with Tykee acting in the capacity of a true SS, Winfield was playing clean-up right behind Anzalone and I think that was somewhat by design considering all the new additions we’ve had young and old to our front 7. It took us a few games for that front 7 to gel and I can remember a few times in our first 2-3 games Winfield making a tackle than doing the “what’s this guy doing” palms up shoulder shrug toward the sideline. That’s also something to consider along with:
“Today, JoeBucsFan.com columnist Ira Kaufman asked Bowles how he will go about putting Winfield in position to make more splash plays.
“We just gotta use him more,” Bowles replied. “We hadn’t put in everything to access his talents. And we’re working on that right now.”
Which kind of hints at slowly integrating all the new pieces in our front/defense overall in order to run more of the scheme we know Winfield is most familiar with. Bowles quote kind of suggests, we weren’t going as deep into his playcall bag on D to start the season partly because the performance of the unit to start through didn’t warrant it. So we’ll see how he’s worked into the lineup upon his return, but I do feel he’s returning to a unit that’s found out how to play better together in his absence. However, I don’t agree his absence is what made the D better, at all. Still a quality football player in my opinion.
October 30th, 2026 at 12:08 pm
He isnt that good. End of story. I believe hes the reason we had so many busted coverages. Lack of communication.
October 30th, 2026 at 12:17 pm
Trade him, hes not missed
October 30th, 2026 at 12:19 pm
One of these weeks, Winfield is going to have one of those games where he is everywhere and making game changing plays.
Stay strong Winfield! Your time is gonna come
October 30th, 2026 at 12:23 pm
Barring injury, the defense is here to stay and gives them the shovel to dig out!
October 30th, 2026 at 12:39 pm
good wording – he was a playmaker and it’s not happening any more. Why?
October 30th, 2026 at 1:08 pm
Dude got his massive bag and hasn’t been the same since.
It’s arguable the defense has been better without him than with him this year.
Trade please
October 30th, 2026 at 1:18 pm
David Says:
October 30th, 2026 at 10:53 am
Winfield is an excellent blitzer and good run defender. Need to have him around the LOS more this week, creating havoc.
BINGO!!!!
GO BUCS!!!!!
October 30th, 2026 at 1:34 pm
Good points WBL…
October 30th, 2026 at 1:39 pm
DR great job putting professor dooms day in his place. Or thing irrelevant is that troll 😂
October 30th, 2026 at 1:45 pm
this guy’s career is over. he peaked in 3 years which is the average nfl career. was made the highest paid safety in the league at the time.
Since then he’s been terrible. he’s always hurt never plays and when he does he is in effective. Thank you for 3 good years and a superbowl. F”{k nostalgia its time to cut dead weight
I’d trade him for a Gateway sub at this point
October 30th, 2026 at 2:04 pm
Winfield needs to show up this week and make some plays. He wasnt missed at all while he was out and you would expect a guy making top money to play better than he has when he was in there. I know the Bucs won’t trade him as long as we have a chance at a playoff birth but if things go south he should be the first one on the chopping block.
October 30th, 2026 at 2:25 pm
There is one change I would like to see in our defense. We always seem to have inside linebackers cover tight ends. That would probably work against the slower guy like Otton, far less so against a fast no block tight end like Kyle Pitts. Maybe we could put an extra safety on the field to accomplish this
October 30th, 2026 at 3:13 pm
Another Licht signing in the secondary that got paid and never produced anything remotely close to what he’s getting. It’s a pretty obvious pattern….obviously one reason the players love Bowles, everyone gets a pay day and nobody gets cut or even benched. The acceptance of being average is the core challenge with this team. We lock in on winning our crappy division with zero foresight that we aren’t remotely close to contending or competing with elite teams. Look at the Giants, they’ve lost their starting QB, just cut a veteran RB….team competes every week for Harbaugh because he’s not about excuses and holds players accountable.
October 30th, 2026 at 3:31 pm
A lot of these guys are over paid. I feel like we get more production from the rookies and the younger guys that are not on big contracts. After these guys get paid they have no incentive to play to there potential.
October 30th, 2026 at 4:45 pm
Meli is a Different Safety he is 6 ft 3 compared to 5ft 10 it’s harder to throw over him an he had just been sound in his assignments not trying to do extra just being on the right place at the right time
October 30th, 2026 at 5:03 pm
What we really need is a great speedy tall coverage safety to play free safety and 1 of either Tykee or Winfield to play in the box and create havoc. Having two of them and trying to get one to cover deep all the time is a waste of talent and it’s not something either TS or AWjr. is really good at. We need an Arlen Garnes type out deep stopping passes. Or Meli seems to be doing the job quite well.
October 30th, 2026 at 5:28 pm
ATLBuc Says:
“The Bucs have the #3 ranked defense in the NFL.”
You mean the defense that shat the bed in the 4th quarter and OT vs Pittsburgh??
The same defense that has a 2-5 record??? The one that made Watson look like he was a SB champion???
The defense that can’t beat a team with a winning record???
Take them out of the NFCS and they are absolute zero.
October 30th, 2026 at 5:36 pm
AWJ is not going to get the splash plays in the role Bowles has him in.
October 30th, 2026 at 6:00 pm
Bowles gets the best out of all the young players. The proof is how they all keep getting better every year they’re in the system. There is no regression on a Todd Bowles coached team.
Todd knows best how to position Winfield for maximum benefit, especially on the other things.
October 30th, 2026 at 6:05 pm
AWJ id a vet at this point. When does he become accountable? Freelance, step up, read the play AWJ. His late on the scene helmut tap tackles tells me he is slow to process, but tbh, it looks to me like he is playing to protect himself… Often injured, he appears hesitant. Sure Bowles loves soft zone, but everyone else seems to be getting some splash in the big pool while lil AWJ has been wading in puddles for the last 17 game.
October 30th, 2026 at 6:57 pm
What a great name, “Melifonwu” and at this point the defense looks much better with him in there. Winfield is a good backup, but Meli should be the starter. We have a much better chance to get the win with him in there. He communicates much better than AWJ, and has ball skills with better length and just as fast. Maybe work AWJ in there somehow and give him the opportunity to look better than Meli. It ain’t happening. Gotta keep Meli rolling.
October 30th, 2026 at 7:12 pm
He was a hard hitting assassin the first few years. Soft as a marshmallow now.
October 30th, 2026 at 8:24 pm
The man ain’t playing the same as he once did. Keep his behind on the bench; Don’t mess up what we got going on on defense.
October 30th, 2026 at 9:21 pm
Melifonwu has earned it.
Who would you prefer?
À slow 5-9 FS playing deep center field?
Or a 6-3 Nigerian with a literal 6-6 wingspan?
Check the combine.
Melifonwu is 6-3 with a 6-6 wingspan.
That’s elite. That’s freakish.
Our FS needs to be long to cover centerfield.
Keep Melifonwu on the field.
October 30th, 2026 at 9:43 pm
Bowles knows best, his record speaks for itself. He didn’t earn his genius reputation by not knowing how to use his personnel properly. Whatever Winfield does is what Bowles wants him to do. It’s hard to win games in the NFL. Fans know that to be true.
October 30th, 2026 at 11:20 pm
@brainstorm the Bucs have only played one game against an nfcs opponent so far. The current record is squarely on the lack of offense, in 4 of our losses our offense put up less than 20 points. The other loss was the first game where Baker turned the ball over four times. Except for the Cowboys all of our opponents have had winning records at the time we played them too so it’s not like they stopped a bunch of slouch offenses.
October 30th, 2026 at 11:21 pm
@teacherman I agree, I think the Bucs should consider moving Winfield even if we suddenly win a few games before the trade deadline.