The Ballhawks
November 12th, 2026
Half of the “Ballhawks.”
First, there were “The Gravediggers.” Now there are “The Ballhawks.”
Is there a better pair of corners than the Bucs’ Zyon McCollum and Jacob Parrish? Unlikely. Why? Because they are ballhawks.
The NFL has a stat called ballhawk rate. It’s the number of passes defensed plus picks divided by the number of targets a defender has.
The two best reside in the Bucs’ secondary, McCollum and Parrish. Both also lead the NFL in passes defensed. Parrish has 14, McCollum 11.
McCollum is also tied for second in the NFL in picks with four.
Whatever the Bucs did to keep McCollum from being bored … whomever solved that riddle needs a raise. And Parrish, just a damn good job evolving into one of the better corners in the league.
November 12th, 2026 at 3:49 am
BallHawks! I like that name.
November 12th, 2026 at 5:24 am
And we still manage to lose games. Not to forgot we have one the best run games but that’s about to come to an end after the bye when they start limiting Bucky’s touches.
November 12th, 2026 at 5:49 am
Anzalone is ballhawking pretty good as well. Gotta figure out this offense, though. Maybe some slant routes – of course you gotta throw and catch.
November 12th, 2026 at 5:52 am
Seems like they don’t go after Parrish as much. Although he made great plays as usual, I didn’t hear his name called very much in that bears game.
November 12th, 2026 at 6:08 am
Ballhawks is a perfect nickname for this cornerback pair, and the ballhawk rate stat backs it up nicely. McCollum and Parrish both leading the league in passes defensed is a huge statement for the Bucs secondary. I follow NFL news at TrendWire, and this defense deserves more attention even when the offense struggles.
November 12th, 2026 at 6:21 am
I like it.
DC Superhero style (eh, almost).
November 12th, 2026 at 6:22 am
Licht is clueless. lol
Give that man a beer. LFG!!!!
November 12th, 2026 at 6:26 am
They have perfected their ballhawk skills in practice picking off Baker often. We’ve been bamboozled by the low character village drunk turnover machine “Baker the Faker”.
November 12th, 2026 at 6:35 am
Maybe our much-maligned pass rush deserves some credit here too. A cornerback can only ballhawk when their quarterback throws it where he can reach it. If he can wait all day, or toss it to an open tight end or running back, well, I saw too much of that last year! Just goes to show, football is the ultimate team game.
November 12th, 2026 at 6:37 am
Kiddo you are kidding. Right?
Have you ever heard of Gainwell & Tucker? lol
Give that man a beer! 😆😂😆😂😆😂
November 12th, 2026 at 7:19 am
Joe loves his sacks and I do too. But we differ in that I like pressures as they can lead to incompletions and picks. We saw Caleb Williams avoiding sacks by throwing reckless passes that got picked by Zyon.
Picks can lead to points (too bad our offense sucks), but they can also prevent points – something often ignored.