Antoine Winfield No. 89
June 19th, 2025
Surprise.
When prickly Pete Prisco of CBS came out with his annual summer Top-100 Players list. There were a couple of Bucs surprises for Joe.
One is a player on the list. One is who wasn’t on the list.
Prisco does a solid job with his homework and research. The Bucs player Prisco ommited is Lavonte David.
Prisco is a David fan, or seems to be since he’s been so high on David over the years. Some are not (see David’s criminally remote lone Pro Bowl appearance back in the January 2016 Pro Bowl).
Joe knows David may not have been vintage David last year but he was 34 and arguably the best Bucs defensive player. Who plays at 34 at linebacker the same way he did at 24?
Still, David’s omission raised an eyebrow on Joe’s noggin.
Another Bucs player in the Top-100 also raised an eyebrow. That would be safety Antoine Winfield. Prisco ranked Winfield at No. 89.
Injuries forced Winfield Jr. to miss eight games last season and he wasn’t the same player he had been in his first four seasons. But when healthy, he remains a player who can do a lot of things and a big part of the Tampa Bay defense. (Last season: No. 31)
Joe is a big Winfield fan, but what Prisco typed about Winfield not being the same player is an understatement.
Yes, yes, Winfield was beat up. Joe gets that. Never was he healthy after suffering his first injury late in the season opener against Washington. There were times last year where Winfield fell so far off, Joe wondered if he was so hurt, then maybe he should be off the field. It was jarring to see how badly his play diminished.
Winfield had been one of the better safeties in the game the moment he stepped on the field for the Bucs his rookie season in 2020. Last year? Yikes.
Joe sure hopes that was just a really bad one-year hiccup for the former All-Pro.
June 19th, 2025 at 12:28 am
Hopefully he stops taking regression therapy and gets back to the player we know.
Coaching matters.
June 19th, 2025 at 1:18 am
Antoine Winfield only played in 9 games in 2024. Bucs went 5-4 in those games.
Jamel Dean only played in 12 games in 2024. Bucs went 9-3 in those games.
Interestingly though they both played in only 5 games together. Bucs went 5-0 in those games.
Coincidence? Sure we’ll go with that.
June 19th, 2025 at 6:38 am
ESPN recently created its extremely subjective, “NFL All Quarter Century team: Best 53-man roster, coaches.”
Included were Ronde Barber and ‘no respect’ Lavonte David.
No Sapp, Brooks or Big Mike at FB, which is hard to believe since Sapp, with the exception of Donald, was the best of them all.
For Kicks, here’s the team:
QB: Brady, Peyton, Mahomes
RB: Priest Holmes, McCaffrey, Henry
FB: Kyle Juszczyk
WR: Moss, Calvin Johnson, Julio, TO, Marvin Harrison, Justin Jefferson
TE: Gronk, Kelce, Gonzo
LT: Joe Thomas, Trent Williams
LG: Alan Faneca, Steve Hutchinson
C: Jason Kelce
RG: Zack Martin, Marshal Yanda
RT: Lane Johnson, Willie Anderson
Edge: Demarcus Ware, Jared Allen, Myles Garrett, Julius Peppers
DT: Aaron Donald, Calais Campbell, Chris Jones
Nose: Wilfork
Versatile: JJ Watt
LB: Ray Lewis, Bobby Wagner, Brian Urlacher, Lavonte David, Luke Kuechly
CB: Darrelle Revis, Champ Bailey, Ronde Barber, Richard Sherman, Patrick Peterson
S: Ed Reed, Troy Polamalu, Brian Dawkins, Earl Thomas
K: Tucker
P: Shane Lechler
Return: Hester
ST: Matthew Slater
LS: Morgan Cox
Coaching staff:
Belichick
OC: Kyle Shanahan
DC: Wade Phillips
ST: Dave Toub
June 19th, 2025 at 6:42 am
This team needs to have him return to the All Pro form he displayed in 23.
He and Whitehead we’re just plain awful last year.
June 19th, 2025 at 7:00 am
@ DR
Nicw point sir…Wow!
Go Bucs!
June 19th, 2025 at 7:30 am
Winfield will comeback and ball this year. He doesn’t want to remembered as a guy whose career ended way too soon and with a defense that let a great offense down. Winfield and Tykee need to be joined at the hip in camp to make sure they communicate coverages. LFG!
June 19th, 2025 at 7:48 am
You would think that there’d be some pretty good communication and chemistry between Winfield and Dean since they’ve been in the same secondary since the super bowl season. That stat from DR makes sense though taken out of context. The offense, special teams, who we were playing, where we were playing, etc also factor in of course.
June 19th, 2025 at 7:49 am
Also, Winfield has that mentality where he’ll bounce back. He was probably injured enough where he probably shouldn’t have played but I don’t know how many options we had because Whitehead was hurt some too. There may not have been too many other options.
June 19th, 2025 at 9:45 am
While his injury was indeed a factor, I still maintain that his fall off was due to adjusted defense for lack of a middle linebacker behind David.
June 19th, 2025 at 11:01 am
The new blood will help stimulate the competition and should result in better play, better performance. A healthy Bryce Hall can compete for a starting role. I’m pumped about him.
The injury excuse now has plenty of padding before it can be brought forward as the reason why the pass defense is a laughing stock of the league for two straight years.
We shall see. Coaching matters. Results matter.
June 19th, 2025 at 11:16 am
David made the ESPN Best 1/4 Century Team at LB along with Lewis, Wagner, Urlacher and Kuechly.
He is in good company and not completely a Ghost when it comes to the Media.