“He’s A Little Sore”

August 13th, 2025

Out.

Bucs coach Todd Bowles today took a page from the NHL. And it has Joe spooked.

Last year Antoine Winfield entered the season as a reigning All-Pro safety. He got hurt late in the season-opening win over Washington. After that, Winfield looked too often like a No-Pro.

In fact, Joe was and is disturbed by how far Winfield fell off the map. Joe still maintains if Winfield was that injured, maybe he shouldn’t have been on the field.

More than a couple of times, Bowles has been adamant that Winfield’s issues last year were specifically his ankle and knee injuries, the latter by friendly fire (Zyon McCollum). With Winfield healthy, Bowles was confident Winfield would return to his previous dominant self.

And now he’s hurt. With an unknown injury.

“He has a lower leg injury,” Bowles said. “He’s a little sore.”

Bowles added nothing else. And Joe might have to guzzle Buffalo Trace to calm down.

If you think NFL coaches and teams are paranoid about injury information — and they very much are paranoid — then the NHL has a certifiable complex. They only refer to injuries as “upper body” or “lower body.” A guy could have a broken ankle or a fractured skull and you’d never know.

So Bowles referring to Winfield’s injury as “lower leg” scares Joe as an ankle is a “lower leg.” We all saw how rotten the Bucs’ pass defense was last year with a hobbled Winfield. The Bucs cannot afford Winfield to have the same issue again.

47 Responses to ““He’s A Little Sore””

  1. BucEmUp Says:

    Bro….fire the entire conditioning and medical staff now

  2. Rastaferian Jenkins Says:

    Starting to get some serious buyer’s remorse on that monster contract. The best ability is availability. The thought of beginning the year with Tykee Smith and Izean as starting safeties is terrifying.

  3. Jeff Says:

    Here we go! More Winfield injuries. JC!

  4. Gipper Says:

    Told all to take Emmanwori with 19th pick. If he doesn’t play safety, can play OLB. EE is going to be targeted maybe 5 times per game. Emmanwori is going to take 90% of defensive snaps. Who is more valuable?

  5. Truth be Told Says:

    this does not smell good. He was already overpaid and now appears to be injury prone. Hopefully this is just a scare-but get plan B ready for this season and the upcoming ones in all seriousness. Some guys its always something unfortunately. He may be one of them until we see otherwise. Go Bucs!

  6. Truth be Told Says:

    and Yes its that Putrid Pass Defense that is this team’s Kryptonite. Nothing good about this towards that end.

  7. LakelandBuc Says:

    These are my main concerns about this defense

    We will cut some good young Defensive Backs
    They will get scooped up quickly by other teams

    Then the DBs we keep will get injured ( as usual)
    Then we will be on the phone calling Ryan Neal, Jordan Whitehead

    There’s some good young players in this secondary
    And l hate to see them go somewhere else

  8. Ufc Says:

    Hurt doing what lol

  9. LakelandBuc Says:

    This is going to be a long season

  10. Bosch Says:

    I agree with BucEm. There is no way any other NFL team has as many non-contact injuries as the Bucs.

    Incidentally. That is a HUGE staff. Check it out on Buccaneers.com

  11. Bucs4Ever Says:

    His contract has an out after this season.

    Licht should probably renegotiate or straight up cut him IF…I say IF he struggles to stay on the field again.

    Gotta be on the field.

  12. Capt.Tim Says:

    It’s why you don’t pay big money to safeties. I know everyone is tired of me saying it- but it’s true.
    Safeties aren’t involved in enough plays to warrant big money. They also seem to drop off quickly without warning.
    Every year there are a lot of high quality safeties walking the street.

    I’m not saying signing Winfield was a mistake.
    But he was one of the worst rated safeties in the league last year.
    This year isn’t off to a great start either, from the sounds of it.

  13. Mickman Says:

    Hate to say it but, maybe this is the way he is gonna be ‘breaking down’ and ne er what he was when the backs paid him all pro money.

  14. GoneGator Says:

    Krap 😡
    We better keep JJ and Shilo.

  15. Tampabaybucfan Says:

    This is disturbing…Dean & Kancey next?

    And it’s mainly our defensive players…

  16. David Kilmer Says:

    Slow down Joe!!. It is training camp and he is going to get nicked up and sore. The season has not begun so take it easy.

  17. Aqualung Says:

    The Bucs training staff is farging inept.

  18. JTHV Says:

    Should probably utilize the AC field instead of the soul crushing heat field during these underwear football days

  19. Buc2Blame Says:

    Another player I said we shouldn’t have payed. His play as well as him becoming injury prone was visible asf

  20. Usfbucs Says:

    @David the Joes and everyone else should be worried. We deal with too many injuries. If it was just one season then we could write it off as a fluke. It’s every season now we have players with season ending injuries and nagging injuries.

  21. Slacker Says:

    Major money tied into injury concerns…Winfield, Dean and Godwin. And Dean isn’t that great when healthy. The jury is still out on Godwin, but he got paid to be a major contributor when on the field.

  22. Tony Says:

    @Gipper

    Just like I said all along about taking Josh Allen over Devin White but what do the fans know as usual.

    @BucEmUp

    I’ve been saying that for awhile now, too! How maybe they should look into the strength & conditioning coaches & all.

  23. buc4evr Says:

    Every single season the defense is banged up before the first game. I question why Jason drafted Morrison, a guy with hip surgeries that was never fully recovered. Seems like this organization keeps throwing money at injury prone players.

  24. BuccinBaker6, Says:

    Damn Joe these people turn on AWJ quick fast an in a hurry he will be fine he’s not overpaid he was All PRO an there being cautious with guys this training camp there not taking chances he will be fine he.prolly twerked something an he’s.sore.what Todd said rather let him rest up he doesn’t need to play in the Preseason I’d rather have stars on the sidelines so they don’t get seriously hurt

  25. buc4evr Says:

    Hope we don’t find out next that Winfield already had surgery…. just sayin…

  26. Aqualung Says:

    Ya, he was advised by Bucs’ quack I mean crack medical professionals to wait on the surgery and try to let it heal, instead of operating on it in February.

    smh

  27. VOT Says:

    JJ Roberts saves about 20 mil on the cap next year….Wally Pipp anyone?

    Winfield better not stay on the sideline too long

  28. Bucs4Ever Says:

    ladapo is our team dr

  29. Fishhawkbuc Says:

    Got paid= got injured. Easy math.

  30. Daniel Dream Says:

    we need to be doing camp on either real grass or a softer safer artificial turf and also utilize more air-conditioned facilities. hard artificial surface plus fatigue equals muscle and leg injuries out the wazoo. Get this fixed!

  31. BucsFan81 Says:

    Speaking of injuries rumor is Godwin won’t be ready until mid season. Kinda getting sick of all these guy commanding huge money and never on the field. Dean and Winfield especially.

  32. Weebs10 Says:

    This isn’t a big deal yet. Pit him on ice for a couple weeks, he knows the defense. Some of y’all need to chill

  33. Slacker Says:

    I’ve never had anything bad to say about Godwin and love what he does on the field but football is business and feel that he got paid a ton for a guy with huge question marks coming back from this injury. Definitely not a spring chicken anymore either.

  34. 813bucboi Says:

    Sounds like a calf injury….

    They’ve used that term describing kanceys injury…..

    Condition and nutrition staff need to be looked at

    GO BUCS

  35. Mobucs Says:

    I suspect that he isn’t big enough to hit as hard as he does as often as he does.

  36. Buddha Says:

    Injuries are no excuse. Rather not have them but Detroit lost seven starters and still had a great season. Defense should be much improved this year.

  37. Jmarkbuc Says:

    I would bet on Godwin to under promise and over deliver.

    He always has.

  38. firethecannons Says:

    We need to face facts that we may of gotten the best out of this player at this point. Injury of leg interferes with his speed and tweaks his mental. Safety may end up being a need next years draft.

  39. MelvinJunior Says:

    I’ve been wondering about him lately… It’s been awfully ‘quiet’ on the home front. Have barely even heard his name mentioned ONCE throughout this entire preseason, and NOW you tell me HE’s HURT!? GTFO

  40. heyjude Says:

    Disappointed. Was thinking a couple of days ago, it would be his year.

    Shilo is ready to play.

  41. BucU Says:

    Typical Buccaneers training camp. One after another going down. So who’s going down today in Pittsburgh? Pathetic.

  42. Bucsfan Says:

    Well if you have a fire breathing pressure machine for a Dline then injuries in the defensive backfield are not as damning , but JL has not signed Trey Hendrickson yet , so it is time to get that deal done.

  43. Buc91’ Says:

    All of you naysayers keep that energy when he’s in the field producing like he obviously knows how to do. I’m gonna keep the receipts. So many Bucs fans are about as stupid as stupid gets. And more than a little racist. I remember the Winston comments like it was yesterday. Yall only like some of these players as long as they are playing perfect. And most of yall would have owned slaves 200 years ago.

  44. infomeplease Says:

    With the arrival of fresh talent in the secondary, his absence will be missed but not to the extent as last season. I believe the Bucs are now
    better prepared for a worse case scenario.

  45. Ben Says:

    Unfortunate, every team deals with injuries but Winfield HAS to figure out how to stay on the field. He is too critical for us, and he is being PAID. Stay on the field or renegotiate, can’t have the 2nd coming of Jamal Adams.

  46. BillyBucco Says:

    Settle down geez.
    It could be a freakin hangnail.
    Why assume the worst?

    We are winning 13 games. Period.
    Let’s just watch how it happens.

  47. Warren Brooks Lynch Says:

    “prolly twerked something an he’s.sore.”

    LMAOOOOOOOO

 

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