Zyon McCollum Addresses Boredom Charge
June 3rd, 2026
Honest discussion of struggles.
Last year Bucs cornerback Zyon McCollum’s play really slipped.
Joe didn’t like his body language. At times, McCollum looked like he had thrown in the towel.
KitKat-eating Bucs coach Todd Bowles seemed to be covering for McCollum when Bowles, a couple of times, had an incredulous claim that McCollum’s problem was that he sometimes got bored.
An NFL player being bored? Joe never heard of such a thing, unless a player was so damn dominant that unless he faced an equally talented foe or was in a win-or-die moment, he lost focus.
(John Madden used to say that unless a game was close, Raiders quarterback Kenny Stabler got so bored that after a timeout, Stabler would forget the play before he reached the huddle. But if Stabler was in a close game, Madden said he was unequaled as a locked-in fighter.)
So yesterday after OTA practice, McCollum confessed he at times did get bored.
Bowles has McCollum “focusing on the little details, and he’s been hard on me throughout the summer, and throughout these OTAs, in terms of … always being in a football-ready position,” McCollum said, in his first public chat since the 2025 season.
“If the quarterback is not looking to your side, like still trying to fight [a lack of focus],” he said. “You know there are going to be boring times out there at corner, you know? Sometimes, especially in Bowles’ defense, he dials it up for all types. Everybody’s going to get some action. So when your number is not getting called, you’ve got to hold it down for the rest of the defense.
“Just do your job and fight that boredom.”
It’s wild that an NFL starting corner would admit he gets bored on the field and loses focus if he doesn’t think the quarterback will throw to his side of the field.
Joe applauds McCollum’s candor, but wow. A bored corner?
For some strange reason, the Howard Stern Show skit of impressionist Billy West imitating Larry Fine at Woodstock springs to mind.
Fine/West is trying to sell drugs using the concert’s PA system before Jimi Hendrix takes the stage. Fine/West says, “How about Ritalin? It worked for Curly.”
June 3rd, 2026 at 9:01 am
Was he bored getting torched all last season?
June 3rd, 2026 at 9:04 am
Maybe he needs to be treated for attention deficit disorder.đ¤
June 3rd, 2026 at 9:10 am
The guy is mentally lacking. I donât think he was bored, I think he was getting his ass handed to him and gave up. He should not be a starter.
June 3rd, 2026 at 9:16 am
Wow, even Bowles handpicked players think the defensive scheme is boring. Playing 10 yards off the LOS and staying in zone is boring to watch too. Especially when you rarely see a sack. Oh boy…this has got to be the last year of this nonsense.
June 3rd, 2026 at 9:22 am
This is a scathing indictment on the guru HC\DC. His players on defense are bored???
Well, we fans are extremely bored watching the same tired and busted pass defense scheme getting boat raced during stretch runs late in the season.
Every day Bowles is employed at OBP is a wasted day. Fruitless efforts.
The results speak for themselves. Wake up Glazers!
June 3rd, 2026 at 9:25 am
He doesnât have the âitâ
Plays because heâs a gifted athlete but has NO DOG !
Thatâs something in a playerâs DNA âŚ. So he is what he is
Replaceable!
June 3rd, 2026 at 9:28 am
Is boredom the new politically correct word for quitter? I really hope that’s not the case!
June 3rd, 2026 at 9:37 am
You can draft great players etc but at the end of the day these soft corners can’t cover a fern must less a receiver, Honestly Bucs will be lucky to go 3-14
June 3rd, 2026 at 9:39 am
Finesses player you can tell he doesnât put work in his craft.
June 3rd, 2026 at 9:40 am
Not a good look at all! There is a reason he was drafted in the 5th rd, when he had all the physical traits of a 1st rounder.
June 3rd, 2026 at 9:42 am
All of these clowns are so full of themselves with their documentaries, media tours, etc.
The team sucks. Basically a 500 team. Mike Evans made the right call.
Clean House
June 3rd, 2026 at 9:42 am
35 million guaranteed, that’s what made him bored. He joined the Winfield/Dean club. They both should be embarrassed for there play last year. Reddick should be banned forever attending even a game again. Like SB said either you got dog or not. Sometimes you can have dog until you get paid. By the way Joe Bucs Fan has
dog.
June 3rd, 2026 at 9:45 am
High school football 50 years ago in Oklahoma. Me and my twin brother were our cornerbacks. Different game, for sure. Alot of awful good players. Strong side corner lined up on the tight end side. Weak side corner ( me) lined up on wide receiver or flanker back ( what we called them back then). My junior year I played corner but moved into a position we called Rover Back for probably more than half the snaps that year. Led the team in tackles. Only job was to follow the ball. Senior year I had 24 tackles the entire year. In one game as a rover I had 19 tackles. Our 25 year head coach had retired after my junior year. Teams that threw alot back then might throw the ball 15 times a game. If the receiver ran a down and out you have to cover him, even if the ball is going the other way- until it crossed the line of scrimmage. So Boring. Watching film I could see there were reasons to go non stop to the whistle. But it could, at times, be the most boring position on the field. But thereâs never an excuse to not play through the whistle. Or as we were taught- through the echo of the whistle. Thereâs always somebody to hit. No excuses for Zyon. Heâs gotta be better.
June 3rd, 2026 at 9:47 am
So much for gang tackling and helping your brothers out.
June 3rd, 2026 at 9:53 am
I’m tired of hearing this excuse. It’s so lame. You get paid millions of dollars, train all off-season, and all week for a game, and you can’t lock in for 60-70 plays? Gtfo with these excuses
June 3rd, 2026 at 9:54 am
Trade him, if possible.
June 3rd, 2026 at 9:57 am
This guys needs to be shipped out of here. I know we need to find a replacement, but he openly admits to this and our idiot head coach has no problem saying it either. I am embarrassed for both of them. I will be in Cincinnati for the opener and in Chicago at the Bears game and watch what being bored gets him in those games. What a joke. 2-7 down the stretch last year after the bye, not hard to see why that happened……
June 3rd, 2026 at 10:08 am
Dude looks like Sideshow Bob
June 3rd, 2026 at 10:13 am
AAWW Shucks. Don’t worry about it. It’s nothing. Ever’ thang gonna be all right.
June 3rd, 2026 at 10:17 am
Zyon resembles a multi-million dollar brussel sprout.
June 3rd, 2026 at 10:19 am
Joe … ‘Joe applauds McCollumâs candor, but wow. A bored corner?’
Sorry Joe, but I don’t think that ‘boredom’ is the real issue with McCollum. Lots of media & fans have grabbed hold of that as a descriptor, but most are adding their own definitions of ‘bored’. It DOESN’T mean that the defensive scheme is boring. It DOESN’T mean that McCollum is just going through the motions because he’s now making big money. And it DOESN’T mean that he’s a quitter.
A LOT has been written about professional athletes getting ‘bored’ and, more importantly, how to deal with it. LOTS of factors can play in there, such as psychological mechanisms (like dopamine drops) that can be behind this. But athletes CAN train their brains to stay engaged during slow moments, and there are specific coping strategies players use to fight in-game mental lapses.
Having flown high performance aircraft for years (when I was younger of course), I can say without hesitation that no one maintains 100% focus 100% of the time. But that’s still the goal, even though it’s virtually unattainable.
I’m convinced that Zyon understands the problem, and that he’s focusing (on maintaining focus) more than ever. I like what he said at the end of his quote:
“Sometimes, especially in Bowlesâ defense, he dials it up for all types. Everybodyâs going to get some action. So when your number is not getting called, youâve got to hold it down for the rest of the defense. Just do your job and fight that boredom.â
June 3rd, 2026 at 10:20 am
ooops, I left off the “s” in brussel”s”
June 3rd, 2026 at 10:20 am
I just commented on the other post about McColumn. The boredom thing is a poor excuse and not believable. I mean people with passion and being competitive don’t get bored when being made to look silly on the field. His play for a starting cb was at times down right embarrassing!!!. I don’t think that was boredom unless to you add I don’t really care to the boredom statement. The bottom line the Bucs missed the boat on thus guy. He did look like he would develop at one point ,but didn’t. The Bucs should not offer him a starting job. They should have brought in an established CB and made McColumn earn his starting position. I think the Bucs are in denial with him and hoping to get the most for their investment. However sometimes you have to cut your loses. Again I think they have taken a huge risk with nothing to go too when he again becomes bored. I expect he will be exposed like Dennis in the very first game at Cinn.
June 3rd, 2026 at 10:25 am
thatâs what happens when you give an entitled child millions of dollars to play a game, devante adams made him look worse than my 80 yr old grandmother trying to cover him when the qb looked his way. heâs got to be very close to being benched
June 3rd, 2026 at 10:27 am
football 1- exactly
an attitude like this is cancer
June 3rd, 2026 at 10:30 am
Not a good look for him, Bowles, Licht, and all position coaches (at that time). Be prepared at all times and hustle.
Bored – are you kidding me!? Attitude adjustment coming.
June 3rd, 2026 at 10:30 am
So that would be the opposite of guys that LOVE football. If you love it your excited just to be on the field. Practice or game doesn’t matter. And that folks can be the difference in winning and losing. One player making one big mental error mistake. Unacceptable. Where are our standards? It’s s Bucs life
June 3rd, 2026 at 10:31 am
Not as worried about McCollum as some of you seem to be, in fact I’m expecting him to bounce back and be more of his 2024 self than his 2025 run that ended with him on IR, for actually being injured.
June 3rd, 2026 at 10:42 am
Cleanhouse Says:
June 3rd, 2026 at 9:42 am
“Mike Evans made the right call.”
Actually, we won’t know until the end of the season if he made the right call.
If the Bucs don’t win the division and miss the playoffs and the 49ers win their division, he made the right decision.
We’ll see what happens.
I don’t see San Francisco getting past the Rams now. He must have been extremely happy with his decision now to see Miles Garrett joining an already pretty tough defense of a div rival. Stafford will be lucky to get out of games against the Rams alive.
Oh, and let’s not forget San Francisco’s upcoming travel miles. LOL
June 3rd, 2026 at 10:47 am
Pro – he owned up to it.
Con – that it happened in the first place.
Maybe letting these corners play up a little more and jam might wake him up.
Bad look for him, the coaching staff and the personnel dept.
June 3rd, 2026 at 10:47 am
Oh, and about the boredom issue, was Barber ever bored out there? This kid has all the intangibles to be a great corner, he just has to get his head straight. He has to expect the ball to come his way every single time. I’m not a football guru but I do realize good quarterbacks will look off the receiver they actually really want to throw too. He has to play EVERY SNAP like the WR he’s covering is going to be getting every pass.
Morrison has his head on straight and if he stays healthy, it will be he and Parrish on each side and McCullum on the bench (making way more money than the other two corners combined, sadly).
June 3rd, 2026 at 10:47 am
He’s a heck of an athlete, but he certainly took a step back last year.
I agree with others who’ve said we should bring in some veteran CB talent and give Mr. McCollum a run for his money.
Given how much we’re paying him, you hate to see that kind of money go to waste sitting on the bench. But, it might just motivate him.
And frankly, for that kind of money he should be giving 100% every minute of every day without having to have a fire lit under his backside.
June 3rd, 2026 at 10:52 am
I wonder if some of these DB’s seemed disinterested or got “hurt” (Dean) during the most important games because they knew the scheme was substandard and they didn’t have much of a chance at being successful against an OC who knew what he was doing.
June 3rd, 2026 at 10:57 am
I don’t think “bored” is an accurate word. He played pretty darn well in 2024. I think he was adversely effected by that multi million dollar paycheck. Now I don’t know if he figured “I’ve got mine” and just coasted or if trying to live up to his $15 mil a year salary made him poop his pants a little bit, but the money changed him. Plus he kinda strikes me as someone who just ain’t quite the sharpest tool in the shed. He was never destined to be the next superstar, but if he goes back to just being solid and paying attention to detail I think he can be at least pretty good.
June 3rd, 2026 at 10:59 am
And no…we cannot cut or trade him this year even if he knocks up the coaches daughter.
June 3rd, 2026 at 11:01 am
This mind set is apparently acceptable on this team. Reason # 6,295,034 why Todd should’ve been fired.
June 3rd, 2026 at 11:06 am
Bet he was never bored cashing that ridiculous early extension Licht gave him.
June 3rd, 2026 at 11:06 am
If anyone is bored, like Devin White and this guy, they need to be bored on the bench. Then eventually, bored on the unemployment line.
I wish the Bucs had a guy who they could pay that would actually help motivate the players and have them ready to play…Something along the lines of what A HEAD COACH IS SUPPOSED TO DO.
June 3rd, 2026 at 11:24 am
Paying players with that attitude is the reason we don’t have the cap space to bring in other veteran players.
June 3rd, 2026 at 11:38 am
Don’t write Zyon off just yet.
Given how bad the team was last year, we were all pretty bored. This year should be much different.
And, btw, one bored player does not a team make!
June 3rd, 2026 at 11:45 am
I get being perceived as a lockdown player and getting bored because youâre just not getting targets in a game. I get the âgame within the gameâ that players must manage play to play. 100% vs 75% output goes a long way, in energy conservation, through 4 quarters. If you can predict this from watching opposing offenses tape, you become a next level player.
But how many years was Zion really that good of a CB to earn this kind of âstatusâ. Time to go back to basics/fundamentals young man. I believe he will figure it out
June 3rd, 2026 at 11:45 am
It was a stupid thing for Bowles to say. Itâs even stupider for McCollum to acknowledge it.
Have some pride.
June 3rd, 2026 at 11:51 am
Yes I think this is a serious issue and hardly limited to zyon.
Players need to focus on whats needed and ignire toe closing culture of much of the planet
June 3rd, 2026 at 11:53 am
The size of his bank account made him bored. He played for the money and he got paid (like AWJ). Fat Cats get lazy, not bored. They have a lack of professionalism and motivation once they achieve that goal. Hope he can overcome it but Iâm not convinced he has the fire now.
June 3rd, 2026 at 11:54 am
Zyon is untradable now. Restructured dead cap, too much cap hit and little chance of getting anything worthwhile in return. Another JL error in judgement for the exorbitant extension and a second error for the restructure making him impossible to cut or move.