All-Pro?

There are a lot of things wrong with the Bucs.

Yeah, Joe knows the “You’re negative” crowd will scream. Guess what? If you don’t want Joe to be negative, maybe the Bucs shouldn’t give Joe so much firewood to be negative.

Joe wants this team to win, win a Super Bowl. And right now it’s a far cry from that, highlighted by a record of 4-6. Now that’s negative.

One thing positive in the shockingly depressing Bucs secondary is the play of Antoine Winfield. The guy is just all over the field. Just in last week’s game alone, Winfield set a Bucs franchise record with 16 tackles. The dude is on fire.

World famous JoeBucsFan.com columnist, the Sage of Tampa Bay sports, Ira Kaufman, has stated Winfield is playing at a Pro Bowl level.

You know who agrees? Conor Orr of SI.com. Orr marvels at Winfield and documents how rare it is for a safety to be linebacker-line in run defense but play lockdown pass defense like a corner.

It’s worth celebrating when your team may have the best player at a single position, which is a testament not only to the player, but also the personnel team and the coaching staff. Winfield is such a physically dominant player in the secondary. One of my favorite moments of this year came against the Eagles on an inside handoff to Kenneth Gainwell. Nothing fancy, but when I rewound the tape, I was stunned to see that Winfield, starting well behind the linebackers, beat Devin White to the ball despite the fact that Gainwell was running right into White’s gap. Winfield’s eagerness to assist in the run puts him right up there with Jabrill Peppers in terms of best pure run-defending members of the secondary. But when you add in Winfield’s coverage stats, which include a career-best in opposing QB completion percentage and opposing QB rating, you have a complete and total force. If the Buccaneers can reach the postseason, he’s a player I’m most concerned about due to his singular ability to change the game. We haven’t even gotten to his pass-rushing abilities yet.

Think about how bad the Bucs’ pass defense would be without Winfield. Imagine how many more losses the Bucs might have if the Bucs didn’t have Winfield stopping the run, or his perfectly-time blitzes?

Joe would argue the Bucs defense would be absolutely lost without Winfield. And the Minnesota product reinforces that belief more and more each week.