Todd Bowles: Offenses Avoided Tykee Smith
January 14th, 2025
Tampa Bay’s rookie playmaker at nickel cornerback and safety had 2 interceptions, 7 passes defensed and 3 forced fumbles through Week 14.
And that doesn’t count the one forced fumble Tykee Smith had stolen from him by referees.
But in the final five games of the season, Smith didn’t register any of those stats. He was more quiet but not invisible.
Joe asked Todd Bowles whether Smith’s playmaking fell off because he hit a rookie wall.
Bowles said that wasn’t the case and even noted how offenses were respecting the rookie third-round pick.
“He got banged up and he missed some time. He got banged up, he was playing with a knee [injury]. When he came back, he made the plays he was supposed to make,” Bowles said. “He set the edge, he did some good things and he was one of our best players on defense.
“He didn’t hit a rookie wall at the end of the year. They started going away from him some and he started being a non-factor because the ball wasn’t showing up but he did everything he was supposed to do.”
High praise there from Bowles. Frankly, Joe was surprised to hear the head coach say Smith was becoming “a non-factor,” but it was interesting to hear his belief teams were avoiding Smith.
Joe knows Smith is held in very high regard at One Buc Palace. He’s certainly a rookie the team expects to take the second-year leap common among excellent players.
January 14th, 2025 at 5:41 am
Good to hear but it also means that there were many other places on the field for the opponents to attack. Two interceptions isn’t enough to scare off an offense.
January 14th, 2025 at 6:23 am
4 home losses last year. 5 home losses this year. 2-6 record in one score games.
29th ranked pass defense. Yeah, us Todd Bowles critics are just haters.
Gotcha.
January 14th, 2025 at 7:24 am
I was wondering why we had josh Hayes covering mclaurin when Dean went down. That was beyond me, why we didn’t rotate help to his side. Put Smith out there 1 on 1 drop mike Edwards 2 nickel or Antoine Winfield there was 2 much pressure on the line. Daniels just had 2 buy time until his receiver got 2 the top of his route n throw 2 the open spot in coverage.
January 14th, 2025 at 7:38 am
After the emotion of the loss/year set in and you look at the rookie/2nd yr starters/players we have, Buc fans have to be positive about the long term outlook of this team. On both sides of the ball, there were players that got stronger as the year went on. Kancey, YaYa, Smith, Zyon, 43 on D. Bucky, both TE’s, J Mac, Barton, etc on offense. IF they keep Liam, get CG14 back healthy and target ILB and edge support, they have the people in place. I’m not in the group that wants to fire the HC, but he does need to make changes to ST and defensive coaching.
January 14th, 2025 at 7:57 am
It’s not so much the opposing offenses were avoiding Smith, but they were drawn to the Bucs future UPS drivers.
January 14th, 2025 at 8:02 am
BucU makes a good case. The defense needs more than just an infusion of talent. It needs a new philosophy. Corners playing ten yards off every time it’s third down is so predictable.
Anyone at home could see where the offense was going to attack on Sunday night. It was so uncanny, it was laughable. Bowles’ defense is toast.
January 14th, 2025 at 8:17 am
Why challenge Smith when Hayes is on the field
January 14th, 2025 at 8:23 am
It will be good to have Izien back. Nobody minded the many secondary injury gaps like he did.
On that note, I am of the the opinion that Todd’s use of DBs is the number one contributing factor to their “frailty.” Let them cover and let your OLBs rush
January 14th, 2025 at 8:58 am
Yeah they started throwing to the gaping holes in your defense instead of to your defenders. Opposing WRs are more alone in the middle of our defense than an incel in their parent’s basement.
January 14th, 2025 at 9:05 am
Smith was impressive this year for a rookie. Looong forward to great things from him to come!
January 14th, 2025 at 10:09 am
Bryce Hall was a great add to back up Dean – as well all know about Dean’s availability problems. Hall did well in camp and went out early in the season. We talked about bringing in an experienced CB immediately. I think Bowles told Licht that he wanted to go with Funderburk and Hayes, who knew Bowles’ complicated defense. We know how that turned out. When Dean played, the pass defense was average. When Funderburk and Hayes played, Bowles only used his Charmin-soft zone and the Bucs lost too many games.
Bowles’ defense is too complicated and only recycled guys from prior years or free agents from camp can step in.
January 14th, 2025 at 10:42 am
Smith did seem to go away as time went on, but it never really thought about QBa just picking in someone more vulnerable. And an awful lot of the time it looked like there was always someone left either uncovered entirely or just unhindered. It was just too easy. Now some of that could be insufficient pressure, but mostly it was just people back there just weren’t on the ball. What, did we have like 7 ints? Challenge the receivers at least a little. Get some hands on balls.
January 14th, 2025 at 11:11 am
28-27 overall record as HC in Tampa
1-3 in postseason games
29th ranked defense
Zero punts forced from a Rookie QB led team on the road in his first playoff game
Settling for FGs while the opponent goes for TDs
Talk about failing upwards. Bowles should head to Washington DC next.
January 14th, 2025 at 11:33 am
Why go at Smith when you can throw to wide open receivers in the middle of the field? Third, and six? No problem, 19 yards over the middle, 1st down. Over, and over again, no problem. 92 yards, 9 minutes of clock, TD, no problem. Why go at Smith?
January 14th, 2025 at 11:40 am
He’s one of my favorite young players
January 14th, 2025 at 12:00 pm
Tykee Smith was good but still got exposed many times throughout the year especially vs the Falcons….
The good news is that many times he did get exposed he was still in position to make the plays most the time…that should get fixed in the offseason.
January 14th, 2025 at 12:38 pm
I hope they bring Bryce hall back. He’s deff a starter in this league. Dean needs to be replaced. He’s good at man but if he can’t play a full game then what good is he. Smith will make that leap and it will be exciting. If windfield can come back to the level of play he had before zyon developing maybe bring back whitehead and Edwards we can deff have a better secondary. Injuries killed up in that department. I mean hall was depth izien was depth Edwards was depth and we lost not just starters but our depth too. Highly doubt that happens to one unit again next year. Except for Dean he’s always riding the pine.
January 14th, 2025 at 2:18 pm
When you have a 34 yo LB playing faster and harder that most of the unit then something is dreadfully wrong. That is what is happening now with Lavontae David.
January 14th, 2025 at 6:07 pm
I call BS. Teams were going right after him on short 5-10 yard pass plays.
Look at the first half of the Washington game.