Tykee Smith Wants A Position Change
February 26th, 2025
The Buccaneers head coach made it very clear yesterday as he stood arm’s length from Joe in Indianapolis.
Standout 2024 Bucs rookie nickel cornerback/safety Tykee Smith wants to play safety next season — full-time.
And, per Coach Bowles, the Bucs will be looking at making that move when spring practice fires up in March.
For Joe, it was a clear sign the Bucs are strongly considering moving on from safety Jordan Whitehead, who had a significant injury in a January car accident. Whitehead also didn’t have a good season.
Joe asked Bowles if Smith didn’t like nickel or didn’t feel it suited his game. No, Bowles replied, Smith wants to be on the field for every snap and the Bucs like him on the field.
That’s understandable considering Bowles is adamant he wants “ballhawks.”
Smith had 2 interceptions and 3 forced fumbles last season (and a fourth was stolen by a bad call).
Joe thinks versatile Christian Izien looks primed to return to his 2023 nickel spot. He’s well liked and respected at One Buc Palace.
February 26th, 2025 at 9:43 am
Don’t care for izien love tykee game and how he plays need more of that
February 26th, 2025 at 9:48 am
Tykee is gonna be new safety and Whitehead will be cut, that’s gonna happen
February 26th, 2025 at 9:58 am
@ zz
I agree.
Whitehead is probably moving on and the Bucs will hopefully use his $4.5M salary to help pay for a vet edge rusher…
February 26th, 2025 at 9:58 am
Is Edwards coming back? He’d be a great third.
February 26th, 2025 at 10:02 am
It’s Feb 2025 and I still can’t believe Baker fumbled that snap!
Bro cost us the game
February 26th, 2025 at 10:06 am
Jarrett… come on man, it sucked but there were 2 more chances to win that game. Also, he fumbled the hand off, not the snap.
I am good with Izien as SCB … guy has more picks than Dean in the last 2 years. I suspect Izien and Dean will have competition for the jobs anyway by the time May rolls around.
February 26th, 2025 at 10:30 am
Winfield, Tykee Smith, Edwards, Merriweather would be good for safety. McCollum outside CB, izien slot. Need to decide what to do with Dean and draft another corner regardless (maybe two) but good at safety. Probably need two ilb and an edge or two. Free agency for one or two of those needs. Edge makes most sense with how rookies perform at those positions
February 26th, 2025 at 10:34 am
Saskbucs … ‘I suspect Izien and Dean will have competition for the jobs anyway by the time May rolls around.’
If you’re talking about Izien playing outside, I don’t think so. At 5’10” (on tip toes) Izien isn’t the prototypical outside CB that Bowles covets. He has had some very good games at nickel however.
February 26th, 2025 at 10:35 am
I love the idea of getting Smith on the field full time. Dude’s a baller.
Whitehead’s $4.5M cap # can be spent elsewhere & his roster spot can be filled in the draft or with role player FA for less coin.
February 26th, 2025 at 10:39 am
No brainer.
February 26th, 2025 at 10:53 am
DR… Re Saskbucs … ‘I suspect Izien and Dean will have competition for the jobs anyway by the time May rolls around.’
I took it as him referring to newly drafted players and maybe a few free FA signings being added positional competion rather than Izien playing outside.
Hoping we draft or sign another cornerback for competition or depth but maybe we’ll get to see the Bryce Hall experiment become successful. I know they had high hopes for him before the season ending injury right off the bat.
February 26th, 2025 at 10:55 am
Let Whitehead and Dean go, and you’ve created like 12 million in cap space. That money is better spent on other players.
Tykee at safety makes sense. I believe this was always the plan anyway. He was a hybrid safety/nickel at Georgia. He was a safety in all the pre-draft publications. It wouldn’t even be a position change really. He’s probably a traditional safety on 1st down, but then becomes the nickel when they go to 5 DBs. Not really a big deal.
February 26th, 2025 at 11:01 am
Coburn … ‘Winfield, Tykee Smith, Edwards, Merriweather would be good for safety. McCollum outside CB, izien slot.’
Perfect setup; we’ll just need to re-sign Edwards & Merriweather since they’re both FAs. I don’t think we’re gonna release or trade Dean this year (because of his dead CAP, we don’t really gain that much). I could see us re-sign Bryce Hall (I like him), and draft a Rnd 1 or 2 outside CB, then add 1 more veteran CB for depth. That’d give us 10 in the Secondary, with solid starters and quality depth.
I’m still not sure what the plan is for ILBs. Depends a lot obviously on what LVD decides to do. If he retires, I could see us draft 1 OLB very high (probably Rnd 1) and add a quality veteran as a potential starter to replace LVD. Even if LVD decides not to retire, Bucs may still be looking for a starter-capable veteran ILB … for depth. Probably keep 2 others (Dennis & either Britt or Russell).
Most everyone seems to want us to draft an Edge, but if a beastly DT/NT is available in Rnd 3, I’d personally prefer that to rotate in with Vea (we were too light last year without him in there). I’d also re-sign Gaines, but not Gholston. Probably re-sign Brewer also (he had several quality games & may be coming on now). That’d give us Vea, Big Rookie, Gaines, Kancey, Hall, Brewer for our Front-3. Diaby & Braswell will both get a lot of snaps this season at OLB, and I’d re-sign Nelson (as long as his price is reasonable). Would definitely like to see us add a veteran OLB/DE potentially capable of hitting double-digit sacks. Gotta keep Joe happy. Would keep 1 more OLB (Shaq) at least for awhile to see what’s still left in the tank.
That’d give us a 10-man Secondary, 4 ILBs, 6 DLine & 5 OLBs for a total of 25 on defense. Keep 25 on offense then 3 S/Ts and we’re there.
February 26th, 2025 at 11:04 am
BTW Whitehead’s currently on the teams Non-Football Injury list, but that does count against our CAP ($4.5 mil). Not sure how the Bucs will opt to deal with that, since in the past we’ve been reluctant to release players who were rehabbing.
February 26th, 2025 at 12:06 pm
Yikes if you don’t like Izien gotta be a hater udfa comes in makes plays and keeps his head down keeps grinding
February 26th, 2025 at 12:45 pm
If healthy, that is a good three headed monster right there. Just need a CB who can play opposite McCollum.
February 26th, 2025 at 2:43 pm
I like the ideas at safety and I happen to like Izien. The guy plays hard every play that I see. I agree with DR that we are unlikely to do anything with Dean this year. I’m hoping Bryce Hall can relieve him when Dean’s on his period. Can Hall also play inside some? Anyway we need another free agent and probably a pick outside. Same with ILB. Off of defense, but it’s starting to look like we need a receiver or two also. Some help is going to have to be recruited from other teams. We need to many pieces to be trading picks.
February 26th, 2025 at 3:08 pm
DR sounds good. Yeah I forgot about hall. I liked him before injury and means we may be ok only drafting one corner. I do still think we need someone opposite Diaby. Ideally you want there edge types to get after the passer to rotate, but I do respect ability to collapse pocket in the middle
February 26th, 2025 at 5:09 pm
Izien was good find, atleast he can hold his own as opposed to KJ Britt which seems out of place.
February 26th, 2025 at 6:24 pm
Tykee is going to be an All Pro. Proper.
February 26th, 2025 at 7:10 pm
I love Izien he’s a winner anyone that does like him hasn’t watched his play.
February 26th, 2025 at 8:14 pm
FS: AWJr. Kaevon
SS: Tykee. Edwards (resign)
LCB: Zyon. draft pick
RCB: F/A or Bryce Hall (resign)
NB: Izzy. TT (resign)
February 26th, 2025 at 9:30 pm
Do it but we need depth at both positions. Both izen and tykee haven’t played a full season they both missed multiple games gunna need to account for that
February 27th, 2025 at 9:32 am
Dont forget about salary csp felĺa’s lots of moving partS To some of the 25 man defense. GO BUCS GO JASON L. Zand salary cup guru.
February 27th, 2025 at 2:17 pm
This is a great move. Additionally, there are so really good safeties in rounds 4 and 5. Edward’s also needs to be let go, he has no upside.