Antoine Winfield No. 49
June 18th, 2022
Rise and grind.
What a draft, what a year 2020 was for the Bucs.
A kickarse draft by Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht was sort of a sign of what was to come. Licht started the 2020 draft in a way many general managers would kill to achieve.
In the first round Licht selected right tackle Tristan Wirfs. Boom!
In the second round Licht selected safety Antoine Winfield. Boom!
Who knew Licht drafted not just two players who would play critical starting roles for a Super Bowl winner that season, but two likely pillars of the Bucs’ lineup for maybe the next 10 years?
Winfield became everything the Bucs hoped, a ball-hawking safety who can hit, tackle force turnovers. For this, Winfield was ranked No. 49 on prickly Pete Prisco’s top-100 NFL players list.
With the exception of Carlton Davis, Joe believes no player in the Bucs secondary is as good as Winfield. That’s all there is to it.
Fans may look back some day on the 2020 draft and regard it that as the best one-two punch draft for the Bucs since Rich McKay drafted Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks in 1995.
June 18th, 2022 at 12:11 am
*He’s listed at 49 not 29.
June 18th, 2022 at 12:45 am
i’m starting to think he’s a little overrated…
hope he proves me wrong this year
June 18th, 2022 at 1:58 am
Agree w Adam from NY
June 18th, 2022 at 4:58 am
The secondary is still the weak-link. This team will only go as far as that group takes it.
June 18th, 2022 at 5:41 am
Adam from NY … Winfield actually had a better 2021 than 2020 IMO, even though he missed 4 games (2 concussion; 2 ankle). I view safeties as our last line of defense, so allowing TDs & a high completion percentage doesn’t work for me.
Winfield gave up 6 TDs in 2020 (16 games), but only 2 TDs in 2021 (13 games). His Completion Percentage Allowed also improved from 76.9% down to 73.3%. His Total Yards Allowed dropped from 526 in 2020 down to 358 in 2021. Just as impressively, his Yards/Completion Allowed dropped from 17.5 in 2020 down to 10.8 in 2021, telling me he wasn’t getting burned so badly last year. And oh ya, his INTs increased from 1 to 2. Overall, excellent trends.
Whether that level of performance deserves a Top-50 ranking is far beyond me. I wish he was taller, but I also wish I had a Lamborghini; not holding my breath on either. I think one thing folks don’t appreciate about Antoine is how fast he is (4.45 in the 40), and I think that, along with his intelligence & quickness, is what’s allowed him to improve over this past year. He’s a definite keeper.
June 18th, 2022 at 5:54 am
UK Buccaneer … I think folks will find that our Secondary will improve a bunch this year with the additions of Logan Ryan, Keanu Neal & Zyon McCollum. Injuries will be the key, but it’s hard to imagine our Secondary getting beat up this year as badly as it did in 2021.
Personally think the ‘weak link’ will be our Front-7. Still concerned about LVD’s leg issues, about the injury histories of our big guys (Vea & Hicks), and whether our Front-7 can effectively survive a 20-21 game season. We’re also counting a lot on JTS & Nelson to improve this season, and for our 2nd Rnd rookie Hall to play lights-out from the git-go. Not to mention that we’re putting a lot of faith in 2 lower Rnd picks (Britt & Stuard) to be quality ILB depth. We definitely need to stay healthy. Will feel a LOT more comfortable when we re-sign Suh.
June 18th, 2022 at 6:28 am
Winfield went from beloved to belittled in a single play—a play that in mere seconds metamorphosed ineffable joy into collective misery.
With interminable visions of Cooper Kupp streaking past Winfield to assure the Bucs an early playoff exit, Winfield’s love fest took a nosedive.
To make matters worse, you, me and every football fan in America knew where Stafford was intending to throw ball … with the apparent exception of Antonio Winfield.
Don’t get me wrong, I like Winfield and he’s a keeper. I think Statistician’s Rules proved that beyond all doubts.
Still lingering however is the heartbreaking thought known to permeate many a Bucs fan: WHAT WAS HE THINKING?
If someone other than Kupp had made that catch I would have been begrudgingly ok with it. But Kupp? That one was hard to take. We can only hope Winfield will be incentivized to put that play behind him (like Kupp) and be a first team all pro.
June 18th, 2022 at 6:45 am
I thought Antoine Winfield took a step backwards from his rookie year.
June 18th, 2022 at 7:25 am
And like the rest of our secondary, how many interceptions did he DROP?
June 18th, 2022 at 8:07 am
If he doesn’t do anything else he will always be remembered for letting Cooper Cupp of the Rams,playoff game, go by him to set up the winning kick! So no not great or close.
June 18th, 2022 at 8:10 am
You’re delusional if you think he’s overrated or took a step backwards. He’s one of the best in the game
June 18th, 2022 at 8:43 am
JA … Belittled? How about ‘Hung out to dry’ instead? Kupp is making roughly $27 mil a year for a reason: he’s damn good & his year-to-year performance shows that. Winfield’s making around $2 mil a year also for a reason: he’s only finished his 2nd year & is still learning. You can’t leave a young safety on an island with someone like Cooper Kupp. That wasn’t the intention on that play-call IMO, but it was the result, for whatever reason.
June 18th, 2022 at 9:31 am
I think he is poised for a leap forward like JTS. He has been very good but there is definitely room for improvement
June 18th, 2022 at 9:58 am
Winfield is better then Evans huh? Don’t get me wrong, Winfield is a good player that can continue to get better over time. But he’s not better then Evans. Evans gets treated like David…. Never really gets the praise he should.
June 18th, 2022 at 10:09 am
Winfield plays safety reminds me of 2012 Ronde Barber. Smart enough to be trusted as a single high safety and savvy enough to play around the box in run support or as a blitzer. Plays bigger than his physical stature, high enough football IQ to be asked by Bowles to do almost anything he’d want from a safety, and being the son of a pretty good NFL CB has definitely shown up in how instinctual a player Antoine Winfield Jr is as a safety. Not perfect, and still has room to grow as an NFL player, but he’s been a difference maker since day 1. I’m excited to see how far Winfield can take his game moving forward.
June 18th, 2022 at 10:14 am
And relax, the comparison isn’t to say he’s “the next” Ronde Barber, but more a comp in terms of style of play, the ability to be deployed in a variety of ways for a player of his physical stature
June 18th, 2022 at 10:49 am
I fear that Winfield becomes our next LVD in that he’ll never be appreciated…perhaps this ranking can alleviate those fears.
I love pedigree. Barry Bonds Jr had a super head start hanging out at the ballpark with his father. Christian McCaffery had a great start seeing his father Ed star in the league.
And so what does Antoine Jrs father and role model look like?
Winfield likely won’t make the Hall of Fame, but he’s still one of the better corners of all time. As far as Vikings history is concerned, Winfield ranks fifth in team history with 613 tackles, behind only Carl Lee, Chad Greenway, Chris Doleman and Henry Thomas.
I have every reason to think his son will closely mirror his career…not quite HOF but excellent never the less.
June 18th, 2022 at 10:52 am
Creamsicle Mike Says:
June 18th, 2022 at 8:07 am
If he doesn’t do anything else he will always be remembered for letting Cooper Cupp of the Rams,playoff game, go by him to set up the winning kick! So no not great or close.
NOPE. You’re way off, Creamsicle Mike.
AWJ31 will always be remembered for the “Deuces” he dropped on Tyreek Hill during Super Bowl 55. Period. End of story.
June 18th, 2022 at 11:46 am
That seems high. If each team could select only one player on offense and one on defense, to build around, that’s 64 players. So is this telling me that you could build an entire defense around him? I am skeptical of that.
June 18th, 2022 at 12:45 pm
Not only is he 49 he is the first safety listed.
June 18th, 2022 at 5:06 pm
I don’t read any of Prisco’s nonesense unless the Joes post it for a good reason. Winfield is a nice, up and coming player, but putting him ahead of Mike and Chris is delusional at best.
June 18th, 2022 at 9:00 pm
@Defense:
always love your numbers, info and write ups…
and with what you presented it seems he is steadily improving as a player…i thought last year he played about as well as his rookie campaign…but if he can have another year of strides like you presented, we’ll be lucky he’s a buc…
i’m not hater of winfield by any means, he’s a darn good player for us, but being a top 50 player somehow sounds way off to me…
this is a big talented league and if i had to put him in the top 100, i just might not…and if i did, i’d slink him in at like around #95 at this point…
i just hope he continues to develop, impress, and the entire secondary become more of a team force as a unit…we shall see
June 18th, 2022 at 9:06 pm
also i think he was a little ahead of the curve coming into the league because of his father…
like he almost wasn’t a rookie in his rookie year…
and i thought his long term upside was going to have less potential to jump leaps and bounds as a player than more raw guys like say…dean…
if his play does happen to jump considerably this year, or next, yes…we could very well have one of the top safeties in the league…
once again we shall see…
and haters shouldn’t take this wrong…i like winfield a lot…a whole lot…super glad he’s our guy…i just don’t see him as that top flght dude just yet
June 18th, 2022 at 10:53 pm
#49 for our 2nd best safety and 4th best DB last year? That’s crazy. Winfield is okay. Not bad, not great. Edwards is easily the biggest playmaker. Davis solid and consistent, Dean a near shutdown CB.
June 19th, 2022 at 6:47 am
Hands down one I not the best fundamental tackler in the league. If he trained White how to tackle properly he would be more of a monster than he is.
June 20th, 2022 at 11:07 pm
Apparently not gonna sign Suh.
And the whole team, not just Winfield thought it was gonna be a quick pass.
Even Suh didn’t rush till he realized Stafford still had the ball.
Had the line rushed like their lives depended on it, they would have sacked him.
D wasn’t ready, and that’s on the coach, not Winfield.
June 23rd, 2022 at 3:42 pm
Winfield Jr needs to be traded. He blew us the game by getting TOASTED by the Rams… I will never forgive him for that