Todd Bowles Makes An Antoine Winfield Promise
April 4th, 2025
What went wrong with the Buccaneers defense last season?
It’s complicated.
One area that wasn’t gray is the sharp decline of Antoine Winfield, Jr. The veteran safety went from an All-Pro in 2023 to a shell of his stud a year later.
Injuries swallowed half of Winfield’s season and he never seemed quite right.
The photo above? For Joe it illustrates how far Winfield’s game fell off. He tracked that pass against the Chiefs, waited and didn’t make a play on the ball deep in Bucs territory.
Todd Bowles said this week that he’s absolutely sure Winfield can regain his 2023 form. In fact, Bowles said if Winfield stays healthy, fans can be certain he’ll be back to earning postseason honors.
“One hundred percent confident he’ll be healthy. He’s been training his butt off,” Bowles said of Winfield.
“‘Win’ is a guy, he’s going to train; he’s not going to say much. He’s going to train and get back to himself. He always has a chip on his shoulder – whether he’s a first-round pick or a free agent, he’s going to practice. Him and Lavonte [David] are going to practice the same way. And if he can stay healthy, he’ll be the same guy he was two years ago.”
Bowles added that Winfield is “very determined this year to come back and be who he was.”
That would be a beautiful thing. Winfield covered up a lot of defensive warts with his stunning 2023 season for the ages.
April 4th, 2025 at 7:22 pm
I agree. If we can stay healthy and with the new draft picks. The defense is going to surprise people. Go Bucs!!! Cheers
April 4th, 2025 at 7:26 pm
Nothing is complicated about it. The pass defense was ultra passive, ultra soft, players were ultra confused about their assignments. They played scared, and they were coached to play that way. “Nothing over your head.”
Vomitous.
Even Todd knows we can’t have anything resembling that detritus in 2025.
April 4th, 2025 at 7:41 pm
This dude single handedly won some games for us in 2023, hoping he gets back to form!
April 4th, 2025 at 8:56 pm
From the coaching seats in sec 218 it looked like AW was physically ready to come back to be himself but his head did not trust this and he was very tentative and un AW like, Hopefully the offseason has replenished his confidence.
April 4th, 2025 at 9:29 pm
What Winfield needs as motivation is a 6’3” 220 lb safety who runs the 40 in 4.38seconds. Bucs and Winfield need Emmanwori as a strong Safety. If Bucs pass on this guy at 19, it will be shameful.
April 4th, 2025 at 9:40 pm
“What went wrong with the Buccaneers defense last season?”
Todd Bowles playing zone defense more than any team in the NFL.
That’s the correct answer.
April 4th, 2025 at 10:12 pm
There’s often so much reference to the issues in pass defense. Do you all realize all the injuries we had throughout the secondary, starting with Bryce Hall at the beginning of the season. We were deep into the depth chart for much of the season. Then you have additional issues when we lost several LBs to injury for periods of time throughout the season.
Injuries are not an excuse, but it seems pretty evident that a healthy D will be significantly better than last year. Winfield will be back to dominating.
April 4th, 2025 at 10:14 pm
By the way, that’s another reason we were playing more zone defense.
April 4th, 2025 at 10:15 pm
That’s the answer : )
April 5th, 2025 at 12:38 am
man his hustling play to prevent the TD at the pylon. great stuff.
April 5th, 2025 at 2:27 am
Playing zone and not coaching it properly was obvious. Soooo many busted assignments, “Communication problems” = players not knowing what they’re supposed to do. Too often. Especially when the opponent is driving to win the game at the end.
April 5th, 2025 at 5:33 am
if he can thats like adding another free agent
April 5th, 2025 at 6:11 am
Bowles needed to replace his secondary coaches a long time ago. They are not doing a good job. If I hear communication break downs again this year, fire somebody’s arse!
April 5th, 2025 at 9:59 am
@Aqualung, time to turn the corner man. That horse is dead, stop beating it. We all saw the defense’s shortfalls. You are not enlightening anyone. We get that you are sour on Todd. I feel your pain, but to continually muttering the same angry rant can’t be good for you or provide space to embrace any positives. In short, ya bring me down man. Bowles has been acknowledging his shortcomings all off-season (poor pass defense, weak pass rush, bad clock mgmt, a need to update his defense…). Todd is your team’s coach next year, start high (literally or figuratively) and we can revist your rants during the mid-season slump. Now, go get a hug, put on your big boy long pants, and stop whining. We truly know your pain, no need to keep picking that scab for everyone
April 5th, 2025 at 10:36 am
“Injuries are not an excuse”
Of course they are! With the salaries of starting players in todays NFL you can only pay so much for backups. Backups are not as good as starters obviously! I don’t care how good your coaches are it will not work!! Just look what happened to Detroit. They were maybe the best team in the league until they got kill with injuries.
I have a good friend who played in the NFL for seven years and i have always asked him who do you think will win the Super Bowl. His reply was always the same. “Tell me what the injury reports are”
April 5th, 2025 at 11:54 am
Babygrace: Spot on
April 5th, 2025 at 8:58 pm
I was a little wary of Winfield when he was first drafted because of his smaller stature and frame. Safeties built like Winfield play well for four or five years and then their bodies break down because of the beatings they take. Bob Sanders was a classic example of that. 5’8 at 200 pounds he played great for the Colts but his body just wore down and I think he only played five seasons before he retired. I hope I’m not right.