5 Moves Bucs HC Todd Bowles Should Make – But Won’t

SR’s FAB 5 column on the Bucs is presented by Gameday Men’s Health

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INTRO: Bucs head coach Todd Bowles is known for being even-keeled and not reactionary. But there are times and situations where having a greater sense of urgency is not only warranted – it’s needed. Bowles’ lack of a sense of urgency doesn’t serve him well, and it’s part of the reason why this team is 1-5 heading into a critical divisional game against the 3-2 Panthers in Carolina on Sunday. To help Bowles – and the Bucs – I’m offering up five moves he can make to help the team improve, yet I also don’t expect him to act on any of them. Enjoy!

FAB 1. Move 1: Start David Walker Over Yaya Diaby

This is the most obvious, lay-up move Todd Bowles could make in-season, right now.

David Walker has been the most impactful player and the best pass rusher so far this season. Yet he’s been getting either the third- or fourth-most snaps at outside linebacker this year despite leading the Bucs with four sacks and 15 pressures per Pro Football Focus with limited playing time.

As I reported on the Pewter Report X account the other day, Walker’s 26% pass rush win rate is not just the best in Tampa Bay – by a mile. It’s also the best pass rush win rate in the NFL among all edge rushers, including Pro Bowlers like Aidan Hutchinson (23%) and Nick Bosa (20%).

Walker not a starting yet entering Week 7 is criminal, especially when Yaya Diaby has yet to record a sack through six games and has 10 pressures and a 9.1% pass rush win rate despite playing more than double the pass rush snaps (125-57).

Honestly, it’s coaching malpractice at this point by Bowles.

And Bowles’ suggestion that Walker isn’t that good against the run doesn’t hold weight when the facts are presented.

Walker is glaringly better than Diaby as a pass rusher this year, and he’s no slouch against the run either. Diaby has a 76 run defense grade per PFF, which ranks fifth in Tampa Bay, and Walker is right behind him with a 74.9.

And keep in mind that despite clearly being the best pass rusher in training camp by getting at least one sack every day, guess how many snaps on defense Walker played in Week 1 at Cincinnati. Do you remember?

Zero.

On a day when Joe Burrow was only sacked once.

So there’s plenty of logic in Bowles starting Walker over Diaby in Week 7 heading into a must-win game at Carolina, yet that’s not going to happen. Even though it should.

Here’s Bowles paying lip service to Walker getting more snaps this week, despite the fact that Diaby played twice as many versus Pittsburgh.

“Yeah, game plan-wise, we ramp it up every week – he’s been playing that well,” Bowles said. “We give him the plays we can give him, but it’s been ramped up every week. Depending on the game plan and what the other team does and personnel-wise, you want to see him get more reps in there. We intend to do that, but sometimes it doesn’t work out that way depending on the game.”

I have yet to see a situation that Walker, who is 6-foot-1, 260 pounds – just eight pounds lighter than Diaby – can’t handle. Despite playing 99 snaps to Diaby’s 234 snaps, Walker has 17 tackles to Diaby’s 13, five tackles for loss to Diaby’s three and four sacks to Diaby’s zero.

The only thing that Walker hasn’t done that Diaby has, is pick off a pass. Yet it was Walker’s tight coverage that led to deflection in Dallas that allowed Diaby to record his first career interception.

Walker is coming off his best game with a career-high seven tackles and two sacks. Yet Bowles, who is notoriously slow to make any changes in his starting lineup, won’t commit to him being a starter. Bowles just hints that Walker will continue to get more snaps.

“Depending on the package,” Bowles said. “He was third in that package rotation [against Green Bay]. There are different rotations where guys’ reps get amped up a little bit.”

A little bit?

How about a lot?

This isn’t hard. This is recognizing that Walker, the second-highest graded player on defense per PFF (82.6, behind A’Shawn Robinson at 87.3), should be starting by now. That’s part of a coach’s job – to play the best players.

Maybe starting Walker and rewarding him for his stellar play only makes him hungrier, and more snaps leads to more sacks, pressures and tackles for loss.

And maybe benching Diaby, who is in a contract year, and making him come off the bench with half as many snaps lights a fire under him from a psychological standpoint, and perhaps makes him more productive as a result?

Again, this isn’t hard. This is just Bowles being stubborn at this point.

FAB 2. Move 2: Bench Alex Anzalone For SirVocea Dennis Or Christian Rozeboom

While we’re at it, Todd Bowles should make another lineup change on defense. Alex Anzalone, the Bucs’ team captain and green-dot wearer, is not just the lowest-graded Tampa Bay defender per Pro Football Focus with a 35.7 grade. He ranks 140th out of the 144 linebackers that PFF has a grade for this year.

Now I don’t necessarily believe that PFF is the gospel when it comes to grading football players, but that kind of aligns with what we’ve seen with our eyes so far this season from Anzalone, right?

His five missed tackles are the second-most on the team behind Zyon McCollum’s seven through six games. Anazalone, whose strength was supposed to be in pass coverage, has allowed 25-of-30 passes to be caught (83.3%) for 247 yards with one touchdown and one interception.

I know they play two different positions with Josiah Trotter playing more in the box and Anzalone playing on the weakside. Yet Trotter leads the team with 52 tackles despite missing the Packers game with a shoulder injury. That’s 18 more tackles than the next Bucs defender Tykee Smith, who has 34. Anzalone is fourth on the team with 30 tackles.

Anzalone is actually playing worse last year than SirVocea Dennis did when he was starting all 17 games at middle linebacker. Why not give him a shot to prove he can be a better alternative, especially in his contract year?

I think the Bucs already have a viable option on the roster with Christian Rozeboom, who has 11 tackles and two pass breakups in four games as a rotational and situational linebacker. Bowles has raved about Rozeboom back in August despite missing time in training camp with a foot injury. Unfortunately he just landed on injured reserve with a finger injury this week, but he’s expected to return in four weeks. So why not give Dennis a crack at it in the interim and then try Rozeboom when he returns to action?

Despite only playing 66 snaps compared to Anzalone’s 380 snaps, Rozeboom has a 78.6 PFF grade in a very small sample size. What if that kind of grade could project over more snaps?

Rozeboom was a starting middle linebacker in both Carolina and Los Angeles with the Rams in each of the last two seasons, so he has plenty of experience. And at age 29 he’s a few years younger than Anzalone. While he’s not a stellar athlete, perhaps starting Rozeboom and bringing Anzalone off the bench in a rotation could create better overall play at the Mo ‘backer spot.

Again, it’s a small sample size, but Rozeboom has allowed just 3-of-5 (60%) passes to be completed for 25 yards in coverage. Why not see what he can do down the back stretch of the schedule? Even if he – or Dennis – is just incrementally better than Anzalone that would be a win.

Anzalone will turn 34 next season and only has $3 million in guaranteed money on the books in 2027. The Bucs would save $5 million in cash and cap room by releasing him in the offseason, and unless his play dramatically turns around that seems very likely.

While Tampa Bay figures to draft another inside linebacker and hope he’s as good as Trotter, it wouldn’t hurt to see if Rozeboom is worth keeping, too. Rozeboom signed a cheap, one-year deal worth $1.55 million and the Bucs would probably be interested in doing just another one-year deal in 2027 if his play warrants a re-signing.

So let’s find out if he play does just that. Start Rozeboom over Anzalone when he returns unless Dennis proves to be a huge upgrade.

But Bowles won’t do that because his depth charts seem to be written in pen and not in pencil. Remember how long it took Bowles to finally – finally! – bench Devin White for poor play a few season ago? It was about a year too late.

Bowles has his flaws as a head coach, and failing to properly work the depth chart to try to coax better play from underachieving starters and reward more productive reserves is a big one.

FAB 3. Move 3: Unlock Calijah Kancey As A Pass Rusher

I just don’t get it. Where is the version of Calijah Kancey we saw in 2024 when he had a team-high 7.5 sacks, 11 tackles for loss and 17 QB hits despite only playing in 12 games?

It’s crazy to think that Kancey is finally healthy and has played in all six games this season and has just three tackles and two QB hits along with zero tackles for loss and zero sacks.

Kancey’s lack of production this season is stunning, especially considering the fact that the Bucs picked up the fifth-year option of their former first-round pick. That means he’ll make close to $15 million next year.

Bucs head coach Todd Bowles has repeatedly said that Kancey is playing hard, and that’s what the film shows. His 13 pressures are second on the team behind David Walker’s 15. But as Warren Sapp once told me, pressures don’t get you drafted – sacks do. Pressures don’t get you paid – sacks do. Pressures don’t make the Pro Bowl – sacks do.

At some point, Kancey needs to produce and start turning his backfield penetration into backfield plays. It’s up to Bowles, who is the defensive play-caller, to help unlock Kancey and put him in more featured positions to use his elite quickness to get to quarterbacks and running backs behind the line of scrimmage.

“He’s been used the right way, and he’s actually getting off the ball,” Bowles said. “I mean, he’s in the backfield…We’ve just got to turn some of those into sacks. Sometimes the ball is out, sometimes he’s back there and somebody else makes a play.

“But, you know, we’re pretty good across the board the way all those guys are playing right now. He’s just got to get his opportunities, and they’re going to come because he’s playing hard. We’ll probably do some things to try to free him up a little bit more and get him going that way as well.”

Tampa Bay does have the league’s No. 2 run defense, of which Kancey has certainly played a role. Despite being undersized at 6-foot-1, 281 pounds, Kancey can hold up in one-on-one blocking situations against 300-pound offensive linemen. But against double teams he can be a liability and easily moved off the line of scrimmage.

Okay, well do it. Unlock Calijah Kancey as a pass rusher.

There have been times where Kancey has been used on TE (tackle-end) stunts as a crasher where he has crossed the face of a guard, attempting to draw a double team with the offensive tackle and thus freeing up an edge rusher coming up the middle as a looper. On plays like that, Kancey is sacrificing his chance at rushing the passer and being a good teammate by freeing up a different rusher in a twist game up front.

“Well, everybody has to do it,” Bowles said. “You know, it’s not just him. Everybody has to sacrifice something down there. We’ve only got a few games to free people up, so everybody has got to get their piece – some get it on the right play, some get it on a different play. If it just doesn’t work out for them on that play, that doesn’t mean we’re not trying to get them through and [I am] not saying the other guys are not trying to help. I mean, everybody is trying to help each other down there.”

I spoke with Kancey this week and he believes his time will come and that sacks will come in bunches for him, as they have for Walker, who has four sacks in the first six weeks of the season.

While some media outlets have suggested Kancey could be a trade-away candidate at the deadline, Pewter Report has learned that he’s likely not in that conversation. The front office still believes in him despite the lack of production and hopes that he will be better utilized and more productive down the stretch – and into the 2027 season as well.

“I think it boils down to production,” Bucs pass defense coordinator George Edwards said. “Everybody is looking for those numbers, that’s just the way it is. As you go through the course of the season, those things, and you can see the work and how it’s built along the way, but I’ll tell you, the guy is working hard. He’s getting penetration into the backfield. He [has] quarterback hits. He [has] quarterback pressures. He just hasn’t had the sack yet.

“I think once that starts, just like with everybody else, it’ll start to just come into bunches at the end of the day. He works as hard as anybody at it, I can promise he does. We’re just looking forward to keep pushing on and keep doing the good things that he’s doing and get better at some of the things that we know we need to improve on and hopefully those numbers will change soon.”

FAB 4. Move 4: Make A’Shawn Robinson A Bucs Team Captain

Being a team captain can be one of the most overrated distinctions and honors in football. Players vote on who becomes a team captain, and sometimes head coaches influence the outcome when they collect all of the votes.

Some players issue votes based on seniority, clout and accomplishments – whether it’s how many Pro Bowls or Super Bowls they’ve won. Sometimes it’s based on who the actual leaders are in terms of guys who lead by example and who are vocal leaders.

What’s stunning to me is that defensive tackle A’Shawn Robinson isn’t a team captain. I don’t know how that happened and how he didn’t garner enough votes.

He should be a team captain, and head coach Todd Bowles should recognize that and just declare him a team captain for what he’s been able to do at the start of the season. Everybody respects Robinson, and if Bowles were to anoint him with a “C” on his chest it would show the proper amount of respect for the 31-year ass-kicker in the trenches.

Everyone has raved about Robinson’s leadership since the OTAs. And Robinson just kind of took over the pre-game speeches from nice-guy team captain Antoine Winfield Jr. after the first few games. When Robinson talks, his teammates listen – intently. Robinson doesn’t mince words and is all business, and that’s the kind of leadership that this Bucs team desperately needs.

Now pre-game speeches don’t win games. But give Robinson credit because his play on the field is backing up everything that his mouth is saying.

Through six games Robinson is not just the highest-graded defensive player in Tampa Bay per Pro Football Focus with an 87.3 grade. Robinson is the highest-graded player on the Bucs roster – even higher than All-Pro Tristan Wirfs right now. And Robinson is PFF’s second-highest graded defensive tackle in the entire league.

With 19 tackles despite playing far less snaps than either Calijah Kancey or Vita Vea, he leads all Tampa Bay defensive linemen with tackles. And Robinson, who also has a sack, surprisingly leads all Bucs defenders in interceptions with a career-high two.

In a season that is going off the rails quickly, making Robinson a team captain is one little thing Bowles can do to show how aligned he is with a locker room that could be losing some faith at 1-5.

I know firsthand that leaders don’t need a “C” on their jersey to lead. Neither center Ryan Jensen nor defensive linemen Ndamukong Suh and Jason Pierre-Paul were officially team captains. But all three were very vocal leaders who backed up their talk with action on the field during Tampa Bay’s Super Bowl year in 2020 and the following 13-win season in 2021.

Robinson doesn’t need to be a team captain to lead. He’ll continue to do it regardless. But Robinson does deserve that distinction, and Bowles should recognize that.

FAB 4. Move 5: Consider Replacing Zac Robinson With A New OC

We are six games into an absolutely ugly season of offense in Tampa Bay under new offensive play-caller Zac Robinson. Take out Josiah Trotter’s defensive touchdown on his pick-six in Week 1 at Cincinnati and the Bucs are averaging a meager 18 points per game this year.

That’s worse than Byron Leftwich’s offense in 2022, which averaged 19 points per game. And it’s a field goal worse than the 22 points per game that the offense averaged last year under Josh Grizzard, who was fired this offseason as a scapegoat for last year’s 8-9 record.

If you want to blame undrafted rookie free agent quarterback Jalon Daniels for the reason why Robinson’s offense can’t score points, understand that Tampa Bay scored 55 points in the first three games with veteran Baker Mayfield under center and 57 points with Daniels at the helm. And it was Daniels who also recorded the team’s lone win this year.

But this isn’t a Mayfield vs. Daniels issue because the offense has been sputtering with both the experienced passer and the rookie in the huddle. This is a Zac Robinson issue.

As I’ve said before this season, every yard is hard. Every yard is a fight in Robinson’s offense. There are rarely wide-open receivers due to scheme and play-calling.

You see it too, don’t you?

Third-and-3 situations feel like third-and-13s, don’t they? Other teams around the league move the ball with ease, and there is nothing easy about the Bucs’ cumbersome offense.

Too many screen passes that go nowhere or even end up as negative plays. Too many 2-yard and 3-yard routes for wide receivers. Not enough shots downfield and the middle of the field seems like there is a forcefield that prevents passes from traveling there.

If this offense does not look significantly better on Sunday in Carolina when Mayfield returns to action Todd Bowles needs to step in and consider a new play-caller and relieve Robinson of his play-calling duties. Yes, the lack of point production in Tampa Bay is that bad.

Week 1: 20 points
Week 2: 19 points
Week 3: 16 points
Week 4: 14 points
Week 5: 24 points
Week 6: 19 points

The Bucs have scored under 20 points in four of its six games this season. That’s unacceptable in the modern day NFL where most of the rules favor the offense.

It’s true that Robinson hasn’t had a false start or a holding penalty, nor has he failed to pick up a stunt or surrender a sack. Robinson hasn’t run into the wrong gap, nor has he run the wrong route, dropped a pass or thrown an interception.

Yet as the offensive coordinator Robinson is responsible for all the players who have screwed up their assignments, and it’s his job to make sure those screw-ups stop happening and get corrected. That hasn’t happened in nearly two months of football.

If the Bucs offense continues to struggle with Robinson’s play-calling, Bowles has an obligation to find a new play-caller. Senior offensive assistant Ken Zampese has some previous play-calling experience. Even though neither has play-calling experience, pass game coordinator T.J. Yates was a former NFL quarterback and quarterbacks coach Chandler Whitmer is considered to be a young whiz kid. Maybe give one of those three guys the assignment and see what happens?

It’s too late to change the playbook and add a bunch of new plays. These plays have been run since the OTAs, mini-camp and training camp. But perhaps better play sequencing and taking more deep shots and eliminating the screens that don’t work – and haven’t worked – could be the spark that ignites Tampa Bay’s offense. Maybe Zampese, Yates or Whitmer could put together a better game plan and call better plays on game days.

And maybe one of them could get the Bucs receivers going and more involved in the offense. Chris Godwin Jr. has gone seven straight games without at least 50 yards receiving, which is criminal.

“I think he ended up with a decent amount of targets – I don’t know what exactly it was last week,” Robinson said. “But yeah, I mean, again, we’ve got to get all these guys going. I think it first starts with our level of detail across the board. You know, we’ve got to be a lot better. I mean, we had a pretty tough meeting, honestly, on Monday just talking about the pass game and the missed opportunities and the lack of detail that we showed.”

How can the offensive coordinator not have a firm grasp on how many targets his star receiver gets? How is it that media members and fans have these stats rolling off their tongues, yet Robinson doesn’t?

Godwin is averaging a paltry 9.4 yards per catch, while Emeka Egbuka is averaging a measly 8.6 yards per reception. That’s nearly half of Egbuka’s receiving average from his rookie year. That’s embarrassing, and a product of these ridiculous 2- and 3-yard routes that are in  the game plan each week.

Robinson talks about the lack of attention to detail, but it sure seems like he needs some too. How many weeks do we have to hear, “Yeah, we need to get so-and-so more touches or we need to get so-and-so more targets” from Robinson each week?

Do you know who’s in charge of getting the running backs touches and the receivers targets? The offensive coordinator.

Play-calling is an artform and I don’t have much faith in Robinson as an artist based on what I’ve seen from the plays he’s called – and not called – this year. Carolina’s offense is averaging 29 points per game under Brad Idzik and the Bucs will likely have to score at least 24 points and need a good showing by their defense to have a chance of beating the Panthers on Sunday.

I know that Bowles is invested in Robinson. He hired him to replace the guy that Bowles fired. It would be an incredibly bad look for Bowles to relieve Robinson of his play-calling duties after just seven games. But what’s worse – ignoring an obvious problem and not trying to fix it or at least trying to fix it even if you don’t find a better solution?

At 1-5 – or maybe even 1-6 depending on what happens in Carolina – what does Bowles have to lose at this point?

I doubt Bowles will make a change at offensive coordinator in-season. That’s not his style. He’s too slow to react and make changes whether it be to the depth chart or his coaching staff. Bowles should’ve fired special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey during last season for plenty of reasons yet he didn’t.

I’m not even suggesting that Robinson get fired if the offense continues to struggle at Carolina. He seems like a really nice guy. So keep him on staff as an offensive assistant. Just find a different play-caller to see if this offense has better results and can get into a rhythm and be more attack-minded and effective.

At this point, it’s just about holding people accountable – even the offensive play-caller.

Again, this is one of the things Todd Bowles should consider doing. I’ve outlined five things in this week’s SR’s FAB 5 column.

But you and I both know that Bowles won’t do any of them.

And that’s why he’s on the hot seat, that’s why this team is 1-5 and that’s why Tampa Bay will likely have a new head coach in 2027.

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