A new Pewter Report Roundtable debuts every Tuesday on PewterReport.com. Each week, the Pewter Reporters tackle another tough Bucs question. This week’s prompt: What’s one trade the Bucs should make before the NFL’s trade deadline, which is at 4:00 p.m. on Nov. 4?

Scott Reynolds: Jordyn Brooks Helps At ILB Now And In The Future

The Bucs will need to draft at least one inside linebacker next year. This very well could be Lavonte David’s final season, as he turns 36 in January. The jury is still out as to whether SirVocea Dennis is a starting-caliber linebacker in 2026, which will be his contract year. Top reserve Deion Jones turns 32 and is only signed to a one-year deal. But with a savvy trade, the Bucs can spend one of next year’s draft picks on a young inside linebacker with plenty of playing experience to fill one of those positions ahead of time – and help the 2025 Tampa Bay defense make a serious Super Bowl run.

Dolphins ILB Jordyn Brooks – Photo by: USA Today

Tampa Bay general manager Jason Licht should call Miami and inquire about middle linebacker Jordyn Brooks, who was a first-round pick in 2020 by Seattle out of Texas Tech. With 4.54 speed, he’s faster than David and Dennis, who ran a 4.64 coming out of Pittsburgh a few years ago. Tampa Bay’s linebackers have struggled covering running backs in the flat, and Brooks’ speed would help in that area. Plus, he’s a very capable tackler and blitzer. He had a career-high 184 tackles in 2021 and posted 143 last year in his first season with Miami along with three sacks and two fumble recoveries.

Brooks, who just turned 28 a week ago, could join the Bucs and spend a few weeks learning the defense while subbing in with Dennis to gain experience on the fly. He’s coming off a 10-tackle, one-sack game in the win over Atlanta last week, and he’s posted 85 tackles and 2.5 sacks in eight games with the Dolphins. Brooks is already under contract for the 2026 season at a very affordable $8.385 million, and if the Bucs could get him for a late Day 3 pick like a fifth-rounder, I would make that trade in a heartbeat. I would even consider giving up a fourth-round pick in exchange for Brooks and Miami’s sixth-round pick.

Matt Matera: Bobby Okereke Brings So Much More At ILB

Because of the fantastic performance from outside linebacker Anthony Nelson in the last game, I’m actually less concerned about an edge rusher and more focused about inside linebacker in the second half of the season. Making a trade for Giants linebacker Bobby Okereke would give Tampa Bay some more stability at the position. Currently the Bucs have Lavonte David and SirVocea Dennis as their starters with Deion Jones getting some playing time here and there. Adding Okereke doesn’t exactly give Tampa Bay an influx of youth as he’s 29 years old, but it provides much needed depth and can start if Todd Bowles decides to do so.

Bucs ILBs Lavonte David and SirVocea Dennis – Photo by: USA Today

Okereke was a player I watched often at the Senior Bowl when he was coming out of Stanford. He has a very high football IQ and does a little of everything at inside linebacker. He’s not in his prime anymore but he still makes a lot of tackles – 93 in 2024 – and even had three forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries last season. This year he has a forced fumble and has recorded three games with double-digit tackles with 68 total stops so far.

He has one more year on his deal after this season at $5.8 million with a $3 million roster bonus, so it also gives the Bucs an answer at inside linebacker next year while they also likely draft one or two more. Okereke is a better option over Jones, John Bullock or Nick Jackson on the practice squad. If Tampa Bay only had to spend a Day 3 pick for a deal, it’s a move that would help the team.

Bailey Adams: A Calais Campbell-Todd Bowles Reunion Would Boost D-Line

If I’m Jason Licht, I’d look to call up the Cardinals and see whether a late-round pick is enough to send Calais Campbell to Tampa Bay for a reunion with Todd Bowles, who coached him in Arizona a decade ago – and Larry Foote, who was a teammate of Campbell’s in 2014 as well. This is a move Jay Recher brought up to me on his show last week, and I think it’s worth exploring.

Cardinals DT Calais Campbell – Photo by: USA Today

Campbell is 39 years old, but he’s still playing some good football and looks to have one more stretch run and playoff push in him. Arizona is 2-5 and well outside of the NFC playoff picture. So as much as he would’ve liked to have one last run of success with the team he spent the first nine seasons of his career with after getting drafted there in 2008, that doesn’t look to be in the cards (pun absolutely intended). So if you’re the Bucs, who are missing Calijah Kancey deep into the playoffs at least, why not send a late pick over for the six-time Pro Bowler and future Hall of Famer?

It would give Tampa Bay a boost in its depth up front. The team looks to have something in Elijah Roberts and Elijah Simmons, but acquiring Campbell would be the win-now kind of move Licht could make without giving up a premium draft pick. Considering he’s 39 and on a one-year deal that he’s likely to retire at the end of, you’re not sacrificing your future by trading for him. Arizona can deal him in good faith, giving him a chance to earn the Super Bowl ring that has eluded him throughout his 17-year career, and open up playing time for younger players in what looks to be a lost season.

It’s a win-win, right? Given the familiarity Campbell has with Bowles and his defense, it should be a quick adjustment period before he’s ready to step in and make an impact next to the likes of Roberts and Vita Vea up front. Campbell has three sacks and 17 pressures through seven games and has a 78.3 PFF grade, with a 75.7 mark in run defense and a 68.0 pass rush grade. Tampa Bay can get the last bit of production out of him into the playoffs, and of course the hope for both sides would be that it all culminates in another Lombardi Trophy for the Bucs and a long-awaited ring for an NFL great.

Adam Slivon: Shelby Harris Would Provide Needed DT Depth

The Bucs pass rush has come alive in the past three games before the bye week with 15 sacks. With Anthony Nelson looking like a capable pass rusher in the wake of Haason Reddick’s injury, the need for an outside linebacker is not as dire as some might think. Reddick will return, and with Nelson rotating in, the top three outside linebackers are set and have done enough to carry out Todd Bowles’ defensive gameplan. That is why adding another defensive tackle makes more sense, and Shelby Harris checks a lot of boxes.

Browns DT Shelby Harris – Photo by: USA Today

Calijah Kancey’s season-ending pectoral injury earlier this year weakened the interior defensive line next to Vita Vea, with it being a collective effort to stop the run and generate pressure upfront. In that regard, Logan Hall, Elijah Roberts, Greg Gaines, and Elijah Simmons have played meaningful snaps. Acquiring Harris from the Browns in a likely swap of Day 3 picks would immediately provide experience and reliability.

The 34-year-old has long been a productive player since entering the NFL as a seventh-round draft pick in 2014. He truly started carving out a role with the Broncos in 2017 and has been consistently graded out among the top-third of defensive tackles in the league. Harris is a strong run defender while chipping in a handful of sacks. At 6-foot-3, 300 pounds, he remains nimble enough to plug lanes and complement someone like Vea.

Playing on just a $2 million salary this season, he is also highly affordable and would slot somewhere between Hall and Roberts on the depth chart playing roughly 40% of the defensive snaps like he is in Cleveland. Defensive linemen are a key part of building out a defense, and adding a veteran for a playoff run would make a notable impact. In this case, the benefits far outweigh the minimal cost to bring him in.

Josh Queipo: ILB Tyrel Dodson

I’ll join most of my colleagues in identifying a linebacker to hedge against the uncertainty of SirVocea Dennis’ play going forward. To the young defender’s credit, his play has largely improved over the past few games. But I still worry that he can be a limiting factor for an otherwise special defense. For large swaths of this season, he has single-handedly given away at least a drive a game by allowing a big gain on a pass to a running back. It then makes sense to find an insurance policy.

Dolphins LB Tyrel Dodson – Photo by: USA Today

I am also going to take Todd Bowles at face value when he says that the cost to acquire a player via trade is possibly the biggest consideration when evaluating potential moves: “I think the discussion is more of how much do you have to give up to get somebody that you really want? That will be the discussion more or less going forward. We feel like hopefully guys can come back, but at the same time, if there is something out there that is available…Depending on whether you have to rob Peter to pay Paul, we [have] to weigh those options.”

Count me skeptical that Jordyn Brooks and Bobby Okereke will be what the Bucs consider “affordable.” My priority is to find a linebacker who can shore up the most glaring weakness of a defense that can go the distance. That weakness is covering backs in the flats. And he can’t cost much in the way of salary or trade. That brings me back to Miami’s other linebacker.

Despite being targeted on a higher percentage of pass plays, Tyrel Dodson has given up a lower catch rate, less yards per catch, less yards after catch and fewer yards per coverage snap than Dennis. He has enough athleticism to not get exposed in space without giving up much of the positives that Dennis brings when fitting the run. And the best part? Like Okereke and Brooks, Dodson is under contract for 2026 – just at a lower salary, thus providing a hedge for the future as well as the present. Sign me up.