In the NFL, Cover 4 refers to a defensive coverage that aims to cover four deep zones on the field. Following that lead, I’m going to provide you with the same coverage of the Bucs – your favorite football team.

Each Wednesday morning I’ll cover four areas as they apply to Tampa Bay: 1. a short film breakdown, 2. a finance angle, 3. a look forward at what’s to come, and 4. a bit of fun.

Film: Appreciating Ben Bredeson

Ben Bredeson doesn’t come with the same name appeal that the rest of the Bucs offensive line does. He isn’t a former Day 1 pick like Tristan Wirfs or Graham Barton. He isn’t a former Day 2 pick like Cody Mauch or Luke Goedeke. He didn’t get a top-of the market deal like Wirfs and Goedeke. He isn’t homegrown like the other four. He was brought in as an afterthought and placed into a journeyman competition with Sua Opeta.

But Bredeson’s play was maximized in his first year with the Bucs in 2024. So much so, that he earned a second contract in Tampa Bay on a solid, but unspectacular, mid-level deal. His deal matches his play. Nondescript. You won’t find clips of Bredeson on social media rag-dolling a linebacker or driving a defensive tackle into tomorrow. But he rarely loses ugly and more often than not gets the job done. It’s not sexy. But it’s a living.

Bucs C Ben Bredeson – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Football IQ

Re-watching several of his games last year, the number one thing that stood out to me was Bredeson’s processing and just overall football IQ. He doesn’t fall for games. He rarely misses a blitz pickup.

Bredeson’s recognition against pressure is genuinely advanced. He feels stunts and twists developing before they fully declare, and he is routinely in position for the looping rusher rather than chasing him after the fact. You see it in the run game as well when Bredeson has to climb to the second level and account for a moving target. That kind of pre-snap and early-rep processing is what separates a guard who survives complicated fronts from one who gets caught by them, and Bredeson lands on the right side of that line far more often than not.

Those traits translated well when Bredeson moved to center early last season as the Bucs juggled their offensive line. Those center games were some of his best in pewter and red and highlighted both his smarts and his communication skills.

Recovery

Part of the reason you don’t see Bredeson highlight cutups is because some of his best play comes after an early loss. But the goal for an offensive lineman in pass protection is to keep the quarterback clean. Pretty or ugly, it’s a pass-fail system. And Bredeson passes at a solid clip, it just often happens late in the rep after taking an early loss. But his final anchor and solid footwork help him get to the result he wants late in the rep.

He is not an immovable object, and Bredeson will concede ground when a rusher gets into his frame. What he does well is settle the rep before it becomes a problem. He gives a little, resets his base, and keeps the pocket intact, which is why his pressure numbers stay cleaner than the occasional lost first step would suggest. Bend without break is a real skill, and it is one of the reasons his quarterback rarely pays for the reps where Bredeson is momentarily on his heels.

Athleticism in Space

Bredeson is comfortable in space, whether that means leading on a screen, climbing to occupy a linebacker on the second level, or getting out in front of a play and fitting onto a defender with room to work. For a guard, that mobility is a differentiator. It lets an offense ask him to do things a heavy-footed lineman simply cannot, and he answers those asks cleanly.

Bucs LG Ben Bredeson – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

All of this make him a functional piece of a very good line. The adage goes, “offensive line is a weak link system.” If Bredeson is the weak link, many teams do much worse.

Limitations

Bredeson is not without limitations though. And they cluster around a single idea. He is vulnerable to elite athletes, and specifically to the ones who can beat him with the first move. When a defender wins the initial step, detaches, and forces him to redirect after the fact, the rep can get away from him. Sudden lateral quickness, a hard counter, a swim over the top, these are the tools that put Bredeson on the back foot, and once he is reacting rather than dictating, the best interior players in the league can finish him.

Superior size and strength can give him trouble as well, though that shows up more as an inability to create movement than as a collapse in protection. The pattern underneath all of it is consistent. Bredeson is good on the front foot and exposed on the back foot. When he initiates or anticipates, he wins. When he is forced to react to a better athlete who moved first, he does not.

That same idea explains where he is at his best in the run game, and it is a scheme-fit point. Bredeson is at his most effective using angles, walling defenders out of gaps in a downhill, gap-based run scheme. Give him a man to seal and more often than not he finds the right angle to do it. He is reliable, because the job rewards leverage and timing rather than raw displacement.

Ask him instead to reach and sustain in a lateral zone scheme, where he has to run a defender to a spot and then drive him once he arrives, and the reps get dicier. He can position, but he does not always finish, and defenders with any pop can discard him once the initial seal is made.

Schematically in gap there are some real limitations as well. Bredeson struggles to be the displacement point on solo blocks. His pure strength is moderate at best so he isn’t the player you want to count on to drive a defensive lineman back on his own. He’s functional as part of a double on duo or inside zone, but he just doesn’t have the knock back power to be the tip of the spear.

The bottom line is a that he’s a good, scheme-sensitive starter. Bredeson wins with his mind, his recovery, and his feet, and he is at his best when the play lets him dictate. Point him downhill, let him use angles, and protect him from having to chase elite movers in space, and he is a genuine asset up front. That is a valuable player. It is just not a flawless one.

Finance: Emeka Egbuka’s Early Valuation

Emeka Egbuka’s up-and-down rookie season has been well-documented. But what does that do for his early prospects for a second contract? With three years left on his rookie deal, plus a potential fifth-year option, that may seem like an eternity from now.

But teams start putting together valuations after players rookie campaigns. It raises the question, what is Egbuka’s current valuation?

With 63 catches, 938 yards, 6 touchdowns and 1.76 yards per/route run, his closest production comps are JuJu Smith-Schuster (2022), Jameson Williams (2024) and DeVonta Smith (2023).

*All stats pulled from Pro Football Focus and graphic was made using generative AI Claude

The encouraging read on this comp set is that the cap-adjusted average of Schuster, Williams and Smith’s APY’s matches my algorithm’s prediction at just over $23 million per year. But looking closer, there is a large gap between the high and the low of that spread, with the median ($28.75 million) resting much higher than the average ($23.24 million).

Smith-Schuster’s contract is the one dragging the average down. And where Williams and Smith’s deals were both early extensions off rookie contracts, JuJu’s deal was a fourth contract following a four-year season-by-season oscillation of production dictated by his health in any given campaign. The fit is a more difficult one to match.

Bucs WR Emeka Egbuka – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

This actually creates a strong framing for his career thus far. The early season success and scoring frequency shows a ceiling of a close to $30 million per year receiver. But the late season slump shows the possibility of a complementary piece who rounds out a room, rather than acts as a focal point of one. I’m more inclined to see the upside as a truer outlook on his future than the downside.

Forecast: Which Bucs Assistant Coach Is Likely To Become A Future Head Coach?

There are currently 25 coaches listed as a part of Todd Bowles’ coaching staff. Now of these 25, there are several we can eliminate as strong candidates for a future head coaching role based on where they are in their careers at this time.

Strength and conditioning coaches don’t get much advancement into positions that can springboard them to head coaching spots. So we can quickly eliminate that group (Chad Wade, Corey Bichey and Deandre Ward Sr.). Likewise, senior manager of coaching operations Sarah Evans doesn’t have a clear path to the top spot. This reduces the list to 21.

While there is precedent for special teams coordinators to make a successful jump to head coach in the archetype of a CEO (see Harbaugh, John), Danny Smith is probably past the point in his career where he would be considered for that transition. Similarly, it has been almost 10 years since pass game specialist and senior offensive assistant Ken Zampese was an offensive coordinator. With over 25 years of NFL coaching experience it’s likely he is a career assistant at this point.

Bucs head coach Todd Bowles and OLBs coach Larry Foote – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

On the other end of that spectrum, Todd Bowles Jr. is making his first foray into coaching, putting any stock in his advancement beyond the standard nepotism that runs rampant in NFL coaching circles. The list of potentials now falls to 18.

I’m also going to eliminate the assistant position group coaches as well as quality control staffers. That means we bid goodbye to Joey Fitzgerald, Jeff Kastl, Andrew Mitchell, Blaine Stewart and Luke Smith. We are now down to 13 candidates.

From here let’s look at the most likely candidate from a few bucketed groups.

Coordinators and Primary Schematic Specialists

There is an obvious candidate from this group that includes offensive coordinator Zac Robinson, offensive run game coordinator and offensive line coach Kevin Carberry, offensive pass game coordinator T.J. Yates, defensive pass game coordinator George Edwards, defensive run game coordinator and outside linebackers coach Larry Foote.

Robinson has the name recognition and the coaching tree pedigree to springboard from Bucs offensive coordinator to NFL head coach in relatively short order. There is the obvious precedent of Dave Canales and Liam Coen.

Robinson has shown an adherence to the Rams scheme version 1.0 – a heavy reliance on mid/wide zone as the foundation for the entire offense. There is a path for a successful version of that to lead to a head coaching gig. 

Last year, Klint Kubiak helped the Seahawks to a Super Bowl by running a tried and true, but not very radical version of his father, former head coach Gary Kubiak’s, offense. The offense relied on staples that have proven successful for years and high end execution to land a head coaching gig.

But Robinson has shown an ability to adjust his offense to his personnel. During his time in Atlanta, he ran more pistol than any other offense because his quarterbacks, Kirk Cousins and Michael Penix Jr., struggled to turn their backs to the defense. Pistol helped him get to the wide zone run game and play action concepts that he knew would work well with his roster while still working within the constraints of his quarterbacks.

That ability to adapt his offense is exactly what made Liam Coen such a hot commodity in 2024 and eventually earned him his head coaching gig with the Jaguars.

Bucs OC Zac Robinson – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Robinson has the fastest and clearest path to a head coaching spot among all of Bowles’ assistants.

Foote and Edwards will find difficulty gaining any head coaching traction because they don’t call plays on the defense. Yates will need to get a chance to call plays as an offensive coordinator.

I doubt Carberry ever gets run as a head coaching candidate, but I could see him becoming a strong candidate for offensive coordinator for a play-calling head coach in the near future. Carberry’s success developing offensive linemen and creating a varied and explosive run game is a similar trajectory to Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator Klayton Adams, who is well thought of around the NFL.

Offensive Position Coaches

One offensive position coach should be tapped for ascension in the next few years. Wide receivers coach Bryan McClendon. McClendon has gotten the most out of young and veteran receivers alike. He has a background as a passing game coordinator and an offensive coordinator, with a small stretch as interim head coach at Oregon in 2021. All of those roles were at the collegiate level.

Bucs WR Chris Godwin Jr. and WRs coach Bryan McClendon – Photo by: Cliff Welch P/R

The last piece of the puzzle for McClendon to raise his head coaching profile is moving into those coordinator positions at the NFL level. That might come soon for the talented receivers coach.

Beyond McClendon, the hot name on that side of the ball is new quarterbacks coach Chandler Whitmer. He was quite the get for the Bucs this offseason to replace former quarterbacks coach Thad Lewis. Whitmer is coming off of a college national championship with Indiana where he was co-offensive coordinator. If the Bucs’ offense blows up in 2026, look for Robinson to get a head coaching gig and Whitmer to be the hottest internal name to replace him if he doesn’t get buzz for the same role on other teams.

Defensive Position Coaches

Inside linebackers coach Mike Caldwell has the most name recognition. He’s a former defensive coordinator for the Jaguars, but that stint wasn’t the most successful. If the Bucs defense blows up in 2026 he could see a renewed interest in him moving back into that role. 

From there, the high-pressure and negative play nature of the Bowles/Caldwell system is the exact type that can catch fire for a season and vault him to a head coaching gig. I don;t see this as a likely path, but it has a non-zero chance.

The two less-known names that I have my eye on are cornerbacks coach Rashad Johnson and defensive line coach Marcus West. Johnson is taking over the full cornerbacks coach role in 2026 after primarily working with the nickel backs over the past several seasons. That means his resume includes Jacob Parrish in 2025, Tykee Smith in 2024 and Christian Izien in 2023. Each of those players had their best season working with him. 

Bucs CBs coach Rashad Johnson and CB Zyon McCollum – Photo courtesy of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Johnson is well thought of in Tampa Bay, and if he can bring similar success to the cornerbacks coach role the future is bright for the former Bill Walsh Coaching Fellow.

West has found success as the defensive line coach in Buffalo getting the most out of a limited position group. West was a part of Sean McDermott’s staff that was constantly evolving to match the ever-changing offenses of the NFL. Prior to that he had some impressive results at the University of Charlotte, where he helped develop Alex Highsmith.

West has shown an ability to maximize talent. If he keeps it up in Tampa Bay, a defensive coordinator role may be in his future. From there the path to head coach is clearly defined if he can take advantage of it.

Fun Fourth Down: The Bucs Offensive Line As A Rock Band

Imagine, if you will, the Bucs offensive front as a rock band. What famous musicians come to mind when you think of Tampa Bay’s offensive trenches? I’ll tell you who comes to mind for me.

Tristan Wirfs – Lead Vocals – Bruce Springsteen

Anyone who watches Wirfs knows he is “The Boss.” That’s even more apparent if you were present for him challenging the Titans from the sidelines during a training camp fight in 2025. Him yelling “What are you crying about?!” was certainly a boss move if I have ever seen one.

And just as Springsteen can be counted on to give an incredible performance time after time, so can Wirfs be counted on to anchor the line with elite and consistent play.

Plus, getting Wirfs in open space out in front of Bucky Irving helps a Bucs’ offense that was Born to Run.

Bucs LT Tristan Wirfs – Photo by: USA Today

Ben Bredeson – Bassist – Bill Wyman

Wyman was the bassist for the Rolling Stones from 1962 to 1993. He was a steady force within the band, often providing backup vocals, but he never truly stood out. Likewise, Bredeson has provided steady, consistent play for the Bucs for the last two seasons. 

And much like Wyman impressed the Stones at a tryout, Bredeson won a camp battle after Sua Opeta went down with a knee injury in 2024.

Bredeson isn’t a star. But his play adds to the overall line play. Wyman did the same for the Stones. His play made the sound better overall. And while every fan would love for their roster to be full of All-Pros, You can’t always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need.

Graham Barton – Lead Guitar – Jimmy Page circa Yardbirds

Page is best known for his contributions to Led Zeppelin, where his play made him one of the best guitarists in human history. That’s the upside that Barton has. His movement skills and strength mean he could be the best center in the NFL one day.

But before Page struck it big with Robert Plant, he was in another band called the Yardbirds, which not only launched his career, but that of Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck as well. The Yardbirds never amassed commercial appeal but were your favorite musician’s favorite band.

That’s the best way I can describe Barton. Ask any offensive lineman analyst about Barton and watch them gush about his talent, high-end reps and future outlook. But he hasn’t found the commercial appeal because of a lack of consistency. Right now, Barton is a bag full of Good Times, Bad Times.

Bucs WR Sterling Shepard and C Graham Barton – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Cody Mauch – Drummer – Dave Grohl

Grungy. Keeps the beat. Endless energy. On the precipice of stardom. Grohl was the beat of one of the more popular bands of an entire generation, Nirvana. While Kurt Cobain was the frontman who everyone focused on, Grohl was just as much of a rockstar as the world would later find out when he founded and fronted The Foo Fighters. 

Grohl is multi-talented, finding success as a guitarist as well as on drums. Along the same vein, Mauch has become one of the better run blockers in the NFL while continually improving his pressure rate allowed as a pass protector.

Mauch is ascending much like Grohl did. One might even say he is Learning to Fly.

Luke Goedeke – Rhythm Guitar – Joe Perry

Perry left Aerosmith in 1979. The band spent the early 1980s far from the lofty heights they reached in the ’70s. But after Perry returned to the band in 1984 and collaborated with Run-D.M.C. in 1986 they returned to prominence, where they would stay through their 13th studio album in 2001.

Bucs RT Luke Goedeke and Patriots OLB Harold Landry III – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Perry’s return sparked a resurgence, or comeback, that mirrors Goedeke’s return to right tackle in 2023. After misappropriating Goedeke as a left guard, the Bucs made a small positional adjustment and Just Pushed Play. That sparked a Perry return-like career resurgence.