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 is the Bucs’ biggest issue on defense?

Scott Reynolds: Bucs Lack A True Alpha Game-Wrecker Up Front

The Bucs don’t have an alpha up front and that’s the biggest problem right now on defense. And when I mean alpha, I mean a guy that is a true difference-maker. A guy that opposing offensive coordinators have to worry about. A guy that opposing quarterbacks have to fear. There is not a player in Todd Bowles’ front seven that is a true game-wrecker on a down-in, down-out or week-in, week-out basis.

Bucs HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: Jeffrey Jones/PR

The closest thing to a game-wrecker the Bucs have is defensive tackle Vita Vea, and I love him, but he’s been awfully quiet lately. Vea has just 2.5 sacks this year and hasn’t recorded one since the 49ers game. In fact, Vea has just six tackles in the last four games and didn’t record a single stat at Buffalo. Yaya Diaby, the team’s leading sacker with four, hasn’t had a sack since the Lions game in Week 7. The team is without Calijah Kancey, and that stings, but by the time this year is over he will have missed 23 games over three years while only playing in 28.

Lavonte David is not the player he once was at age 35, and SirVocea Dennis is better than K.J. Britt, but does not make enough plays to be a threat to offenses. Haason Reddick was brought in to be an impactful pass rusher, but with just 1.5 sacks he hasn’t been worth the $14 million investment. Even before getting injured in Week 7 I don’t think he was worrying offensive coordinators.

General manager Jason Licht has sunk a lot of premium resources into the front seven with first-round picks on Vea and Kancey and second-round picks on Logan Hall and Chris Braswell. He even spent a top 5 pick on inside linebacker in Devin White, who didn’t pan out, and went out and paid big money for Reddick. But none of these players are the alpha that the Bucs need up front. Licht needs to continue looking for one in 2026. He needs to find the next Jason Pierre-Paul or Ndamukong Suh that can take Tampa Bay’s defense to the next level.

Matt Matera: Bucs Lack Of Pass Rush Sticks Out Like A Sore Thumb

It was perfectly on display the Bucs’ 44-32 loss to the Bills on Sunday. Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen had a historic day with three passing touchdowns, 317 passing yards and and three rushing touchdowns. Where did all the touchdowns and passing yards come from? He had all day to throw and wasn’t sacked at all. That’s a common occurrence time and time again for the Bucs.

Bucs OLB Yaya Diaby – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Tampa Bay simply doesn’t have enough fire power to generate pressure on a traditional four man pass rush. That’s why Todd Bowles relies often on the blitz. But if that doesn’t get home, or Bowles chooses not to blitz as much like he did last Sunday, the defense is toast. Yaya Diaby leads the team with four sacks, be he’s shown he’s more of an OLB2. Anthony Nelson has flashes, but is better suited as a backup. The free agent signing of Haason Reddick just hasn’t worked.

The Bucs are tied for eighth in the league with 26 sacks, but don’t let those numbers fool you. They’ll feast on bad teams like the Saints where they had five sacks in a game, or heavily injured teams like the 49ers where they dropped six on them. But against top teams like the Lions, Patriots and Bills in recent weeks they’re just about a no-show. They had just one sack against the Patriots and none against the Bills. Quarterbacks have plenty of time to throw and the secondary has to cover more. Todd Bowles is going to have to be creative if he wants to find a way to record more sacks.

Bailey Adams: Bucs Are Missing Juice From Key Injured Players

I’m going in a bit of a different direction here, largely because we don’t like to repeat answers with our PR Roundtable topics but also because I do believe this is at least a contributing factor to the issues with the Bucs defense, even if it’s not the biggest issue. What I’m talking about is the juice that this unit is missing without Calijah Kancey and Haason Reddick, two injured starters who were supposed to play crucial roles in Todd Bowles’ defense this season.

Bucs DT Calijah Kancey – Photo by: Jeffrey Jones/PR

While it’s true that the Bucs offense has been hit much harder with injuries, there’s no denying that there have been a few injuries that have taken their toll on the productivity and overall ceiling of this defense. The biggest miss is Kancey, who led Tampa Bay with 7.5 sacks last season and seemed primed for a breakout and potentially Pro Bowl-level season in 2025 after his first injury-free camp. But when he tore his pec in Week 2, his season came to an abrupt end. And while rookie Elijah Roberts has impressed thus far, there really isn’t a replacement for Kancey on this roster and the defensive line and pass rush as a whole badly miss him.

The same could be said for Reddick, though he’s been out for a shorter amount of time than Kancey has. Still, the Bucs signed him to a $14 million contract this offseason because they planned on him being a key part of their defense. While he only has 1.5 sacks over seven games, he was leading the team in pressures at the time of his injury. He was affecting games and as a result, Tampa Bay’s pass rush was making more of a difference when he was healthy. Anthony Nelson, like Roberts, has stepped in and done an admirable job, especially with his NFC Defensive Player of the Week performance in Week 8.

But this defense still sorely misses Reddick as Nelson has returned to form as a backup-caliber player over the last two games. With the juice they bring to a defense, I think having Kancey and Reddick in the lineup would make a difference. It’s easier to see how the injury issues have plagued the offense, but I think losing two key pass rushers – and even the latest injury, which saw cornerback Jamel Dean miss the majority of Sunday’s 44-32 loss – has been deeply problematic for Bowles and his defensive unit.

Adam Slivon: Zyon McCollum Was Paid, But Where Are The Plays?

The Bucs made cornerback Zyon McCollum a well-compensated man when they gave him a three-year, $48 million contract just before the season. McCollum has a come a long way since being a 2022 fifth-round pick, developing into a starting-caliber cornerback and improving each season. Understandably, Tampa Bay bet on him to continue progressing but so far, the results have been underwhelming in what would have been his contract season.

Lions WR Amon-Ra St. Brown and Bucs CB Zyon McCollum – Photo by: USA Today

While McCollum has been healthy so far this season and played a majority of the defensive snaps, he has yet to record an interception or be involved in any takeaway thus far. After recording 17 passes defensed and two interceptions last season, he has just four passes defensed through nine games. That is concerning and a notable issue, as he has been more average than above-average in his fourth NFL season. Possessing elite athleticism and an understanding of Todd Bowles’ defense, he has all the tools to be successful and a playmaker. Yet, it hasn’t come to pass just yet.

Instead, it was Bowles who called McCollum out after the team’s loss to the Patriots. Even over the offseason, the defensive playcaller publicly called for him to be focused every play. The talent is all there, but for someone who was paid to make plays and develop into a No. 1 corner, it has not come together just yet. If it doesn’t this season, when will it? At 26 years old, Zyon McCollum’s best football days should be right now.

Josh Queipo: Lack Of Consistency On Defense On A Weekly Basis

We have seen the Bucs’ secondary dominate for stretches at a time. But when they do, the pass rush falters. The team is still top-five in pressures and top-half in sacks despite not having their best pass rushing edge and best pass rushing defensive tackle. But when they get pressure, the coverage is lax.

Todd Bowles has shown he can scheme up incredible gameplans – see the 49ers game. When he does it seems execution fails. We have even seen SirVocea Dennis improve and not become a complete liability giving away a drive a game, like he was at the beginning of the year. But when that happens other parts of the defense fail.

Bucs HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

What we haven’t seen is this collection of talent and minds coalesce into a singular dominant group. The pieces are there. But this unit is capable of much more than it has produced to this point in the season. Being outside the top-10 in sacks is disappointing for a group that generates as much pressure as it does. Allowing 25 points per game, which ranks tied for 21st in the league, is depressing. That has to change. This is the exact opposite of the old saying “the sum is greater than the parts.” Right now the sum is less than the parts. And Todd Bowles and his defensive staff have to figure it out.

It’s fine if you want to be a high variance team as long as the negative plays you create out-weigh the positives you allow. That’s the modern NFL. Over the past two games that hasn’t happened. The lows have been too low and the highs haven’t been high enough. This defense is too good to be this bad. They have to put it all together. It’s that simple.