Pewter Report is reporting that the Bucs are expected to hire former Bills defensive line coach Marcus West to fill their vacancy at defensive line coach. West coached Buffalo’s defensive line for the past two seasons and had spent two additional years as the team’s assistant defensive line coach.

Following the end of the 2025 campaign, Bucs head coach Todd Bowles fired defensive line coach Charlie Strong after just one season in Tampa Bay. Strong, a former college head coach at Louisville, USF and Texas, replaced Bowles’ long-time defensive line coach Kacy Rodgers after he left in the 2024 offseason to become the Lions defensive line coach.

Bucs DL coach Marcus West – Photo by: IMAGN Images – Shawn Dowd

Prior to his time with the Bills, the 42-year old West was the assistant head coach/co-defensive coordinator/defensive line coach at the University of Charlotte from 2019-21 where he coached defensive ends Alex Highsmith and Markees Watts.

Highsmith, a third-round pick by Pittsburgh in 2020, set the all-time career sack record at Charlotte in 2019 with 20 and also set the single-season sack record with 14. Watts, who signed with the Bucs as an undrafted free agent in 2023, broke Highsmith’s career sack record in 2021 with 21.5.

West, a former standout defensive lineman at Memphis, spent three seasons trying to make it in the NFL, including spending time on Indianapolis’ practice squad in 2006.

New Bucs D-Line Coach Marcus West Was Productive With The Bills

Marcus West helped develop some of Buffalo’s young pass rushers over the last four seasons. The following information comes from the Bills’ media relations department about West’s accomplishments.

• Greg Rousseau led all Bills pass rushers with eight sacks in 2024, tying his career-high previously set in 2022. His 24 QB hits were also a career-high and tied for seventh in the NFL and he collected 16 TFLs which was tied for sixth in the AFC.

• In 2023, the Bills tallied 54 sacks on the season which ranked fourth best in the NFL. Led by DE Leonard Floyd who had 10.5 sacks and became the first Bills defender with 10+ sacks in a season since Lorenzo Alexander had 12.5 in 2016.

• Defensive tackle Ed Oliver finished 2023 with a career high in tackles with 51 (34 solo), 9.5 sacks, 14 TFLs, 16 QB hits, 1 INT and tied a career high in passes defensed (3). His 9.5 sacks was the most by a Bills DT since Jordan Phillips in 2019 (9.5). Oliver’s INT was also the first INT by a Bills DT since 2019.

Bucs DL coach Marcus West – Photo by: IMAGN Images – Shawn Dowd

• A.J. Epenesa collected 6.5 sacks in 2023 tying a personal season high (6.5 in 2022). He also intercepted two passes on the season and became the 12th Bills defensive lineman with two interceptions in his career and only the third with multiple in a season, joining Ron McDole (two in 1968) and Sean Moran (two in 1997). Epenesa returned an interception for a touchdown at Washington, becoming the first DL to score on an INT return since Aaron Schobel.

• The Bills defense finished 2022 ranked first in the AFC with 17.8 points allowed per game and ranked second in the NFL with 286 points allowed.

Last year, Buffalo’s defense ranked 27th in total pressures with 187 and ranked 12th in pressure rate (35.4%) as the Bills ranked 20th in sacks with 36. Star defensive tackle Ed Oliver had three sacks in the first three games of the year before being placed on injured reserve and missing the final 14 games in 2025. That greatly hurt Buffalo’s ability to rush the passer. Yet Rousseau led the Bills with seven sacks in 2024 and Buffalo had a sack rate of 6.8%, which ranked 13th in the NFL last year.

With a healthy Oliver, as well as Von Miller in 2024 as opposed to having Joey Bosa at defensive end (2025), Buffalo was tied for 14th in sacks when rushing four or less at the quarterback in 2024 with 28. The Bills were also tied for fifth in pressure rate in that scenario with 48.