Pewter Report’s Scott Reynolds answers your questions from the @PewterReport X account this week in the Bucs Mailbag. Submit your question to SR each week via X using the hashtag #PRMailbag. Here are the Bucs questions we chose to answer for this week’s edition.

QUESTION: Is it going to be Jacob Parrish in the slot or is it going to be Keionte Scott and Parrish fights for an outside cornerback spot with Benjamin Morrison?

ANSWER: This is a really good question, and it’s on the minds of a lot of Bucs fans right now. The answer to this question won’t come until the preseason when the competition will likely be sorted out in August. Here’s what we know right now before OTAs, mini-camp and training camp.

The Bucs want Benjamin Morrison to really come on and live up to his second-round draft status. The team believes that can happen if he can stay healthy this year. Constant hamstring injuries cost him a lot of developmental time last August as he missed four weeks in training camp and all of the preseason. He played in 10 games with three starts but also missed seven games due to hamstring injuries during his rookie season.

Jacob Parrish, last year’s third-round pick, played in all 17 games and won the nickelback job in training camp. He had a very promising rookie season and finished with seven pass breakups, two interceptions, two sacks and a fumble recovery. Due to injuries to Zyon McCollum and Jamel Dean, Parrish also had a few starts at outside cornerback and looked somewhat comfortable there due to the fact he played outside at Kansas State. Right now, he is the better of the two drafted cornerbacks from a year ago due to his on-field experience.

Bucs CBs Jacob Parrish and Zyon McCollum – Photo by: Cliff Welch P/R

The plan is to have Parrish and Morrison battle for the right to replace Jamel Dean opposite Zyon McCollum this offseason and in training camp. If Parrish wins the outside job, it won’t necessarily mean that he won’t play nickelback, either. Bucs Hall of Famer Rondé Barber was an outside cornerback on first and second downs and only kicked inside to the slot as a nickelback on third downs or when opposing teams went with three-receiver sets. Parrish could be in line to do the same thing as the Bucs want him on the field as much as possible because of his talent.

However, Tampa Bay just spent a fourth-round pick on Keionte Scott, who starred as a nickelback at Miami, and the Bucs also want him on the field. Parrish just turned 22, while Scott turns 25 in August, and he comes to Tampa Bay with a lot of playing experience in college at both Auburn and Miami. Because of that, he’s pro ready and should be able to compete and produce as a rookie. Cornerbacks coach Rashad Johnson has done an outstanding job of getting three different rookies – Christian Izien, Tykee Smith and Parrish – ready to start as rookies in the slot. Scott will be the next one.

The good news for Todd Bowles is that he feels like he has three players capable of starting outside and filling two starting spots with McCollum, Parrish and Benjamin. And he feels like he has two players capable of starting in the slot and filling the nickelback role in Parrish and Scott. Sorting out who starts where will be a great problem to solve with the talent on hand. Scott will also get a look at outside cornerback with his size (5-11, 193) and his speed (4.3) in camp and could get cross-trained there or at safety.

History shows there will be injuries in the secondary. The Bucs have been unable to have their starting cornerbacks start all 17 games for years now due to injuries. If I had to guess, McCollum and Parrish win the outside roles, and we’ll see Scott start at nickelback. Morrison will rotate in with Parrish – and perhaps even McCollum – on the outside. Bowles can also create different matchups in the slot by going with either Parrish or Scott or even using the 6-foot-2 McCollum inside to match up against big slot receivers. It will be fun to see how this all plays out in August and throughout the season.

QUESTION: How do you see the top three spots in the WR room playing out? Who gets the roles and what exactly does each role look like for the particular player?

ANSWER: The Bucs wide receiver room can go one of two ways with new offensive coordinator Zac Robinson. He can go with clearly defined roles for each receiver – X (split end), Z (flanker) and F (slot) – or he can go with a positionless approach and have all of his receivers learn multiple positions so that they are interchangeable.

That’s what the Rams did in past years with Pro Bowl wide receivers Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp under offensive mastermind Sean McVay. It made it hard for defensive coordinators to get a bead on where Nacua and Kupp lined up and that can stymie gameplans because those receivers were moved around the formation play in and play out.

Bucs WRs Emeka Egbuka and Jalen McMillan – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

I suspect Robinson will mimic that approach to some degree in Tampa Bay because he has three similarly built receivers with similar skillsets in Emeka Egbuka, Chris Godwin Jr. and Jalen McMillan. All three are around 6-foot-1, 205 pounds and have similar speed in the 4.5 range, although Godwin at age 30 with his history of knee and ankle injuries might be a tick slower. While Godwin is probably limited to the slot at this stage of his career due to age (30) and his injury history, which has likely robbed him of some speed and acceleration, McMillan and Egbuka can play both in the slot and outside.

The departure of Mike Evans left a void at he split end position, which is the weakside receiver away from the tight end or the bunch formation. McMillan would have likely played in that spot had Tampa Bay not drafted a true X receiver in Ted Hurst in the third round this year. Now that Hurst can play the X, McMillan can focus on lining up at the Z or F spots where he is better suited to play.

My guess is that Egbuka – given his talent, first-round draft status, age and his productive rookie season – will likely be the featured receiver in Tampa Bay this year. He had the second-best training camp of any one on offense – behind only Evans – last summer, so his successful rookie year was not a surprise. I believe that Robinson’s passing game will run through the slot receiver, much like it did under Liam Coen in 2024. With Egbuka and Godwin likely splitting time there I suspect those two receivers might receive the lion’s share of the targets.

However, Baker Mayfield has shown the propensity to wisely throw to the open receiver. And if Egbuka and/or Godwin is drawing a lot of attention in coverage and McMillan is left in one-on-one situations with lesser cornerbacks, look for McMillan to be featured by default in some games. I’ve said it before and it bears repeating. I could see a scenario where the Bucs don’t have a 1,000-yard receiver but instead have three receivers with 800 receiving yards in 2026.

QUESTION: Where do you think we will see the most improvement with the coaching changes?

ANSWER: Hopefully it’s player development. At the heart of the job description, each assistant coach is responsible for developing the talent in his respective room, and of course, teaching and installing either the offense or defense. But getting players to live up to their potential and unlocking their talent is paramount for all assistant coaches.

Bucs assistant DBs coach Rashad Johnson and CB Josh Hayes – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

So that’s what these new assistant coaches must do. It’s not so much about collaborating on offense with offensive coordinator Zac Robinson or collaborating on defense with head coach and defensive play-caller Todd Bowles. Both know what they are doing. Robinson might be a little more open to collaboration than Bowles, but I would be just fine if new cornerbacks coach Rashad Johnson, new safeties coach Tim Atkins and new defensive line coach Marcus West just focused on getting their players to grow and perform better in 2026.

I recently did an SR’s FAB 5 column on why I think Johnson may be the most important position coach this year. There’s a lot riding on a room where fifth-year veteran Zyon McCollum is suddenly the elder statesman of the cornerback room following Jamel Dean’s departure in free agency. Not only does Johnson have to revive McCollum’s career after a disappointing down year in 2025, but he also needs to continue to develop last year’s Day 2 picks, Jacob Parrish and Benjamin Morrison and help prevent them from having a sophomore slump.

Throw in the fact that Johnson also has to get fourth-round pick Keionte Scott ready to play and perhaps start as a rookie at nickelback, and it’s easy to see why so much is riding on him as a first-year position coach. The cornerback room has the potential of being a team weakness or perhaps even a sneaky team strength if all four of those players live up to their athletic potential this season. There is a ton of variance in the Bucs cornerback room.

QUESTION: Scott, what do you think about the plan for the bye week? Todd Bowles gave them a week off last year and they were terrible after that. What do you think they will do this year?

ANSWER: I’m not sure. It will likely depend on the health of the team and how well the Bucs are playing – or are not playing – at the time. In hindsight, Todd Bowles may have done something different after last year’s bye week. Tampa Bay had a 6-2 record, and the defense came off its best game of the season in a 23-3 win at New Orleans, although the offense was quite sluggish against the Saints.

Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel and Bucs head coach Todd Bowles – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

The Bucs were incredibly banged up heading into the bye, and Bowles gave the team the entire week off instead of holding a couple of practices, as he was allowed to do. Did that mess with the focus of the team? It’s hard to say. The Bucs lost a hard-fought game the next week to the Patriots, who were 8-2 at the time and undefeated on the road, 28-23 at home. It wasn’t like Tampa Bay got crushed in that game. The score was 7-7 after the first quarter, and the Bucs trailed 14-10 at halftime after a last-second touchdown on the last play of the first half.

This year the Bucs play the Lions in Detroit the week after the bye. The interesting thing is that the Lions will be traveling back from England after playing the Patriots overseas. Will Detroit be facing some jet lag after what should be a tough road contest? We’ll see.

The problem is that Bowles is 0-4 in games after the bye week and Tampa Bay is just 2-10 in the first three games after the bye in his four-year tenure as head coach of the Bucs. So, he needs to do something different or figure out a way to have his team hitting on all cylinders after the bye.