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: Monroe Freeling – Bucs’ New Divisional Foe

The Panthers selected Georgia left tackle Monroe Freeling with the 19th pick of the 2026 NFL Draft. Their franchise left tackle, Ikem Ekwonu, went down with a knee injury early in their playoff loss to the Rams and is questionable to return to the NFL this year. So Freeling should slide into the left tackle spot this season and the Bucs are set to face him twice this year.

Freeling’s strengths and weaknesses will be scrutinized by Tampa Bay as the team looks to find an advantage against the Panthers in their quest to dethrone their divisional foes for NFC South supremacy. After watching several of Freeling’s games from 2025, I believe the Bucs should be excited that he has entered the division. At least for 2026.

Panthers OT Monroe Freeling – Photo by IMAGN Images via Reuters Connect – Kirby Lee

Freeling’s traits are both extremely evident and plentiful. He is big, 6-foot-7, 315-pound athlete, who is light on his feet and strong. Everything is on the table with him. He can develop into a weapon in any run scheme. If you need him to get out to the edge in wide zone, Freeling is your guy. If you want him to roll around the line as a puller, he is going to work well in that role. He can double, climb, wall off, reach and angle.

As a pass protector he has all of the traits to match up against the most premier edge rushers the NFL has to offer – in time.

But based on his 2025 tape, the Bucs may have an advantage during his rookie year. I’m going to paint a picture of the biggest opportunities to take advantage of Freeling. Tell me if you can think of someone tailor-made to exploit those opportunities who might play for your favorite team.

Freeling is a quick mover with a repeatable pass set. But he struggles to time that set up with the snap. This leads to him playing catch up and having to recover often within the rep. Rushers who have quick get-offs are going to put him in a bind repeatedly.

Because Freeling has to play from behind, he is forced to speed up in order to protect the edge of the arc. This leaves him with a soft inside shoulder and leaves him susceptible to inside counters.

Panthers QB Bryce Young and Bucs OLB Yaya Diaby – Photo by: USA Today

While he has phenomenal play strength, it shows up most often on second effort as a re-anchor. Initial contact between him and power rushers usually favors his opponents, and speed-to-power specialists give him fits early in the rep.

Yaya Diaby’s profile matches up perfectly to be a real test for Freeling when the Bucs and Panthers first meet up in Week 7 in Carolina, and then again in Week 12 in Tampa Bay. Diaby’s three best traits as a pass rusher are get-off, converting speed-to-power, and finding an inside path to the pocket. This is precisely where Freeling will need to improve to turn into the player the Panthers hope he can be.

Finance: Chris Braswell’s Valuation

Many Bucs fans have written off Chris Braswell as a bust who may not make the roster this year. But I also see him thrown out as part of trade packages to bring back players fans want. For that reason I think it’s a good idea to dive into what – if any – value Braswell has at this point in his career. It’s also a good marker of what he might contribute to a trade package since standalone trade value is unlikely.

Let’s start with Braswell’s production last year according to Pro Football Focus:

Games – 17
Sacks/game – 0.06
Pressures/game – 0.88
Pressure Rate – 10.9%
Tackles for loss – 2

Also notable, Braswell will be just shy of his 25th birthday when the season starts and he is a former second-round pick. Those things still matter in both contract and trade valuations. My valuation model puts this profile at a $1.89 million APY projection.

Bucs OLB Chris Braswell and Saints QB Tyler Shough – Photo by: USA Today

It’s also important to find comparable contracts that feature similar production. The relevant comps I found for Braswell’s 2025 are Josh Uche (2024), Zack Baun (2023), Boogie Basham (2024) and Tyus Bowser (2020).

The average of those players’ production:

Games – 12.5
Sacks/game – 0.10
Pressures/game – 1.26
Pressure Rate – 11.0%
Tackles for loss – 2

Every one of those players was a former second-round pick, matching Braswell’s draft pedigree. That group did trail him in one important area. The average age of those players at the start of the season they signed their deals was 27.2. But given Braswell trails them in sacks and pressures per game we can call the age advantage a wash with the production difference.

The cap-adjusted average APY for that group is $3.90 million.

The midpoint of the comps and the projection is $2.9 million per year, which feels right for a 25 year old former second-rounder who hasn’t lived up to his billing. Under contract for two more seasons, that puts Braswell’s on-field value at $5.8 million. His contract calls for him to earn $3,132,090 over the next two seasons, giving him a small contractual surplus value of about $2.7 million. That brings his total value to about $8.5 million.

An equivalent draft pick, according to my research on the subject, is about pick 200, which is typically a conditional sixth-round pick territory. Since teams can’t trade conditional picks they haven’t been awarded yet, Braswell’s true value falls to a seventh-rounder.

That’s the right value for two cost-controlled years of a player who has proven he can work on the back of a roster as a special teamer with some pass rush upside if he finds the light switch and turns it on.

Forecast: My Way Too Early 53-Man Roster Projection – Defense

DL (5) – Vita Vea, Calijah Kancey, A’Shawn Robinson, Elijah Roberts, DeMonte Capehart
OLB (5) – Yaya Diaby, Reuben Bain Jr., Al-Quadin Muhammad, Anthony Nelson, Chris Braswell
ILB (4) – Alex Anzalone, Josiah Trotter, SirVocea Dennis, Christian Rozeboom
CB (5) – Zyon McCollum, Benjamin Morrison, Jacob Parrish, Keionte Scott, Josh Hayes
S (4) – Antoine Winfield Jr., Tykee Smith, JJ Roberts, Miles Killebrew 
P (1) – Riley Dixon 
LS (1) – Evan Deckers 

The defensive tackle competition will be one to watch out for. The team has gone above and beyond to praise Rakeem Nunez-Roches for his contributions to the culture and energy of the squad during OTAs. But at the same time he has not played very well since leaving Tampa Bay in 2022. My bet is the Bucs go with Capehart’s upside over Nacho, and his versatility over Elijah Simmons and Jayson Jones.

After showing that Chris Braswell’s value isn’t very high earlier in this article, I have the Bucs moving on from him and keeping David Walker instead.

Bucs ILB Alex Anzalone – Photo by: Brian Collera/PR

The linebacker room is pretty chalk. Anzalone and Trotter will be the starters with Dennis and Rozeboom relegated to backup status with experience in case of injury.

Josh Hayes stays! The Bucs have enjoyed keeping the former Kansas State product around as a core special teamer. Until the team signs a veteran I remain convinced my name-buddy has another path to a roster spot. The rest of the cornerback room is straightforward in terms of roster spots. It is anything but when it comes to who will be starting where come week one.

Killebrew being the fourth safety is in name only. Should either Winfield or Smith go down the team would turn to Roberts as the first man up and go to the practice squad for depth. Killebrew is here for one reason and one reason only – help new special teams coordinator Danny Smith turn around a historically inept Bucs special teams.

Fun Fourth Down: All-Time 53-Man Roster – Defense

IDL (6) – Warren Sapp, Vita Vea, Gerald McCoy, Brad Culpepper, Ndamukong Suh, Booger McFarland
Edge Rusher (6) – Lee Roy Selmon, Simeon Rice, Shaq Barrett, Jason Pierre-Paul, Chidi Ahanotu, Yaya Diaby 
ILB (4) – Derrick Brooks, Lavonte David, Hardy Nickerson, Shelton Quarles 
CB (5) – Ronde Barber, Donnie Abraham, Aqib Talib, Brian Kelly, Mike Washington 
S (4) – John Lynch, Antoine Winfield Jr., Dexter Jackson, Mark Cotney
P (1) – Josh Bidwell 
LS (1) – Andrew Economos 

The three deep at defensive line doesn’t only work from a name brand standpoint. Stylistically it works well also. Sapp/Vea as the team’s 3-technique and nose tackle. McCoy/Culpepper match up the same. Suh as the 3-technique to McFarland’s nose.

At edge rusher, the first five names are unsurprising. But I bet Yaya Diaby showing up already even though he is entering just his fourth year in the NFL may have you going, “There is definitely at least one more edge in franchise history who was better than Yaya has been.”

Names like Greg Spires, Marcus Jones and Stylez G. White may pop into your head. The truth is that all three are currently ahead of Diaby on the franchise all-time sacks list. But Diaby is poised to pass all three while playing fewer seasons by the end of 2026. I’ll take Diaby.

The linebacker depth chart is a clear delineation between two of the biggest franchise icons playing next to each other – but who plays Mike?! Funny enough, the two backups were both Mikes bearing the question, “Who plays the Will?” It feels weird to think of one of Nickerson and Quarles starting over one of Brooks and David. But if push came to shove and we wanted to keep true positional markers, I would go Nickerson with Brooks and Quarles with David.

Former Bucs LBs Hardy Nickerson and Derrick Brooks – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

My starting corners would be Talib and Abraham on the outside with Barber as the nickelback. In doing this exercise, I am reminded of how good Barber was for so long. He obviously played alongside Abraham from 1997 to 2001. But also keep in mind he played alongside Talib for Talib’s entire Bucs career as well. Brian Kelly and Mike Washington off the bench is an embarrassment of riches.

Lynch and Winfield are obvious choices. Behind them are less so.

Cotney is one half of a dynamic duo. He and Cedric Brown patrolled the Bucs’ defensive backfield together from 1976 to 1984. Brown had nearly double the number of interceptions over that time frame.

To be honest I still went with Cotney for one big reason. He played strong safety to Brown’s free safety and there was no way I was leaving Dexter Jackson – Super Bowl XXXVII MVP – off my list. With Jackson a free safety, and me being an ardent positional snob for this exercise, Cotney got the nod.

This exercise closes with two names that even the most ardent Bucs fans should find themselves telling their grandkids one day, “I remember when some weirdo made the claim that a punter and Andrew flippin’ Economos made their All-Time Bucs roster over guys like Carlton Davis III, Will Gholston and Broderick Thomas.”

But c’est la vie.

P.S. Two weeks ago, Cover 4 put out a Bucs’ edition Jeopardy! game. Here are the answers to those questions.

Draft Day Decisions – $100

This defensive tackle was the fifth defensive tackle taken in his draft class, and the second taken by the Bucs that year.

ANSWER: UCLA defensive tackle Brian Price, who was drafted in the second round of the 2010 draft class, following the first-round pick of Gerald McCoy the previous day.

Canton – $200

From 1993 to 1997 the Bucs drafted this many players who would eventually go on to be enshrined in the NFL Hall of Fame.

ANSWER: Four players – John Lynch (1993), Warren Sapp (1995), Derrick Brooks (1995) and Ronde Barber (1997).

Jersey Numbers – $300

Only three players have had their jerseys officially retired by the Buccaneers, and these are their three numbers.

ANSWER: Those jersey numbers are 63 (Lee Roy Selmon), 55 (Derrick Brooks) and 99 (Warren Sapp).

Don’t Do That – $400

Raiders head coach Bill Callahan opted for simplicity over strategy when he made this grave mistake in Super Bowl XXXVII. Bucs head coach Jon Gruden took full advantage.

ANSWER: Callahan did not change the Raiders play/audible terminology – even though Gruden knew the Raiders playbook and all of the audibles and checks and communicated that to the Bucs defense in the practices leading up to the Super Bowl.

Bowles Says – $500

In the midst of his fourth midseason swoon in as many seasons, Bucs head coach Todd Bowles violated George Carlin’s 1972 standup routine by uttering two of the “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television” this many times during a postgame media availability.

ANSWER: Bowles blurted out a total of 10 profanities (seven of one word that starts with an ‘F’ and three of another word that starts with an ‘S’) following the Bucs’ 29-28 loss to the Falcons on Thursday Night Football.