Let’s put the spotlight on Bucs cornerback Zyon McCollum.

With the 2024 season firmly in the rearview mirror and the pre-draft process, free agency, the draft itself, OTAs and mini-camp also behind us, it’s time to ramp up the excitement for training camp and then, of course, the Bucs’ 50th season. As we did last summer, we’ll spend the weeks leading up to training camp focusing on some storylines and narratives surrounding some of Tampa Bay’s biggest stars in 2025.

So far, we’ve worked our way through storylines for nine players on offense: quarterback Baker Mayfield, running backs Bucky Irving and Rachaad White, wide receivers Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and Jalen McMillan, tight end Cade Otton and offensive tackles Tristan Wirfs and Luke Goedeke.

From there, we moved over to the defensive side of the ball. We started with key members of the front seven, including defensive tackle Calijah Kancey, nose tackle Vita Vea, outside linebackers Yaya Diaby and Haason Reddick and inside linebacker Lavonte David. As we near the end of our Bucs Storylines series, we move to the secondary, first focusing on fourth-year cornerback Zyon McCollum.

Can Zyon McCollum Elevate His Interception Total In 2025?

It’s been a steady rise to the top for Zyon McCollum over the first three years of his career in the NFL. The Bucs traded up in the fifth round of the 2022 Draft to select the long, athletic cornerback out of Sam Houston. It was clear right away why he could be a fit for Todd Bowles’ defense, but it was understood that he would have some adapting and developing to do.

A hamstring injury in August 2022 cost him the first four games of his rookie season before he went on to play 13 games, including some fill-in duty when injuries struck the Tampa Bay secondary. He would then see a larger role in 2023, playing all 17 games with nine starts, showing enough that the Bucs were comfortable enough to trade Carlton Davis III away and open up a starting spot opposite Jamel Dean.

McCollum took that role in 2024 and paid off the faith the team showed in him, starting all 17 games and racking up 17 passes defensed while hauling in the first two interceptions of his career.

Bucs CB Zyon McCollum – Photo by: USA Today

Those two interceptions tied Tykee Smith for the team lead last year, but McCollum knows two isn’t enough. He fell well short of his goal of six interceptions last year, and he’ll be looking to up his total in 2025, a contract year. Todd Bowles wants more ballhawks to emerge in his secondary, and McCollum has the tools to be one of them.

The 6-foot-2, 199-pound corner had a perfect 10.0 out of 10.0 Relative Athletic Score (RAS) coming out of college, so that combined with his frame made him the perfect type of player for Bowles’ system. And it certainly didn’t hurt that he was extremely productive over his five years at Sam Houston. He was a consistent force for the Bearkats, racking up four seasons with three interceptions on his way to 13 in his career.

McCollum also finished his career with 54 passes defensed and six forced fumbles, so he was no stranger to being around the football. Now, after a year of getting his feet wet as a first-time full-time starter, it’s time for him to take that next step forward for Tampa Bay’s defense.

There’s an element of randomness to interceptions, sure, but the key is to continue putting yourself in position to make plays. And when the play is there to be made, well, you’ve got to make it. Bowles and the Buccaneer defensive coaching staff want to see that out of No. 27 in his fourth season. It’s all there for the young corner – he just has to put it all together.

How Will Zyon McCollum Adapt To Being A Leader In Bucs’ CB Room?

Considering his personality and work ethic, this is hardly a question. But it’s worth talking about, as Zyon McCollum has suddenly gone from up-and-coming prospect to a full-fledged starter and, yes, a veteran. It’s crazy how fast it’s gone for the 2022 fifth-round pick, but this is year four and he’s now one of the elder statesmen in the Bucs’ young cornerback room.

McCollum only just turned 26 in May, but he has three years in the NFL under his belt. And while he has an older veteran in Jamel Dean, who is about to turn 29, alongside him, the cornerback group in Tampa Bay got a big infusion of youth this offseason. The Bucs drafted Notre Dame corner Benjamin Morrison in the second round of the 2025 Draft, then added Kansas State corner Jacob Parrish in the third round.

So, as much as it feels like it was only yesterday that he was entering the league and joining a veteran cornerback duo featuring two Super Bowl champions in Dean and Carlton Davis III, it’s now McCollum’s time to flip the script and be a leader for the newcomers.

Bucs CB Zyon McCollum – Photo by: USA Today

If OTAs and mini-camp are anything to go off of, it seems as if the new-look cornerback room is already coming together well. The infusion of some more youth has helped the group as a whole, which is something McCollum spoke about during OTAs.

“Off the bat, it’s new energy,” McCollum said. “In the room you can just kind of feel it – the intensity is just starting to rise up and it’s good. To embrace it as a room and to come together, I mean, everybody is fighting to be that next level and get to that next level. We’re trying to catch these young guys up as quickly as possible.

“Going into training camp, we want to be able to go into the season at our best and when they’re playing at their best, it allows us to rise our game to an even higher level. They’ve just been getting in shape, getting to know the playbook, and it’s good to have new energy in the room, for sure.”

You can already hear some of that leadership shining through in the way McCollum speaks, which is a huge key not only in the locker room and meeting rooms but when it comes to on-field interactions. Communication is something that Todd Bowles harps on time and again with his secondary, and when things go wrong, it’s usually due to a lack of communication.

Bucs CBs Jamel Dean and Zyon McCollum – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

McCollum will be among those who are charged to take control of communication and keep everyone on the same page from play to play. As important as it is to the defense’s success, it’s also a lead-by-example type of action that the team’s younger corners can take after when their number is called.

McCollum has already played the part of a leader off the field, with a nomination for the Art Rooney Sportsmanship Award last year in addition to winning the 2024 PFWA Mark Cook Memorial Good Guy Award, which is an award given annually to the Bucs player who most graciously fulfills their media obligations.

Will Zyon McCollum Cement Himself As The Bucs’ CB1 Of The Future?

The Bucs could opt to sign Zyon McCollum to a contract extension ahead of the 2025 season, but as it stands right now, he’s set to play out the final year of his rookie contract this fall. He showed a lot of promise last year and appears primed to be the Bucs’ top cornerback heading into this season. But will the 2025 campaign cement his status as Tampa Bay’s CB1 of the future?

There’s a chance the team already views him as such, but his fourth season could go a long way in determining what a presumed second contract with the Bucs could look like. That’s what contract years are all about, and McCollum knows that and is using it to drive him.

“It adds so much to it,” McCollum said during OTAs. “I love the Bucs and I want to make plays for the Bucs and myself and my family and knowing the opportunity that I have in front of me, it’s really really exciting. It puts a new chip on my shoulder. I feel kind of like I was a rookie coming in here, I have to prove it all over again and continue to rise my game to the next level.”

Bucs CB Zyon McCollum – Photo by: USA Today

McCollum had the highest Pro Football Focus coverage grade among all qualifying cornerbacks through the first six weeks of the 2024 season, and he was top 10 in both catch rate allowed (47.1% – 8th) and forced incompletion rate (21% – 6th). But his play did dip in the second half of the season, something head coach and defensive play-caller Todd Bowles attributed to taking too many chances and abandoning technique.

“I think Zyon played very well most of the time,” Bowles said at the NFL Scouting Combine. “I think when he got bored, he took chances and he did not play with as much technique. If he can just play with the technique he played with all the way through and not get bored, with his concentration, he will be fine. But Zyon is definitely on the rise.”

There’s no question that McCollum has been on the right trajectory over the last couple of years in particular. In 2025, though, he’ll have to show improved consistency and live up to the potential second contract he could be signing next spring.

What might that contract look like, anyway?

Bucs HC Todd Bowles And CB Zyon McCollum – Photo by: USA Today

Pewter Report’s Josh Queipo currently projects a three-year, $48 million deal for McCollum, with a little over $27.4 million guaranteed. That averages out to a $16 million average per year, though the structure of Queipo’s projection leads to an effective APY of $12,851,500.

That’s not bad at all for a former fifth-round pick out of Sam Houston. And with yet another major step forward in 2025? Those numbers could certainly go up.