Home NFL Two Most Important Buccaneers For The 2026 Season

Buccaneers' Safety Antoine Winfield Jr / via buccaneers.com

Two Most Important Buccaneers For The 2026 Season

July 21, 2026

Every roster has a weakness. There is no such thing as a perfect team and if one or two things go wrong then it could be disastrous. Of course, that includes the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Buccaneers are one of the best rosters in the NFC. They have no glaring holes and perhaps the best depth in the NFL. However, they are a flawed roster like any other.

Because of that, some players are more important than others. This is because there is less depth behind them and they are more irreplaceable. They have specific skillsets that no one else on the roster have shown they can replicate.

Specifically, there are two players who the Bucs just can’t afford to lose. If anything were to happen to them then it would leave a hole in the roster that the team would not be able to patch. That’s why these players are my two most important Buccaneers for the 2026 season.

Antoine Winfield Jr.

It should come as no shock that arguably the Bucs best player on defense is also one of the most irreplaceable. The two time Pro Bowler and one time All Pro is one of the most versatile and talented safeties in the NFL. Along with Tykee Smith, Winfield is the star of one of the best safety duos in the league.

However, there is one part of Winfield’s game that Smith can’t do. In fact, no one on the roster has proven that they can do it at the NFL level. This skillset is what makes Winfield so essential this year.

This would be Winfield’s coverage ability on the back end of the defense. While Smith is a great box defender, he doesn’t have the speed and mobility to play a lot of high safety in coverage. Neither does backup safety Miles Killibrew; and while last year’s undrafted rookie JJ Roberts does have this skillset, he missed all of last season with injury and hasn’t taken an NFL snap yet.

Winfield played more of this role last season. With Smith moving into the other starting safety role, he took over more of the box responsibilities that Winfield had been responsible for in the past. This put more deep coverage responsibility on the shoulders of the 6th year veteran.

Winfield did well in this role. While we didn’t see all the splash plays that we have been used to, we did see him as a reliable safety net on the back end. This led to him being voted to his second career pro bowl.

That dynamic appears to be the same going into this season. Because Winfield is the only safety with these proven coverage skills and because he can do it at a high level, he is one player that the defense can’t afford to lose.

Alex Anzalone

Linebacker has been a serious weakness for the Bucs in recent years. We have seen Lavonte David’s career wide down and next to him has been a revolving door of clunky linebackers. The likes of KJ Britt and SirVocea Dennis have just not been good enough.

Specifically, the coverage from the linebacker unit has been very poor. Tight ends and running backs have thrived in the passing game against this Buccaneers defense. It’s hard to do anything when every check down pass is an explosive play waiting to happen.

This past offseason the Bucs brought in Anzalone as a free agent. He is a well rounded, quality linebacker. His specialty is his abilities in coverage which should help where the Bucs have struggled most.

However, behind him there is really no one else who can defend the pass. The front office brought in Christian Rozeboom to compete with Dennis for snaps. Much like Dennis, Rozeboom is more of an attacking forward linebacker with limited coverage ability.

The Bucs also drafted Josiah Trotter in the second round. He is more talented than either Rozeboom or Dennis, but is a similar mold of player. A between the tackles thumper who wins with physicality and making plays while attacking forward.

So if Anzalone were to get hurt, who would take his coverage responsibilities? Simply put, I have no idea. There isn’t another linebacker in the roster who comes close to being able to do what Anzalone can do in coverage.

Without him, we will see the same problems with the linebacker group that we have the last few years. Inability to cover running backs in the flat, which nullifies the pass rush. It’s a huge problem that could derail the entire season.

Because of that, I would argue that Anzalone is the Buccaneers most important player heading into the season.

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