It’s never too early to talk about the Bucs’ upcoming season, is it? With Tampa Bay’s 2024 season over and only three NFL games remaining on the schedule, the shift to the offseason is in full swing with an eye on how the Bucs will compete in 2025. Part of the process includes developing their own players as Tampa Bay has a young core nucleus that should set the team up to be competitive once again.
In a recent article on Pro Football Focus, Bradley Locker went through all 32 NFL teams and listed one player each for who is an early candidate to break out next season. When it came to the Bucs, the choice was defensive back Tykee Smith, who is a safety that played nickel corner for Tampa Bay as a rookie.
“Don’t sleep on Tykee Smith: In his first year, the Bucs defensive back collected a 90.3 PFF run-defense grade, the fifth-best among any defender with 150 or more run-defense snaps.”
Then it went into much further detail. Here’s what Locker said about him.
“General manager Jason Licht’s 2024 draft class already has a proven star in Bucky Irving, and Smith is another candidate to flourish. In his first NFL regular season, Smith collected an 88.1 PFF run-defense grade, the seventh-best mark among cornerbacks with 100 or more run-defense snaps. His 21 stops tied for the 13th most among rookies. The Bucs have been one of the NFL’s premier organizations in terms of drafting and developing talent, and Smith seems to be another prime example.”
Tykee Smith Brought A Lot To The Bucs In One Season
In a season where the Bucs had trouble taking the ball away, Tykee Smith at least was on the better end of trying to make plays. He was tied with inside linebacker Lavonte David for the team lead with three forced fumbles and was also tied at the top of the Bucs defense with Zyon McCollum having two interceptions. Keep in mind that this was all in 13 games on the season as he missed four games separately due to a concussion and a knee injury.
Bucs head coach Todd Bowles already holds Smith in high regard. Although he was a rookie, Bowles has applauded Smith for taking to the game like a long-term veteran NFL player. Bowles doesn’t have to worry about where Smith is going on a particular defensive call because he has the system down pat.
There’s no doubt that Smith is an important figure in the future of the Bucs defense. With Calijah Kancey on the interior defensive line, Yaya Diaby at outside linebacker, Antoine Winfield Jr. signed long-term at safety, Smith is another big piece of the defense, and specifically the secondary.
Tampa Bay has strong safety Jordan Whitehead under contract for one more season. But if he has another year like he just did, which unfortunately marred by injury, it’ll probably be his last season with the Bucs. Could there be an eventual move for Smith from nickel to safety? It might be too far ahead to consider, but it’s also something to keep an eye.
The Bucs have had two different starting nickelbacks in the previous two seasons. Christian Izien, who Bowles said was one of the players that took the biggest strides this year, was the starter there in 2023, and then Smith took over in the slot in 2024. Tampa Bay could opt to find another nickel corner and then play Smith at his more natural position.
What we’ve seen already seen in Smith’s young career is that he is playmaker. He tied for the team lead with three forced fumbles, as well as tying for the lead with two interceptions in the 13 games he played in as a rookie.
Pewter Report recently discussed who were the 10 best Bucs players from the season they just finished on the Pewter Report Podcast on our PewterReportTV YouTube channel. Did Smith land on the list? Check it out.
