Roughly a month ago, a collision of knees with a teammate during a Friday morning practice interrupted the impressive rookie season being put together by Tykee Smith. The Buccaneers' rookie safety, a third-round pick out of Georgia, took more time than originally anticipated to recover and he ended up missing three games sandwiched around the team's bye week.
Smith didn't take long to show the Buccaneers what they had been missing. He played 43 of the Bucs' 67 defensive plays against the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday as the team had to continue shuffling the back end of the secondary around due to injuries to Jordan Whitehead, Mike Edwards and – in the second quarter of this contest – Antoine Winfield Jr. Smith finished with three tackles, an interception and two passes defensed.
Head Coach Todd Bowles said Smith was ready to make an impact immediately upon his return to action because he is adept at absorbing defensive game plans even when he can't be on the field for a while.
"[He has] very good mental awareness," said Bowles. "You know, the mental part is one thing you don't worry about with him but you worry about the physical part, see how he [holds] up but once he got rolling, it was pretty good for us. He's one of the few guys over there with the mental capacity to see the game even when he's not practicing and that takes a lot, especially for a rookie. He plays it well."
Smith's interception was perhaps the biggest defensive play of the game for Tampa Bay. Clinging to a 14-10 lead in the third quarter, the Bucs were trying to hold the Raiders out of the end zone at the end of a grind-it-out drive that drained more than 10 minutes off the clock. Izien did it one better: He kept the Raiders off the scoreboard altogether, stepping in front of tight end Brock Bowers, another rookie standout from Georgia, and snared Aidan O'Connell's pass at the Bucs' seven-yard line.
It was Smith's second interception of the season, as he tied cornerback Zyon McCollum for the team lead in that category. He also leads the team with three forced fumbles and, like Winfield, seems to have an innate knack for making big plays at crucial moments.
Like teammate Christian Izien, Smith is listed as a safety but is considered a best fit in the slot in nickel packages. Veteran defensive back Tavierre Thomas is listed as a cornerback but has worked at safety for the first time since joining the Buccaneers. Second-year safety Kaevon Merriweather had just returned to the team he spent his first season-and-a-half with last week after the Bucs plucked him off Detroit's practice squad. After Winfield went down, even more shuffling at the back end was required.
"'Izzy' had to learn a lot of spots, Tykee had to learn some spots, and Merriweather had to learn some different spots, as well as Tavierre," said Bowles. "So it's good to have the versatility because we need it all."
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Smith, Merriweather and Izien all played at least 43 snaps, while Thomas logged 11 near the end of the game. The Buccaneers used a wide variety of personnel packages to limit the Raiders to 286 yards and just three points after halftime, some of which they hadn't put on tape before this weekend. Crucially, that patched up secondary was able to hold Bowers, the NFL's leading pass-catcher, to just three receptions on five targets.
"Smoke and mirrors, smoke and mirrors," said Bowles on Monday, laughing. "We have a couple packages that were kind of unorthodox that we've been practicing. The safeties do a good job filling in at linebacker. [The Raiders] had a very good tight end as well, so we had to cover him and then we had to try to stop the run with that same package and I thought between 'Izzy', Merriweather, Tykee, Tavierre – they did a very good job covering up and making those plays."
Bowles reported on Monday that Winfield is expected to miss "a couple games" and Whitehead has to be on injured reserve or at least two more games. That means those other safeties listed above are going to continue to see a lot of action over the next month. Getting Smith and his play-making ability back in the mix should help tremendously.
