The Tampa Bay Buccaneers chose to find out they didn’t have very good depth at safety in the hardest way possible — watching their backups get shredded for over 500 passing yards and give up the game-winning touchdown reception in overtime against the Atlanta Falcons in Week 5.
While NFL All-Pro free safety Antoine Winfield Jr. is now back in the lineup after missing 4 games due to injury and made a big splash with a 58-yard fumble return for a touchdown in a Week 6 win over the New Orleans Saints, the Buccaneers can’t afford another disappearing act should he go down.
Add in that Tampa Bay’s other safety, Jordan Whitehead, is also hurt and Christian Izien, Winfield’s backup, missed the win over the Saints with a concussion, Bleacher Report’s Matt Holder thinks the team should sign free agent safety and 10-year NFL veteran Adrian Amos.
“With (the injuries) in mind, the Buccaneers might want to add a veteran safety to the depth chart just in case,” Holder wrote. “Amos didn’t get much playing time with the Jets and Texans last season, but he did allow just a 62.2 passer rating when targeted and earned an 89.6 run defense grade from Pro Football Focus on his limited opportunities.”
Amos was a 2-time All-Big Ten standout at Penn State before the Chicago Bears drafted him in the fifth round (No. 142 overall) of the 2015 NFL draft.
Amos was a PFWAA All-Rookie Team selection in 2015 with the Bears after he started all 16 games and finished with 67 tackles. Amos played 4 seasons in Chicago before cashing in with a 4-year, $36 million free agent contract with the Green Bay Packers in March 2019.
With the Packers, Amos started every game for 4 seasons — 66 consecutive starts — and had a career-high 102 tackles in his final season in Green Bay in 2022. Amos played for the New York Jets and Houston Texans in 2023 and was part of the last round of cuts for the Jacksonville Jaguars before the 2024 regular season.
Amos has shown a knack for making big plays in the most important situations. He has 10 career interceptions over 142 regular season games but has 3 interceptions in 8 career playoff games.
You don’t ever want to say the success of any defensive unit boils down to 1 player, but in the case of the Buccaneers … it boils down to 1 player. If Winfield is on the field, the Buccaneers will probably be OK.
If not, they probably won’t. This isn’t the first time in his career he’s missed multiple games due to injury, either. Winfield played all 16 games as a rookie in 2020 in helping lead the Buccaneers to a Super Bowl win, but missed 4 games each in 2021 and 2022.
Winfield is largely thought of as the NFL’s best free safety after starting all 17 games in 2023 and being named NFL All-Pro for the first time with a virtuoso season — career highs in tackles (122), interceptions (3), pass deflections (12), sacks (6.0), forced fumbles (6) and fumble recoveries (4).
That big year led to one of the biggest contracts for a defensive back in NFL history — Winfield signed a 4-year, $84.1 million contract extension in May 2024.
Tony Adame covers the NFL for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Washington Commanders and Denver Broncos. A veteran sports writer and editor since 2004, his work has been featured at Stadium Talk, Yardbarker, NW Florida Daily News and Pensacola News Journal. More about Tony Adame
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