The Buzz Surrounding Tykee Smith In 2025

Let’s put the spotlight on Bucs defensive back Tykee Smith.

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’ve moved into the secondary. We started with cornerbacks Zyon McCollum and Jamel Dean.

Now, in our penultimate installment of the series, we will cover second-year defensive back Tykee Smith.

How Will The Move To Safety Work For Tykee Smith And The Bucs?

After a strong rookie campaign in 2024 in which he was the Bucs’ starting nickel cornerback, Tykee Smith went to head coach and defensive play-caller Todd Bowles and expressed his desire to play safety, which would allow him to get more time on the field and more opportunities to make plays, something Tampa Bay needs more of from its secondary in 2025.

While Bowles and general manager Jason Licht kept all possibilities open entering free agency and the draft, it was clear by the end of draft weekend that the team was, indeed, ready to move forward with moving Smith to safety, pairing him with Antoine Winfield Jr. on the back end of the defense.

Now, the question will naturally be about how this ends up working out for the 2024 third-round pick out of Georgia and the team.

At 5-foot-10, 205 pounds, Smith can certainly make the move to being primarily a box safety in Bowles’ defense, which will allow Winfield to play a centerfield-type role. Of course, it’s not as if Smith is completely new to the position, as he played plenty of snaps in the box in college, especially early on in his time with West Virginia. He saw time there with Georgia, too, and while he always spent the bulk of his snaps from the slot, he’s no stranger to playing safety.

That should make the transition a smooth one for the 24-year-old, and considering how pro-ready he already was coming into last year and how high of a football I.Q. he possesses, this has the potential to be a stroke of genius for Bowles and Co. It gets Smith, a natural playmaker, on the field more and fills a hole at safety next to Winfield. Not to mention, it makes good use of Smith’s toughness and run defending prowess.

As far as how it’ll work out for the Bucs in a more general sense, they’re hoping that the pairing of Smith with Winfield will finally solve what has long been a difficult puzzle to figure out. After Winfield and Jordan Whitehead made up the perfect safety duo in Tampa Bay’s Super Bowl LV season and the 13-win campaign that followed, Whitehead left in free agency. In 2022, the team tried to fill the spot next to Winfield with different free agents like Logan Ryan and Keanu Neal, but it didn’t work out.

The following year, Ryan Neal looked to have the right skill set to complement Winfield. That didn’t work out either. And then the Buccaneer front office resolved the perceived mistake of letting Whitehead leave in 2022 by re-signing him ahead of the 2024 season. While Winfield’s injury-riddled season was partly to blame, that move didn’t work out either, and Whitehead was released this offseason.

So now, it’s on to Tykee Smith. The Bucs will hope this is the right partnership – one that can shore up the back half of the defense and help lead the way to championships runs in 2025 and beyond.

Tykee Smith: Full-Time Safety Or Chess Piece For Todd Bowles’ Defense?

If you’re familiar with Todd Bowles at all, you know the answer to this question is chess piece. And with Tykee Smith’s skill set, he’s more than a good fit for that do-it-all role on the back end of the defense – it’s perhaps the best possible use of him.

The move to safety will help make sure Smith is on the field for more snaps, but it doesn’t preclude him from playing nickel as well. Bowles even alluded to that when discussing the possibility of the position switch earlier this offseason.

“He’s very comfortable for us at nickel,” Bowles said of Smith. “He was our best nickel. Safety obviously stays on the field 100% of the time where the nickel is probably 75% of the time. He wants to be on the field 100% of the time. That doesn’t mean he’s not going to play from the nickel, but he can play more from the base defense. So, we’re going to look at that.”

As Pewter Report’s Josh Queipo wrote about earlier this offseason, Smith is one of the Bucs’ best 11 players on defense no matter the configuration, so finding ways to keep him on the field is generally a good thing.

Queipo also made a unique point in that there could be some parallels between how Bowles uses Smith in 2025 and how Bowles used former Bucs cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting between 2019 and 2022. Bowles would have Murphy-Bunting play outside cornerback in base defense and kick him inside to the slot in nickel packages. That could be similar to what Smith does this year, as he could play safety in base while moving into nickel when Bowles needs him to.

The other parallel that Queipo pointed to in the aforementioned piece was to what Detroit did last season with Brian Branch. After an outstanding rookie season in 2023 in which he primarily played out of the slot, Branch split 2024 nearly evenly between the box, the slot and up top, allowing him to be a complete weapon for the Lions defense. That could be what Tykee Smith turns into for the Bucs this season.

The Lions paired Branch with a ballhawking free safety in Kerby Joseph.

Who are the Bucs pairing Smith with?

A ballhawking free safety in Antoine Winfield Jr.

Tampa Bay does have a promising rookie cornerback in Jacob Parrish, whose best fit appears to be at nickel. So it may not be a necessity to have Smith bounce between snaps at safety and at nickel. But Bowles likes having his chess pieces, so that’s worth keeping an eye on this fall.

Can Tykee Smith Be Even More Of A Ballhawk For The Bucs In 2025?

When the Bucs drafted Tykee Smith in the third round of the 2024 Draft, the hope was that they were getting a ballhawking defensive back who could help the secondary boost its takeaway total. He flashed signs of those ballhawking tendencies as a rookie, even if the overall boost in takeaways from the secondary didn’t happen.

Smith tied Zyon McCollum for the team lead with two interceptions last year, and he also forced three fumbles. A combined five takeaways forced wasn’t too shabby for the rookie, especially considering he was limited to 13 games.

The Bucs want more of the same in 2025. The hope is that with more playing time, Smith will create more takeaways. Tampa Bay only had seven interceptions as a team last year, and the secondary was only responsible for six. That number needs to skyrocket this year if this team is going to compete with the other top contenders in the league. Think back to the Super Bowl LV defense the Buccaneers fielded. That group had 15 interceptions in the regular season and another seven in the playoffs.

It’s going to take a group effort to take a big leap forward, of course, but it has to start with the natural playmakers on this Tampa Bay defense. Smith is one of them.

What’s the target number, then?

Four interceptions from Smith would be a good start, especially if he’s contributing in the way of forced fumbles, too. He clearly has it in him, as evidenced by the five turnovers forced as a rookie. But his playmaking ability goes farther back. Over two seasons at West Virginia, Smith had four interceptions and a forced fumble. And in his final year at Georgia, he hauled in four interceptions to lead the Bulldogs’ defense.

Between the move to safety and charging him to help lead the way in a takeaway revival by the defense, the Bucs may be asking a lot of a second-year guy in Tykee Smith. But it’s clear that this is a player and person who can handle in, and if everything comes together as expected, this really could be a breakout year for Tampa Bay’s No. 23.