Who’s The Better DT, Vita Vea Or Calijah Kancey?

Bucs DTs Calijah Kancey and Vita Vea – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

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Pewter Report’s Scott Reynolds answers your questions from the @PewterReport X account this week in the Bucs Mailbag. Submit your question to SR each week via X using the hashtag #PRMailbag.  Here are the Bucs questions we chose to answer for this week’s edition.

QUESTION: Who do you think is a better player between Vita Vea and Calijah Kancey? If you still think it’s Vea do you think Kancey can surpass him this year?

ANSWER: This is a tough question to answer because Vita Vea and Calijah Kancey are two completely different players playing similar, yet different, positions. Vea is the better player based on his experience. He’s 30 years old and entering his eighth season in Tampa Bay, having been to two Pro Bowls and won a Super Bowl championship. Vea has also been a part of the franchise-best 13-win team in 2021 and has won four straight NFC South titles.

Vea has accomplished more due to his time in Tampa Bay, as Kancey is just entering his third year with the team. Vea is a bit of a unicorn at 6-foot-4, 347 pounds with amazing brute strength and power along with uncanny quickness for a man of his size. He’s the perfect nose tackle for Todd Bowles’ defense and has the ability to draw – and handle – double teams to free up his fellow defensive linemen and the team’s linebackers to get more favorable one-on-one matchups.

Yet Kancey is an athletic freak in his own right. Undersized at 6-foot, 280 pounds, Kancey uses elite speed and agility to get to the quarterback and make plays in the backfield. Both Kancey and Vea present different challenges for opposing offensive lines and offensive coordinators because of their body types and play styles.

What Kancey has on Vea is his youth. Time is on Kancey’s side because football is a young man’s game – always has been, always will be. Vea had a career-high seven sacks last year, but Kancey wound up leading the Bucs with 7.5 sacks, which was his personal best, despite missing five games due to injury. They are both on a similar plane right now, but in time Kancey will pass Vea and become the better defensive tackle as Vea ages.

I think Kancey has some Pro Bowls in his future, perhaps as early as this season. And he will wind up being the better pass rusher out of the two. Yet there is no denying Vea’s impact up front. His presence alone must be accounted for with double teams and he winds up helping his teammates make plays as a result.

QUESTION: Who had more impact for the Bucs – Ndamukong Suh or Gerald McCoy?

ANSWER: I love these defensive tackle questions! As someone who loves defense, y’all are speaking my language! Like the previous question, this one is very difficult to answer. It kind of depends on what your definition of “impact” is. If you are asking me which defensive tackle was better, the easy answer is Ndamukong Suh. He has a legit pathway to the Pro Football Hall of Fame due to his career achievements whereas Gerald McCoy doesn’t.

McCoy went to six straight Pro Bowls and was one of the best players on some very underwhelming Bucs teams from 2010-18. Individually, he accomplished a lot, and with 54.5 career sacks, McCoy is still the team’s fourth-leading sacker behind Hall of Famers Lee Roy Selmon (78.5) and Warren Sapp (77), as well as Simeon Rice (69.5). And he did so without ever having a double-digit sack season.

But McCoy never played in a playoff game during his Bucs career. He never had a signature moment or a truly memorable play that wound up making a difference in any season he played in Tampa Bay. I think that’s why he’s not in the Bucs Ring of Honor and his candidacy is questionable at best.

As for Suh, Bucs general manager Jason Licht made a bold and surprising move when he released McCoy in the 2019 offseason and signed Suh in free agency. McCoy was a popular player in Tampa Bay, but his body was breaking down and injuries were becoming more prevalent. Suh was an iron man who never missed a game due to injury in his entire NFL career. He brought a certain kind of toughness and nastiness to the Bucs defense that McCoy couldn’t deliver and keyed Tampa Bay’s No. 1-ranked run defense.

Suh played a big role in helping the franchise win a Super Bowl in 2020 and win a record 13 games in 2021. To me, that is more impactful than anything McCoy did in Tampa Bay. Yet Suh only played three years in red and pewter, and didn’t affect the team record books individually, which is why he’s not among Pewter Report’s Top 50 All-Time Bucs. McCoy did make the list at No. 22 due to his longevity and his six Pro Bowls.

QUESTION: Are the Bucs happy with their interior defensive line depth? Or will we see a move for a more established reserve player?

ANSWER: Another defensive tackle question! Y’all are making my day! I think the Bucs are content with their interior defensive line depth. Behind starters Vita Vea and Calijah Kancey, the team has two veterans in Logan Hall and Greg Gaines. Hall is capable of playing the three-technique defensive tackle spot that Kancey plays, while Gaines is the team’s reserve nose tackle, backing up Vea.

Tampa Bay also spent a fifth-round draft pick on Elijah Roberts out of SMU and really likes his potential and his versatility. He can play anywhere along the defensive line, including edge rusher. Roberts is probably not best suited to play nose tackle at under 300 pounds, but he could effectively play the three-technique as well as the 4i defensive end role that Hall plays in base defense. Will Gholston played that role for over a decade in Tampa Bay.

Speaking of Gholston, who turns 34 on July 31, he texted me that he’s not quite retired yet, but he did take the role of defensive line coach at Sickles High School in Tampa. There is an outside chance the Bucs would consider re-signing him due to his fit as a mentor in the locker room and his experience in Todd Bowles defense, but only if there was a significant injury to either Kancey or Hall.

The Bucs did sign 10-year veteran Adam Gotsis, 32, this offseason, and he’ll have a chance to compete for the DT6 spot on the roster behind Vea, Kancey, Hall, Gaines and Roberts. Also in the mix are C.J. Brewer, Mike Greene, Eric Banks and undrafted free agent rookies Desmond Watson, Dvon J-Thomas and Nash Hutmacher. I think the Bucs will stand pat with this group entering training camp.

QUESTION: Is Kyle Trask locked into the QB2 job or will Michael Pratt be given a real chance to win the job?

ANSWER: I think Kyle Trask has a very good chance of winning the backup quarterback job again behind Baker Mayfield. Trask is entering his fifth season in Tampa Bay has a good rapport with all of the team’s veteran wide receivers, tight ends and running backs from his years of throwing the ball to them in preseason games and in practice. Plus, Trask is entering his second season in Tampa Bay’s offense, which was imported from Los Angeles by Liam Coen last year. Josh Grizzard is taking over as the play-caller, but is keeping Coen’s playbook and schemes.

Trask is coming off his best preseason, where he threw for three touchdowns and one interception, and he also had a great offseason in the OTAs and mini-camp. Both head coach Todd Bowles and general manager Jason Licht have a lot of confidence in Tampa Bay’s former second-round pick. The fact that the Bucs didn’t sign a more experienced veteran backup this year speaks volumes.

The team is excited about Michael Pratt’s potential. Tampa Bay was one spot away from drafting him in the seventh round in 2024 before Green Bay selected Pratt instead. The Bucs were thrilled to sign him after he was released during roster cutdowns and he was on the practice squad all last year.

The team was excited to see how Pratt would perform in the Bucs offense for the first time this offseason, as he was running the opponents’ offenses last year as the scout team quarterback. But Pratt suffered a minor injury in the offseason and missed the OTAs and mini-camp, which stunted his growth a bit.

Now Pratt will have to make up for lost time in training camp and see if he can challenge Trask for the No. 2 job in the preseason. Tampa Bay likes his mobility and his moxie. He was a gamer at Tulane who had a knack for making big plays, and he led the Green Wave to a Top 10 ranking during his junior season.

QUESTION: Scott, the other day you hinted the Bucs may wear their pewter jerseys this year. However, NFL rules only allow four jerseys, and with the white 1976 throwback jersey, Tampa Bay is at the limit. Do you know if the new jerseys won’t apply since it’s the first year for those, or is the pewter jersey out?

ANSWER: Sadly, the pewter jersey is out this year with the arrival of the white 1976 throwback jerseys. I like the unique color pewter – hence our name is Pewter Report – and really like the pewter jerseys. They were introduced as an alternate during the Super Bowl season in 2020 and the team wore the pewter jerseys in three games (at Denver and versus Los Angeles and Atlanta), going 2-1 in those contests. Since then, the pewter jerseys have been worn sparingly and didn’t make an appearance last year for the first time since they debuted.

I’ve been told that the pewter jersey has not be killed off and will resurface, perhaps next year as a road alternate. Since the NFL adjusted its rules to allow players to wear two different helmets again, the Bucs have brought back the Bucco Bruce throwback look since the 2023 season and that has been very popular with the fan base.

Merchandise sales for the orange throwback jerseys have been stronger than the pewter jerseys. That is probably part of the reason why the pewter jersey has been de-emphasized over the last three years.

The Bucs wear white jerseys at home early in the season due to the heat, and then typically introduce their red jerseys for home games in late November, December and January. Now throw in a home game with the creamsicle jerseys and it’s tough to find a game in Tampa Bay to wear the pewter jerseys anymore. So look for a possible return of the pewter jerseys in 2026 on the road.