The Tampa Bay Buccaneers watched this offseason as legendary inside linebacker Lavonte David hung up his jersey and walked away from the organization after a disappointing, injury plagued 2025 season.
Tampa Bay signed Alex Anzalone as their main veteran addition to the defense in free agency, hoping that he would be the heir to David or some sort of a stabilizing presence at the heart of the defense, given the role he played for Dan Campbell and the Detroit Lions over the past few seasons.
Instead, Anzalone has been an absolute disaster. As terrible as the Buccaneers have been through the first two weeks of the 2026 NFL regular season with losses to the CIncinnati Bengals and the Cleveland Browns, Anzalone has been so terrible that there is no mistaking the fact that he has been the worst player on the entire team.
Alex Anzalone is a net negative for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Anzalone is a net negative on the entire team, missing tackles, blowing coverae, and playing so badly that you have to wonder if he is taking bets against the Buccaneers. Because there is no logical explanation for a player of his experience and with the money he is making off the Buccaneers to be playing this badly. The Bucs defense would be better with 10 men than Alex Anzalone causing chaos and making life more difficult for that of his teammates.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, at this point, have to take the loss on Anzalone and instead of trying to get their money's worth back out of the former Detroit Lions linebacker, they have to just bench him outright. Maybe if he proves himself off the bench in other games, he can win his spot back, but, right now, the situation with Anzalone is untenable. He is actively losing the Buccaneers games.
And sure, SirVocea Dennis and Chris Rozeboom are hardly the most inspiring options in the Buccaneers linebacker room, which is a huge weak spot for this team beyond rookie sensation Josiah Trotter, but Anzalone has been so shockingly bad that even the underwhelming Dennis can't possibly be worse or a more active threat to the Bucs winning football games than Anzalone, who seems more likely to miss a tackle or give up a big play over the middle than make a play of his own.
Anzlone is a team captain and wears the green dot defensively, but he's giving the Buccaneers no choice but to make a difficult decision.
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