Sunday night was a complete and total disaster for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Before anyone could get settled in and NBC's broadcast could announce the defense, Tampa Bay was already down 14-0 and somehow that wasn't rock bottom.
Baker Mayfield's injury overshadowed everything, but no cloud can hang thick enough to block out the memory of how bad Zyon McCollum was. He had an unfathomably bad game, one that started out at a low point and only went downhill from there.
Los Angeles' first drive of the game ended with a score that accomplished two things: giving the Rams a lead and giving Buccaneers fans even more reason to be frustrated with McCollum.
Chris Collinsworth roasted Zyon McCollum after giving up a brutal touchdown to Davante Adams
It was a bad first half in general for McCollum, but the way he got cooked by Davante Adams should have tipped us all off early that it was going to be a long night. It was so rough that Chris Collinsworth singled McCollum out on the Sunday Night Football broadcast and walked the entire country through just how badly he had screwed up.
Cris Collinsworth cooked Zyon McCollum over giving up a TD to Davante Adams.
— Josh Hill (@jdavhill) November 24, 2025
“Shouldn’t have happened” pic.twitter.com/DQKFzgZIpb
In the first half alone, McCollum was picked on six time by Matthew Stafford, and allowed a catch on every single throw. He ended up allowing 94 yards and two touchdowns before halftime, which so comically bad that it borders on parody.
What makes all of this worse, and why Bucs fans are zeroing in on McCollum in the aftermath of the blowout loss, is that this comes after he signed an expensive contract extension during the offseason.
McCollum inked a three-year, $48 million deal that got ahead of his pending free agency this upcoming March. It was a decision that, at the time, made a ton of sense based on how well he was developing as a potential CB1 for the Bucs.
Since then he's struggled, and has been outshined by Jamel Dean in one of the most unexpected turnarounds of the season. Dean missed Sunday night's game against the Rams, something that further exposed McCollum to needing to defend a future Hall of Famer.
That's key context. McCollum was tough to watch, but his bad game doesn't define his development. Nothing went right for the Bucs and while nobody deserves to have excuses made, it's worth noting that McCollum is still developing the technical part of his game. He's an unfinished product, which is exactly what he looked like at the worst possible time for the Bucs.