Despite the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ defensive struggles last season, they boasted one of the best safety duos in the NFL.
Antoine Winfield Jr. needs no introduction. He’s a two-time Pro Bowler and was named First-Team All-Pro back in 2023 after delivering one of the greatest safety seasons in NFL history.
Joining him in the defensive backfield is Tykee Smith, who just played his first season at safety after spending his rookie year at nickel cornerback. Smith was a natural fit at safety, notching 100 total tackles along with two sacks and an interception.
He’s a rising star at the safety position, but the NFL doesn’t hold him in that regard just yet.
Tykee Smith deserves to be recognized among NFL’s best safeties
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler released the NFL’s annual top 10 safety list, voted on by executives, coaches, and scouts around the league.
The Buccaneers did have one half of their safety duo make the list, with Winfield Jr. coming in at No. 7, but Smith was nowhere to be found.
While you won’t hear any complaints on this end regarding Winfield getting his flowers, Smith arguably had the better season of the two in 2025.
Smith injured his shoulder significantly last year, which affected his play down the stretch, but head coach Todd Bowles believed Smith was his best defensive player prior to the injury.
"We thought he was our best player probably up until he hurt his shoulder, probably three-quarters of the way through the season. He was our best tackler, he was our tone-setter and I thought he was on his way to a heck of a season."Todd Bowles
Now, it’s not entirely unreasonable that Smith didn’t rank as a top 10 safety just yet. There’s no shortage of talented players at the position, and Smith has spent just one year playing safety for Tampa Bay.
The real snub comes in the fact that Smith didn’t at least land in the honorable mentions section, or even land a single vote.
There were 16 players that were either honorable mentioned or at least received a single vote, meaning Smith wasn’t listed among the NFL’s top 26 safeties.
Smith is only going to keep improving with more experience. As Bowles mentioned, he’s a tone-setter and was Tampa Bay’s best defender at times last season.
If he can stay healthy, Smith is poised for a breakout season that will put the rest of the NFL on notice and force them to wonder how they slept on Smith for so long.
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