You can say what you want about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the one area where they tend to struggle is on the injury front.

While every team in the league goes through struggles like this in their own ways, the Bucs always seem to lose key players at the worst times.

In 2023, the loss of Carlton Davis and Jamel Dean at different times should be enough to cripple this defense, but Dee Delaney and Zyon McCollum stepping up has played a massive role in the dominance by this defense.

Delaney and McCollum weren't supposed to be massive contributors to this team so early in the year.

Delaney started his career in Tampa as a fun, long-shot story to make the roster that took and held onto a role on the team, and McCollum was the guy with the tools that hadn't found a way to put it together yet.

It seems as though both of these guys have found ways to not only stay on the roster, but actually make impacts when on the field.

The injuries to Davis and Dean actually moved McCollum into a starting role, something that some fans bemoaned when it was announced, but the results were impressive. McCollum was already robbed of an interception on the year, but a win in that game instead was worth it.

On the other end, Delaney probably has the best interception of the season, and he was able to follow that up with another pick in the win over the Saints to bring his season total to two.

It has been guys like these two that have been able to stem the bleeding of injuries and keep this defense alive.

Without these two playing at this level and finding ways to get to the ball, the Buccaneer defense doesn't win, and that likely leads to different results.

Assuming Delaney and McCollum can hold up this level of play over the season, the Buccaneers may have a legitimate chance at making some noise in the playoffs. 

Depth matters. The Buccaneers are proving that by the day.

Buccaneers define themselves in dominant Week 4 win

You can’t argue with those results.