The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are 0-2 after a dismal loss to a bad Cleveland Browns team, and linebacker Alex Anzalone is a major part of the problems plaguing the defensive side of the ball.

The missed tackles, the busted coverage assignments, the lack of splash plays. It’s all adding up to a nightmare start for the veteran the Buccaneers signed to help fill the void after Lavonte David retired back in March.

Alex Anzalone’s struggles are dragging down the entire defense

Let’s be real. Anzalone has not been good over two weeks, and it’s a shame because the Buccaneers gave him a two-year, $17 million deal to play a very crucial role on defense. The contract isn’t insane in terms of yearly salary, but $17 million for two years is still a pretty pricey deal in the grand scheme of things. Tampa Bay has to get better production out of him, and that simply has not happened.

Per Pro Football Focus, Anzalone is in the top six of missed tackles among linebackers with at least 93 defensive snaps on the season. He’s missed 23.5% of his tackles, landing him directly at No. 6. Josiah Trotter is at No. 18, meaning the Buccaneers have two guys in the top 20 out of 50 qualifying linebackers in missed tackles. The difference, of course, is that Trotter is a rookie, and you have more leeway with rookies making mistakes than you do with a veteran.

On the Denzel Boston touchdown alone, you simply can’t have that from a starting linebacker. And even two plays before that, Anzalone missed an egregious tackle on the Harold Fannin Jr. catch-and-run up the sideline. In terms of net gain or net loss, the latter is down in the red tremendously.

The green dot problem, and why Antoine Winfield Jr. is the answer

The key with all of this is you can’t just send Anzalone to the bench without a plan. He wears the green dot, which means he’s responsible for communicating the plays from the headset to the huddle and getting guys lined up in the right spots. You send that guy to the bench, and now you have yet another void to fill.

Well, there’s already a guy who can handle that role, and his name is Antoine Winfield Jr.

Winfield has been in this defense ever since he was selected in the second round back in the 2020 draft. He has years of leadership and credibility built among his teammates and in the locker room. He’s on the field for almost every single play, having played only three or four fewer snaps than Anzalone so far this season. That’s going to be the case as long as he’s healthy throughout the year.

Winfield knows the defense, he’s a leader, and he’s been productive. We all know his work ethic. There’s no way he takes a responsibility like the green dot and treats it with anything less than maximum seriousness. That problem is already covered.

Start rotating SirVocea Dennis and Christian Roseboom

Once you take the green dot away, you don’t necessarily send Anzalone to the bench entirely. The guy can still move and has decent speed. But you start mixing in SirVocea Dennis and Christian Rozeboom to create a rotation.

Rozeboom is a veteran linebacker who, while he hasn’t been in Todd Bowles’ defense, has been in plenty of defenses throughout his career and understands what needs to happen. Dennis has been in this defense his entire career, just like Winfield. Dennis has his own tackling issues, but he’s a better run defender than coverage player. Rozeboom is more of a do-it-all linebacker with a lower ceiling who can still defend both the run and the pass at a certain level.

Even if the Bucs love Rozeboom on special teams, it’s worth seeing what he can do on defense and whether it’s better or worse than what Anzalone is providing right now.

Bowles needs to act before it’s too late

Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles was asked about Anzalone when he spoke with reporters on Monday, and the answers were not great. He basically said if he’s benching people for missed tackles or mistakes, then everybody is going to the bench. In theory, that makes sense. But when you break it down and add nuance, these other guys aren’t making the same level of mistakes Anzalone is making.

The response is an issue with Bowles, in general. He waits too long for things to get figured out, and by the time he pulls the trigger, it’s usually already too late. The inside linebacker position is the most important position group on this defense, and it’s why the Buccaneers defense has struggled over the last couple of years. The second level just hasn’t played up to the standards the defense as a whole needs.

Tampa Bay needs to put this into action as soon as Week 3 against the Minnesota Vikings. Kevin O’Connell and that offense will decimate the second level of this defense if Anzalone keeps making the same mistakes he’s made over these first two weeks, especially when considering Kyler Murray cleared concussion protocol on Monday.

The plan is simple: Give the green dot to Winfield and start rotating Dennis and Rozeboom into the lineup. If Anzalone continues playing like this, the Buccaneers defense is not going to get any better on all three levels, because Bowles will have to compensate for what Anzalone isn’t doing, creating the trickle-down effect we’ve already seen over the first two weeks.