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Calijah Kancey The Key To Defensive Turnaround September 5th, 2026Joe still has PTSD over the Bucs defense last year. It was that bad. Bad enough that the defense was garbage. Even worse, they quit! So the Bucs loaded up on defense this offseason. Lots of Bucs fans are giddy over Rueben Bain. Joe is stoked about Josiah Trotter. And most Bucs fans welcome a physical, play-making nickel corner like Keionte Scott. All three are rookies. Then the Bucs dipped into the free agency well. A’Shawn Robinson, Alex Anzalone, Al-Quadin Muhammad and “Nacho” (Rakeem Nuñez-Roches). The front-seven should be much better. But the Bucs, in a sense, are getting a proven addition that many fans have simply forgotten about because he was already on the roster. That would be defensive tackle Calijah Kancey. Joe thinks if the guy could only stay healthy, he would be a Pro Bowl player (no, the Pro Bowl is dead but the award is not). Like Ben Solak of ESPN points out, if Kancey can stay healthy, this Bucs defense easily could do a 180 from last year. Remember Kancey? The Buccaneers’ 2023 first-round pick was the perfect running mate for Vita Vea through his first two seasons as a pro. Quick as a wink but still sturdy against the run, Kancey’s upfield penetration was a featured piece of Todd Bowles’ movement-heavy defensive front. When he was injured last season in Week 2 and absent every game until Week 18, the lack of pop in the Buccaneers’ pass rush was palpable. In 2024, Kancey was 15th among all defensive tackles in pressure rate (via Next Gen Stats), just behind Vea. But it’s not about how often he won — it’s how he won. He was sixth in get-off, a measure of how quickly he got across the line. His time to pressure was 2.77 seconds (average for defensive tackles is 3.05, a big gap). Kancey is a quick winner who can make life easier on the rest of his defensive line. He’s a ceiling-raiser — if healthy. And that’s just it. If he could stay healthy, Kancey and Vita Vea and Robinson can play up front tying up offensive linemen, which should allow Anzalone and Trotter to hunt. You know, seek and destroy. Kancey alone could make a monster difference in the Bucs becoming feared on defense, as opposed to being jostled, mocked and robbed like last year.