Bucs Nation
Throughout the 2025 NFL season, SB Nation’s Doug Farrar will write about the game’s Secret Superstars — those players whose performances might slip under the radar for whatever reasons. In this installment, we turn our attention to Tampa Bay Buccaneers edge defender Anthony Nelson, who currently owns the city of New Orleans after what he did to the Saints on Sunday. It was a historic performance for a defense in need.
Before the 2025 season started, Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles was less than happy about his overall pass rush, and the normally taciturn coach had a lot to say about it.
“It doesn’t reaffirm it,” Bowles said at the 2025 scouting combine, when asked whether the Philadelphia Eagles’ ability to demolish enemy quarterbacks without blitzing reaffirmed the importance of pressure without sending extra defenders. “We’ve been talking about it all year. We can cover guys, but when we don’t get there, sometimes it’s a problem and sometimes the quarterback got out of the pocket, and we did get there and the ball was out. I’m not saying it was all the time, but we just want to be able to do both.”
Last season, the Buccaneers blitzed on 34.2% of their snaps, which was the third-highest rate in the NFL, and their 24.3% pressure rate ranked ninth, which was the source of Bowles’ frustration. The 2025 Bucs are still working to turn it around; they have blitzed on just 26.9% of their snaps, and they’ve pressured opposing quarterbacks 18.4% of the time, which is about middle of the pack. As much of an adventurous blitzer as Bowles can be, like any other coach out there, he would prefer not to have to send extra guys just to get any pressure.
Sunday’s game against the then 1-6 New Orleans Saints seemed to be a relative walk in the park, but you know what they say about trap games… and with all the injuries Tampa Bay is dealing with right now, there’s always that concern. In the end, there wasn’t — the Bucs kicked the Saints to the curb, forcing the benching of starting quarterback Spencer Rattler in favor of rookie Tyler Shough, who fared no better.
New Orleans’ quarterbacks were sacked five time and pressured on 22 of their dropbacks in a 23-3 Bucs win, and Bowles was specifically happy that these Bucs rank third in the NFL with 25 sacks, behind only the Denver Broncos and the Los Angeles Rams, and not one of his defensive players has more than four quarterback takedowns on the season.
“It means they are starting to work together,” Bowles said on Monday of his pass-rush group. “They are working together, helping each other out, getting sacks and there [are] not any selfish sacks going on. People are setting people up, and people are taking double teams for other guys, and that is good to see.
“I like that we are getting home. [It] does not matter where they come from. If...
