About a month ago, a knee collision with a teammate during a Friday morning practice cut short Tykee Smith’s impressive rookie season. The Buccaneers rookie safety, a third-round pick out of Georgia, took longer than expected to recover and ended up missing three games sandwiched during the team’s bye week.
It didn’t take long for Smith to show the Buccaneers what they were missing. He played 43 of the Bucs’ 67 defensive plays against the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday as the team had to continue shuffling the back secondary due to injuries to Jordan Whitehead, Mike Edwards and – in the second quarter of this contest – Antoine Winfield Jr. Smith finished with three tackles, an interception and two passes defensed.
Head coach Todd Bowles said Smith is ready to make an impact upon his return to action, as he is able to absorb defensive game plans even when he can’t be on the field for a some time.
“[He has] very good mental awareness,” Bowles said. “You know, the mental part is one thing you don’t worry about with him, but you worry about the physical part, see how he [holds] but once it got going it was pretty good for us. He’s one of the few guys out there who has the mental capacity to see the game even when he’s not practicing and that takes a lot, especially for a rookie. He plays it well.”
Smith’s interception was perhaps the biggest defensive play of the game for Tampa Bay. Clinging to a 14-10 lead in the third quarter, the Bucs tried to keep the Raiders out of the end zone at the end of a hard-fought drive that lasted more than 10 minutes late. Izien did even better: he completely knocked the Raiders off the scoreboard, stepping in front of tight end Brock Bowers, another standout Georgia recruit, and catching Aidan O’Connell’s pass at the line. seven yards from the Bucs.
