Todd Bowles on Bucs D-line: Kancey playing great, Vita Vea still rusty

Todd Bowles handed out his first real grades on the defensive line this week, and they split neatly down the middle. Calijah Kancey earned the praise. Vita Vea got the blunt version.

Key facts

• Todd Bowles said Wednesday, September 16 that Calijah Kancey 'played his butt off' in the Week 1 loss at Cincinnati.
• Bowles said Vita Vea 'played well athletically' but has to get the rust off and needs his hand placement and technique back.
• Bowles also praised A'Shawn Robinson, saying he 'played very tough up in there.'
• Per PFF data reported by The Pewter Plank on September 16, Joe Burrow was pressured on 21.6 percent of his dropbacks, the lowest rate of any Week 1 starting quarterback.
• Tampa Bay recorded only one sack against Cincinnati, by rookie linebacker Josiah Trotter on a blitz, despite blitzing on nearly half of Burrow's dropbacks.

Kancey played his butt off

"I thought Kancey played his butt off. I thought Kancey played well," Bowles said Wednesday, September 16, reviewing the Cincinnati loss. It is the kind of line a coach saves for a player who backed up his own hype. Kancey missed 14 games in 2025 after tearing his pectoral muscle, as BucsWorld detailed in why Calijah Kancey is the X-factor of the Bucs' 2026 defense, and Sunday was his first start since the surgery (he returned for a rotational role in Week 18 last season). Bowles also praised A'Shawn Robinson, saying he "played very tough up in there" alongside Kancey.

Vea needs his technique back

Vea got a different verdict. "Vita played well athletically, but he's gotta get the rust off," Bowles said, adding that Vea has to get his technique back, and pointing specifically to his hand placement. It is a notable line about a player Tampa Bay just paid to keep: Vea signed a one-year, $30 million contract extension in August, as covered in Vita Vea signs one-year, $30 million extension after summer trade request, after a summer trade request the team never seriously entertained. Vea did not register a tackle against Cincinnati, his first game since signing that deal, which fits Bowles calling him rusty rather than hurt or declining. At 31 and in his ninth season, that reads as a fixable problem, not an alarm.

The bigger number behind the words

Whatever the individual grades, the collective result was a defensive line that barely touched Joe Burrow. Per Pro Football Focus data reported by The Pewter Plank on September 16, Burrow was pressured on just 21.6 percent of his dropbacks, the lowest rate of any Week 1 starter, and Tampa Bay's only sack came from rookie linebacker Josiah Trotter on a blitz, covered in the Buccaneers' 33-27 loss to Cincinnati, not the defensive line. That happened despite Bowles blitzing on nearly half of Burrow's dropbacks, a call sheet that depends on an interior lineman winning quickly on his own so the extra rushers are not wasted.

That is the stakes behind Bowles' comments this week. Get Kancey's disruption and Vea's technique online together, and the blitz-heavy scheme that produced almost nothing in Cincinnati starts working as designed. Sunday's home opener against Cleveland, previewed in what the Bucs face at quarterback against the Browns, is the first chance to find out.