Can Antoine Winfield Jr. Return To His All-Pro Production In 2026?

The countdown to the Bucs’ 2026 season is on. Right now, we’re:

50 days away from Bucs regular season kickoff
20 days away from Bucs preseason kickoff
4 days away from Bucs training camp

In the lead-up to training camp, Pewter Report’s Bailey Adams will be diving into storylines for 26 key figures who will be crucial to the Bucs’ success in 2026.

Today, the series continues with safety Antoine Winfield Jr.

26 For ‘26: Antoine Winfield Jr. Bucs Storylines In 2026

Will Antoine Winfield Jr. Be Freed Up In The 2026 Bucs Defense?

Winfield hasn’t been quite as productive in the last two years, which has been a letdown after his superstar-level All-Pro season in 2023. But there’s context behind that. Ultimately, 2024 was just a lost year due to injuries. He missed eight of the Bucs’ 17 games with foot/ankle and knee injuries, and even in the nine games he did play, he clearly wasn’t himself. Then, in 2025, Winfield was asked to play the deeper safety role, taking him out of some situations where he would be able to make plays and create takeaways. In other words, that centerfield/free safety role limited his explosiveness near the line of scrimmage.

Of course with that said, Winfield still had a Pro Bowl season in 2025. He played in all 17 games and totaled 93 tackles (53 solo) with a sack, four tackles for loss, four quarterback hits, a fumble recovery, a forced fumble, two interceptions and eight passes defensed. That’s a good year, and he finished it with a bang as he was named the Pro Bowl Games’ Defensive MVP. He did that playing in that deeper role, and one of the big questions heading into 2026 is whether he’ll be freed up in Todd Bowles’ defense and put in situations that allow him to use his best asset: his versatility.

Based on the talk this offseason, it does sound like Winfield will be able to play a little more freely in Bowles’ defense this year. Consider the reason why he was asked to play the deep role in 2025. Bowles said recently that Winfield was essentially covering for everybody else in the back end of the defense. The secondary issues came from a mixture of youth and injuries, but it wasn’t just that. Tampa Bay’s linebacker play was subpar, and its four-man pass rush was nonexistent for much of the season. So that left Winfield with some different responsibilities than he may typically have as that versatile chess piece, something Bowles loves to have with his defense.

Fast forward to 2026, and the Bucs feel like a lot of those talent deficiency issues are in the past. Going from front to back, they like what they have with the front four with a healthy Calijah Kancey and David Walker, as well as new additions in A’Shawn Robinson, Rueben Bain Jr. and Al-Quadin Muhammad. Vita Vea and Yaya Diaby are the mainstays up front, too, of course. Tampa Bay is also in a better spot with its linebackers thanks to the signing of veteran Alex Anzalone and the selection of Josiah Trotter in the second round.

In the secondary, there are some remaining question marks at cornerback, though the team is excited about fourth-round pick Keionte Scott sliding in at the nickel position. And with Tykee Smith now having a full year of safety under his belt in this defense, that helps as well. All of that should put Bowles in a spot where he can have a little more trust in the other pieces within his unit — at least enough trust to be able to move Winfield around, put him in positions to be successful and just free him up and let him eat.

Does Antoine Winfield Jr. Still Have That All-Pro Production In Him?

So if we’re operating under the assumption that yes, Winfield will be able to roam more freely this year and Todd Bowles is comfortable using the seventh-year safety’s versatility without guardrails, the next question becomes about whether he can rediscover and return to the type of All-Pro production he put up during the 2023 season. If the answer to that question is yes, the Tampa Bay defense will be in a much better place this fall.

Over 17 games in 2023, Winfield had 122 tackles (76 solo), six sacks, eight quarterback hits, a league-leading six forced fumbles, four fumble recoveries, three interceptions and 12 passes defensed. Those were career highs across the board for No. 31, who earned his first career All-Pro selection and a sixth-place finish in Defensive Player of the Year voting (while somehow missing out on a Pro Bowl nod). Tampa Bay made Winfield the highest-paid defensive back in NFL history (at the time) the following offseason, but then came the two aforementioned seasons — one of which was disrupted by injuries and the other limited in part by the pieces around him.

The good news is that Winfield should be in a better position to make plays on the football. Or at the very least, he’ll be in those positions with more regularity than he was in 2025. And you know he’s hungry to be the do-it-all safety he was back in 2023. He wants to get after the quarterback and wreak havoc in the backfield. He’ll certainly want to take the football away and maybe even find the end zone, something he did once in 2024 and really did twice last year against the Saints before getting robbed both times by poor officiating.

Not only will Winfield be hungry to make these splash plays more often in 2026, but the Bucs really need him to. Because fair or not, Tampa Bay’s defense relies on the two-time Pro Bowl and former All-Pro safety to secure the bulk of its takeaways. Knowing what we know about Antoine Winfield Jr., he relishes that fact. Help would be nice, but he hasn’t gotten much of it in recent years. It’s either been Winfield takeaways or no takeaways, at least for the most part.

It’s unreasonable to ask Winfield to tally 13 takeaways in 2026 the way he did in 2023. That was one of those special seasons that are hard to replicate. But even a stat line along the lines of 3-5 sacks, 2-3 interceptions, 3-4 forced fumbles and 2-3 fumble recoveries should have the Tampa Bay defense in a much better place than it’s been as of late. Winfield has it in him, as we’ve seen it before. But can he rediscover it and return to his place among the most productive safeties in the NFL?

How Much History Can Antoine Winfield Jr. Make In 2026?

Even if the numbers haven’t been overly impressive for Winfield in recent years, his overall body of work since becoming the Bucs’ 2020 second-round draft pick is still impressive. He already has quite the place in franchise history, and not just for his two Pro Bowls, All-Pro selection, Super Bowl ring and iconic “deuces” to Tyreek Hill in Super Bowl LV. He also has a special spot in Buccaneer history with the production he’s put together through his first six seasons.

When the 2026 season gets underway, Winfield won’t be far off from making some Bucs history. In fact, he could rise several spots in a number of different categories in team history by the end of this campaign, provided he stays healthy and plays well. He’s just one fumble recovery away from passing Lee Roy Selmon (10) for the fourth-most among defensive players in franchise history, plus that forced fumble would tie him with Cecil Johnson and John Cannon (11) for the third-most. Ronde Barber (12) is next with the second-most, so there’s a decent chance No. 31 trails only Lavonte David (21) by the end of 2026.

As for forced fumbles, Winfield has 12 and is only one away from entering the Bucs’ top 10 and tying David Logan and Broderick Thomas (13) for the ninth-most in franchise history. Elsewhere, the soon-to-be 28-year-old is 11th overall in team history when it comes to passes defensed with 38. With four more, he passes Brent Grimes (41) for the 10th-most and ties the great John Lynch (42) for the ninth-most.

Winfield’s 18 sacks are also the second-most ever by a Buccaneer defensive back. He trails Ronde Barber for the all-time franchise record by 10.5 sacks, so he while he won’t get there this year, another season similar to the six-sack campaign he had in 2023 will have him well on his way. If and when Winfield does pass Barber, he’ll also move ahead of the Pro Football Hall of Famer for the second-most by a defensive back in NFL history.

Speaking of NFL history, there are some league-wide milestones Winfield could climb closer to in 2026 as well. He is one sack away from breaking a tie with Adam Archuleta, Bill Bates and Roman Harper for the 11th-most by a defensive back since 1982. He’s also two strip sacks away from tying Quintin Mikell for the most by a defensive back since at least 2000, and one more forced fumble will tie him with Jairus Byrd, Cedric Griffin, Chris Harris, Sammy Knight, Michael Lewis, Troy Polamalu and his father, Antoine Winfield Sr. (13) for the 16th-most by a defensive back since at least 2000.

There’s plenty out there for Winfield in 2026, and with a big season, he’ll move ahead of some significant names on the Bucs’ all-time franchise leaderboards. That would strengthen his eventual Ring of Honor case, which once seemed like a lock before losing some steam in recent years.

Catch Up On Previous Installments Of Bailey Adams’ 26 For ’26 Series

OFFENSE:

Baker Mayfield
Bucky Irving
Kenny Gainwell
Chris Godwin Jr.
Emeka Egbuka
Jalen McMillan
Cade Otton
Tristan Wirfs
Ben Bredeson
Graham Barton
Cody Mauch
Luke Goedeke

DEFENSE:

Yaya Diaby
Rueben Bain Jr.
A’Shawn Robinson
Calijah Kancey
Vita Vea
Alex Anzalone
Josiah Trotter
Zyon McCollum
Benjamin Morrison
Jacob Parrish