The Bucs have formally completed signing all members of their 2026 draft class, with the crew saying Thursday afternoon that second-round choose Josiah Trotter has put pen to paper on his rookie contract.
Tampa Bay started working shortly on signing its 2026 draftees, first inking first-round choose Rueben Bain Jr. to his rookie deal Might 7. That very same day, the Bucs introduced that that they had signed fourth-round choose Keionte Scott, fifth-round picks DeMonte Capehart and Billy Schrauth and sixth-round choose Bauer Sharp to their first NFL contracts, too. And upon his arrival to Tampa for rookie mini-camp after his commencement from Georgia State, third-round choose Ted Hurst signed as properly.
That left Josiah Trotter, the Bucs’ second-round choose, as the one member of their 2026 draft class who had remained unsigned. That wasn’t a shock, as Pewter Report’s Josh Queipo wrote about earlier this month.
Bucs ILB Josiah Trotter – Photograph by: Cliff Welch/PR
Negotiations over ensures have held issues up for second-round draft picks over the past couple of years, with the Texans giving second-rounder Jayden Higgins a totally assured four-year contract at choose No. 34 in 2025, making him the primary second-round choose to obtain a totally assured deal.
The Browns matched that with choose No. 33, Carson Schwesinger, which “broke the dam,” as Queipo put it. The NFL world watched choose No. 40 – quarterback Tyler Shough of the Saints – as he was the presumed QB1 for New Orleans after Derek Carr’s retirement. That presumably gave him the leverage essential to get his personal totally assured deal, and it labored out that approach. From choose No. 33 all through Shough at No. 40, it was assured contracts for everybody. In the end, that stopped at No. 41.
Every choose from there obtained much less and fewer by way of assured cash, and by the point it obtained to Rams tight finish Terrance Ferguson at choose No. 46, that deal settled at 82.8% assured, with simply 23% of 12 months 4 assured.
Josiah Trotter, who was the No. 45 choose this 12 months, was then presumably set to obtain greater than that given the bump in percentages for different second-rounders within the 2026 Draft. Fellow inside linebacker C.J. Allen, choose No. 53 to the Colts, noticed a bounce of 8.3 share factors of whole assure over final 12 months’s No. 53 choose, with the construction of the deal essentially rewritten. As Queipo wrote, three years totally assured wasn’t on the desk for second-round picks beneath choose No. 51 final summer time. However that modified in 2026.
Then, cornerback Avieon Terrell, the No. 48 total choose to the Falcons, obtained a totally assured deal final week. That set the precedent for Trotter to get his deal totally assured as properly, and certain sufficient, he has signed his contract every week later. Pewter Report can verify that the contract is totally assured, as anticipated.
This could imply Josiah Trotter’s deal can come collectively shortly. Terrell’s precedent at choose 48 means Trotter will get a totally assured deal. https://t.co/PrZ1UOluPO
Bucs Anticipate Large Issues From Second-Spherical Decide Josiah Trotter
The Bucs have excessive hopes for Josiah Trotter, who solely simply turned 21 final month however obtained loads of useful expertise on the collegiate degree between his freshman 12 months at West Virginia and his sophomore season with Missouri.
In his one season with the Mountaineers, he performed 12 video games and racked up 92 tackles (36 solo), 4 tackles for loss, a half-sack, an interception and two passes defensed. After transferring to Missouri for the 2025 season, he performed in 12 video games for the Tigers and totaled 84 tackles (43 solo), 13 tackles for loss, two sacks and a go defensed.
Bucs ILB Josiah Trotter – Photograph courtesy of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Now, after being chosen within the second spherical by the Bucs, he’s set to imagine a task immediately in the course of Todd Bowles’ Tampa Bay protection. With the retirement of the legendary Lavonte David, there was a large void left at inside linebacker for this crew for the primary time in a protracted whereas. The signing of veteran Alex Anzalone helped start to fill it, and now it’s Trotter who shall be an enormous a part of issues on the place as properly.
A real MIKE linebacker, Trotter’s instincts are what stand out and had been a significant motive why Tampa Bay was drawn to him. He reads his keys and diagnoses what’s going to occur earlier than it occurs, which helps him wreak havoc within the backfield. And whereas his protection potential has been questioned, he’s assured in what he can do on that entrance, and so are the Bucs. They consider wholeheartedly that he has the foot velocity, instincts and open-field tackling potential to thrive when he’s requested to cowl, which wasn’t one thing he was typically requested to do at Missouri.
Greater than something, the Bucs like that Trotter is a real, old-school kind of linebacker who very properly might nonetheless have his finest soccer forward of him given his age, bodily profile, work ethic and current expertise to attract from.
Now that he has formally signed his first professional contract, it’s full velocity forward towards OTAs, mini-camp, coaching camp after which his first actual NFL motion come August.
– Pewter Report’s Josh Queipo contributed to this story.
