Josiah Trotter’s protection talents have been a lot publicized of late.
Did the Bucs get a uncooked participant with big upside — a diamond within the tough so far as his skill to defend the move? Or are they signing up for one more misplaced soul in house? The reply to that query received’t be identified for a few years. However we will nonetheless search for clues, and search for clues I’ve.
One such clue got here from Trotter’s defensive coordinator at Missouri, Derek Nicholson. Fox Sports activities’ Greg Auman relayed Nicholson’s ideas on a number of Bucs by means of a social media publish right here.
“There’s a narrative that he can’t do that [coverage],” Nicholson mentioned. “That’s the other of the reality. He has the bodily attributes, the size and vary and quickness and velocity, to be a terror in protection. He’s a full 6-2 with 32-inch arms. He’s very instinctive and has good consciousness. That’s a section he’s solely going to get higher at.
“Some of the issues people highlight, that happened in the first 3-4 games, from him getting used to a different coverage defense than he’s ever played in. There was a learning curve for a lot of our newer players. After Week 4, he was our best internal coverage piece, doing a good job in zone and man. He’s an impact player from day one.”
Nicholson isn’t a impartial social gathering, however he’s the one that watched each protection rep Trotter performed in 2025, and the specificity of that quote is what stopped me. He didn’t say Trotter was all the time good, or that the criticism was unfair. He mentioned after Week 4. He drew a line on the calendar and informed us, the participant on one facet of that line isn’t the participant on the opposite facet.
Bucs ILB Josiah Trotter – Picture courtesy of Missouri Athletics
In my preliminary scouting report of Trotter throughout the pre-draft course of, I watched three video games from 2025. South Carolina (week 4), Auburn (week eight) and Arkansas (week 14). A kind of video games falls inside the first 3-4 video games that Nicholson famous was lower than stellar.
Admittedly, the South Carolina recreation was actually dangerous and carried appreciable weight in my grading. I used to be left with the next ideas on his protection expertise again on my scouting report again in February.
Trotter is younger and nonetheless has loads of room to develop on this space, however at present he doesn’t have an ideal really feel in house, and he will be simply pulled from his zone/task. He will get antsy and doesn’t present an ideal understanding of route growth round him. This may depart Trotter’s protection in bother too typically. He additionally bites too exhausting on play motion, leaving him woefully out of place as eligibles achieve a great deal of house behind him.
Whereas he closes quick, Trotter is never unbalanced or undisciplined. From a mugged-up place he has the velocity to drop shortly sufficient to shut home windows regardless of not being adept on the finer factors of the ability.”
However Nicholson’s remarks about Trotter’s evolution are noteworthy. And so they pushed me to return and have a look at the tip of his season extra carefully. So, I went and re-watched Arkansas and added Mississippi state (week 12) and Oklahoma (week 13).
Tape Notes
Earlier than I get to what I noticed, it’s price naming what I used to be searching for from Josiah Trotter.
There are two questions that determine whether or not a linebacker can maintain up in protection on the subsequent stage. The primary is whether or not he has the athletic traits. The second is whether or not he has the instincts and the processing to diagnose what is going on and be in the appropriate spot.
Bucs ILB Josiah Trotter – Picture courtesy of Missouri Athletics
The minimal value of admission within the league is having the primary trait. Regardless of Trotter not testing on the NFL Scouting Mix or his Professional Day, his tape exhibits he has these traits.
The velocity is NFL stage, and he can cease and transition with loads of joint flexibility and he has plus stop-start expertise.
When speaking about Trotter’s protection expertise there are two factor which might be necessary to notice.
1. Does he have the athletic traits to carry up in protection?
2. Does he have the instincts/processing expertise to diagnose and be in the appropriate spot?
KJ Britt didn’t have #1. Trotter does. pic.twitter.com/1eVMs9jDQU
However that was there earlier than the midseason change that Nicholson famous. Was there something that noticeably modified in how he processed the sport as a protection backer?
The reply is sure.
The misdirection. The attention-candy. The issues that have been pulling him fully out of place early within the season weren’t drawing him in practically as a lot. These have been points as a result of he bit so exhausting it was unimaginable for him to get better and get again to his task in sufficient time. Late within the season he was triggering on his precise key relatively than the one the offense needed him to learn, and the distinction between a linebacker who bites and a linebacker who doesn’t is commonly the distinction between a 4-yard window and a 14-yard one.
You’ll be able to see the processing take a leap within the latter half of the season.
Josiah Trotter figuring out the display screen and dealing to blow it up pic.twitter.com/1nhwHne3Et
Figuring out the true construction of the play and attending to a spot earlier than the blocking can evolve is an efficient indicator of somebody who is determining how he’s getting attacked and responding appropriately. Secondly, and that is the place the Nicholson quote and the tape converge most cleanly, is what occurs when Trotter is dedicated to his zone task.
When he performs it as a substitute of guessing at it, he has the steadiness and the spatial really feel to chop off the throwing window earlier than the ball arrives. He will get the place he must be, and he’s balanced sufficient when he will get there to truly play by means of the catch level relatively than arrive late and path the receiver.
The Arkansas rewatch gave me the rep that crystallized it.
Josiah Trotter reducing off the window for the dig and nonetheless reacting fast to the shallow cross. pic.twitter.com/pGs3WHI1jU
The shallow cross is meant to drag Trotter down, however he feels the over route growing behind him because the verticals filter different center discipline defenders. He crops and opens his hips to the center of the sphere in order to stay with the dig. That is enjoying a high-low idea at a strong stage, stopping the kill shot and being ready to restrict yards after catch for the lesser of two evils.
The Bucs struggled mightily limiting YAC final yr, and there’s a robust likelihood Trotter can stem that tide this yr.
The model of Trotter I watched in these three video games isn’t the model I graded after Week 4 and Week 8. The attention-candy challenge I flagged was actual in September. The drift in zone was actual in September. By November, neither was exhibiting up the identical approach. That’s both a participant who turned a nook mid-season, or a participant whose September tape was all the time going to be a deceptive pattern for projecting his professional protection skill. It’s in all probability a few of each.
Now, you realize I adore it when knowledge and tape inform comparable tales. What does the info should say about Nicholson’s claims?
Josiah Trotter By The Numbers
The info confirms the tape.
Albeit in considerably of a small pattern dimension. Bear in mind it is a participant with simply 24 video games and 1,144 defensive snaps in his school profession. However inside that pattern, there’s a story that dovetails properly together with his coordinator’s observations. Trotter’s rolling four-game yards per protection snap allowed and quarterback score allowed have been at their highest in his profession between weeks 4 (South Carolina) and eight (Auburn) final yr. However after that he simply plain allowed much less harm by means of the air.
And if rolling averages aren’t your factor, how a couple of story of two halves?
Slice his 2025 season cleanly in half and the 2 items seem like totally different gamers.
By means of the primary six video games, Trotter was getting cooked.
Opposing quarterbacks accomplished 14 of 15 throws in opposition to him for 156 yards and a landing and a 132.2 passer score allowed. The South Carolina tape that anchored my authentic report wasn’t the worst of it. The cumulative quantity tells you he was a protection legal responsibility by means of the primary half of the yr.
The final six video games inform a distinct story. Eighteen targets, three greater than the entrance half, for 14 catches, 96 yards and no touchdowns. The completion price dropped from 93.3 p.c to 77.8. The yards per protection snap dropped from 1.42 to 0.71, precisely half. The passer score allowed fell 43.3 factors to 88.9.
The targets matter. Quarterbacks didn’t cease throwing at Trotter within the again half. They threw at him extra and gave up sixty fewer yards for the difficulty. That’s not a participant benefiting from opponents wanting elsewhere. That may be a participant who acquired examined and began discovering solutions.
The Josiah Trotter Value Projecting
The trustworthy reply to the query I requested on the prime of this piece is that we don’t know but what Tampa Bay simply drafted in Josiah Trotter.
Bucs ILB Josiah Trotter – Picture by: IMAGN Pictures – Kirby Lee
Each projection on a 24-game school participant carries uncertainty, and Trotter’s projection carries greater than most as a result of the season-long protection numbers and the late-season protection numbers inform totally different tales about the identical participant. However the bar a linebacker has to clear in protection is decrease than the discourse round Trotter has implied.
So long as they will transfer and restrict yards after catch, defenses can work inside that mannequin.
The query of which story to weight isn’t truly a coin flip. The coordinator who watched each snap drew the road at Week 4. The tape from the latter portion of the season exhibits a linebacker who processes screens, performs high-low ideas at an actual stage, and makes use of his athletic traits in protection relatively than simply possessing them. The info confirms his assertion, even when it exhibits it took a couple of further weeks.
It exhibits a linebacker permitting 0.71 yards per protection rep and an 88.9 passer score. Three unbiased items of proof. The coach. The tape. And the numbers. All of them level on the identical again half of the season because the model of Trotter that ought to drive his projection.
Bucs ILB Josiah Trotter – Picture by: IMAGN Pictures
There’s a actual argument that the September tape was all the time going to be a deceptive pattern. Trotter was a switch studying a brand new protection system in a brand new convention, and the issues that pulled him out of place early have been the belongings you would anticipate a younger linebacker to repair because the reps pile up. He was not a completed product when South Carolina performed Missouri in Week 4. He was nearer to at least one when Arkansas performed Missouri in Week 14. The trajectory issues at the very least as a lot because the cumulative line, and possibly extra.
The NFL is a distinct beast. Many good school protection inside linebackers prove horrible within the execs. And to be trustworthy, nearly each rookie linebacker is dangerous in protection. It can take years to seek out out who Josiah Trotter is in protection at an NFL stage.
Upon additional evaluation, I can perceive what the Bucs see in him, and the arrow is pointing in the appropriate path.
