Red Zone Opportunity For Tampa Bay
November 4th, 2025
No, this is not a post backhandedly begging for Buccaneers Ring of Honor general manager Jason Licht to trade for a receiver by today’s 4 p.m. NFL trade deadline — or for a right guard or more backfield insurance.
It’s about the red hot Patriots’ ice cold red-zone defense.
The Bucs host the Patriots on Sunday, which has Joe in full study mode of the team formerly known as the Belicheats.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Mike Vrabel teams are always tough guys (yawn); this year’s Patriots are struggling with red zone defense in a big way.
Longtime New England beat writer Mike Reiss shared some of his notes after the Patriots beat the Falcons by one point on Sunday. One was about the home team’s horrid red zone defense.
Reading that, Joe immediately thought of the Bucs’ tall and allegedly dangerous red zone targets that the team does not use. Tight end Payne Durham comes to mind, along with the rest of the tight ends, a position group that doesn’t have a Bucs touchdown pass this season.
Joe would love to see this be the week the Bucs’ tight ends have a breakout game.
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