Buccaneers’ Unsung: Week Four – Buccaneers vs Eagles

Sunday saw the Tampa Bay Buccaneers drop their first game of the season. It was a six point loss to the defending champions Philadelphia Eagles. A disappointing, though competitive loss for a banged up Bucs team.

It’s a game where Baker Mayfield and company had their chances. In an afternoon where the defense only gave up 200 total yards of offense, the Bucs couldn’t overcome turnovers and a blocked punt that was returned for a touchdown. A great defensive performance wasted.

In the midst of everything that happened, there were some great individual performances on the defensive side of the ball. Rookie Benjamin Morrison locked up multi time All-Pro AJ Brown most of the day and SirVocea Dennis had a nice day after some early season growing pains. However, one star shined brighter than all the rest on defense. He is this week’s Buccaneers’ Unsung Hero. 

That is nose tackle Vita Vea. The two time pro bowler reminded everyone why he is one of the best to ever do it at his position. Although he is often overlooked in the middle of the Bucs defense, his presence changes the entire game.

The thing that most people will point to is the sacks. These are easy to see in a box score or highlight reel, so most fans are more aware of them. Considering what Vea is, his ability in this department is very impressive.

Vea had two sacks on Jalen Hurts in this game. Considering how mobile Hurts is, it is impressive that a defensive tackle was able to bring him to the ground like that. This performance now moved Vea to the team lead in sacks this year.

—

As far as nose tackles go, Vea will go down as one of the better ones in NFL history. Compared to the likes of Vince Wilfork (16.0), Haloti Ngata (32.5) and Dexter Lawrence (30.0), Vea stacks up very well. His 32.5 sacks in 99 games puts him as perhaps the best pass rushing nose tackle of this century. 

However, that’s not what makes Vea great. As a nose tackle his job first and foremost is stuffing the run. This is what makes the Bucs star a Hall of Fame caliber player.

Vea and the Bucs held reigning offensive player of the year Saquan Barkley to just 43 rushing yards on a 2.3 yard per carry average on Sunday. This was a season low in both categories for Barkley. A stark difference from his 2,005 rushing yards and 5.8 yard per carry average from last year.

The Bucs are now the 5th ranked rushing defense in the NFL. This despite playing the likes of Bijan Robinson and Saquan Barkley in the first four games. It’s safe to say that Vea is leading them to another great run defense in 2025.

That’s just what the Bucs have done since drafting the big nose tackle in 2018. Coming into this year, the Bucs have had a top five run defense in the NFL in five of the last seven seasons since drafting Vea. Early on, it looks like that trend will continue again this year.

Nose tackle is a position that often flies under the radar. That can’t be the case in Tampa. Vea is too good to go unnoticed or under-appreciated. He is one of the best players in the game any time he steps on the field and Sunday was no exception.