How Jacob Parrish’s Strong Start Affects Bucs’ Defensive Plans

Pro Football Focus had Smith as one of the better slot defenders in football, ranking in the top 15 in multiple markers such as yads per coverage snap, snaps per reception allowed or quarterback rating when targeted. While these traits served Smith well in his role as a slot defender, one could also make the argument they could just as well make him a talented safety while allowing him to keep his eyes on the ball more often.

While that move had both pros and cons it also left a hole at the nickel position itself. The team was obviously not comfortable with Christian Izien as their primary nickel. He played there in 2023 as a rookie, and despite a strong start to that season, his performance on the whole led the Bucs to finding his replacement while demoting him to a super-sub role.

Enter Jacob Parrish's Physical Traits To Bucs' Secondary

And for the second consecutive year the Bucs selected a player on day two of the NFL draft with a reasonable expectation they would become the starting nickel in their rookie year. Jacob Parrish had a strong preseason lending hope that this risk could work out. He allowed just 35 yards on seven targets while breaking up multiple passes and allowing just a 70.5 quarterback rating when targeted.

While Todd Bowles has maintained that Parrish has value as both an inside and an outside corner, he has clearly found a niche for himself in Tampa Bay as the nickel. In his first regular season game he logged 46 snaps in the slot and just one outside. Bowles further cemented his status this week when he said Parrish would continue to be the team's primary slot defender even with Christian Izien back healthy.

There's good reason for this.

Parrish's first NFL action was extremely promising.

Let's start with the results. 37 coverage snaps. He was targeted three times, allowing just two catches for a total of two yards. And when factoring in his matchups, those numbers become even more elite. The Falcons tried to gain size matchups on the sub-five-foot-10-inch Parrish by putting tight end Kyle Pitts and wide receiver Drake London in the slot a combined 31 times.

No matter.

Parrish played as if he was five inches taller and 20 pounds heavier, with strong jams and working through perimeter blocks with the requisite physicality needed to survive in today's NFL.

Parrish displayed a quick trigger defending screens and collapsing on shorter routes. But even more important was how he contributed in the run game, setting hard edges and holding at the point of attack against larger players trying to block him into oblivion.

This shouldn't be a surprise if you were watching him in the preseason or college. He has always punched above his weight, and it was never more on display than when he took on Titans left guard Peter Skoronski pulling at the goal line in the Bucs' first preseason game. By the end of the Falcons game it had become almost comical how much of a factor Parrish had become at the line of scrimmage.

As good as he was at the line of scrimmage, it was his physical traits on display in coverage that were most impressive against Atlanta. His fluidity and athleticism allowed him to stay in phase even when his technique wasn't at its best.

It's largely been lost in the aftermath, but it was Parrish who nearly ended the game on Atlanta's final drive before they got into field goal range, coming just inches away from a game-sealing interception.

Jacob Parrish's physical traits are far and above what Tykee Smith could deliver in the slot and help the Bucs run more man coverage than they were last year. Sports Info Solutions has the Bucs running some sort of man coverage – Cover-1, Cover-0 or Man-2 – on 16 snaps against the Falcons vs. 21 snaps of Cover-2, Cover-3, Cover-4 and Cover-6. That ratio comes out to 43%-man coverage. That's twice the rate they ran it last year.

It's just one game, but this plan that the Bucs have hatched revolved around Parrish as the lynchpin. And boy has he held up to the expectations.