Throughout the offseason, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers made several moves to strengthen their defensive front seven, while mostly hoping for internal improvements from cornerbacks already on the roster.

Despite losing top corner Jamel Dean in free agency, the only high-profile addition the Bucs made to their CB room was drafting Keionte Scott in the fourth round.

Without Dean, Zyon McCollum became the veteran leader of Tampa's CB room, which also consists of second-year players Benjamin Morrison and Jacob Parrish, undrafted rookie Ayden Garnes, Scott, and 23-year-old Kevin Knowles.

Tampa is putting a lot of faith in McCollum, who struggled badly in 2025 after signing a three-year, $48 million contract extension right before the start of the season. McCollum got off to a great start in his career and looked on his way to becoming a true CB1.

The Bucs are depending on McCollum to return to his earlier form this season. If the team is going to return to the postseason after collapsing down the stretch and missing the playoffs last year, McCollum must step up and prove he is the standout player everyone saw early in his career.

Based on Sunday's season opener against the Cincinnati Bengals, McCollum looks up to the challenge.

Plenty went wrong for Tampa in its 33-27 loss. Quarterback Baker Mayfield lost three of the Bucs' four fumbles. The revamped defensive line couldn't generate much pressure against Bengals QB Joe Burrow. Star rookie Rueben Bain Jr. was a non-factor, recording just a single tackle all afternoon.

However, McCollum was a huge bright spot for the Bucs on Sunday.

The Bengals have the best wide receiver duo in the NFL in Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. McCollum battled against both and won more often than not. The pair was limited to a combined five catches for 71 yards, usually a half for Chase alone, and no touchdowns.

McCollum's sticky coverage limited Chase to only four targets all game, which only resulted in two catches for 12 yards.

Fellow CBs Jacob Parrish and Benjamin Morrison followed McCollum's lead by stepping up big time against a very explosive passing game. The assignment was made even tougher after Parrish had to leave the game with a back injury. 

Luckily, the news on Parrish's injury was positive.

It's a shame that McCollum's and the rest of the CBs' efforts didn't lead to a victory. However, Tampa's secondary, especially the cornerbacks, was a question mark coming into the season. If Week 1 was any indicator, the CBs could be an unexpected team strength.

No other WR duo McCollum will go up against this season will be better and more dangerous than Chase and Higgins. If he can succeed against them, he can succeed against anyone.

In Week 2, McCollum has a good shot to continue his strong play against the Cleveland Browns, who fell 34-10 to the Jacksonville Jaguars.

McCollum should head into that game extremely confident as he looks to build on a terrific start to his season.