Josiah Trotter's former coach shares insight on coverage ability

If you’ve followed the conversation around Josiah Trotter leading up to the draft, one critique keeps popping up: “coverage issues.” It’s been repeated enough to stick, but when you actually dig into the film and the context behind those reps, it’s a lot less cut-and-dry than that label suggests.

There’s been a growing pushback that many of Trotter’s so-called “coverage issues” come down to context, assignment, and role, not some glaring inability to function in space. When you isolate the reps, you’re not seeing a player constantly getting exposed, but instead a young linebacker working within a scheme that didn’t always ask him to play to that strength.

Trotter wasn’t used as a high-volume man coverage linebacker. He wasn’t consistently asked to carry vertical routes or mirror backs in space snap after snap. Instead, he was deployed as a downhill, instinct-driven defender reading, triggering, and attacking. That’s where his game thrives, and that’s where most of his best tape lives.

And that context lines up with what people inside the program have said, too. In a thread shared by Greg Auman, Trotter’s linebackers coach Derek Nicholson noted, “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 1.” That’s not the profile of a linebacker who can’t hold up in coverage, that’s a player whose role and evaluation might not be matching up.

There’s also a larger piece of context that’s being overlooked: he just turned 21 on April 15th. That’s incredibly young for a linebacker entering the NFL, and coverage is widely known as one of the hardest traits for linebackers to develop at the next level. Even top prospects often need time to adjust to route concepts, spacing, and the speed of the game. Very few college linebackers walk into the NFL as “great” coverage players.

Trotter has the foundation you want to bet on. His instincts, play recognition, and feel for the game consistently show up against the run and in short-area situations. Those same traits can translate into zone coverage with time, especially in the right system. At the end of the day, the “coverage issues” label feels more like a draft talking point than a long-term concern.

This article originally appeared on Bucs Wire: