Josiah Trotter was picked by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with the 46th selection in the second round of the 2026 NFL Draft, giving Missouri another linebacker taken early after a brief stay in Columbia. The Philadelphia native arrived in Tampa Bay on Friday after being viewed as a consensus top-100 prospect.
Trotter spent only one season with Eli Drinkwitz and the Missouri Tigers, but he made it count. He finished his sophomore year with 84 tackles, two sacks and one pass deflection, production that helped push him into the draft conversation and into the top two rounds.
The pick extends a pattern for Missouri under Drinkwitz. Trotter became the third linebacker taken in the first three rounds since Drinkwitz took over as coach, following Nick Bolton and Ty'Ron Hopper. Bolton went No. 58 to the Kansas City Chiefs and is headed into his sixth season with the team in 2026 after winning two Super Bowls.
Bolton's Missouri career was even louder than his pro résumé. He left Columbia with 217 career tackles, four sacks, two interceptions and 13 pass deflections, then built on that in the NFL with 612 total career tackles, six sacks, five interceptions and 21 pass deflections. He was a second-team All-American in 2020 and earned two first-team All-SEC selections.
Hopper followed a different path. He played his first three college seasons at Florida before moving to Missouri, where he logged 129 tackles, six sacks, one interception and five pass deflections over two seasons. The Green Bay Packers took him No. 91 overall in the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft, but injuries have limited him in the league and he has recorded 34 total tackles and one forced fumble over two NFL seasons.
For Missouri, Trotter's selection is less a one-off than the latest proof that Drinkwitz's defense keeps producing NFL linebackers even when the players do not spend long in the program. For Trotter, the next step is the one that decides whether a fast rise in college turns into staying power on Sundays.
