Coaching Staff
Head Coach: Todd Bowles
Offensive Coordinator: Zac Robinson
Defensive Coordinator: Todd Bowles
Special Teams Coordinator: Danny Smith
2025 Summary (W-L Record: 8-9)
The Buccaneers started the season 6-2, Baker Mayfield was a big part of the MVP discussion, and Tampa appeared to be serious contenders in the NFC.
Then they fell off a cliff. The Bucs lost 7 of their final 9 games, allowing the division title and a playoff spot to slip out of their hands.
Offensively, the passing game took a step back from the first half of the season to the second as Baker Mayfield (and the O-line and receiving corps) battled through injuries. Tampa went from averaging 224.9 passing yards per game to just 189. They also turned the ball over 11 times over their final 9 games after doing so just 5 times through their first 8.
Defensively, the Bucs went from allowing 20.3 points per game to 25.9. This didn’t look like your typical Todd Bowles defense, as there were several games in the back half of the year where they were just not competitive.
You can’t help but get the feeling that 2026 will be a huge season for determining what this franchise will look like for the next 5 years.
Key Additions
RB Kenneth Gainwell
WR Ted Hurst (3rd Rd, 84th Overall)
WR David Sills
LT Justin Skule
OG Billy Schrauth (5th Rd, 160th Overall)
DL A’Shawn Robinson
DL Rakeem Nunez-Roches
DL Demonte Capehart (5th Rd, 155th Overall)
EDGE Rueben Bain, Jr. (1st Rd, 15th Overall)
EDGE Al-Quadin Muhammad
LB Alex Anzalone
LB Christian Rozeboom
LB Josiah Trotter (2nd Rd, 46th Overall)
CB Keionte Scott (4th Rd, 116th Overall)
S Ifeatu Melifonwu
Key Losses
RB Rachaad White
WR Mike Evans
WR Sterling Shepard
LG Michael Jordan
RT Charlie Heck
DL Logan Hall
DL Greg Gaines
EDGE Haason Reddick
LB Lavonte David
LB Deion Jones
CB Jamel Dean
CB Kindle Vildor
S Christian Izien
Biggest Questions Entering 2026
Will the fierce Buccaneers defense we saw for years return in 2026?
Todd Bowles is one of the best defensive minds in football and has a heck of a track record of putting together dangerous defenses. It led to a Super Bowl win 6 years ago.
Bowles leans on high-volume pressure and regularly fools opposing quarterbacks. Just take a look at the below breakdown with Sam Darnold admitting a Bowles blitz got the best of him on this pivotal play from the Bucs’ Week 5 win over the Seahawks last season:
Through the Quarterback's Eyes: Sam Darnold
Normally when I do these “Through the Eyes” breakdowns, I dissect a play that’s positive for the player or coach describing it. This one will be a bit different.
Aside from a few moments here and there, Tampa’s defense was uncharacteristically bad last season. They’ve been trending in that direction for a couple of years now.
After ranking 7th in points allowed in 2023, they ranked 16th in 2024 and 20th last season.
The inability to generate pressure was the main culprit in 2025 as Tampa finished just 25th in pressure percentage. That’s not what you want when you’re an aggressive blitzing team like the Buccaneers are (4th in blitz % last season). If you’re going to sacrifice defenders in coverage, you better get home. Last year, they didn’t. And that played a significant role in the Bucs allowing the 9th-most completions of 20 yards or more.
Tampa sought to correct this during the offseason. They added edge rusher Al-Quadin Muhammad, who had a break-out season in 2025 with 11.0 sacks. That was 4 more than anyone on the Bucs had last year.
The Bucs also added Rueben Bain, Jr. with the 15th overall pick. Bain is a thick human being who wins with power, leverage, and relentless pursuit of the quarterback:
He plays like a boulder rolling down a hill, picking up momentum with each inch of ground that he covers, making him harder and harder to stop:
While the size of his arms were a topic of conversation during draft season, that doesn’t stop him from being really good with his hands:
He’s also a very good defender in the run game, which will fit right in with a defense that has been stout vs. the run in just about every season since Bowles went to Tampa:
The Bucs also re-vamped their linebacking corps after losing Lavonte David to retirement. They added Alex Anzalone and Christian Rozeboom in free agency and drafted Josiah Trotter with the 46th overall pick. The Buccaneers spend a good amount of time in base personnel, so it’s critical that they have a deep group of linebackers, which they certainly do now.
Hopefully they can figure things out with defensive tackle Vita Vea’s contract situation. If they do, this feels like a year where the defense is going to be able to get back to being a more typical Todd Bowles defense.
Will Baker Mayfield make the Buccaneers pay?
I mean this in the most literal sense. Mayfield and the Bucs weren’t able to come to an agreement on a contract extension before training camp, which was the deadline that Mayfield imposed for getting a deal done.
He delivered a warning that the Bucs just cost themselves some dollars because he’s going to have a big year:
“If you’ve waited this long to take care of your franchise quarterback, that’s too bad, because it’s only going to get worse from here. I’m going to have a really good year.”
That’s a threat the Buccaneers should hope will come true because a big year at the most important position, combined with their improved defense, could mean a huge year for the franchise.
Mayfield has revitalized his career in Tampa and has shown himself to be one of the better quarterbacks in the league at times. In 2024, he completed over 70% of his passes for 4,500 yards, 41 TD passes, and a 106.8 passer rating.
He has high-level traits, from his arm strength to his ability to play the position with nuance. Just check out how he recognized and handled the blitz on this game-winning drive vs. the Jets in Week 3 last season:
Baker Mayfield is in Complete Command
Baker Mayfield has been playing smart, near-mistake-free football through the early part of this season. He’s also led the Buccaneers on last-minute game-winning scoring drives in each of their first 3 games, which has spearheaded Tampa’s 3-0 start.
As mentioned above, Baker was in the MVP discussion during the first half of last season. Through his first 9 games, he had a 16-2 TD-INT ratio, a 99.2 passer rating, and the Bucs had a 6-3 record.
Over his final 8 games, however, he had just a 10-9 TD-INT ratio, a 78.9 passer rating, and the Bucs went 2-6 during that stretch.
It’s fair to say that injuries played a significant role. He dealt with injuries to his knee and both shoulders but played through them.
Hopefully that won’t be the case this year. If Mayfield can stay healthy and get back to his 2024 and first-half-of-2025 form, the Bucs might be emptying the piggy bank to give him his money.
For what it’s worth, that would be a better outcome than Mayfield having a bad season and Tampa looking elsewhere for a new QB in 2027.
Will the loss of Mike Evans be too significant for the Buccaneers to overcome?
Losing a receiver like Mike Evans is a big deal. Yes, he’s closer to the end of his career than the beginning, but the things he does for a quarterback are tough to replace.
Above all else, he’s a huge target (6’5”) who can still win 1-on-1’s consistently. He can win at the line of scrimmage:
He can win downfield on contested catches:
He thrives on 3rd down and in the red zone, which are those situations where the defense tends to be more aggressive and deceptive with their looks. They might be disguising coverage or bringing intricate blitzes. And it’s nice as a quarterback to be able to say, “Whatever, I’m just going to throw it up to my 6’5” receiver and play above the defense regardless of what they’re doing.”
Even at this point in his career, Evans still garners extra attention from opposing defenses. In the game he got hurt last season against the Lions, their entire defensive game plan was built around doubling Evans on third down and in obvious passing situations:
In general, that creates opportunities elsewhere for other receivers.
The okay news for Tampa is that they got a little bit used to life without Evans last year as he missed 9 games due to injury.
Their traditional #2 receiver, Chris Godwin, was battling back from an injury the year before and also missed 8 total games.
There were 4 games where both Evans and Godwin were out last year, and it didn’t really slow down the Bucs offense a ton. They still averaged 27 points in those games.
I’ll also throw in that promising young receiver Jalen McMillan, who caught 8 touchdown passes the year before as a rookie, missed the first 13 games of the season with a neck injury suffered in preseason.
The emergence of rookie wide receiver Emeka Egbuka certainly helped keep the passing game afloat with Godwin and Evans not at 100% and McMillan out of the lineup. While his production slowed as the season progressed, I expect him to make a big jump this season. Hopefully Godwin and McMillan will be healthy enough to contribute more as well.
The Bucs sought to replace Evans’ size in this year’s draft by selecting 6’4” receiver Ted Hurst in the 3rd round. Hurst can be a vertical threat for this team (ran a 4.42 40-yard dash) and can hopefully replace some of the production that Evans has provided over the years.
Also, don’t sleep on running back Kenneth Gainwell, who caught 73 passes out of the backfield last year and was basically the Steelers’ 2nd-best receiver.
2026 Outlook
I expect a return to the top of the division for the Buccaneers this season. The NFC South is still very wide open, but Tampa has the most talent of any of the four teams. If Mayfield can stay healthy and that defense can return to form (which it looks like they can on paper), we should see this team back in the playoffs.