The Hope Chest
February 20th, 2026
“When I first started coaching, one of the worst things that I think I heard was ‘It will be OK.’ I would wonder, ‘How the hell is it going to be OK?’ The worst word in the English language is ‘hope.'”
— Bob Knight
Joe hears the word “hope” all the time about the Bucs and it drives Joe crazy. “Let’s hope Chris Braswell gets three sacks. … Let’s hope SirVocea Dennis can play like a starting linebacker. … Let’s hope Zyon McCollum shakes off the cobwebs and plays like a rising star.”
How about, “Let’s make sure we have players that we know will produce so we don’t have to hope to win lotteries.”
But Matt Verderame of SI.com apparently is in the hope business. He typed up a column why every NFL team can have hope. Even the Jets!
Verderame thinks Bucs fans have reason for hope because the Bucs have the manpower to put points on the board.
Hope: Tampa Bay has one of the league’s most talented offenses, helmed by Baker Mayfield and populated by Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Jalen McMillan, Emeka Egbuka and Bucky Irving as his weapons.
Yes, Joe is thinking Mike Evans returns to the Bucs. Now if Baker Mayfield and Emeka Egbuka can figure out why they both went into hiding the second half of the season, and get Bucky Irving back on the right track, the Bucs really could be dangerous on offense.
Imagine adding tight ends Kenyon Sadiq or Michael Trigg to this Bucs lineup. Talk about cooking with gas!
February 20th, 2026 at 9:08 am
There’s hope for the offense. No hope for the defense even if we get a decent edge rusher. We still have “no hope” Todd as DC. lol.
February 20th, 2026 at 9:20 am
“Hope: Tampa Bay has one of the league’s most talented offenses, helmed by Baker Mayfield and populated by Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Jalen McMillan, Emeka Egbuka and Bucky Irving as his weapons.”
We had this in the lineup our last 4 games and scored 81 points to 86 points allowed. Going 1-3 in those games
Four game avg of 20.5 ppg on offense.
Four game avg of 21.5 ppg allowed on offense.
Can’t forget, before somebody tries to twist this, the offense had 7 turnovers in those 4 games.
February 20th, 2026 at 9:22 am
I hope Todd Bowles gets fired. Sooner rather than later.
February 20th, 2026 at 9:23 am
“I hope Todd Bowles gets fired. Sooner rather than later.”
Is it Groundhogs day again?
February 20th, 2026 at 9:24 am
The offense, as of today, has enough to win plenty of games….WITH competent ST and a DECENT defense.
Adding a TE, as great as they may be, isnt going to help the units that need the most help.
I had HOPE last year that Bowles would figure out his scheme is too complex and doesn’t confuse the opposing offense, just its own players. But the reality is Bowles is delusional and that clearly won’t change, no matter how much we HOPE it does.
So its time to lock Bowles in the closet during FA and the draft, and let the scouts and JL draft defensive players that are just good players, not players Bowles thinks he may or may not need.
February 20th, 2026 at 9:37 am
Imagine adding cow pits and Tyler Algiers to this lineup
February 20th, 2026 at 9:48 am
Late game turn overs are due to Todd’s defense not holding the lead. When a team is forced to play catch up – defenses can tee off & rush thus getting ints.
February 20th, 2026 at 9:52 am
If the Bucs sign a high priced TE over more defensive depth im going to be pissed
February 20th, 2026 at 9:56 am
I hope goes for a long one way swim in the gulf of america
February 20th, 2026 at 9:57 am
cant understand why you’re so in love with adding a 1st round TE when the OL is in shambles lol….
draft OG 1st round!!!!!
that’ll keep baker upright and improve the run game!!!
GO BUCS!!!!
February 20th, 2026 at 10:05 am
Sadiq is a good all-around swiss army knife TE that gives some great effort blocking…Can play HB, slot, in-line, flex…And hold his own.
I see Trigg as Big Slot / Flex TE pass catching threat w/ limited blocking skills….I would just as soon see Devin Culp get those Flex opportunities.
Resign Kieft, kick tires on Pitts, but if Sadiq is BPA & no one wants to trade up to 15 for QB Simpson to get ahead of the Jets at 16….Then maybe it makes sense to draft Sadiq – stockpiling Offensive talent….But I would much rather see a bigtime Edge OLB, DT or 3-4 DE there at 15 if the FO does not move out of that pick.
February 20th, 2026 at 10:42 am
There was hope they would fire an incompetent HC/DC you see what that got us a poke in the eye and a Jedi hand wave you saw no collapse here the droids you are looking for are that way.
February 20th, 2026 at 10:49 am
813 Buc Boi is kind of right.
At #15, we could get the best guard in the draft.
However, Brederson is Lichts favorite player. And he makes 7 million per year.
Mauch is signed for 2 more years.
So if we draft à OG in the 1st, who do you bench?
Brederson or Mauch?
Or do you keep the 1st round OG as a backup?
Although I complete agree with you, a LG at #15 to pair with Wirfs would be smart, Licht will never do it.
Licht loves Bredeson too much to bench him or release him.
February 20th, 2026 at 10:49 am
Matt Verderame … ‘Tampa Bay has one of the league’s most talented offenses’.
He could’ve stopped right there, but added 2 more extremely important words … WHEN HEALTHY. Sterling Shepard (495 off snaps) and Tez Johnson (495 off snaps) for instance got MORE offensive snaps than Mike Evans (357), Chris Godwin (428) or Jaylen McMillan (138). That’s not a good sign.
Even worse though, our starting OLine got torn apart with injuries. Bucs had to use 6 additional OLinemen throughout the season to fill the holes (Chukwuma, Feeney, Jordan, Haggard, Heck, Klein).
o Wirfs: 12 games … 777 snaps … 68.5% availability.
o Bredeson: 11 games … 622 snaps … 54.9% availability.
o Barton: (1134 snaps – 100% availability).
o Mauch (138 snaps – 12.2% availability).
o Goedeke (675 snaps – 59.5% availability).
Baker played extensively in all 17 games, getting 1099 snaps for 96.9% availability, despite being hurt for a substantial number of games. Otton only missed 1 game, playing an incredible 993 snaps (87.6% availability), the highest average number of snaps/game (62) of any TE in the NFL.
Lack of talented DEPTH hurt us big-time when injuries happened to our starters. That was especially troublesome since it was our starters who suffered so many injuries, for significant periods of time. We were extremely healthy both years that we won Super Bowls. Most Super Bowl winners are I would guess.
February 20th, 2026 at 10:51 am
@Ash
Spot on sir. Pay no attention to the guru behind that curtain.
You can’t make this stuff up!
February 20th, 2026 at 10:55 am
Teacherman … ‘At #15, we could get the best guard in the draft’.
OR at #15 we could draft a beastly NT/DT to pair with Vea, OR draft a very talented ILB to replace SVD or LVD, OR MAYBE even find a very talented Edge to play opposite YaYa.
Ben Bredeson is the acknowledged LEADER of our OLine from what I’ve read. If there’s ANYTHING this team needs more than leadership, I don’t know what it is. Bucs need to focus on DEFENSE this year, in the Top-4 Rnds as a minimum.
February 20th, 2026 at 11:04 am
Even with creative restructuring, the Bucs can’t afford both Evans, Godwin and address the massive needs on defense. This whole “let’s pay our players”, player loyalty, and poor drafting on defense is what has them with the glaring holes they have. Yeah, Bowles sucks. But the team will suck worse if the defense isn’t addressed in free agency and at least the first 3 picks in the draft. Even if David wants to come back, he can’t be anymore than a rotational player at league min.
February 20th, 2026 at 11:25 am
Our injuries sucked. So did several of our starters on defense. Once our offense went totally flat due to the patchwork offensive line, the defense started to fall apart.
February 20th, 2026 at 11:30 am
I get that people dislike Bowles, but to actively “hope” the team does poorly to get Bowles fired is absolutely insane to me.
I don’t hope. I know the Bucs are a wildly talented team that underperformed this past season.
They WILL do much better this coming season.
If I’m wrong, you can tell me you told me so. Take the over on their win total. I am.
February 20th, 2026 at 11:31 am
I HOPE logan Hall gets cut or signed by another team/ worst second round bust of all time
February 20th, 2026 at 11:36 am
It’s not like Mayfield and receivers forget how to play. Injuries created continuity problems and became compounded with a first year play caller failing on the job.
The Bucs have made adjustments on their coaching staff. Now let’s chill out and look forward to watching 👀 our Bucs in 2026
February 20th, 2026 at 11:47 am
I hope we get health.
I hope we don’t drop our edge rushers a significant portion of the time.
I hope we don’t play our corners 10 yards off the LOS as much as we have.
I hope Bucky learns what resiliency means.
I hope Baker learns he can live to play other down rather than treat every play like it’s the last of the superbowl.
I hope Todd learns how to motivate players.
I hope Todd learns how to do math.
I hope we only have 10 more months of this leadership.
February 20th, 2026 at 11:48 am
wIIiam, don’t forget that Braswell was a 2nd round pick.
February 20th, 2026 at 11:56 am
Well Joe for someone who does not like the word hope, you just stated a lot of hope!! lol. Yes, let’s absolutely hope the O Line comes together along with Baker, Bucky. And yes let’s hope Evans returns and does not go to the Patriots. Let’s hope, the TE position improves and Robinson can run an offense!!!. Finally let’s hope we add a couple of stud players in the front 7 of the defense. Well other than that I don’t think we need to hope much, lol!!!
February 20th, 2026 at 11:56 am
“It’s not like Mayfield and receivers forget how to play. Injuries created continuity problems and became compounded with a first year play caller failing on the job.”
They also played terribly collectively, and for what it’s worth we had flashes of success even with the injuries.
My response to fans using the OL as a placeholder for ALL that was wrong with our offense, the OL was healthy in ’24 when we went on that 4 game skid that start with the Ravens game when Mike & Chris got hurt or are we forgetting about that? Are we also forgetting how we lost those games?
Here’s what was bad, the last 2 games of that 4-game stretch we finished +2 in the turnover margin and lost both games by a combined 9 points. OL was healthy as hell.
So explain to me, how at varying levels of health along our OL the last 2 seasons we always manage to keep it close enough to barely lose.
February 20th, 2026 at 12:04 pm
So if we draft à OG in the 1st, who do you bench?
*********************************************************
easy!!!…Mauch….he’s injured and wont be 100% when the season begins…
Bredenson is our best Center…
Wirfs, Barton, Bredenson, 1st round OG, Luke
Depth: Chews-swing tackle
Barton- back-up Center
Mauch- back up OG
GO BUCS!!!!
February 20th, 2026 at 12:07 pm
Logan Hall is a slightly above average player, would be an okay rotational guy
February 20th, 2026 at 12:19 pm
i dont get the logan hall hate lol…
he’s ok lol…good rotational player…just think he was over drafted…i’d like to resign him…
beggars cant be choosers lol
GO BUCS!!!!
February 20th, 2026 at 12:23 pm
I don’t pay any attention to any draft talk or hype. Because players look good in college doesn’t mean they will work out in the NFL. They’re not playing all these games against NFL players. Most are against Car and insurance salesman of the future. All any team is crapshoot a player and HOPE they workout the way they want them to.