Jason Licht Says Bucs Are Still Last Year’s 6-2 Team; Stresses Offense Will Drive Success
March 26th, 2026
What an optimistic state of the union address was delivered by Buccaneers Ring of Honor general manager Jason Licht yesterday.
Joe loved it.
Score, score and score some more. That was part of Licht’s message, as he explained offense should drive the Bucs bus in 2026.
“We feel like we’re still the same team that started off the year 6-2, 5-1, really — 6-2 at the bye week. It was a great bye week,” Licht told the official Buccaneers website. “But we just had some unfortunate injuries. You know a lot of things led to it; you never want to use that as an excuse.
“We still have some very good players on our team. Start with the offense, with our offensive line being one of the top ones in the league when we’re healthy, and the receiver room that we have, Bucky [Irving], Baker [Mayfield,] obviously, that if we can accentuate that offense — which I think will be one of the top offenses, has a chance to be — even a little bit more, and make what’s really good even better, I think that gives us a very good chance to having some success this year.”
Yes, Licht said the Bucs have strong pieces on defense but he stressed that upgrades from last year are needed, and that young defensive players need to step up more than they did.
Licht said the Bucs had a best-player-available mindset in free agency as they tried to put pieces in their puzzle with the salary cap in mind.
Joe’s morning flash poll today shows that 41 percent of Bucs fans believe Tampa Bay will win 9 or more games this coming season. Within that results subset, 24.5 percent of fans say the Bucs will win 10 or more game.
Bring on the draft!
March 26th, 2026 at 8:37 am
Tee up predictable Rod Munch…
March 26th, 2026 at 8:42 am
It’s too bad that people don’t remember the past more than the present
And the present Bucs are 2-7 during the last 9 games
What the Bucs did in 2024, and early 2025 is irrelevant
What’s relevant is the 2- 7 record down the stretch, that kept them out of the playoffs
Just forget about last season, there were no bright spots
Even at 6-2, you wasn’t dominating anyone , you were winning close games
Then you started losing close games, that’s how it goes
Close games can be won or lost on a single play
You made the crucial plays early on, then you didn’t during the 2nd half of the season
March 26th, 2026 at 8:49 am
I watched this interview in its’ entirety, it felt a little bit like Licht was selling while also trying to stay as generic as possible.
The problem with the whole 6-2 deal is, we were winning games by the hairs on our ssa. Heading into and coming out of the bye, we were still playing a brand of football that wasn’t sustainable.
Defense was leaky, the offense was inconsistent and turning the ball over more than it did in it’s first 8 games while struggling to score. Special teams, outside of a big Kam Johnson return here/there and Money McLaughlin, we were kind of trash covering kicks and blocking our own kick attempts up.
March 26th, 2026 at 8:49 am
I expect him to be positive. That’s his job.
The issue with this logic is that we’re supposed to believe the 6-2 start and attributed and not believe the 2-7 negatives. That’s not possible.
It also sounds like he’s juicing us up for taking an offensive player at 15 to strengthen the best part of the team. I’m for BPA but if we are relying on our offense and blaming the injuries, with the cba and player friendly camps, injuries are a significant part of the game and you have to plan for it. That’s notably relevant for us because our RT gets hurt every year, two of our WRs get hurt every year and our qb has a habit of playing somewhat recklessly and hurt.
It was a good job brining in Gainwell tho given what happen to Irving.
March 26th, 2026 at 8:51 am
Everyone is screaming D and they should but I think the O-line needs attention. When healthy they are one of the best, but they were not healthy, that affected the running game and Baker. Use a 3rd or 4th and draft a o-lineman.
March 26th, 2026 at 9:06 am
🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮
2 AM approaching Tonga
It occurred to me a minutes ago as I woke up to piss… the ole Mike Evans, Tom Brady connection, on and off field.
Mike Evans left for SF because of the front office BS that is Desperately clinging to self preservation and the HOPE that they can pull the fat out of the fire.
Tom and his family are FOREVER 49er fans and have inside connections. I believe Tom encouraged and sold ME on the best fit for the final chapter of his career on many levels.
Mike Evans is probably done with Tampa after his career other than returning for his ROH .
Don’t think JL will be the GM …. Sadly the inept owners will still be doing what they have always done…
March 26th, 2026 at 9:07 am
4 of those games were last miinute comebacks…..gotta keep Baker upright and healthy….draft Ioane.
March 26th, 2026 at 9:07 am
Yeah you can still get a really good guard in like the 4th round. The way Licht was talking in that interview he seemed to be hinting around we may take an offensive player earlier than we think again. May be Sadiq or it may just be a smoke screen. I dunno. Really enjoyed the interview though and yes- your team is only as good as the talent of the players you put on the field. When many or most of your highest paid players are out with injuries you are not going to win a lot of football games. We lost tens to 100 million in salary to long term injuries last season. That’s a *huge* talent drain. Injuries aren’t an “excuse” at all either. Your first string players are first string for a reason. Anyone pretending that shouldn’t affect a team is ignoring reality.
March 26th, 2026 at 9:08 am
And this right here tells you all you need to know Guys totally FCKNG clueless
March 26th, 2026 at 9:09 am
Jason Licht … ‘“But we just had some unfortunate injuries. You know a lot of things led to it; you never want to use that as an excuse.’
Every year we hear the same … ‘Never want to use injuries as an excuse’. IF you have adequate DEPTH in the various position groups, injuries don’t have to be an excuse for a lousy season record. Too often the Bucs have lacked DEPTH however.
Looked all the way back to the 2019 season when Bowles first arrived to see if there might be any correlation between the games/days lost to injuries & our season records.
o 2019: 204 games lost to injuries … 7-9 record
o 2020: 169 games lost to injuries … 11-5 record
o 2021: 133 games lost to injuries … 13-5 record
o 2022: 177 games lost to injuries … 8-9 record
o 2023: 105 games lost to injuries … 9-8 record
o 2024: 204 games lost to injuries … 10-7 record
o 2025: 176 games lost to injuries … 8-9 record
On the surface, not seeing any real correlations there. In our best year injury-wise (2023), we only posted a 9-8 record, yet we had our best DEFENSE by quite a bit (ranked #5 allowing only 325 pts). Looks like our starting defense was healthy & DEPTH was a minimal issue.
In our 2 best years record-wise (2020 & 2021), we had the 2nd & 3rd least games lost to injuries, but we also had some pretty decent DEPTH to compensate for those injuries.
Last season’s injuries were somewhat less than in 2024, yet we posted a significantly better record in 2024. We dealt with the injuries better IOW. Last year’s major issue was lack of DEPTH … in key positions (QB & OLine especially). And THAT’S the issue that JL should probably be spending more attention to.
March 26th, 2026 at 9:11 am
Right now all teams are 0-0. Teams change players and nobody knows what the final rosters look like. Nor have injuries hit teams. Some will be in camp lost for the season. But guessing is all anyone can do.
March 26th, 2026 at 9:25 am
We had a great bye week? No you didn’t. The team came back worse after the bye, what is he talking about?
March 26th, 2026 at 9:37 am
Our only hope is to pump up the volume on offense and just forget about Bowles lousy defense. Even though we lost a HOFer we still have the best receiver room in the league. If what he did to us is any indication, Robinson will get the most out of this offense. Mike and White will be sorry they bolted.
March 26th, 2026 at 9:38 am
WRs are going to be real good!
March 26th, 2026 at 9:50 am
You never want to use that as an excuse…but I’m going to.” If he were such a draft guru, we wouldn’t have massive depth problems. Next man up only works if the next man up doesn’t suck.