The Athletic: Bucs Will Bounce Back Due To “Sound” Front Office
March 18th, 2026
Stability.
Joe has noticed fans sharing an uptick in angst towards Bucs’ AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht.
Eh, comes with the territory. The Bucs just missed the playoffs for the first time since 2019. Some nasty feedback is expected.
When your Hall of Fame receiver tells the franchise to get lost (in so many words) and takes a pay cut to play for a team the Bucs beat last year, claiming it’s an easy chance to make a Super Bowl run, that is a pretty ugly slap in the face.
Mike Evans sure did rub Licht’s nose in the dirt. And fans are angry as a result.
Over at The Athletic, Jourdan Rodrigue has noted it’s been an unpleasant start to 2026 for the Bucs. But she does not think the Bucs will be down for long, if at all.
Why is that? Because Licht has built one of the better “sound front offices” in the league, per Rodrigue.
The Bucs’ slide through the second half of last season was a bit shocking. But it’s hard to bet on multiple down years for one of the more fundamentally sound front offices in the NFL.
Licht may have a sound front office but where is the team headed? Does anyone believe in the wake of Jamel Dean and Evans bolting the Bucs can make a Super Bowl run this year?
The brutal truth is the Bucs currently are a worse team on paper than they were when they collaspsed losing seven of their final nine games, which (likely) chased Evans off.
#Third-and-28.
“This Joe” believes the Bucs are closer to a No. 1 overall pick than they are playing in the Super Bowl next February in Los Angeles.
What keeps hope alive for Joe is Seattle playing New England in the Super Bowl. Joe would have had to be drunk to predict that last summer.
And look what happened.
Ira Kaufman Talks Jamel Dean Files, Free Agency Fixes And Lingering Holes, Edge Rush Philosophy Versus Reality, And Much More
March 18th, 2026 at 7:40 am
Somewhere Rod Munch, the 55-60 yr old-ish out of shape fat fuk, the Jameis Winston apologist is feverishly writing up all kinds of comments to make everything about Baker. It’s really impressive actually how much Baker has taken over this guys entire life. Rod reminds me of Jack Nicholson’s character in the Shining, and instead of “all work and no play makes Rod a dull boy” – he simply has BAKER typed up over and over and over across stacks of paper. A true psycho. Obsessed. Cmon ROD, you fat pig, bring me some more Baker comments 😂
March 18th, 2026 at 7:51 am
Joe, the problem with your statement that “on paper” the Bucs are a worse team now the before the 2025 collapse, is that significant parts of the roster were not on the field for much of the season. And you know this. If the Bucs are healthier in 2026, they could have a better team then what we saw down the stretch last year. However, they could simply poop the bed again. Go Bucs!
March 18th, 2026 at 8:01 am
There’s that word ‘Hope’ again Joe. Didn’t think you believed in it!
?Every NFL offseason is about “hope.” Heck, the NFL Draft is an exercise in hope. –Joe
March 18th, 2026 at 8:06 am
Our GM led us through a post superbowl mini rebuild where we didn’t have to suffer through 5 years of sun .500 football he deserves credit for that. He has a formula we call the bucway! Build through the draft, put veteran band aid type players over any holes in roster, save our money to be loyal to our own players.
This is who we are so I’m not worried. He plugged veterans in free agency and he will draft a pass rusher, lb and corner and we will be competive like we always are don’t forget we were picked to finish dead last just a few years ago that team won divsion and win a playoff game.
I honestly think this is a seven win team but never count out Baker when everyone is doubting him or his team. I could see us overachieving.
March 18th, 2026 at 8:07 am
Bwhahahahahaaaa
March 18th, 2026 at 8:17 am
This Joe. “closer to a number 1 pick than playing in the Super Bowl”. Poppycock. Poppycock. Poppycock. “This Joe” hasn’t been able to get his head around the fact that this team acquired a 27 year old QB 3 years ago. A QB that has been right at the top of this league in terms of production since he walked in the door. And either “This Joe” will look like a genius or a genuine dumba$$, and we’re going to find out in the very near future. From someone who’s seen every single game he’s played in college and the NFL, I know that no way are we gonna get a top 10 pick as long as Mayfield is on the roster. Joe, I read everything you write. You’re dead wrong. We’re alot closer to a Super Bowl, and we have been for 3 years, than you give us credit for. I’m voting “genuine dumba$$”. And I’d bet money on it.
March 18th, 2026 at 8:17 am
This is the same front office that chose to keep Todd Bowles, so I’m not so sure about that “sound” evaluation.
March 18th, 2026 at 8:21 am
Joe’s slipping. ☹️
March 18th, 2026 at 8:25 am
Those big glasses don’t make you look any smarter. Field a team, sign someone, there are still people available who could help this team.
March 18th, 2026 at 8:26 am
Really?
Lichtbrain is the same GM that made NO DEALS at the trade deadline to address the horrid tackling by adding Jordyn Brooks the leading tackler in the NFL and a great coverage LB who was being shopped by Miami. Adding Brooks would have gotten us into the playoffs and put millions more in Glazers account. Most overrated GM in football.
March 18th, 2026 at 8:26 am
Look, they played a lot of games without Dean and Evans. Evans is an icon. Dean was solid when healthy. They both contributed to the SB
But they’re done. Every player who ever plays a down in Tampa will eventually be gone.
The biggest issue with Licht is he can’t seem to get Bowles to wake up and recognize that he needs a bad cop on the staff. Like Herman Edwards for Dungy.
March 18th, 2026 at 8:29 am
It still blows my mind that Sean Mcdermott and John Harbaugh were both fired having impeccable win loss records while Bowles hovering at as many wins as losses keeps his job and gets to fire everyone else
@joe please help me make this make sense, its just baffling
March 18th, 2026 at 8:32 am
Let’s just say for sheets and geegles that the offense stays relatively healthy and churns out consistent scoring games, say around the 24-27 pt.s area and the defense as a whole improves to around 15 with the pass defense being around the same number. ST improves a bunch to help out because of field position. This team has a chance to go far. Not on paper but actual play. Yes they look worse on paper. How much better did they look, on paper, with Evans and Dean here? Not a whole lot and maybe Evans leaving will do the Bucs more favors than we see right now. I say show me the money. Now, last year there was no money down the stretch and that pissed me off. If guys quit they should be jettisoned off this team cause they will do it to their new team and I don’t care whose name is on the back of the jersey, get em out. Not happy they retained Bowles not am I happy with his dual hat wearing but it is what it is for this year. Front office needs to show me the reasons why he was retained going forward. That translates to this WHOLE team playing well, not just one part and then the excuses roll in.
March 18th, 2026 at 8:34 am
“Somewhere Rod Munch, the 55-60 yr old-ish out of shape fat fuk, the Jameis Winston apologist is feverishly writing up all kinds of comments to make everything about Baker.”
Look at you with Rod Munch on your mind at 7:40am, doing exactly to him what you’re accusing him of doing to Baker, but Rod is just a guy on the internet lol
“A true psycho. Obsessed.”
LOOOOOOOOOOOOL
March 18th, 2026 at 8:34 am
The owners with their collective eyeballs on their Euro-Kickball team. A trusty little leprechaun/magic bean counter as the capologist. Spytek gone…charged with the Herculean task or righting the Raiders. But the man in the middle…rocking some AI glasses to stay ahead of his peers…Jason “Bright” Licht. The combination with nice but stubborn T-Bowles is a lethal combination. Lethal for who? Well…
March 18th, 2026 at 8:34 am
Joe gets your frustration.
March 18th, 2026 at 8:36 am
The Bucs’ slide through the second half of last season was a bit shocking. – to WHOM? It happens pretty much every year with Bowles. If this person gets this so wrong, why is anything else written worth taking seriously?
March 18th, 2026 at 8:36 am
The problem with “The Slide” last year was coaching. We sorta fixed it, except for Bowles still being here. Looks like we upgraded in the coaching dept (at least in the coordinator spots). That’s the problem with the phrase “on paper”. Dean finally had a somewhat healthy year, his first ever. Evans leaving, that hurts, no way around it. We still have a really good WR corps. Our O-line coming back healthy is certainly an improvement from last years M*A*SH* unit o-line. We upgraded DT, ILB, RB, Edge in FA. Boo Hoo we didn’t overspend for Hendrickson, or make a bloated trade for a broken Crosby. How are we “worse”? I’m not seeing SB, but get a grip folks!
March 18th, 2026 at 8:37 am
HAHA Super Bowl run this team won’t even make the playoffs. Don’t think they even win the division. Same old same old I bet Bowles wins the first couple games and then the slide will start to happen like it does every year and by October it will be draft talk.
March 18th, 2026 at 8:41 am
FRED FLINTSTONE –
Bucs are in purgatory through 2028
March 18th, 2026 at 8:56 am
Face, preemptively calling out the munchkin! Well done. When I am in the midst of seeing him repeatedly Hammer Baker, typically in a post that doesn’t even have Baker as its subject, I too wonder why he’s so obsessed. He is demonstrably false with most of his accusations, acting as if a single player is wholly responsible for the outcome of a game repeatedly. Silly stuff. So much time and venom dedicated to apparently trying to convince others see it the same way. Weirdly obsessive.
March 18th, 2026 at 8:58 am
They are a worse team on paper but if the OLine isn’t as brittle this upcoming season, I do believe we have a chance to make the playoffs and win a game.
Losing Evans sucks emotionally but we do have great WR depth and it wasn’t like Evans was in on every play the last few season.
March 18th, 2026 at 9:02 am
The Bucs collapse happened when the Bucs had healthy players back in the fold and after the bye.
Bucs FO is highly overconfident with the current roster and think business a usual is good enough. The draft isn’t going to move the needle for hit team to escape 8 to 9 wins on the season with this coaching staff.
March 18th, 2026 at 9:08 am
Evans left and Dean left, they didn’t add any players that Joe knows much about or were on some fancy top 50 FA list. So this Joe thinks the Bucs are worse than last year. Wow, talk about some lazy “journalism”.
Let’s break this down as simply as possible. There are 3 phases to a football team..offense, defense and ST.
Last year the Bucs offense wasn’t very good and suffered injuries all across the oline, their top 3 WRs, starting RB and the QB was i injured. They also had a OC wasn’t very good. So just by getting healthy alone the offense will be much better. Then they added an upgrade at OC and an upgrade at RB. EE, Tez and Jmac will continue to improve and Godwin is now much healthier than last year. Im sure they add depth at oline in the draft.
ST was AWFUL last year. They added one of the better ST coaches in the NFL and that unit will be much better next year.
Lastly on defense, the team was terrible at LBer and didn’t have much of a pass rush. They’ve upgraded one LBer spot so far. They added a vet DT eith much needed size on the DL. They added a pass rusher who should produce more sacks and pressure than Reddick. I expect them draft upgrades at Edge and Lber.
Just getting a healthy makes this a better team than last year.
I don’t think JL thought this team was a Dean and Evans away from winning a Superbowl. So they’ve finally decided to get the cap in better shape for the future and not chase some aging player like Hendrickson and instead look toward the future.
March 18th, 2026 at 9:09 am
LOVE Mike Evans. Never was really a fan of Jamel Dean. At this point though I’m Meh. Both were only part time players due to predictable annual injuries. Let’s move on.
March 18th, 2026 at 9:18 am
Been trying to tell all that RodManureMunch really likes the defense that Bucs have had for the last 3 yearrs. Moreover, he is hopeful that those 3rd string OG’s that played so much last year will get a shot at making the varsity this year. Finally, Muncher doesn’t get all the uproar over the 2025 Special Teams play. Baker Mayfield is to blame for all of it. If Bucs install Shedeur Sanders at QB, things will get much better and maybe next year a then 34 year old WR will return.
March 18th, 2026 at 9:22 am
They lost a 33 yr old WR who has been consistent but years since he was dominate and a CB that everyone complains about missing 4-6 games a year. Did they not beat the Seahawks and 49ers without Evans
March 18th, 2026 at 9:25 am
Can someone please explain, while leaving out hurt feelings, how the Bucs are worse right now on paper then they were before free agency began? I’m just not seeing it.
Losses
Mike Evens – not a major part of last years team … and if you bring up he was injured, so was a majority of the OL last year and you have to then take that into account as well. Plus the Bucs WR room is not hurting at all and still better than the 49ers currently.
Jamel Dean – good CB, needs to be replaced either by a youngster stepping up or draft/FA/after cuts pick up
Rachaad White – good RB, already replaced by a RB as good if not somewhat better
Charlie Heck – the same Charlie Heck that fans were saying to not let back on the field at points last year. still need depth at OL but losing Charlie Heck is not major
Christian Izien – another CB, not great, not terrible, just a CB
Now add in the FA signings, nothing flashy but solid signings. The offense is the same with hopefully better health upfront and the defense i feel got better up front, the LBs got better, the CBs are still a work in progress. Throw in special teams (which i admit can’t really get much worse then last year) was upgraded.
I think most people posting their FA grades just look at names and not production. Mike Evans is a HUGE name, not as big a loss football wise as people are making it out to be.
March 18th, 2026 at 9:31 am
I’m beginning to think the Bucs are going to beat expectations by winning 8 games. Maybe the change in OC will actually benefit the team? Maybe having an offseason to prepare for not having Evans will yield better results than not having him due to injury?
March 18th, 2026 at 9:36 am
Unfair to guess what ME thinks. Probably his departure came down to the Bucs having a deep receiving corp and that Mike wouldn’t be getting his usual touches. That won’t be a problem in San Fran.
March 18th, 2026 at 9:38 am
I’d like to see Licht get to pick his preferred HC. Lovie, Koetter and Bowles were forced on him. He nailed it with BA….I believe he would do so again if he’s not trapped by ownership to keep someone in house to save money.
March 18th, 2026 at 9:45 am
Anyways, jokes and hypocrisy aside
I think our front office compared to front offices around the league is one of the more judicious and well run front offices in football in my opinion. Sure, we’ve swung, missed, hit, and been beaned by the ball that is personnel management, but the intent has been clear.
It’s partly why I don’t even care for offseason free agency “grading”, as anybody who’s observed the process knows the market is hardly ever closed and players are made available in waves throughout the offseason. All the way to and even after the league makes it’s final roster cuts.
Guys discount what it’s taken to rebuild our OL since 2022. Before Jensen even got hurt we were scrambling for potential replacements for Ali Marpet AND Alex Cappa in ‘2022.
Since the 2021 draft, we’ve spent a top-100 pick on an OLMen in 4 of our last 5 drafts. That’s “rebuilding” behavior, but it doesn’t get seen as such by this fan base, because it takes away some of the ammo blasting Licht for what he hasn’t done. Nobody will give him his props about the value put into OL, but they’ll talk about missing on an edge rusher 8 years ago.
I’ll give you swinging and missing on JTS, but we weren’t super needy at the position with JPP and Shaq in the building at the time. The only other edge rushers he’s taken since, is Yaya and we’ve gotten more value out of him being picked much lower than the guy we selected hungover from an SB victory.
I think team building is a practice, that as fans we don’t really appreciate until it pays dividends on the field, but I’d urge fellow fans to chill tf out and learn how the process works because it’s kind of enjoyable in a puzzle on the floor and pieces all over the place-type of way. Seeing moves get made, relative to what we as outsiders know the team needs is as close to being on “behind the curtain” some of us get.
March 18th, 2026 at 9:48 am
“I think most people posting their FA grades just look at names and not production. Mike Evans is a HUGE name, not as big a loss football wise as people are making it out to be.”
Agreed, and think this is just a big part of the superficial side of sports reporting. Literally the plot of a classic Eddie Murphy movie “Distinguished Gentlemen” finding his way to congress campaigning on “The name you know, the name you trust”. Great movie btw
March 18th, 2026 at 9:57 am
Jauan Jennings – Still there for the Fake Ring Of Honor GM to make the deal.
Mike Evans (Tampa Bay Buccaneers/SF 49ers – 2026)
Height: 6’5″
Weight: 231 lbs
Age: 32
Profile: A 13-year veteran known for his elite size, red-zone dominance, and consistent ability to win on contested catches.
Games Played in 2025: 7.5
Touchdowns 2025: 3
Jauan Jennings (San Francisco 49ers – 2026)
Height: 6’3″
Weight: 212 lbs
Age: 28
Profile: A physical receiver often used in third-down situations, valued for his toughness, blocking ability, and intermediate route running.
Games Played in 2025: 15
Touchdowns 2025: 9
Make this signing and people will be saying Mike Who in 2026
March 18th, 2026 at 10:15 am
Certainly one of the most well fed front offices. Otherwise a fraudulent sham.
Todd might not win another game.
March 18th, 2026 at 10:24 am
They need to bounce back because it really does seem like the team has given up on him. The first couple of games next year will probably show if they really have.
March 18th, 2026 at 10:25 am
This Joe is wrong. The Bucs still have one of the best offensive lines in the league, a top 10 quarterback, and some of the top skill position players in the NFL. Add a bunch of defensive players in the draft and we start winning right away.
Injuries derailed us last year.