A Fresh 10-Win Prediction For The Buccaneers
June 14th, 2026
Ex-Buc weighs in.
A guy who spent early morning after early morning picking Todd Bowles’ brain a few years ago has firm thoughts on the 2026 Buccaneers.
And they are in line with most Tampa Bay fans.
That’s right. A cool 70 percent of fans participating in Joe’s recent flash poll believe the Bucs will finish this season with a winning record. And most of those are calling for 10, 11 or 12 wins.
Yes, it’s easy to find Bucs fans with a losing mentality, but it’s much easier to find optimism.
Former Bucs defensive back (2022) Logan Ryan is now an NFL analyst for CBS. The two-time Super Bowl champ was a very cerebral player and was an eager student of the Bowles defense. Ryan sat with Bowles for long film sessions and admitted to being worn out by Bowles’ choice of music. Joe suspects the Four Tops at 6:15 a.m. might fatigue a young man.
Last week, Ryan went through a long exercise for CBS Sports HQ breaking down the Bucs schedule.
Ryan went game-by-game and landed on a 10-6 record. However, the road he laid out was rocky, and Joe wonders how the Bucs would handle the rough start Ryan puts them on.
Ryan sees an opening day loss at Cincinnati, followed by home wins against Cleveland and Minnesota. But then Ryan has the Bucs losing at home to Green Bay and falling four days later at Dallas on Thursday Night Football.
That’s a 2-3 start with 10 days off until a home game against the Steelers. If that nightmare scenario happens, Joe could smell Bucs fans turning on Todd Bowles with a resounding fury leading up to that Steelers game.
It’ll take a mentally tough Bucs team to overcome that, especially at The Licht House before at least 25,000 rabid Steelers fans.
Ryan likes the Bucs’ offseason upgrades, but he also is skeptical of losing the in-game leadership of Mike Evans and Lavonte David. There are countless times when the Bucs relied on Evans for a big catch or David to make a big play to seal a game (see interception at Seattle last year), Ryan said. That must be replaced.
Ryan, who lives in Tampa full-tme and pays close attention to the Bucs, made a great point about Bucs fans being “tired” of their tea being a weak-division champ. He said Bucs fans want and expect at least a division title and a playoff win.
June 14th, 2026 at 3:24 pm
the season will start 2-4 and then implode after the bye – book it
June 14th, 2026 at 3:25 pm
11 wins i say they sweep the Ohio games Burrows defense ain’t all that and Garrett not being in Cleveland
June 14th, 2026 at 3:29 pm
Gainwell and bucky will keep the ball out of burrows hands
June 14th, 2026 at 3:38 pm
[Relax. There could be dozens of reasons this is happening. Usually it’s that the commenter is using a different IP address (cell phone). You are not banned. — Joe]
June 14th, 2026 at 4:01 pm
I’ll stick with Bucs win 7 until they actually accomplish that much…
June 14th, 2026 at 4:28 pm
If you could tell me right now there will be no major injuries I think they could be 8-1 at the bye. They’re playing a second place schedule for a change so that’s nice. Of course they still get the Rams and Detroit….maybe we challenge/beat them this year.
June 14th, 2026 at 4:44 pm
Logan Ryan isn’t real cerebral if he’s projecting a 10-6 season. Last time I checked the season has 17 games.
June 14th, 2026 at 5:09 pm
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Stpetematt has hit the sauce hard today!!!!
10 wins will never happen. 10 losses is way more likely.
Bowles knows losing.
June 14th, 2026 at 5:11 pm
Look. No one expected the overwhelming number of injuries last year. No one expected players to quit.
Fans were promised that Braswell and SVD were going to thrive.
No one knew Lavonte David would be hurt and look old. Try at Evans’ conditioning was so shaky.
The feckless Special Teams were an unpleasant surprise.
But EVERYONE knew Bowles would have at least a 3 game losing streak at some point.
And that will also happen this season.
So maybe Logan Ryan is more plugged in than me.
But I ain’t buying what he is pitching.
And if Baker does not get a new contract, that is clear evidence that the Flazers also expect another embarrassing season.
June 14th, 2026 at 5:16 pm
I have eight wins for Bucs and three tossups leaning loss.
June 14th, 2026 at 5:35 pm
@LynchMob50 – Stpetematt is a junior at Gibbs High in St Pete so although he is 19 years old in the 11th grade he is still not legal for alcohol – he is very excited about the 2026 season and he keeps pestering his mom to drive him to a game so he can finally see one live – you must forgive him his youthful exuberance and naïveté
June 14th, 2026 at 6:09 pm
If you take feelings and emotions out of it (most men do) then 10-7 is certainly attainable. I’m neutral on Bowles don’t love or hate him! My main concern regarding last season is his ability to motivate grown men. Ask Gruden! No easy task, but in order to be successful in the NFL it is an absolute must. A healthy Bucs team can compete with anyone when properly motivated.
June 14th, 2026 at 6:12 pm
It says absolutely NOTHING. Other than, that you have A BUNCH of empty casual fans, who really don’t know FOOTBALL, or how these things work. It’s just exactly like these empty morons commenting on ‘politics’ when they don’t even know all of the issues, or ANY of the FACTS. They make empty comments from false ‘narratives’ that are just SLOGANS. They only read the Headlines, & NONE of the actual substance or context. These people rarely follow ANY of the other NFL teams, College Football, or anything else, for that matter. They just BLIDLY comment, as if they have Tourette’s or something. It’s ALL EMPTY. You can ask them the ‘SIMPLEST’ questions, and they won’t know it. It’s the exact same thing with politics. They don’t know even the most BASIC STUFF. So, that BIG 70% is either exactly this, or just straight up homerism. In Logan Ryan’s case, it is having such a close personal relationship with Todd Bowles, and several of the current Bucs Players.
June 14th, 2026 at 6:23 pm
10 wins just means more mediocrity from Licht and Bowels, Yawn.
June 14th, 2026 at 6:30 pm
It’s soooo frustrating. You can change every other word, and STILL not find it to get to post. I believe we have now reached the point, where someone is going to have to post a complete list of banned words. Otherwise, people will just stop posting all together. It’s obviously become a very big problem. Makes no sense. I’m not going to hold my breath on this one making it through, either.
June 14th, 2026 at 6:31 pm
Light bobble,save your breath you do t have to apologize for a true fan in step.. wynchmob has issues, his mama dropped him on his head There’s a lot of optimism for this years team its hard not to look forward to it.Go Bucs!
June 14th, 2026 at 6:35 pm
I’d be surprised if they win 10. I was thinking they’d be in that 8 or 9 win range again.
June 14th, 2026 at 6:59 pm
My post has disappeared over and over again…
June 14th, 2026 at 7:28 pm
14 win ceiling – 10 win floor
Book it
Go bucs
June 14th, 2026 at 7:40 pm
I would love to see the Bucs win 10,11, 12 games next season. However. I just don’t see it. I think 10 wins and up is fantasy!!. However when they don’t win 10 games I am not going to get frustrated with the team because it isn’t realistic today. Remember all we have now is last year to go oni and last year they were well awful. Yes they have some new players, and a new coordinator . They also have players returning to prominent roles in the secondary, who last year could not cover Ira much less receivers on Cinn, Dallas Greenbay and others. How are they now suppose to be something they were not last year
I agree this year I see the team starting very slow due to all the new players who need to develop. I see depth at LB and CB as a huge issue.
I do think you will see the rookies mature and really begin to show themselves in the last half of the season. I think the offense has a chance to be really good if they can stay healthy for once. Hopefully the new strength and conditioning coach makes a difference as injuries have been an issue for a few years.
With all that said 9 wins would be an improvement and good start for this team.
In my opinion 10 wins and up is wishful thing. Sure wish for it, just don’t expect it
June 14th, 2026 at 7:50 pm
I’m worried about the secondary and I hate the TE’s.
June 14th, 2026 at 8:07 pm
I would be willing to bet a substantial sum that the Bowles/Baker haters going into 2023 were expecting a much worse outcome for the Bucs at that time than they do even now going into this season. It would be interesting to see some of those posts retroactively. I bet they were howling about what they believed would be the impending disaster with Baker Mayfield at the helm. Now we’re hearing expectations of 6-8 wins. I bet then they were projecting 3-5 wins with a total rebuild in the immediate future.
June 14th, 2026 at 8:17 pm
I think that the Bucks will win 11 or 12 games. Maybe more. And this is what I based this on. First, I think that despite Todd bowls in aptitude, we’ll have a much improve defense maybe even dominant.
Last year, Zach Robinson ran a very proficient offense with the limited amount of talent. The Falcons had on that side of the ball. With our weapons, I think we have the potential to have a very good offense and score 28 to 30 points per game with improved defense and a vastly improved special teams. I think we will be a very good team.
June 14th, 2026 at 8:40 pm
Yeah right with that sorry ass qb not even in madden
June 14th, 2026 at 8:50 pm
Think if the O line can stay healthy, special teams performs, and the Bucs get some semblance of an edge rush, 10 games is possible. However, they probably will not go deep in the playoffs with Bowles as HC.
June 14th, 2026 at 9:19 pm
“Ryan went game-by-game and landed on a 10-6 record.” That’s mathematical impossible in a 17 game season. Hey Joe, maybe it’s time to let ChatGPT line edit your columns to catch these type of mistakes you’ve constantly made for years. No excuses for sloppiness in the AI age.
June 14th, 2026 at 10:05 pm
In football there are so many ways to win and or lose a game . The refs , the coaches , the lucky bounce or tip & sometimes the backups . Starters if not injured on a contender should get you 7 wins at a minimum. Backups need to win you one or 2 . Coaching should win you 2 or 3 + 1 or 2 will more than likely at you 1 or 2 . With all the starters we have that can play , I see 7 wins . Might have a backup or 2 that gets us another so that’s 8 . I can see a game coming down to the refs for and against us so I can see 1 goes our way so that’s 9 . I do NOT see the coach winning us any games but possibly a lucky bounce . 10 wins ladies and gentlemen . However , that’s the ceiling . What I want to see is if they do get a playoff spot , are they going to be contenders or pretenders like they have been !
June 14th, 2026 at 10:08 pm
OK Joe, I surrender.
“Yes, it’s easy to find Bucs fans with a losing mentality”
We win 11
June 14th, 2026 at 11:01 pm
If it’s Bowles coaching the team, 10 wins is a hopeful, cumulative total over the next three seasons. And, as Warren Sapp famously said, Tampa Bay has some of the dumbest fans in all of sports,