Infusion Of “Life”
June 16th, 2026
The Bucs have been Kings of the Anthill for most of Todd Bowles’ tenure as head coach. Once they played someone outside the division in the postseason, they often got a rude awakening.
Mike Jones, typing for The Athletic, noted the Bucs aren’t just trying to bounce back after their first playoff-less season this decade. They want to be known as something more than the beasts of a landfill division.
Bucs’ bounce-back
Injuries took a heavy toll on the Buccaneers last season. Owners of a 6-2 record at their Week 9 bye, Todd Bowles and his players saw the season slip away as they went 2-7 to finish 8-9 and out of the playoffs for the first time since the 2019 season. The Bucs then experienced an offseason of significant change.Bowles fired both his offensive and special teams coordinators and hired Zac Robinson and Danny Smith to get those units back on track. Tampa Bay also saw long-time star wide receiver Mike Evans depart for the San Francisco 49ers. The Bucs hope the talented Emeka Egbuka can replace Evans as the leading weapon on offense after a promising rookie season. And they’re hoping rookie pass rusher Rueben Bain Jr., inside linebacker Josiah Trotter and defensive back Keionte Scott can help infuse Bowles’ defense with life as the Buccaneers aim to regain their place atop the NFC South.
Joe isn’t very worried about the offense. With the offensive line healthy and the Bucs having good depth at running back, the offense should be OK.
The defense? Joe has a lot of issues with that.
Unless Bowles plays Jacob Parrish at corner, Joe still maintains the Bucs have not yet replaced their best corner from last season, Jamel Dean. How many defenses improve the year after letting their best corner walk?
Add to that Bowles is hoping three rookies, one on each level, can play like veterans. That seeems a stretch. Maybe one or two will, but all three? That would be like hitting the lottery.
It’s a good thing the Bucs play in such a lame division. They can afford to suffer growing pains and not be studying for the draft in November.
June 16th, 2026 at 12:58 am
Hi Joes please fix the comments they aren’t working correctly…
June 16th, 2026 at 2:32 am
Tried to comment on this article Joe and your algorithms refused to let ANY of my comments on that article through regardless of how much I edited them. Even refused to allow a comment of mine through that ONLY included one sentence of YOURS from the article.
That’s been happening more & more lately, and it’s disconcerting. JBF dot com has always been exceptional IMO about allowing a very broad range of comments. That ‘openness’ is what makes JBF special IMO. Please don’t allow that to change. Thanks.
June 16th, 2026 at 3:10 am
@DR, I don’t think it’s the “algorithm” lately. I still get a few “awaiting mod” annoyances, but lately I been getting a lot more instances where the post simply disappears. I don’t know how old this software is but I definitely don’t think it handles smart phones very well and I’m really good at figuring out quirky software and hardware. When this gets in a snit there’s no getting on certain days.
June 16th, 2026 at 4:38 am
I’m getting booted to older articles after I read a new one. Like the previous days page using android.
June 16th, 2026 at 4:55 am
Bowles looks like he needs an infusion of life.
June 16th, 2026 at 5:24 am
My user name is there for a reason.
June 16th, 2026 at 5:59 am
Last year we relied heavily upon 3 rookies and all three of them played well beyond their expectations. Although it is said that EE faded in the second half of the season, he still got 938 receiving yards, which is great for rookie. Ted Johnson stepped up in a big way, and Jacob Paris sometimes seem like the best player on defense so, I don’t have any problem relying on three rookies.
If there’s a competition at quarterback, it will be won by Parish. Morrison is too injured and Scott will probably play the nickel if our rookies play as good as our rookie‘s played last year, we will be in good shape
June 16th, 2026 at 6:46 am
8-9 at best.
June 16th, 2026 at 7:55 am
It’s Tez Johson but I’m hoping Ted plays an even bigger role.
I think the upgrade on specials teams with a new coach, some new specialists and maybe a new returner in Gainwell will get us an additional win or two.
ST lost us that Iggles game. Made the Jets and Carolina game much tighter than needed to be.
June 16th, 2026 at 8:02 am
Fred McNeil … ‘lately I been getting a lot more instances where the post simply disappears. I don’t know how old this software is but I definitely don’t think it handles smart phones very well.’
All of my comments Fred are done on the latest Mac hardware & software (I virtually never use my iPhone or iPad for writing anything unless it’s a 1-word response to a text or whatever). Many of my comments lately ‘simply disappear’ like yours do, but I could always figure out a workaround (by ‘chopping it up’ into 2 or 3 inputs), until this morning. And then nothing worked. Rather bizarre.
June 16th, 2026 at 8:03 am
‘Joe isn’t very worried about the offense. The defense? Joe has a lot of issues with that.’
I’m convinced Joe that BOTH the offense AND the defense have the potential to become Top-10 units. Unfortunately, I’m just as convinced that they have the potential to become Bottom-10 units.
Our last game last season against the Panthers (16-14 win) still bothers me. Our offense started off hot by scoring a TD midway through the first qtr. It then turned ice-cold by scoring 3 FGs the rest of the way, and struggled mightily to score a meager 16 points total. Our mighty (?) offense committed 1 turnover late in the first qtr (an INT that gave the Panthers the ball at the Tampa 19 yd line … and led to their first TD), but our defense recovered & forced THREE turnovers (which led to a FG, then a punt & finally an end-of-game fumble). BTW, that INT was made by one of our new Bucs … Christian Rozeboom … who had a great game IMO.
Our defense rose to the occasion in that game & produced the win. Our offense dominated the stats (we won the TOP 37:25 to 22:35 and did it by rushing 42 times against 24 pass plays). However, our rushing attack was quite ineffective (3.3 YPC average), with Bucky getting the lion’s share of the carries (26 runs for 85 yds … 3.3 YPC).
Bucky showed me VERY LITTLE in the 6 games he played at the end of last season after returning from his injuries. He got the lion’s share of the carries in all of those games (102 carries), and produced 351 yds (3.4 YPC) & 2 TDs. That didn’t scream ‘Bell Cow’ to me. Of course, the fact that Bucky had surgery in late Feb or early Mar for a ‘nagging shoulder injury’ MIGHT have contributed to that level of performance, but then again that begs the question ‘If so, what was he doing in the game in the first place?’
June 16th, 2026 at 8:03 am
‘Joe isn’t very worried about the offense. The defense? Joe has a lot of issues with that.’
June 16th, 2026 at 8:14 am
Hey Joe, just moderate munch
June 16th, 2026 at 8:21 am
DR
This has been happening to me as well, and more so over the past week. Im guessing something is up with their software but who knows. Its definitely annoying.
June 16th, 2026 at 8:21 am
“They want to be known as something more than the beasts of a landfill division.”
They are. They are known as: Bored. Lazy. Unable to tackle. 3rd & 28. 4th & 15. 2-7.
What a joke.
June 16th, 2026 at 8:40 am
I think it is clear…the game has passed the Guru by.
June 16th, 2026 at 8:49 am
Everyone can see it. Even Toad Bowels knows it to be true.
He’s been a failure his entire coaching career. Nothing new to see here.
Only when reigned in by an offensive minded HC did he win anything.
Every year he is the HC\DC is a complete waste of time.
Wake up Glazer kids!!!!
June 16th, 2026 at 9:18 am
Poor Floormutt needs a blanky and a binky. Meanwhile, what Lynch50 said.
June 16th, 2026 at 9:30 am
Mike Jones … ‘Owners of a 6-2 record at their Week 9 bye, Todd Bowles and his players saw the season slip away as they went 2-7 to finish 8-9 and out of the playoffs for the first time since the 2019 season.’
Nice 2025 recap, but IMO it doesn’t tell the real story of what went on. Bucs were very lucky to go 6-2 in the first 8 games (it required FOUR 4th qtr comebacks in basically the last minute of those games). Then after the BYE, we played 3 games in succession against the Patriots, Bills & Rams, teams with a combined 38-13 record last year. More importantly though, they had the #2, #4 & #1 offenses … and they chewed through our defense; we gave up 106 pts in those 3 games (over 35 PPG average). And THAT’s why they’re top offenses. Bucs never really recovered from those arse-whoopins (particularly the Rams’ game).
Yes we had a lot of guys hurt, but more realistically Bucs didn’t have the TALENT to be a top-tier TEAM. We had some decent starters in most positions, but our DEPTH stunk. And I suspect THAT’s where we’ve made some of our most significant improvements this off-season. Only time will tell though.
June 16th, 2026 at 10:32 am
Fred & Bee … My post above (at 8:03 AM) was the one that kept ‘disappearing’ as soon as I’d hit Submit Comment. It apparently went into the ‘coffers’ but I got no indication of being in ‘Moderation’ or whatever; It just flat disappeared. First time today though that one of those actually reappeared. Very interesting.
June 16th, 2026 at 11:07 am
How much longer will this be a lame division? The transition should begin this season.
June 16th, 2026 at 1:19 pm
With the additions to the Dline that will help out the secondary.
June 16th, 2026 at 3:13 pm
“Joe isn’t very worried about the offense. With the offensive line healthy and the Bucs having good depth at running back, the offense should be OK.”
I believe Joe said some very similar last year. 🤔