Least Questions = Division Title
June 23rd, 2026
Landfill talk!
Joe’s referring to the NFC South.
In classic NFC South fashion, the Panthers won the division with a losing record last season after losing to the Bucs in the season finale. That left most Bucs fans cheering for the Saints later that day to beat the Falcons. If that had happened, the Bucs would have been crowned division champs.
It didn’t happen.
New Orleans lost to Atlanta, which finished 8-9 and tied with Tampa Bay and Carolina. The Panthers backed into the playoffs.
Can you say, “loserville?”
Joe is glad someone else recognized how sad the Panthers defense was.
Carolina ran out and signed accomplished studs, edge rusher Jaelen Phillips and inside linebacker Devin Lloyd in free agency, but CBS NFL gurus John Breech and Emory Hunt don’t think that’ll be enough for Carolina to fix its defense — and to overtake Tampa Bay in 2026.
Breech and Hunt picked the Bucs to win the NFC South last week on CBS Sports HQ. Hunt laid out how he believes the Bucs have the fewest question marks of any division team. He’s especially high on the addition of running back Kenneth Gainwell, and he noted the Bucs have the best quarterback in the division and the most well-balanced roster.
Interesting that Hunt, a friend of Joe and a former college running back, thinks the NFC South will be a landfill no more.
He predicts every team in the division will have a winning record, though it could be a four-way tie at 9-8.
June 23rd, 2026 at 12:54 pm
Loserville = Bowlesville
He’s the perfect HC\DC\OC for this putrid division.
Make no mistake, he was hand picked for a reason.
And it wasn’t due to his record of brilliance as a HC.
Nope, there were other reasons…..
June 23rd, 2026 at 12:54 pm
The Bucs will be better than 9-8 especially if they can largely avoid the injury bug.
June 23rd, 2026 at 12:56 pm
Probably because he was the defensive coordinator for a team that just won the Super Bowl. Guys like that typically have no problems finding a job.
June 23rd, 2026 at 1:00 pm
Will the Bucs a few extra games if Todd Bowles doesn’t have Kirk Cousins as his starting Fantasy Football QB this year? MAYBE if the defensive players can COACH THEMSELVES, like Bowles said is his dream, the defense will be better.
June 23rd, 2026 at 1:01 pm
*Win a few extra games
June 23rd, 2026 at 1:20 pm
Phillips is a stud with 5 sacks. Yaya gets 7 and he is a bum..lol
June 23rd, 2026 at 2:27 pm
Worrying about winning a LANDFILL of a division = Insanity
June 23rd, 2026 at 2:47 pm
Win the division first, landfill or not and you get the right to go to the playoffs, pretty easy math. Patriots hated winning that lousy division for years I’m sure, BUT they did win a bunch of SB’s it has to start somewhere and winning your division is it.
June 23rd, 2026 at 2:50 pm
“Patriots hated winning that lousy division for years I’m sure, BUT they did win a bunch of SB’s it has to start somewhere and winning your division is it.”
It’s funny to me that people will try to slight winning the division while it’s probably the weakest it’s been since it’s formation, but I didn’t hear the Falcons/Panther/Saints complaining about having to play us twice a year during the decade of depression
June 23rd, 2026 at 3:11 pm
Gainwell is going to go Bijan, Bucky just a change of pace back when Kenneth need a drink of gatorade
June 23rd, 2026 at 3:20 pm
First things first. Getting harder as the other bums get better and improve.
June 23rd, 2026 at 4:12 pm
No team wants to dominate this putrid division and win it. Most likely the team with the least key injuries will take it.
Aaron Schatz wrote an article “Adjusted Games Lost 2025: No Team Suffered Like the Cardinals” that shows how banged up the Buc were last year (but also look how well the 49ers did with their injuries).
Schatz wrote another article “2025 AGL Totals by Position, from Lions Defensive Backs to 49ers Edge Rushers” to show injuries by position. The Bucs OL was the third most injured in the NFL after the Cardinals and Panthers.
The Bucs biggest offseason move might be promoting Chad Wade to lead S&C coach. Can Chad Wade help give the Bucs an edge in health?
June 23rd, 2026 at 4:15 pm
Honestly, I’m sorry for the players being injured last year…but I’m glad the season went poorly.
It forced Bowles and Licht to focus on the defense and depth.
This year is going to rock. We’ll stomp the division and more.
June 23rd, 2026 at 4:15 pm
Yikes. The moderation bug is back 🙁
June 23rd, 2026 at 4:16 pm
Test
June 23rd, 2026 at 5:17 pm
Stpetematt Says:
“Guys like that typically have no problems finding a job.”
Please name one team, just one, that was clamoring for Toad Bowels to be their HC????
Anyone, anyone, Bueller, Bueller?????
June 23rd, 2026 at 6:10 pm
Lucky for you wynch!there wasn’t one! Lol! Do everyone a favor and skip over to the Jets ,Browns they can use a professional crybaby…
June 23rd, 2026 at 6:14 pm
Killer BEES ! Baker, Bain, Bucky and Bowles = Championships..Go Bucs!
June 23rd, 2026 at 7:32 pm
Stpetematt… Bowles D allowed 23 pts to a Taylor Heineke led Wash offense. 5 pt game in the last 5 mins.
Then his D got a couple timely turnovers vs GB otherwise they were on the comeback trail, admittedly the offense has some responsibility in almost blowing that one.
Then the Saints were marching towards a comeback win until another timely TO ruined them.
And the chiefs didn’t have an OL.
In short, as soon as the offense stops carrying the team, the team loses cause Bowles D gives it up regularly! Without turnover luck the Bucs might only have 1 SB. All those studs on D and Bowles could barely keep it together for that run. Completely overwhelmed KC but that has more to do with the player mismatches up front than anything Todd did.
Let’s not fool ourselves!
June 23rd, 2026 at 7:43 pm
In fact, Bowles D that SB year was gonna be good for another .500 season until Tom got everyone up to speed on offense and they took over winning 8 straight.
Bowles deserves basically no credit for the success that year. It’s just more evidence that the guy needs studs all over the D to have any success.
June 23rd, 2026 at 8:14 pm
Lindy’s just came out, has us finishing 3rd in our division.
June 23rd, 2026 at 8:21 pm
Joe is glad someone else recognized how sad the Panthers defense was.
———
Baker’s per game avg vs Carolina last year: 174 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT
That’s a 17 game pace of 2958 yards passing, 17 TDs, 17 INTs
Very Trent Dilfer like.
June 23rd, 2026 at 9:28 pm
Hey Rod, that’s dumb math. But I’ll play along. Last year, in a win against last years Super Bowl Champs, Mayfield was 379 yds, 2-TD’s and 0=INT’s . That’s a 17 game pace of 6443 yds, 34-TD’s and 0-int’s. Not bad. Umm…. Very, well, better than anyone?
June 23rd, 2026 at 9:45 pm
@ Hodad Says: “Lindy’s just came out, has us finishing 3rd in our division.”
I LOVED My Lindy’s. When I was about an 8 year-old little kid, I got my first Lindy’s, and it had Cornelius Bennett on the cover of it in a ‘white’ Alabama helmet, & Derek Thomas is a ‘crimson’ colored helmet, and I remember that blowing my mind. From that point on, I could NOT WAIT for the new annual Preseason SEC/NCAA edition to drop. Could. Not. WAIT. I got every one of them… Street & Smith’s, Athlon Sports, then there was Phil Steele’s, & I had subscriptions to both Sports Illustrated, and my ALL-TIME FAVORITE The Sporting News (when it was a literal newspaper, beginning when I was like 9-10 years old). Seems like there was another one, too!? But, I also was an ‘original’ ESPN The Magazine subscriber since Day-1. And, oh yeah… Also, Playboy & Maxim Magazine. On game days Leonard’s Losers was MY MAN. And, old Cawood Ledford. I’d LOVE to go back, though I knew it was pretty AWESOME then. Before Nintendo, my buddy and I would seriously play TABLE FOOTBALL together, while singing the random team’s we were playing as ‘fight songs’ with the games on the tv going on in the background. Sometimes, we’d have to take it to the backyard and play for real, as we’d imagine ourselves playing as the stars of the day! Hell, I even invented my own College Basketball BOARD GAME. It was pretty fun. I was OBSESSED. I’d hand write-out the brackets and a group of 3 or 4 of us would play 1-on-1 as all the teams in the NCAA Tournament… On an 8ft goal (maybe 7ish LoL) with those AWESOME little ‘mini balls’ that Pizza Hut would come out with during the tournament every year!!!! Those were the days.
June 23rd, 2026 at 9:46 pm
Baker will not get a new contract.
The Glazers are playing hard ball.
And they’ll be proven correct after 2026.
There will be zero playoff victories this coming season.
Even if they walk a$$ backwards into a division title.
June 23rd, 2026 at 9:49 pm
Well, that post started out JUST being about how the Lindy’s preseason SEC/NCAA issue, was my ‘favorite’ one, outta all of them.
June 23rd, 2026 at 10:12 pm
LynchMob50 Says:
June 23rd, 2026 at 9:46 pm
Baker will not get a new contract.
The Glazers are playing hard ball.
And they’ll be proven correct after 2026.
There will be zero playoff victories this coming season.
Even if they walk a$$ backwards into a division title.
************************************
Pretty definitive Lynch (loathe your full handle).
This one is going to go back down hard and sideways.
June 25th, 2026 at 6:52 pm
The Bucs shroud be able too win a weak south ,barring injuries like last year. Glad they changed to another S&C Coach maybe that will help . There was certainly a big problem last season. Sure do wish we had a Defensive Coordinator though cause I am afraid ole Toddsy will change it to the soft team he created last year.. walk thru will keep them healthy. Soft but healthy