The Bucs will get just enough wins to miss the playoffs and ensure they get mid-round draft picks again. Bowles will get an extension and Licht will continue to overpay for players, ensuring they are stuck in salary cap restrictions going forward.
I don’t know. Feels about like a .500 team that could go up or down either direction. Danny Smith was the best thing that happened over the off-season to me. Everything else feels like a wash. Every team had a draft and signed/released players, musical chairs with coach staffs to gauge anything.
@Joe and The Sage
The people have spoken. The overwhelming majority of the Buccaneers community expects 9–11 wins, with 10 wins leading the vote. That’s optimism backed by numbers. Meanwhile, I think the “6 wins or less” crowd could all fit in one golf cart… and the “I don’t know” voters might still be looking for the parking lot. 😂
The doom-and-gloom trolls are loud, but they’re clearly the minority. The rest of us see a team with a new offensive direction, young talent, and legitimate reasons to believe. Training camp can’t get here soon enough.
I believe Licht hit a home run in the off-season with the players he added via the draft and free agency. That said, it will take some time for these players to develop chemistry when playing together. And it will take some time for these rookies to develop. Hurst can develop into a Pro Bowl player given his athletic ability, but he’s raw, and it could take 2 or more years for that to happen.
I predicted 10 wins for this season as I was feeling optimistic. 😉
But the final number depends a whole lot on avoiding multiple serious injuries in a position where we lack depth. I’m most concerned about the cornerback position, where injuries are frequent.
I’m feeling 8 wins. That’s as “honest” as I can be. The delusionals are perplexing to me. In what reality has Bozo EVER won 11 games in a season? None. I give him credit for 10, ONCE because he had the foresight to high the man WHO SHOULD HAVE BEEN RUSHED TO THE TAMPA BAY, HEAD COACH POSITION “Liam Coen”
And that’s the ONLY REASON he legitimately sort of got 10 wins in a season. In the jets, he got 10 but it wasn’t his team. He didn’t build it and in fact RAN OFF ALL THE COACHES THERE THAT “WERE” MAKING THEM SPECIAL, and then nose dived into a crash and burn until he was quite literally THROWN OUT!
So…. 8 wins if all goes well for him and if the new OC can save “some” face for his defensive clown show.
Joe – i called into the WDAE show today but then unfortunately phone got cutoff in ira’s response. do you know if there is any recording of the show to listen to?
MadMax Says:
July 3rd, 2026 at 11:45 am
If Todd does Todd stuff again then 6
————————————————————
There are lots of other factors that are just as important as the quality of the HC, including the talent level of the players, the quality of the offensive and special teams coordinators, and the on-field leadership from the players.
Predicting 6 when all of those things have been upgraded is IMO absurd.
Go see a doctor, and hopefully he can help you overcome BDS (Bowles Derangement Syndrome).
Can they be worse? With all of the injuries last year unlikely to be repeated and the loafers on Defense that have been replaced? A top quality Special Teams coach?
I don’t know.
What I do know is history shows Bowles has had at least a 3 game losing streak every season.
I think it depends on who emerges as the leaders on Defense and whether they will hold the others accountable. Like Sapp and Brooks and Lynch and Barber used to do.
Todd has only hit 10 wins twice in his career. 11 wins? Never. Way too much hopium on here. 9-8 sounds about right. What a horrible pick as head coach. Licht and the Glazers absolutely screwed this up. Too much Man U and not enough attention on this side of the pond.
Too much emphasis on the state of the Bucs is being put on Bowles. You can have one of the best head coaches in NFL history and end up being 6-11 on the season. And it happened last season with Andy Reid, the HC of the Chiefs.
And he had one of the best QBs to ever play the game, and they finished 6-11.
There are lots of other ingredients in the recipe that make up a championship team. To ignore the fact that Bowles took over a team that was in salary cap hell is ridiculous. It always takes time to rebuild a team in that situation.
ModHairKen … ‘Can they be worse? With all of the injuries last year unlikely to be repeated and the loafers on Defense that have been replaced?’
I know that Joe incessantly beats the ‘loafers on defense’ drum in his ceaseless efforts to ‘chum the water’, but I frankly think that’s been overdone. I can’t remember anyone complaining about the defense when we started 6-2. Our defense got tagged with allowing 178 pts in that stretch, but 14 of them were because of S/Ts play (blocked FG TD return & blocked punt TD return). Take away those 14 pts & our defense only allowed 20.5 PPG in that 8-game stretch. Not fantastic but not terrible either IMO.
We then had 3 horrendous games after our BYE against the Pats (#2 offense), the Bills (#4 offense) & the Rams (#1 offense). Lost all 3 games & gave up a whopping 106 pts in the process (35.3 PPG average). THAT was beyond abysmal, and yet we STILL had a 6-5 winning record when the bloodshed was over.
Our defense actually finished somewhat strong in the last 6 games, although we as a TEAM were only 2-4 in that stretch. Defense gave up 127 pts in those last 6 games (21.2 PPG average). Our biggest problem in that stretch was that our offense only scored 20 pts or less in 5-out-of-6 of those games.
The beauty of football IMO is that it’s not JUST a TEAM game, but it’s a BIG team game. If you’re talking JUST starters, you’re talking 25 players. But add in key rotational players plus subs (for injured players, etc) and each team probably NEEDS someplace close to at least 35-40 talented players on their roster. The remainder can ‘cut their teeth’ (?) on Special Teams or whatever.
All in all, our defense didn’t do as poorly as what some keep griping about EXCEPT for 5 games against the Eagles (31 pts), Seahawks (35 pts), Pats (28 pts), Bills (44), Rams (34). The Eagles offense wasn’t ranked all that highly (#19), but those other 4 teams ALL ranked in the Top-5 offenses last year. Interestingly, in our other 12 games, our defense allowed only 239 pts … ever so slightly LESS than 20 PPG average.
I love good defense, but I’ve never seen a team made up of ‘loafers on defense’ have 2-out-of-3 good ‘spurts’ like our defense did last year. And especially where the ‘bad spurt’ came in the middle of the season. Bucs IMO had some serious ‘structural issues’ in that we were too light, not fast enough, and not nasty enough up-front AND our OLBs were just average at best as a group. I think we’ve done a lot this off-season to rectify those issues, and it’ll be exciting to see how well all these new players/starters gel out on the field.
Saskbucs Says:
Bucsfansince1996… didn’t take the Saints long to match our record and pretty sure they have been mired in a worse cap situation.
There are no more excuses for Todd.
———————————————————————————-
Yeah, they were mired in a worse cap situation and have about 90 million in dead cap money at present. But I don’t know what you mean about not taking long to match our record. They’ve been worse than the Bucs every year for the past five years and have won 6 games or fewer for the past two seasons.
I said that it always takes time to rebuild a team when they’re in salary cap hell, and the Saints are a perfect example of that.
Added to my last post:
I didn’t see any fans complaining when the Bucs won the Super Bowl and brought back almost the entire team the following season, giving them a chance to go back-to-back. I think most fans at the time understood that that came with a cost. We’d have to pay off the credit card in years to come. I saw no one complaining at the time that that was a mistake, but now everyone seems to forget about the consequences that Bowles inherited when he took over as HC.
Gimme what some of what you 9s,10s, and 11s are smoking.
The offense can be top-10, and this defense still makes this a 7 win team max against this schedule. Add the Toad Bowles and his “who the heck is that?” defensive coaching staff, and take away 2-3 winnable games at minimum.
Bucs are winning no more than 8 games because Zac Robinson’s offense is gonna be average at best (There’s 0 evidence to suggest that his offense will replicate the production of Coen’s in 2024, just look up Atlanta’s offense when Robinson was there). The Defense will inevitably have games where they look totally confused and we all know what that looks like. Special Teams should be better, that’s 1 positive at least.
Wouldn’t be surprised at all if we get off to a hot start as usual (2-0 or 3-0), losing starts at the midway point of the season, then we’ll have some false hope, but then lose again to where we finish 7-10 or 8-9 at best. After that, we’ll be looking for a new HC.
A lot of rose-colored glasses in this comment section…
If this Bucs team wins 7 games with that schedule, it will be a shocking season…
If they start off poorly like I am sure of, it will be a rough one!
I think the young players seeing stud players leave so they can win championships speaks loudly to whether they are on a winning team or not….
NOT as long as Bowels is HC will the Bucs EVER win quality Championships!!!
Depends on what Baker gets paid. 150 million guaranteed over 3 years, he might loaf, never scramble again and ride the bench when injured – 7 wins. 34 million this year with 50 million each the next two seasons, if he has a good year – 11 wins.
I vehemently dislike the idea of Todd Bowles as Buccaneers head coach – BUT only five Bucs HCs have won a playoff game in the Bucs 50-year history : McKay – Dungy – Gruden – Arians ……. and Bowles
I like Baker and I think he is a pretty good QB but not great – my Cleveland friends concur – BUT the Bucs have won only 12 playoff games in their 50-year history : Brady had 5 and Johnson had 3 but the only win in the 23 seasons since the first SB win was captained by ….. Baker Mayfield
Bucsfansince1996… Admittedly, I slipped up thinking they were tied with Bucs record when they only had 6 wins
They are still in a worse cap situation than the Bucs, they have an aging D, relying on Jordan, the now departed Demario Davis, etc.
They had a rookie QB.
I guess my point does not stand based on what I said but I still won’t buy cap space as an excuse for Todd. Denver went to the AFC champ game with Russell Wilson still on their books.
July 3rd, 2026 at 9:49 am
The Bucs will get just enough wins to miss the playoffs and ensure they get mid-round draft picks again. Bowles will get an extension and Licht will continue to overpay for players, ensuring they are stuck in salary cap restrictions going forward.
July 3rd, 2026 at 9:51 am
I’m not jinxing it.
July 3rd, 2026 at 9:53 am
I will say that I expect to make the playoffs though.
July 3rd, 2026 at 9:59 am
11wins…NFC Championship game….
GO BUCS!!!!
July 3rd, 2026 at 10:05 am
I am absolutely stuck in mod hades. My posts are eventually approved, but at that point it’s too late to get answers if I’m asking questions.
July 3rd, 2026 at 10:06 am
5-12. I dont trust the coaching or consistent high level play from the players on this roster. Have to see it to believe it.
July 3rd, 2026 at 10:13 am
I voted 12 wins because it’s early in the season and it’s kind of like dreaming that you could win powerball. lol.
July 3rd, 2026 at 10:43 am
🤪😆🤣🤡
July 3rd, 2026 at 10:49 am
Looks like almost 75% of JBFers believe the Bucs will win 9 or more games. HOPEFULLY 9 or 10 wins will be enough to get us into the playoffs.
July 3rd, 2026 at 10:56 am
I don’t know. Feels about like a .500 team that could go up or down either direction. Danny Smith was the best thing that happened over the off-season to me. Everything else feels like a wash. Every team had a draft and signed/released players, musical chairs with coach staffs to gauge anything.
July 3rd, 2026 at 11:07 am
LOL. Hallucinogens are powerful.
July 3rd, 2026 at 11:11 am
@Joe and The Sage
The people have spoken. The overwhelming majority of the Buccaneers community expects 9–11 wins, with 10 wins leading the vote. That’s optimism backed by numbers. Meanwhile, I think the “6 wins or less” crowd could all fit in one golf cart… and the “I don’t know” voters might still be looking for the parking lot. 😂
The doom-and-gloom trolls are loud, but they’re clearly the minority. The rest of us see a team with a new offensive direction, young talent, and legitimate reasons to believe. Training camp can’t get here soon enough.
🔥 LFG!!
💍 ME
🙏 T-R-U-S-T
July 3rd, 2026 at 11:36 am
I believe Licht hit a home run in the off-season with the players he added via the draft and free agency. That said, it will take some time for these players to develop chemistry when playing together. And it will take some time for these rookies to develop. Hurst can develop into a Pro Bowl player given his athletic ability, but he’s raw, and it could take 2 or more years for that to happen.
I predicted 10 wins for this season as I was feeling optimistic. 😉
But the final number depends a whole lot on avoiding multiple serious injuries in a position where we lack depth. I’m most concerned about the cornerback position, where injuries are frequent.
July 3rd, 2026 at 11:40 am
8
July 3rd, 2026 at 11:45 am
If Todd does Todd stuff again then 6
July 3rd, 2026 at 11:46 am
10
July 3rd, 2026 at 12:13 pm
I’m feeling 8 wins. That’s as “honest” as I can be. The delusionals are perplexing to me. In what reality has Bozo EVER won 11 games in a season? None. I give him credit for 10, ONCE because he had the foresight to high the man WHO SHOULD HAVE BEEN RUSHED TO THE TAMPA BAY, HEAD COACH POSITION “Liam Coen”
And that’s the ONLY REASON he legitimately sort of got 10 wins in a season. In the jets, he got 10 but it wasn’t his team. He didn’t build it and in fact RAN OFF ALL THE COACHES THERE THAT “WERE” MAKING THEM SPECIAL, and then nose dived into a crash and burn until he was quite literally THROWN OUT!
So…. 8 wins if all goes well for him and if the new OC can save “some” face for his defensive clown show.
July 3rd, 2026 at 12:23 pm
I’m not expecting much, with the HC/DC being someone that should be unemployed.
July 3rd, 2026 at 12:37 pm
Joe – i called into the WDAE show today but then unfortunately phone got cutoff in ira’s response. do you know if there is any recording of the show to listen to?
July 3rd, 2026 at 12:38 pm
MadMax Says:
July 3rd, 2026 at 11:45 am
If Todd does Todd stuff again then 6
————————————————————
There are lots of other factors that are just as important as the quality of the HC, including the talent level of the players, the quality of the offensive and special teams coordinators, and the on-field leadership from the players.
Predicting 6 when all of those things have been upgraded is IMO absurd.
Go see a doctor, and hopefully he can help you overcome BDS (Bowles Derangement Syndrome).
July 3rd, 2026 at 1:03 pm
I don’t know. Todd is still the head coach.
SMH
But I’m looking forward to a new attitude in the defense and lots of scoring on offense. Special teams also peaks my interest.
July 3rd, 2026 at 2:13 pm
3.28=🤡🤡🤡🤡
July 3rd, 2026 at 2:58 pm
Can they be worse? With all of the injuries last year unlikely to be repeated and the loafers on Defense that have been replaced? A top quality Special Teams coach?
I don’t know.
What I do know is history shows Bowles has had at least a 3 game losing streak every season.
I think it depends on who emerges as the leaders on Defense and whether they will hold the others accountable. Like Sapp and Brooks and Lynch and Barber used to do.
July 3rd, 2026 at 3:19 pm
Todd has only hit 10 wins twice in his career. 11 wins? Never. Way too much hopium on here. 9-8 sounds about right. What a horrible pick as head coach. Licht and the Glazers absolutely screwed this up. Too much Man U and not enough attention on this side of the pond.
-David
July 3rd, 2026 at 3:21 pm
We won’t win a game until after the bye. 0-10 to start the season.
Baker’s $60 mil a year five year contract looks really bad.
Bowles and Licht get extensions and the Glazers love the culture.
4-13. And that is a glass half full perspective.
It might be even worse. 0-17 is not unrealistic.
July 3rd, 2026 at 3:26 pm
A lot of people on drugs in here
July 3rd, 2026 at 3:28 pm
Too much emphasis on the state of the Bucs is being put on Bowles. You can have one of the best head coaches in NFL history and end up being 6-11 on the season. And it happened last season with Andy Reid, the HC of the Chiefs.
And he had one of the best QBs to ever play the game, and they finished 6-11.
There are lots of other ingredients in the recipe that make up a championship team. To ignore the fact that Bowles took over a team that was in salary cap hell is ridiculous. It always takes time to rebuild a team in that situation.
July 3rd, 2026 at 3:31 pm
The Bucs are and have been a 10-12 win roster for the last 3 years.
We have barely touched the floor cause of our HC/DC.
Thats why the predictions are at 9-10 wins again.
Bowles high of 10 wins with a stud OC who immediately goes to another team and wins 13 games is glaring evidence that what I typed is true.
July 3rd, 2026 at 3:33 pm
Bucsfansince1996… didn’t take the Saints long to match our record and pretty sure they have been mired in a worse cap situation.
There are no more excuses for Todd.
July 3rd, 2026 at 3:45 pm
ModHairKen … ‘Can they be worse? With all of the injuries last year unlikely to be repeated and the loafers on Defense that have been replaced?’
I know that Joe incessantly beats the ‘loafers on defense’ drum in his ceaseless efforts to ‘chum the water’, but I frankly think that’s been overdone. I can’t remember anyone complaining about the defense when we started 6-2. Our defense got tagged with allowing 178 pts in that stretch, but 14 of them were because of S/Ts play (blocked FG TD return & blocked punt TD return). Take away those 14 pts & our defense only allowed 20.5 PPG in that 8-game stretch. Not fantastic but not terrible either IMO.
We then had 3 horrendous games after our BYE against the Pats (#2 offense), the Bills (#4 offense) & the Rams (#1 offense). Lost all 3 games & gave up a whopping 106 pts in the process (35.3 PPG average). THAT was beyond abysmal, and yet we STILL had a 6-5 winning record when the bloodshed was over.
Our defense actually finished somewhat strong in the last 6 games, although we as a TEAM were only 2-4 in that stretch. Defense gave up 127 pts in those last 6 games (21.2 PPG average). Our biggest problem in that stretch was that our offense only scored 20 pts or less in 5-out-of-6 of those games.
The beauty of football IMO is that it’s not JUST a TEAM game, but it’s a BIG team game. If you’re talking JUST starters, you’re talking 25 players. But add in key rotational players plus subs (for injured players, etc) and each team probably NEEDS someplace close to at least 35-40 talented players on their roster. The remainder can ‘cut their teeth’ (?) on Special Teams or whatever.
All in all, our defense didn’t do as poorly as what some keep griping about EXCEPT for 5 games against the Eagles (31 pts), Seahawks (35 pts), Pats (28 pts), Bills (44), Rams (34). The Eagles offense wasn’t ranked all that highly (#19), but those other 4 teams ALL ranked in the Top-5 offenses last year. Interestingly, in our other 12 games, our defense allowed only 239 pts … ever so slightly LESS than 20 PPG average.
I love good defense, but I’ve never seen a team made up of ‘loafers on defense’ have 2-out-of-3 good ‘spurts’ like our defense did last year. And especially where the ‘bad spurt’ came in the middle of the season. Bucs IMO had some serious ‘structural issues’ in that we were too light, not fast enough, and not nasty enough up-front AND our OLBs were just average at best as a group. I think we’ve done a lot this off-season to rectify those issues, and it’ll be exciting to see how well all these new players/starters gel out on the field.
July 3rd, 2026 at 3:50 pm
Saskbucs Says:
Bucsfansince1996… didn’t take the Saints long to match our record and pretty sure they have been mired in a worse cap situation.
There are no more excuses for Todd.
———————————————————————————-
Yeah, they were mired in a worse cap situation and have about 90 million in dead cap money at present. But I don’t know what you mean about not taking long to match our record. They’ve been worse than the Bucs every year for the past five years and have won 6 games or fewer for the past two seasons.
I said that it always takes time to rebuild a team when they’re in salary cap hell, and the Saints are a perfect example of that.
July 3rd, 2026 at 3:59 pm
Added to my last post:
I didn’t see any fans complaining when the Bucs won the Super Bowl and brought back almost the entire team the following season, giving them a chance to go back-to-back. I think most fans at the time understood that that came with a cost. We’d have to pay off the credit card in years to come. I saw no one complaining at the time that that was a mistake, but now everyone seems to forget about the consequences that Bowles inherited when he took over as HC.
July 3rd, 2026 at 4:23 pm
Buc96, no need to get all personal for giving your wife a shot of dr. Max’s two ball root juice….thats the only doc that was needed bud.
July 3rd, 2026 at 4:59 pm
Gimme what some of what you 9s,10s, and 11s are smoking.
The offense can be top-10, and this defense still makes this a 7 win team max against this schedule. Add the Toad Bowles and his “who the heck is that?” defensive coaching staff, and take away 2-3 winnable games at minimum.
July 3rd, 2026 at 5:51 pm
Do we play the Jags?
It would be nice to beat them and shutupat least one of the teolls
July 3rd, 2026 at 5:54 pm
11-13 depending on injuries. They’re due for way less than usual, that’s for sure!
July 3rd, 2026 at 5:59 pm
5.
July 3rd, 2026 at 6:13 pm
Bucs are winning no more than 8 games because Zac Robinson’s offense is gonna be average at best (There’s 0 evidence to suggest that his offense will replicate the production of Coen’s in 2024, just look up Atlanta’s offense when Robinson was there). The Defense will inevitably have games where they look totally confused and we all know what that looks like. Special Teams should be better, that’s 1 positive at least.
Wouldn’t be surprised at all if we get off to a hot start as usual (2-0 or 3-0), losing starts at the midway point of the season, then we’ll have some false hope, but then lose again to where we finish 7-10 or 8-9 at best. After that, we’ll be looking for a new HC.
July 3rd, 2026 at 6:32 pm
Buc1987, there is absolutely no way they only win 5 games.
I miss the old you, lol.
July 3rd, 2026 at 6:32 pm
A lot of rose-colored glasses in this comment section…
If this Bucs team wins 7 games with that schedule, it will be a shocking season…
If they start off poorly like I am sure of, it will be a rough one!
I think the young players seeing stud players leave so they can win championships speaks loudly to whether they are on a winning team or not….
NOT as long as Bowels is HC will the Bucs EVER win quality Championships!!!
July 3rd, 2026 at 10:27 pm
Depends on what Baker gets paid. 150 million guaranteed over 3 years, he might loaf, never scramble again and ride the bench when injured – 7 wins. 34 million this year with 50 million each the next two seasons, if he has a good year – 11 wins.
July 4th, 2026 at 10:04 am
74.45 % of JBF pollees are delusional
24 % of JBF pollees are pessimistic
1.55 % of JBF pollees are realistic
July 4th, 2026 at 10:49 am
I vehemently dislike the idea of Todd Bowles as Buccaneers head coach – BUT only five Bucs HCs have won a playoff game in the Bucs 50-year history : McKay – Dungy – Gruden – Arians ……. and Bowles
July 4th, 2026 at 11:01 am
I like Baker and I think he is a pretty good QB but not great – my Cleveland friends concur – BUT the Bucs have won only 12 playoff games in their 50-year history : Brady had 5 and Johnson had 3 but the only win in the 23 seasons since the first SB win was captained by ….. Baker Mayfield
July 4th, 2026 at 12:13 pm
Bucsfansince1996… Admittedly, I slipped up thinking they were tied with Bucs record when they only had 6 wins
They are still in a worse cap situation than the Bucs, they have an aging D, relying on Jordan, the now departed Demario Davis, etc.
They had a rookie QB.
I guess my point does not stand based on what I said but I still won’t buy cap space as an excuse for Todd. Denver went to the AFC champ game with Russell Wilson still on their books.
July 4th, 2026 at 5:28 pm
11