Neutral Bucs
March 17th, 2026
Return key to improvement?
Joe doesn’t know how anyone can objectively look at the Bucs roster before legal tampering began and after a week of free agency claim the team improved.
The Bucs lost a Hall of Fame receiver and their best corner. No team gets better doing that short of signing Tom Brady in free agency.
Re-signing Cade Otton is neither a step forward nor a step back. Signing Kenneth Gainwell was a nice addition, but let’s be real: He’s not entering training camp as a starter. Alex Anzalone is certainly an upgrade from SirVocea Dennis, yes.
Edge rusher Al-Quadin Muhammad could be a home run or could be a strikeout. Even though he had 11 sacks last year, he didn’t start. That is both fantastic and frightening. Why couldn’t he start? His previous season-high for sacks is six, so the jury is still out if Muhammad is a major impact player or a top-end Chris Braswell.
A’shawn Robinson replaces Logan Hall. Maybe the Bucs improved there but that’s a definite maybe.
Does that seem like the Bucs got better to you? Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic thinks, at worst, the Bucs stayed the same and maybe got slightly better.
Tampa Bay has always been good at re-signing its own talent, and did so by extending tight end Cade Otton. It’s an unsexy move, but new offensive coordinator Zac Robinson probably sees a block-and-catch role for Otton similar to Tyler Higbee’s in L.A. Another signing I’m higher on than some is the two-year, $14 million deal for running back Kenny Gainwell, who is fantastic after the catch and should be a nice complement to Bucky Irving as a runner.
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.
Rodrigue is basing the Bucs’ alleged improvement last week indirectly on Tyler Higbee? No offense to the East Lake High School grad (Bob Hudson’s a cool guy, really) but when was Higbee a game-changer? He’s not Cooper Kupp in his prime and he sure isn’t Puka Nacua and he’s certainly not Davante Adams. Nice player, but one should aspire to greater heights for a tight end than Higbee.
Joe cannot say any Bucs free agent signees were awful. But losing a Hall of Fame receiver and your best corner very much is awful and could torpedo the 2026 season. And no matter how you slice that, it’s not good.
March 17th, 2026 at 4:19 am
Addition through subtraction, both injured ALL the time, guys that care about special teams CARE about football, we are better and the Draft hasn’t even hit yet.
March 17th, 2026 at 4:41 am
There are three types of organizations in the NFL …
Those that go all in every year and are mostly successful. The Rams come to mind.
Those that go all in and make one bad decision after another. The Jets come to mind.
And those who mostly stand still and attempt to build through the draft. The Bucs come to mind.
The first group has very good years, and some bad ones too. But they’re a fun ride because they are willing to take chances.
The next group, usually led by bad ownership, just doesn’t get it. They make moves for moves sake, and never seem to get it right.
The last group seems content to be .500. They’ll sign a free agent here and there, but are always shopping for them at the Dollar Store.The Bucs broke Licht tradition for a couple of years and it won them a Super Bowl.
It may have put them in cap hell, but wasn’t it worth the ride? Being a Bucs fan was fun!
Flash forward to 2026: We now have a Dollar Store coach and many Dollar Store players.
What fun is that?
March 17th, 2026 at 4:57 am
Go back and read the threads as soon as the season was over….
Folks there are only so many draft picks and while they are always enthusiastic and optimistic we need to understand the reality of just what impact a draft class has on a team that was 0-7 going into the last game of the season.
Everyone knows that the team needs defensive HELP… but the offense is not far behind.
The NFL in 2026 is EXPLOSIVE offense, that’s what the league and the rules have designed the games to be.
Until I see differently from Jason and Todd this is a.500 team.
March 17th, 2026 at 5:20 am
Mike wasn’t our best receiver last year Joe, I doubt if he would’ve been this year either.
March 17th, 2026 at 5:22 am
Okay, i just gotta say it. What is the hang up with a pass rush specialist not starting? If you abide with the concept that a player has only so many plays in a season in which they’re effective, then why have a pass rusher in on the first play of a game? All the other questions about Mohammed are valid but starting? Meh.
As far as being neutral from a talent perspective, I’ll take it. How do you measure the motor?
Lastly about ME13, has anyone written about the possibility that Mike knows EE is better than he is now at this moment in time?
March 17th, 2026 at 6:25 am
Perhaps Evans got frustrated, seeing all the new talent the Bucs have at wide receiver and realized the ball is being spread around more and more. Combine that with witnessing an inept defense and maybe he wonders why the Bucs spent a first round pick on someone he has to compete with for catches. Sort of like Rodgers getting fed up with Green Bay drafting Jordon Love instead of a top notch receiver that he desperately wanted.
San Fran really has very little in the way of wide receivers now, so Evans believes he has a better chance of ringing up a couple more thousand yard seasons with the 49ers. The QB is a push, at best, so he clearly didn’t go there for a better QB. As he said, he was just looking for another team that also had a good QB.
March 17th, 2026 at 6:34 am
Why do you keep bringing up Dean. No matter how Dean performed he was going to leave, as it was mutual. You have to assume the Bucs are going to add a DB either through draft, or roster causality from another team, or trade (less likely.)
The special teams were horrid. New coach with a successful past should make that unit better.
Hopefully they add a Guard in the draft.
The downward slide of the team last season had more to do with locker room than talent. If that is not fixed than nothing will help.
March 17th, 2026 at 6:38 am
Our schedule looks ridiculous I see 3 games we will be favored in and every division team got better by most accounts and looking at the way the South teams finished last season we probably shouldn’t be favored in most of those games, the best thing for this team might be to crash and burn and clean house, Licht might survive, but a future with a rested 54yo Tomlin, DC Schwartz and a ready made offense with a solid Oline, WRs n RBs looks promising for a top QB prospect next year
March 17th, 2026 at 6:44 am
I don’t believe we got worse either. I think “neutral” is a good word for it. But we still have the draft. Licht needs the draft of his career for us to have a successful season.
March 17th, 2026 at 6:48 am
Joe … ‘Joe cannot say any Bucs free agent signees were awful. But losing a Hall of Fame receiver and your best corner very much is awful and could torpedo the 2026 season. And no matter how you slice that, it’s not good.’
I think your bottom-line paragraph summarized what’s taken place nicely, but misses what the Bucs have been trying to accomplish Joe.
o Bucs lost a 33-year-old future HOF receiver who’s only played 22 games in the past 2 years. In that time he has 104 catches out of 172 targets (60.5%) for 1372 yds, 14 TDs & 83 first downs. Excellent production in limited games … except that injuries are mounting. 2024 was arguably Mike’s best year (67.3% catch percentage with 11 TDs), while 2025 was arguably his worst year (48.4% catch percentage with 3 TDs).
o Bucs lost a 29-year-old starting outside CB who’s only played in 39 games in the last 3 yrs. I wish we’d been able to keep him, but he accepted a huge pay cut for a reason: to be able to become a UFA. Apparently everyone (except us) knew at the start of last season that Jamel was gonna move on. And reading past comments, it seems the majority of JBFers wanted him to.
Will those 2 personnel losses ‘torpedo the 2026 season’ like you postulated Joe? Maybe, but only if we don’t compensate for those losses. Bucs have 4 WRs, 1 TE & 3 RBs who know how to catch the ball very well. With better play from our OLine, we can be a much more potent offense & rise back into the Top-10. And we all know that the Bucs aren’t finished filling out their CB roster yet.
But there-in lies the point: we’ve only just begun (as the song goes). Bucs got bigger & nastier during free agency, improving largely in the front part of our defense & on S/Ts. Our free agency signings look like they were done to set us up better for the draft. I don’t think those signings were ever meant to be THE solution, but rather a key PART of the solution (including providing some quality leadership). How well we do in the draft will be the real key to the 2026 season IMO.
March 17th, 2026 at 6:50 am
@JA, great take. I feel the same way.
To be objective, I thought of the Steelers in the same way as the Bucs. Budget minded in FA, picking in the middle of the draft so less chance of getting a star.
Making the playoffs, but always losing in the first round.
Yea, I love how the Rams play fast and loose. F them picks, lol.
March 17th, 2026 at 7:01 am
Special teams will be better with a new coach and Kilebrew.
Offense will be better just by having a healthy oline. Evans had what 300 yards last year? I think we will manage without his drops and coming off the field after every catch.
Dean got burnt constantly the young guys from last year will improve Bowles coaches corners very well.
We will get more sacks which makes every defense better.
We build through the draft here and find band aid veterans to patch holes it’s the Buc way we navigated a playoff run with 80 million in dead cap space money with the same coach and the same Qb!
We are fine! Don’t let one Joe suck you in to the sky is falling logical fallacy we are a great organization we are very good at drafting.
We are going be fine!
March 17th, 2026 at 7:07 am
Evans did not want to be here. Better that he’s gone. Hall was a disappointment. So was Dean. Can’t blame Dean for leaving after the contract cram down last year. Heck was a cadaver. White was a malcontent.
None of those guys contributed last year. Not even Evans.
Additional by subtraction.
March 17th, 2026 at 7:09 am
losing a Hall of Fame receiver and your best corner very much is awful and could torpedo the 2026 season.
1) Evans has had a Hall of Fame career- he was not a hall of fame worthy player last year
2) the Bucs addressed their cornerback situation in last couple of drafts – they were not going to spend alot on Dean this year-
best of luck to the 2 SB champions.
Bucs have improved LB and DLine depth , assuming David returns and Kancey can stay healthy.
The RB room has been upgraded
Bucs have improved Special Teams roster
The coaching staff could have been worse last year- I don’t see how.
The draft will add some needed pieces on Oline and Defensive front 7
Crosby and Hendrickson? -how many playoff appearances do they have?
March 17th, 2026 at 7:11 am
Joe, you forgot to mention Bowles. He’s still the HC and that’s certainly not an upgrade either.
March 17th, 2026 at 7:12 am
I don’t get you guys sometimes. AQM is a DPR so why would he play 1st downs I.e. why would he start? He’s the guy that’s gonna come in late in the fourth quarter and lay the QB on floor to protect our slim lead and win us the game. Isn’t that what you’ve been calling for all year?
March 17th, 2026 at 7:26 am
I believe the Bucs improved.
I am not worried about the loss of Evans, Dean and Hall.
We upgraded every position of need except CB. Letting Evans walk allowed us to sign the FAs needed to rebuild the defense.
Look for the Bucs to draft both a CB and another WR in April.
March 17th, 2026 at 7:31 am
Organization sucks, Coach really sucks, GM sucks 4-13 if we lucky
March 17th, 2026 at 7:33 am
“Rodrigue is basing the Bucs’ alleged improvement last week indirectly on Tyler Higbee? No offense to the East Lake High School grad (Bob Hudson’s a cool guy, really) but when was Higbee a game-changer?”
We’re not assembling the Avengers, they’re putting together a football team.
You see the Rams offense, does Higbee need to “change games”? No, we want our TEs to block when we want, and catch passes when we need them to.
Part of Higbees'(and Cades’) value is the consistency he plays with, and it’s one less position to worry about while the OC does the sexy stuff using the other skill positions.
Maybe, temper your expectations and stop expecting an all-star outs of every signee. TE at best, even if we did add a talent like Sadiq, would be 3rd in the skill position pecking order because you use more WRs & RBs than we’re committing 2 TEs in a given personnel package.
March 17th, 2026 at 7:34 am
“We upgraded every position of need except CB. Letting Evans walk allowed us to sign the FAs needed to rebuild the defense.”
No, it did not. We’re literally paying $13M towards the cap for Mikes’ absence
March 17th, 2026 at 7:42 am
“capebuc Says:
March 17th, 2026 at 7:12 am
I don’t get you guys sometimes. AQM is a DPR so why would he play 1st downs I.e. why would he start? He’s the guy that’s gonna come in late in the fourth quarter and lay the QB on floor to protect our slim lead and win us the game. Isn’t that what you’ve been calling for all year?”
He’s a guy who came in situationally to clean up Aiden Hutchison’s sloppy seconds. He was never “the guy”. Last I checked, the Bucs don’t have anyone resembling Hutch to get the offenses attention.
Maybe he can be that guy. But his overall body of work doesn’t say so. I highly doubt he gets more than 5-6 sacks, which is ok. But it still doesn’t solve the edge rush problem by itself. Until he proves otherwise, he’s nothing more than a depth/rotational guy.
March 17th, 2026 at 7:42 am
When was the last time we brought anyone from outside on DEFENSE and spent over 5 million. We made the playoffs every year up to this year. Not many edge rushers out there over 10 sacks been picked up low end of the pile. We have a decent offense need help on defense, Dean was loafing until they woke his ass up. Mike knows he wont get the ball and we needed help in the middle of he defense, they are upgrade. We dont have a high end coach will make decisions on both sides, but we do have a system lets offensive coaches do their own things and failed at that last year.
March 17th, 2026 at 8:02 am
At least the Bucs still have Bowles.
March 17th, 2026 at 8:03 am
Neutral indeed sadly
GO BUCS!!!
March 17th, 2026 at 8:16 am
Dean has been given the title of the Bucs best corner. OK that, for our defense is not saying much. Nine passes defensed last year? 14 games. Somehow held on to three INTs. Not saying he was bad but he did not play up to his contracts and it is not a mystery to me that they let him walk. Mike is not the dude he was and we had to bid for him against the Niners? Nah Money was an issue here. Problem to me is we have Godwin as the only true proven commodity at WR. Nothing against the others. CB is something I think they will address but they better find someone who can outperform all the CBs we have. When is the last time we had a coverage sack?
Go Bucs!
March 17th, 2026 at 8:32 am
Wrong. They got slightly worse. 7 wins if they are lucky.
March 17th, 2026 at 8:32 am
Robinson is an upgrade over Hall, if only in attitude. But I’d also suggest in size, production, and position fit.
March 17th, 2026 at 8:57 am
It’s worst, we still have #6, no improvement!!!