{"id":799727,"date":"2026-03-08T04:42:54","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T04:42:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/799727\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T04:42:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T04:42:54","slug":"tampa-bay-buccaneers-2026-offseason-outlook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/799727\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Buccaneers 2026 Offseason Outlook"},"content":{"rendered":"

A funny thing happened to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a> on their way to a fifth-straight NFC South title. Well, it wasn\u2019t all that funny to the Buccaneers or their fans. Tampa Bay went into the 2025 season seeking their fifth straight NFC South title \u2014 and given the landscape of the division, it didn\u2019t seem there would be much opposition.<\/p>\n

Sure enough, the season began as expected. Not only did the Bucs jump out to a fast start, quarterback Baker Mayfield<\/a> was being hyped as a leading MVP candidate.<\/p>\n

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Alas, injuries and inefficiency began to mount. The Bucs fell back to the pack, while the division-rival Carolina Panthers<\/a> and Atlanta Falcons<\/a> both showed improvement. In the end, those teams finished in a three-way tie for first place \u2014\u00a0albeit at 8-9 \u2014 but the Bucs failed to make the playoffs based on tie-breakers.<\/p>\n

On paper, it\u2019s possible the Bucs can go into next season with a team worthy of getting back to the playoffs, but several key players \u2014 some of whom are free agents \u2014 are getting up there in age.<\/p>\n

2025 recap<\/p>\n

Six weeks into the season, Mayfield and the Bucs were legitimately looking like Super Bowl<\/a> contenders. Tampa Bay won back-to-back games against the Seattle Seahawks<\/a> and San Francisco 49ers<\/a> to improve to 5-1. Mayfield had 12 touchdown passes, throwing at least two in five of the six games. With veteran receiver Chris Godwin still rehabbing an injury when the season began, rookie Emeka Egbuka had a chance to emerge \u2014 and he was playing like a rookie of the year candidate.<\/p>\n

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Then came the injuries. Star receiver Mike Evans<\/a> broke his collarbone and missed nine games; running back Bucky Irving missed seven games; Pro Bowl offensive tackle Tristan Wirfs missed five. The Bucs were 6-2 going into their bye week, but they went into freefall after that. Tampa Bay lost seven of its next eight games. And despite beating Carolina in the regular-season finale, it was not enough to save the season.<\/p>\n

Mayfield ended the season having completed 63.2% of his passes for 3,693 yards, 26 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. Egbuka\u2019s pace slowed severely, though he still led the team with 63 receptions for 938 yards and six TDs. Because of the injury, Evans had just 30 catches for 368 yards and three scores \u2014 the first time in his illustrious 12-year career that he didn\u2019t have 1,000 yards.<\/p>\n

Despite featuring productive veteran players at all three levels of defense \u2014\u00a0players like nose tackle Vita Vea, linebacker Lavonte David and safety Antoine Winfield Jr. \u2014 the sum did not add up to the parts. The Bucs finished 19th it total defense and 20th in scoring defense, allowing 27 or more points seven times. The Bucs had brought in edge rusher Haason Reddick to bolster the pass rush; Reddick finished with just 2.5 sacks, the lowest total of his career when starting at least 12 games.<\/p>\n

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Key free agents<\/p>\n

WR Mike Evans
DE Haason Reddick
CB Jamel Dean
LB Lavonte David
RB Rachad White
LB Anthoy Walker Jr.
TE Cade Otten<\/p>\n

Buccaneers salary cap space<\/p>\n

$23,828,710<\/p>\n

2026 draft needs<\/p>\n

A lot of what they do in the draft will depend on what happens with their big-name free agents. Adding a dynamic edge rusher should be the priority regardless. Even if Lavonte David returns, the Bucs should add some youth to the linebacker position. Guard and cornerback are other potential areas of need. If they don\u2019t re-sign free agent Cade Otten, that position needs to be addressed.<\/p>\n

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2026 opponents<\/p>\n

Home:\u00a0Atlanta, Carolina, New Orleans, Cleveland, Green Bay, L.A. Chargers, L.A. Rams, Minnesota, Pittsburgh<\/p>\n

Away:Atlanta, Carolina, New Orleans, Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit<\/p>\n

Related: 2026 Offseason Outlook for All 32 NFL Teams<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: 2026 NFL Mock Draft: Post-Combine 1st-Round Projection<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Mar 4, 2026, where it first appeared in the NFL<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A funny thing happened to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on their way to a fifth-straight NFC South title.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":799728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2077],"tags":[13236,254,1842,184,211,312,2956,260,692,699,227,85,229,146,702,7,41,1823,7343,3221,9195,700,233,896,1591,6,520,252,261,704,250,2597,2596,6603,13221,9752],"class_list":["post-799727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","tag-antoine-winfield-jr","tag-atlanta-falcons","tag-baker-mayfield","tag-baltimore","tag-buccaneers","tag-bucky-irving","tag-bucs","tag-carolina-panthers","tag-chicago","tag-chris-godwin","tag-cincinnati","tag-cleveland","tag-dallas","tag-detroit","tag-emeka-egbuka","tag-football","tag-green-bay","tag-haason-reddick","tag-jamel-dean","tag-l-a-rams","tag-lavonte-david","tag-mike-evans","tag-minnesota","tag-new-orleans","tag-nfc-south","tag-nfl","tag-pittsburgh","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-seattle-seahawks","tag-tampa-bay","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","tag-tampabay","tag-tampabaybuccaneers","tag-the-bucs","tag-tristan-wirfs","tag-vita-vea"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=799727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/799728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}