{"id":816682,"date":"2026-03-17T08:40:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T08:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/816682\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T08:40:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T08:40:19","slug":"neutral-bucs-joebucsfan-com-tampa-bay-bucs-blog-buccaneers-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/816682\/","title":{"rendered":"Neutral Bucs – JoeBucsFan.com – Tampa Bay Bucs Blog, Buccaneers News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Return key to improvement?<\/p>\n

Joe doesn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Re-signing Cade Otton is neither a step forward nor a step back. Signing Kenneth Gainwell was a nice addition, but let\u2019s be real: He\u2019s not entering training camp as a starter. Alex Anzalone is certainly an upgrade from SirVocea Dennis, yes.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t start. That is both fantastic and frightening. Why couldn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

A\u2019shawn Robinson replaces Logan Hall. Mabye the Bucs improved there but that\u2019s a definite maybe.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay has always been good at re-signing its own talent, and did so by extending tight end Cade Otton. It\u2019s an unsexy move, but new offensive coordinator Zac Robinson probably sees a block-and-catch role for Otton similar to Tyler Higbee\u2019s in L.A. Another signing I\u2019m 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.<\/p>\n

The Bucs\u2019 slide through the second half of last season was a bit shocking. But it\u2019s hard to bet on multiple down years for one of the more fundamentally sound front offices in the NFL.<\/p>\n

Rodrigue is basing the Bucs\u2019 alleged improvement last week indirectly on Tyler Higbee? No offense to the East Lake High School grad (Bob Hudson\u2019s a cool guy, really) but when was Higbee a game-changer? He\u2019s not Cooper Kupp in his prime and he sure isn\u2019t Puka Nacua and he\u2019s certainly not Davante Adams. Nice player, but one should aspire to greater heights for a tight end than Higbee.<\/p>\n

Joe cannot say any Bucs free agent signees were awful. But losing a Hall of Fame receiver and your best corner very much is and could torpedo the 2026 season. And no matter how you slice that, it\u2019s not good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Return key to improvement? Joe doesn\u2019t know how anyone can objectively look at the Bucs roster before legal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221643,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2077],"tags":[211,2599,2598,7,6,704,250,2597,2596],"class_list":{"0":"post-816682","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","8":"tag-buccaneers","9":"tag-bucs-message-boards","10":"tag-bucs-news","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-tampa-bay","14":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","15":"tag-tampabay","16":"tag-tampabaybuccaneers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116243623754832988","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816682","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=816682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}