{"id":841746,"date":"2026-03-29T22:14:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T22:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/841746\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T22:14:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T22:14:19","slug":"tampa-bay-buccaneers-connected-to-future-hall-of-famer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/841746\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Buccaneers Connected to Future Hall of Famer"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a> missed the playoffs for the first time in five seasons in 2025. Unlike many others, the Buccaneers didn\u2019t feel like a coaching change was necessary, at least not the head coach. Now they\u2019re turning over parts of the roster to help get back to the postseason, but the work is far from done.<\/p>\n

Recently, The Athletic\u2018s Saad Yousuf<\/a> had an idea that could help fix some of Tampa Bay\u2019s problems. His suggestion is for the Buccaneers to sign future Hall of Fame linebacker Bobby Wagner to a contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Bucs recently\u00a0said goodbye to a franchise lifer, as linebacker Lavonte David announced his retirement this week after playing his entire 15-year career in Tampa Bay. The Bucs signed Alex Anzalone in free agency, but they can still do more to bolster the middle of their defense. Tampa Bay drafted David in the second round in 2012 with the No. 58 pick. Eleven picks before that, the Seattle Seahawks selected Wagner, who has turned in a likely Hall of Fame career. He\u2019s not the player he was in his prime, but he\u2019s shown to still have some juice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Athletic on Bobby Wagner\/Buccaneers<\/p>\n

Still unsigned in free agency after spending the past two seasons with the Commanders, Wagner is now 35 years old. Yet, there\u2019s no doubt that the 14-year pro would add value to Tampa Bay\u2019s defense after their old starting middle linebacker, Lavonte David, retired after a memorable 14-year career. <\/p>\n

Wagner, a six-time All-Pro and 10-time Pro Bowler, amazingly still started all 17 games last season. He recorded an impressive 162 tackles, 4.5 sacks, four pass deflections, and two interceptions. <\/p>\n

The Buccaneers may feel they\u2019ve already replaced David after signing Alex Anzalone to a two-year, $17 million contract. Yet, one could argue that the Buccaneers already had a need for another middle linebacker, even before David\u2019s retirement. In effect, Wagner\u2019s addition would complement Anzalone and the rest of the Buccaneers\u2019 defense. <\/p>\n

Related: 2026 NFL Mock Draft: End of March Edition<\/a><\/p>\n

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\t\tDedicated NFL copywriter\/editor. My work has been found on Sportsnaut, Sports Illustrated, Sporting News, MSN, Yahoo, and Minnesota Sports … More about Andrew Buller-Russ<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tampa Bay Buccaneers missed the playoffs for the first time in five seasons in 2025. Unlike many…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":841747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2077],"tags":[211,7,6,704,250,2597,2596],"class_list":{"0":"post-841746","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-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-tampa-bay","12":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","13":"tag-tampabay","14":"tag-tampabaybuccaneers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116314773142791262","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841746","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=841746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/841747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=841746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=841746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=841746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}