Baker Mayfield must navigate life without Mike Evans by elevating breakout stars like Emeka Egbuka to reclaim the NFC South and secure Todd Bowles’ coaching future.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers know they have to be better in 2026.
Last season, the Bucs looked like a Super Bowl contender for the first half. They started 6-3, and playing in a weak NFC South, a fifth straight division title looked like the bare minimum. Instead, the Bucs crashed, burned and finished 8-9, somehow not winning a division in which nobody had a winning record.
That collapse made the stakes even higher for this year. If the Bucs don’t win the South in 2026, serious questions will start to arise around coach Todd Bowles and whether he should return in 2027. So what has to happen for Tampa to avoid that?
To answer that, start with the quarterback.
Well, for CBS Sports’ Tyler Sullivan (and probably everybody else), it starts with the quarterback. For Baker Mayfield to be at his best, the Bucs will have to account for the loss of Mike Evans, the greatest receiver in franchise history.
Fortunately for Tampa, Mayfield still has a plethora of options. Tez Johnson is looking to build off a surprising rookie season. Jalen McMillan is looking for a full season to show what he can do, and the Bucs still have Chris Godwin, who is entering Year 10 and now is the elder statesman of the room.
Tampa also added to its wide receiver group by drafting Ted Hurst out of Georgia State in the third round. But the receiver Sullivan specifically mentioned was Emeka Egbuka.
The Bucs’ 2025 first-round pick became the team’s leading receiver and a finalist for Offensive Rookie of the Year, ending with 938 yards and six touchdowns on 63 catches.
Sullivan mentioned Egbuka “making a Year 2 leap for the ages” as part of what would have to happen for the Bucs to be at their best.
What a “leap for the ages” would look like is, of course, subjective. But objectively speaking, a better Egbuka would likely mean more wins for the Bucs. Defensively, Sullivan mentioned Tampa’s top two draft picks as players who could immediately make an impact in Year 1.
With Lavonte David retiring after spending the entirety of his 14-year career with Tampa Bay, the Buccaneers need a new face of their defense. They’re hoping first-round pick Rueben Bain Jr. can be that face. But even if Bain is all he’s cracked up to be, somebody has to take David’s spot at inside linebacker.
Tampa tried to answer for that, too, by drafting Missouri’s Josiah Trotter in the second round. All of this, Sullivan feels, would lead to the Bucs reclaiming the NFC South and returning to the playoffs.
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