There’s plenty of change coming for the Bucs this season. That’s bound to happen when a team like Tampa Bay’s falls off the way it did in the second half of the season with a 2-7 collapse turning into a disappointing 8-9 season that included surrendering the division title to Carolina.

Some maneuvering has already been done on the coaching staff, as Zac Robinson has become the new offensive coordinator along with T.J. Yates and Ken Zampese joining with him from Atlanta. Andrew Mitchell joins the Bucs as an assistant offensive line coach.

Bucs OC Zac Robinson – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Defensively there have been several changes too. Tampa Bay hired Marcus West to become its defensive line coach after spending several seasons with the Buffalo Bills. The Bucs made some in-house promotions as well with Rashad Johnson coaching the cornerbacks and Tim Atkins now in charge of the safeties.

Next up will be free agency, and we’ll see how the Bucs attack roster construction, as they need help at outside linebacker, inside linebacker, defensive tackle and depth at a couple other positions. While we can’t exactly forecast who the Bucs will pursue, some kind of additions will be necessary.

Bucs Don’t Get The Best Early Power Ranking

We’ll see what kind of moves the Bucs make and who they add in the draft. They’ll still have a core group of Baker Mayfield, Emeka Egbuka, Bucky Irving and Pro Bowl offensive tackle Tristan Wirfs. That should still give Tampa Bay some respect. But compared to other teams in the NFL? They Bucs are not to be taken seriously as a legit Super Bowl contender just yet.

Bucs WR Emeka Egbuka – Photo by: USA Today

ESPN came out with early power rankings for the 2026 season and Tampa Bay is ranked 17th out of 32 teams. ESPN has Tampa Bay just behind the Cincinnati Bengals and ahead of the Dallas Cowboys. The Bucs do have the best rankings compared to anyone else in the NFC South division with the Panthers at No. 22, the Falcons at No. 24 and the Saints at No. 26.

With each team’s reporter giving explanation for the respective teams they cover, here’s what ESPN’s Jenna Laine had to say about the Bucs.

“Offseason in three words: Recapture their mojo”

“After one of the hottest starts of any team in the first half of the 2025 season, the Bucs missed out on the postseason for the first time since 2019. Quarterback Baker Mayfield struggled after back-to-back seasons of personal bests, the defense seldom looked like it was in “attack mode” and the special teams unit was nightmarish. As a result, coach Todd Bowles significantly revamped his staff. The team will await word on the futures of wide receiver Mike Evans and linebacker Lavonte David, but the Buccaneers need to find more marquee players regardless (especially an edge rusher opposite YaYa Diaby).”

Check out all the power rankings by clicking this link.

What this next season comes down to is how much can Zac Robinson improve Baker Mayfield and this overall offense, and what kind of effort and performance Todd Bowles can get from the defense? The ceiling is still high for the Bucs – if they can reach their potential and make major roster upgrades defensively, especially in the front seven. But as we’ve seen, Tampa Bay under Bowles does tend to fall into devastating four-game losing streaks each year, and seems to have costly coverage busts and blunders on the regular.

Bucs HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

If one were to look at the Buccaneers with a glass half full view, Tampa Bay’s offense can back to what it was in 2024 with Mayfield having a career year, while the defense finds a pass rush, which leads to more stops and turnovers. The glass half empty view would be that the offense is average once again with Robinson unable to recapture Liam Coen’s magic and production from the 2024 season, and Bowles’ defense continues to suffers from the same mistakes of a complex defense for a third season in a row.

It’s reasonable to not have that much trust in this 2026 Tampa Bay team right now. The Bucs will have to prove themselves all over gain before they can be taken seriously.