Pewter Report’s PR Roundtable
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A new Pewter Report Roundtable debuts every Tuesday on PewterReport.com. Each week, the Pewter Reporters tackle another tough Bucs question. This week’s prompt: Who will be the Bucs’ biggest difference maker for the 2026 season?

Scott Reynolds: When Baker Mayfield Is Great, So Are The Buccaneers

There is no bigger difference-maker in Tampa Bay than Baker Mayfield, as quarterback play usually determines team success in a quarterback-driven league. In his three seasons in red and pewter the Bucs have seen two good seasons from Mayfield and one great one. In 2023, Mayfield’s first season with the Bucs, he threw a career-high 28 touchdowns with just 10 interceptions while completing 64.3% of his passes for 4,044 yards as he established himself as Tampa Bay’s starting quarterback after signing a one-year, prove-it deal. The Buccaneers went 9-8, won the NFC South and advanced to the NFC Divisional playoffs after beating the Eagles at home in the Wild Card round.

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield – Photo by: IMAGN Images – Nathan Ray Seebeck

Liam Coen replaced Dave Canales as the team’s offensive coordinator in 2024 and took Mayfield’s game to new heights. He set a new career record with 41 touchdown passes against 16 interceptions, while setting a franchise record with a 71.4% completion percentage while passing for 4,500 yards. That helped the Bucs offense finish in the top 5 in scoring offense, averaging 29 points per game. Mayfield made back-to-back Pro Bowl appearances in 2023 and 2024, and the team won 10 games and captured the division again in Mayfield’s second season in Tampa Bay.

Last year saw yet another offensive coordinator change as Josh Grizzard replaced Coen, and injuries hit both Mayfield and several key members of the offensive line as well as star weapons like Chris Godwin Jr., Mike Evans and Bucky Irving. All of that affected Mayfield’s performance, as he threw just 26 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, and passed for 3,693 yards while completing 63.2% of his passes. A lesser year from Mayfield was a factor in Tampa Bay’s disappointing 8-9 season in 2025. Mayfield wasn’t bad in 2025, but he was far from great like he was the year prior.

If the Bucs can get another great season from Mayfield – somewhere in the neighborhood of 4,000-plus yards with at least 30 touchdowns and a completion percentage north of 67% – that should translate into a winning season in Tampa Bay. And in the NFC South, which is the weakest division in football, nine or 10 wins should win it and get the Bucs a Wild Card playoff game at home again in 2026.

Matt Matera: An Available Bucky Irving Elevates The Bucs Offense

The Bucs offense has been at its best when the running game is going well, and particularly when Bucky Irving is thriving in it. The wide receivers get a lot of the attention, but having the ability to run the football opens up everything else for Tampa Bay’s offense. Missing Irving for seven games last season significantly impacted how the Bucs were able to operate on offense. Tampa Bay was 5-5 in games Irving played in last year, and 3-4 in games he missed.

Bucs RB Bucky Irving – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Irving’s ability to make opponents miss tackles and rip off explosive runs takes the Bucs offense from a good unit to a great one. He’s become a better receiving running back too, giving offensive coordinator Zac Robinson more to work with coming off a season in which he had his first three receiving touchdowns. Irving rushed for 1,122 rushing yards and eight touchdowns as a rookie as he had made the All-Rookie team in 2024.

Last season, those numbers obviously dropped a lot while missing seven games, totaling just 588 yards on the ground and only rushing for one touchdown. Tampa Bay needs explosive plays from him again and for Irving to find the end zone more frequently in 2026.

Irving needs to be the catalyst for this team on the ground and allow the offense to open up with heavy play-action usage. The 2026 season needs to see Irving become a top 5 player at his position in the league. He’s capable of doing that, regardless of the talent at other positions of this team. Irving could use a bounce-back season, and if the Bucs get it, they’ll be in good shape to win the NFC South once again and make the playoffs.

Adam Slivon: Rueben Bain Jr. Is Trusted To Lead Bucs’ Pass Rush Improvement

This is the second consecutive PR Roundtable where I have chosen the same player. Admittedly, I know this is bold considering Rueben Bain Jr. has yet to play an NFL snap. Still, I am high on his ability to be more impactful at outside linebacker than who the Bucs had to trot out there last season. In a vacuum, Bain leads a new trio of pass rushers that also features Al-Quadin Muhammad and David Walker. I am a lot higher on them than Haason Reddick, Anthony Nelson, and Chris Braswell, who played significant snaps with paltry results opposite Yaya Diaby. Tampa Bay’s first-round pick adds a more distinguished and long-lacking swagger back at edge rusher.

Bucs edge rusher Rueben Bain Jr. – Photo courtesy of: The University of Miami – JC Ridley

Bain will be asked to be a difference-maker from the start and will not be just another starter. After the team recorded just 37 sacks in 2025, something needed to change over the offseason. The philosophy of acquiring meaner, more physical players is embodied in what the Miami product brings. The Bucs defense needed an injection of talent to bring down the quarterback, and now they got it. That leads me to believe that Bain will not only open things up for Diaby, Vita Vea, and Calijah Kancey, but also get into the mix and tally a nice amount of sacks.

It is more than just sack totals that will make Bain a difference-maker. He is plenty capable of being a well-rounded, versatile three-down player from the start, and his potential is sky high at just 21 years old. How well he does – even as a rookie – will say a lot about the trajectory of the entire defense. In turn, that makes him one of the biggest difference-makers to me. Everyone wants to see No. 3 evade the backfield with the results to match. If he does, watch out. Just as much as a fully healthy Kancey opens things up, an improved outside linebacker room led by Rueben Bain Jr. will, too.

Bailey Adams: With Help Added, Yaya Diaby Will Hit The Next Level

The Bucs have been looking for that next double-digit sack guy since Shaq Barrett went down with an Achilles injury in 2022. And while it could turn out to be 2026 first-round pick Rueben Bain Jr. in time, what if that “next double-digit sack guy” has actually been here all along? I think it might just be Yaya Diaby in 2026.

I’ve thought a lot about Diaby’s admission at the end of the 2025 season that he sometimes feels like he’s alone out there on the field. Because I can see how it feels that way, and it was extremely important for Tampa Bay to rectify that this offseason. I think the team did that.

Bucs OLB Yaya Diaby – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Diaby, entering his fourth NFL season, will benefit massively from the additions of Bain, Al-Quadin Muhammad and David Walker to the outside linebacker room. I think all three of those guys give the Bucs a bigger threat than they’ve ever had on the opposite side of Diaby, and I think that’s exactly what No. 0 needs to hit that next level that he’s shown signs of hitting in the first three seasons of his career.

Diaby has 19 sacks and 162 pressures over three years without much help from the other edge. With a threat on the other side to complement him, I think he becomes a double-digit sacker in 2026. And think about just how much of a difference it’ll make for the Buccaneers defense to have a guy to reach that 10-12 sack threshold. It can set the tone for the four-man pass rush and elevate Todd Bowles’ defense to the level it needs to be at for Tampa Bay to be taken seriously.

Add in the fact that Diaby is in a contract year and I think there’s just that extra bit of motivation to put it all together, have his best season to date — the one he’s been building toward all this time — and reap the benefits both in terms of success and his next contract. I’m all in on Sub-Zero in 2026.

Josh Queipo: Calijah Kancey Unlocks Todd Bowles’ Defense

Since drafting Calijah Kancey 19th overall in 2023, the Bucs have had a clear blueprint for generating pressure: Vita Vea as the pocket pusher anchoring the middle, and Kancey as the gap-shooting disruptor who turns one-on-ones into chaos. When he’s been on the field, he’s delivered exactly that: 11.5 sacks, 22 tackles for loss, and 66 quarterback pressures across just 29 career games. The unfortunate caveat is right there in that number: 29 games played, 22 games missed. Availability has been the only thing standing between Kancey and stardom.

Bucs DT Calijah Kancey – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

If he logs a full slate of snaps in 2026, the math gets scary. A 7.5-sack pace over 12 games in 2024 projects to double-digit sacks across a healthy season, and the interior of the Bucs’ defensive line becomes a problem opposing quarterbacks can’t scheme around. Pair that with a still-ascending Yaya Diaby, who has gotten better in each of his three NFL seasons and condenses the pocket from the edge, and now Reuben Bain Jr. providing additional chaos off the other side, and this pass rush has top 5 upside.

Vea draws the doubles, Kancey eats the one-on-ones, Diaby and Bain collapse the edges. That’s the kind of four-man pressure that wins games in both the regular season and the postseason.

Recent NFL history bears this out. The teams making January noise – the Broncos, Seahawks, Rams, Patriots, and Eagles – have all been built around elite interior defensive line rooms, because championship-caliber defense runs through the A-gaps. The Bucs have the personnel to put their name on that list. The only question, as it has been since 2023, is whether Kancey can stay on the field. If the answer is yes, he’s not just the biggest difference-maker on this roster, he’s the difference-maker in the entire NFC South.