INTRO: Bucs icon and future Hall of Famer Mike Evans has done the unthinkable – he left Tampa Bay for San Francisco in free agency. What if Baker Mayfield became disenchanted with the Bucs and followed suit next March after his contract year? It’s a scary thought, right? I explore this nightmare scenario in this edition of SR’s FAB 5, as well as talk about Georgia linebacker C.J. Allen, new Bucs running back Kenneth Gainwell and more. Enjoy!

FAB 1. What If Baker Mayfield Is The Next Star To Leave The Bucs?

If a Bucs legend like Mike Evans, the greatest offensive player in franchise history, can leave Tampa Bay, then why can’t Baker Mayfield?

That’s a scary thought, as a team without a very good quarterback is doomed in the modern-day NFL where the rules are tilted in favor of the passing game.

Most Tampa Bay fans have come to appreciate Mayfield over the last three years for the gritty player he is, the leader he is, and how he now replaces Evans as the most recognizable star player on offense.

Yet there are a few non-converts who don’t feel like Mayfield has what it takes to win a Super Bowl with the Bucs, and don’t want to see the team re-sign him to an extension by 2027 that will pay him $50 million per season – or more.

But what’s the alternative? Tampa Bay doesn’t have another starting-caliber quarterback on the roster and quality starting QBs don’t grow on trees. And remember, this team has never drafted a franchise quarterback in 50 years.

So like it or not, the plan is to extend Mayfield before free agency next year and the soon-to-be 31-year old quarterback will be taking snaps in Tampa Bay for at least the next three seasons.

“Our thoughts on Baker haven’t changed,” general manager Jason Licht said. “Baker’s been with us three years. We’ve seen the competitor he is, he’s got a lot of arm talent, he’s a leader, all these things. Our plans with Baker haven’t changed. At some point, I don’t have a timetable, I’m sure we’ll be having those discussions [about a contract extension.]”

Unless of course Mayfield wants out of Tampa Bay.

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield and WR Mike Evans – Photo by: USA Today

How could that happen?

Well if Mayfield loses the belief that this team can rise to the level of a Super Bowl competitor – soon.

Evans lost faith in the Bucs this offseason, and that – along with wanting more targets in the passing game – is why he left Tampa Bay.

I know general manager Jason Licht tried recently to do some damage control with the media and suggest that Evans didn’t leave because of head coach Todd Bowles, but that simply doesn’t hold up.

Bowles is 35-33 as a head coach in Tampa Bay with two losing records and two winning records, coupled with a 1-3 record in the playoffs, including two losses at home.

In eight seasons as a head coach, Bowles has won just 10 games twice – once in New York and once in Tampa Bay. And he’s posted a losing record in five of his eight years as head coach. At best, that’s a mediocre record. There’s no other way to spin it.

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield and HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: IMAGN Images – Kim Klement

Compare that to Kyle Shanahan, the coach who Evans went to play for in San Francisco. He’s got an 82-67 record (.550) in the regular season and an impressive 9-5 record (.643) in the postseason. Two of those postseason losses have come at the hands of Patrick Mahomes and Kansas City in a pair of Super Bowls.

Since 2019, Shanahan has won 13 games in the regular season twice and posted 12 wins twice, including last year in an injured-riddled season in the toughest division in the NFL – the NFC West. And he’s also had a 10-win campaign during that span.

Mayfield is the ultimate competitor, and what do competitors want to do? Win.

He is friends with Sam Darnold, who was in the same 2018 draft class and was on the same Panthers team with Mayfield in 2022 for over half a season. He just watched Darnold win a Super Bowl with the Seahawks in his first season in Seattle.

Tom Brady, the quarterback Mayfield replaced in Tampa Bay, won a Super Bowl in 2020 in his first season with the Bucs.

Evans left to go play with the 49ers because he feels he could be the missing piece that puts San Francisco over the top the way he witnessed Brady do that upon his arrival in Tampa Bay.

If the Bucs don’t rebound in 2026 could Mayfield feel the same way and want to try to go win a championship elsewhere? It might not even take another losing season for Mayfield to want to leave.

What if the Bucs go 10-7, win the division, and lose in the first round of the playoffs – again – but Bowles stays on as head coach at the Glazers’ insistence? What if offensive coordinator Zac Robinson’s offense is a top 5 unit like Liam Coen’s was in 2024 and he leaves to become a head coach in 2027 and there is yet another offensive coordinator arrival in Tampa Bay as a result?

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

That was part of the reason why Evans wanted out of Tampa Bay – to get off the dizzying carousel of offensive coordinator hires under Bowles. He knows Shanahan will be calling plays in San Francisco over the next three years.

And if the Bucs post another losing season and Bowles is fired, will Tampa Bay be able to land a quality replacement as the head coach if Mayfield’s contract is up and there’s a possibility that the franchise QB decides to leave for a better opportunity elsewhere?

Sure, Licht could use the franchise tag as a last resort, but who wants to hold a franchise quarterback hostage? That typically doesn’t work out well in the long run.

And if Mayfield decides to leave the Bucs, will others follow?

This is also a contract year for defensive tackle Vita Vea, guard Cody Mauch, outside linebacker Yaya Diaby and others.

I don’t blame Bucs fans who suddenly feel vulnerable, like their favorite team could be on the verge of collapse if a potential mass exodus happens as the result of another down year.

Bucs LT Tristan Wirfs and QB Baker Mayfield – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Yet I don’t think that happens. I don’t think Mayfield will wind up leaving.

His best friend is left tackle Tristan Wirfs, the guy who protects his blind side. Mayfield and his wife, Emily, have planted roots in Tampa and absolutely love the community.

I think Zac Robinson’s offense is going to suit Mayfield’s abilities this season and he’s going to have a very productive and successful season.

After going from being the face of the franchise in Cleveland to becoming a journeyman QB literally in the span of 12 months in 2022, I think Mayfield appreciates how Licht and the Bucs believed in him and gave him a second chance at becoming a franchise QB again – this time in red and pewter.

Perhaps more importantly, Mayfield knows that Licht is going to give him a very fair – and lucrative – contract by next March.

Then again, I never thought Evans would ever leave Tampa Bay before this offseason, either.

FAB 2. C.J. Allen Seems Like A Safe Pick For The Bucs At ILB

Pewter Report came out with its third 2026 7-Round Bucs Mock Draft 3.0 on Wednesday and Josh Queipo and I had Georgia inside linebacker C.J. Allen as Tampa Bay’s first-round pick at No. 15.

While the Bucs signed Alex Anzalone to a two-year contract in free agency, the team isn’t done at inside linebacker and needs another starter, which will come via the 2026 NFL Draft.

Allen, who is generally regarded as the second-best linebacker in this year’s draft class behind Ohio State’s Sonny Styles, checks a lot of boxes at the linebacker position. He’s been a three-year starter at Georgia since his freshman year due to his high football I.Q., his athleticism and his physicality.

“I have good size, when I hit you, you’re going to feel it,” Allen said at the NFL Scouting Combine. “I’m able to generate knock-backs, especially going against offensive linemen.”

Georgia ILB CJ Allen – Photo by: IMAGN Images – Brett Davis

Allen hits like a hammer and has terrific leadership skills as a team captain. He prides himself to be a “green dot” guy who can line up the defense and make all of the calls and adjustments.

Despite suffering a knee injury in a win against Texas on Nov. 15, Allen missed just one game and returned to action 11 days after surgery to repair his meniscus to finish the season. That’s the only game Allen missed in his three years with the Bulldogs.

Allen wasn’t worried about his draft stock. He’s a fierce competitor and wanted to finish the year with his Georgia teammates – on the field rather than the sidelines.

Because Allen didn’t properly rehab and recover from knee surgery, and Georgia’s season didn’t end until January 1 with a playoff loss to Ole Miss, he still has some swelling in his knee. While his knee passed the medical checks at the Combine, Allen didn’t run or workout in Indianapolis, nor did he do any athletic testing at his Georgia pro day this week.

Video of Allen doing some on-field drills at his pro day have drawn mixed reviews from the draft evaluation crowd, with some suggesting he looks stiff and slow.

While fans of Allen point to his tape at Georgia as proof that he can cover.

While he may not be ready for OTAs or mini-camp, Allen is expected to take the field for training camp for whatever team drafts him.

When asked at the NFL Scouting Combine what his superpower was, Allen said, “I think I have a superpower to make guys around me better on and off the field. “Me playing in the middle (of the defense) elevates guys around me, and same thing off the field.”

All of this should be very appealing to general manager Jason Licht and head coach Todd Bowles – in addition to Allen’s 205 career tackles, 13.5 tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks, 10 pass breakups, two forced fumbles, one fumble recovery and one interception.

Georgia LB CJ Allen – Photo by: IMAGN Images – Joshua L Jones

Is he the splashy playmaker that Texas Tech’s Jacob Rodriguez is? No. Rodriguez will likely be the next linebacker drafted after Allen, probably early in the second round.

Is Allen the athletic freak than Pittsburgh’s Kyle Louis is? Probably not, but he is bigger and more rugged in the box than the 6-foot-1, 220-pounder is.

In a lot of ways, Allen meets the Bucs’ “I Am That Man” criteria when it comes to player traits that the team is looking for: accountability, competitiveness, confidence, passion, and resilience.

With the linebacker-needy Cowboys having two picks at No. 12 and No. 20 in the first round and showing a lot of interest in Allen in the pre-draft process, it might be tough for the Bucs to try to trade down into the 20s and try to select Allen there while picking up an extra Day 2 draft pick. He might be gone to Dallas.

If the Bucs have to stick and pick at No. 15, my guess right now is that it’s Allen. He seems like a very safe pick for Tampa Bay and a surefire upgrade at middle linebacker.

Will Allen wind up as a star – or just a starter? Only time will tell.

FAB 3. The Myth Of The “Undersized” Linebacker

I think one of the silliest things in the current pre-draft discussion is the usage of the term “undersized” when it comes to some inside linebackers in this year’s draft class.

To be clear, if we’re measuring linebackers against Ohio State’s Sonny Styles, who ran a 4.46 at 6-foot-5, 244 pounds, then just about every inside linebacker will be considered undersized. Styles is an absolute athletic and genetic freak, and his size is actually an outlier at the position.

I’ve heard Georgia’s C.J. Allen and Texas Tech’s Jacob Rodriguez, two Bucs targets, called “undersized” by several draft analysts, which is laughable to me. Allen measured 6-foot-1, 230 pounds at the NFL Scouting Combine, while Rodriguez checked in at 6-foot-1, 231 pounds.

Georgia ILB CJ Allen – Photo by: IMAGN Images – Dale Zanine

San Francisco’s future Hall of Famer Fred Warner, who is considered the best linebacker in football right now, weighed in at 6-foot-3, 236 pounds. Do those two inches and five pounds really make such a huge difference?

Texans Pro Bowl linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair, a Tampa native who played at Florida Atlantic, measured 6-foot-1, 234 pounds at the Combine. Ravens Pro Bowl linebacker Roquan Smith was 6-foot-1, 236 pounds coming out of Georgia.

Future Hall of Famer Bobby Wagner measured 6-foot, 233 pounds at the Combine.

The two best linebackers in Bucs history – Derrick Brooks and Lavonte David – were considered “undersized” when they entered the league, especially Brooks because linebackers were more downhill thumper-types that weighed in the 240s or 250s back in the 1990s. Brooks checked in at 6-foot, 229 pounds at the Combine back in 1995, while David measured 6-foot-1, 233 pounds in 2012.

So basically, Allen and Rodriguez are the same size as the best to ever do it in Tampa Bay.

Bucs LBs Lavonte David and Devin White – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

And recent history suggests that head coach and defensive play-caller Todd Bowles prefers linebackers that size. Devin White, the Bucs’ former first-round pick in 2019, measured 6-foot, 237 pounds at the Combine, while K.J. Britt checked in at 6-foot, 235 pounds.

SirVocea Dennis, who replaced Britt last year as the team’s starter at middle linebacker, weighed in at the Combine at 6-foot, 226 pounds. He has since bulked up to 230 pounds since being drafted by Tampa Bay in 2023.

There’s no doubt that the muscle-bound White looked bigger than David, who weighed about five pounds less. But did those big biceps help prevent White from being driven 10 yards off the line of scrimmage on some plays by offensive linemen? Did his big arms actually help shed blocks?

No, they didn’t. Despite looking hard and chiseled, White played soft too often and was sent packing out of Tampa Bay as a result.

Bucs CB Zyon McCollum and ILBs K.J. Britt and Lavonte David – Photo by: USA Today

Britt was quite muscle-bound, too. But while he looked the part of an athlete he wasn’t fluid and he was too stiff in coverage and unable to change direction with much agility.

From Hardy Nickerson to Brooks to Shelton Quarles to David, I’ve seen some excellent linebacker play in my 30 years of Bucs coverage. When it comes to linebacker play, I care far more about what the tape says than what the scale says.

A quick look at NFL rosters will show most modern day inside linebackers weigh in the 230s. I guess most of the league has “undersized” linebackers.

To me, the threshold for suggesting a linebacker is “undersized” should be if he’s shorter than 6-foot and weighs less than 230 pounds.

FAB 4. Kenneth Gainwell’s Improbable TD Catch vs. Alex Anzalone

Speaking of linebackers, Alex Anzalone had a memorable matchup against new Bucs teammate Kenneth Gainwell last year when the Lions hosted the Steelers. In one of the league’s best highlights of the 2025 season, Gainwell ran a go route against Anzalone with the two players tripping over each other down the field.

“That was a crazy sequence,” Gainwell said at his introductory press conference in Tampa Bay. “We were in a two-minute situation, and we were driving the ball down the field. Aaron [Rodgers] told me to go out wide and run a route. I asked him, ‘Which route?’ And he said, ‘Run a go.’ I was like, ‘Okay.’

“I just went out wide and ran the route. The ball was in the air and I kind of like looked back for it for a second, and I tripped over Alex for a minute. I just put my hand out to try to keep it from hitting the ground and it just bounced into my chest.”

Rodgers’ heave downfield landed in the arms of Gainwell, who was on the ground at the time, and the Steelers running back got up and raced 12 yards to the end zone after being untouched. The touchdown covered 45 yards and tied the score at 10-10 with three seconds left before halftime.

“I had very good awareness to just get up, knowing I wasn’t touched and go ahead and score the ball,” Gainwell said. “It was a great crazy sequence of things that happened in that I drew a pass interference, got up and scored. It was a great experience to go through that.”

Bucs RB Kenneth Gainwell – Photo by: IMAGN Images – Lon Horwedel

After Gainwell left the podium, it was Anzalone’s turn for his introductory press conference where he was asked about that play.

“I don’t know if he necessarily beat me,” Anzalone laughed. “I was stride for stride, I feel pretty good about that. But that was one of the craziest plays of my career, honestly.”

Anzalone has a lot of respect for Gainwell’s speed and ability to make plays out of the backfield.

“For sure,” Anzalone said. “In my past I was tasked with probably the most challenging coverage situations, as far as the linebacker corps goes – usually that’s the tight end most of the time.

“When we played the Steelers last year it was him. And I was like, ‘Really, I’m covering the linebacker this week?’ Yeah, former receiver. The guy runs a ton of routes, and they needed me on him. I have a ton of respect for him. Even when he was in Philly, he’s a great player and a great addition.”

Gainwell had a career-high 486 receiving yards and scored three touchdowns through the air in Pittsburgh last year. Adding in a career-high 537 rushing yards and five rushing scores, Gainwell topped 1,000 yards from scrimmage for the first time in his five-year NFL career.

He’s expected to pair that ability to run and catch with Bucky Irving to give Tampa Bay’s backfield a real 1-2 punch. Gainwell’s ultra-competitiveness is also a real plus, and it is a trait that he and Irving share.

“I always tell my kids that work out at my gym, ‘Never give up on anything,’” Gainwell said. “That play [vs. Anzalone] is a great example of never giving up on anything in your life.”

You can watch Gainwell’s touchdown against Anzalone and the Lions by clicking the Watch on YouTube link below.

FAB 5. SR’s Buc Shots

• New Tampa Bay running back Kenneth Gainwell was one of my favorite college running backs in 2019 when he starred at Memphis as a redshirt freshman. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit the next year and he opted out of the Tigers’ 2020 season after tragically losing several family members who died after contracting it. Gainwell entered the 2021 NFL Draft after skipping the previous season and was selected in the fifth round by Philadelphia despite me hoping he would be selected by Tampa Bay instead.

Now, six years later, Gainwell, who is a terrific receiver out of the backfield, is finally a Buccaneer. Check out his highlights from Memphis and you can see why I’ve been so excited about this addition to the Bucs roster.

• Did former Bucs running back Rachaad White miscalculate his market value in free agency or what? In the weeks leading up to free agency, White repeatedly stated on social media that he wanted to reunite with his former Arizona State teammate, quarterback Jayden Daniels, in Washington. By doing so, he lost all of his leverage, and the Commanders waited nearly a week into free agency to sign him to a modest one-year deal worth $2 million with incentives that could push the value to $4 million.

Meanwhile, the Bucs added his replacement, Kenneth Gainwell, just hours into the start of free agency. Gainwell was signed to a two-year deal worth $7 million per season – over three times what White got in Washington. To make matters worse for White, Tampa Bay’s third-string running back, Sean Tucker, was offered the restricted free agent tender of $3.52 million. So he too will be making more than White will in 2026.

• New Bucs inside linebacker Alex Anzalone has a lot of respect for legendary linebacker Lavonte David. He was asked about David at his introductory press conference in Tampa Bay, and if he wanted David to return for a 15th season and play alongside him.

“Obviously a great player, you know Hall of Famer, in my opinion,” Anzalone said. “He has a ton of production in this league. Just watching from afar, and knowing teammates that have played with him, his ability to do a lot of different things is – as a peer and a player – it’s just really cool to watch. A lot of people say he’s underrated but I really think he’s just underappreciated.

“He’s a great player and if that’s what he has in store – to come back or say ‘That’s it’ – either way it’s been a great career for him. We’ll see what happens.”

Bucs LB Lavonte David – Photo courtesy of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers

David has not made a decision yet as to whether he will retire or return to Tampa Bay, but he has stated that those are the only two options he’s considering. The Bucs don’t have a lot of salary cap space right now and I think the team is quietly moving on from the 36-year old David as a result. Look for Tampa Bay to draft an inside linebacker or two next month.