The Bucs’ attitude adjustment this season mirrors one of the greatest marketing changes in entertainment history.

In 1997, Vince McMahon famously shifted his then family-friendly WWE show to a more edgier and intense product. WWE, at that time, was getting pushed around by rival promotion WCW in the battle for TV ratings supremacy. McMahon knew there needed to be a change, and outrageous, over the top gimmicks such as Doink the Clown and T.L. Hopper no longer were going to cut it.

Seemingly overnight, WWE underwent an attitude adjustment. Now leading the charge of the company’s new era were superstars such as “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and The Rock. Wouldn’t you know it, the five-year period that followed would forever become known as the “Attitude Era,” and it still stands today as the most culturally relevant period in the history of the company.

The Bucs Are Entering Their Own Attitude Era

Like Vince McMahon 29 years ago, Bucs head coach Todd Bowles is very much looking to instill an attitude adjustment in his squad after a 2025 season which went off the rails after a fine start. A 5-1 start was followed by a 3-8 finish. The Bucs missed out on the postseason for the first time since 2020. They got pushed around.

Heading into the 2026 season, which kicks off Sunday, Sept. 13, on the road against the Cincinnati Bengals, Bowles is looking both for attitude and Accountability. Those two words are essential to any business, corporation or, in this case, professional sports team, being a success.

The Bucs are no different, as their team, particularly on defense, have been missing some of the “badassery” that Warren Sapp, Jason Pierre-Paul, and Ndamukong Suh provided to their respective squads over the years. But, just as important, the accountability they brought to the table as established veterans.

Bowles is hoping that two new defensive tackles will take on that role for his team: A’Shawn Robinson and Rakeem Nunez-Roches, known to most as “Nacho.”

Bucs DT Rakeem Nunez-Roches – Photo by: USA Today

Let’s be clear up front; neither Robinson nor Nunez-Roches will be producing the way the aforementioned names did for Tampa Bay. But inside the locker room and on the sidelines, their impact should be felt plenty. It was already seen throughout training camp and preseason and, according to Bowles, is the biggest change we should expect to see this season.

“The biggest change for me is A’Shawn Robinson and Nacho because they bring attitude, they bring accountability, and they call people out on it,” Bowles said on The Rondé Barber Show. “They did that from Day 1 when we got in the offseason program and that made everybody else snap into shape and fall in line. And that was the biggest change for me. That was the biggest thing.”

In A’Shawn Robinson, Bucs Have More Nasty

How much is attitude and accountability worth to Tampa Bay? Try $10 million in the case of A’Shawn Robinson ($9.15 million guaranteed), who is entering his 11th season in the NFL. The Bucs aren’t paying him a healthy monetary figure to be a game-wrecker up front. That’s never been Robinson, who posted 65 tackles (21 solo), 2.5 sacks, three tackles for loss, eight quarterback hits, one fumble recovery, and three passes defensed last season. The amount they’re paying Robinson reflects just how much they crave his nastiness.

“It comes from a little kid they used to pick on for not having anything – for being so poor,” Robinson said in March. “So you know what I did every day? I whipped somebody’s ass. Every day. Every day you said something, I’d beat the shit out of you. That’s where that came from. Even in college, joke around, I’m gonna beat your ass. That’s just how I became and I’m the same way on the field.

“People talk and try to do dirty stuff. I just got tired of it. I just started letting people have it, let them know that I’m going to be the shit out of them, how I’m going to do it. I just destroy. I guess that’s how I was as a kid. If I can (create) madness, that’s how I saw it.”

Bucs DT A’Shawn Robinson – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Robinson is well-traveled. The 31-year-old began his career with the Detroit Lions, where he would spend the first four seasons of his career before joining the Los Angeles Rams in 2020. The following season, Robinson became a Super Bowl champion with Los Angeles. There, he finally got the chance to see what a well-oiled machine looks like in the NFL.

Short stints with the Giants and Carolina Panthers followed, but Robinson is now a Buccaneer, and it’s his nastiness, along with the accountability that he demands out of his teammates, that made him a priority signing for general manager Jason Licht in free agency.

The Bucs brought Nunez-Roches back to Tampa Bay on a one-year deal worth $1.3 million. The 33-year-old previously spent five seasons in Tampa Bay, notably starting 11 games during the 2020 Super Bowl season after fellow defensive tackle Vita Vea suffered a leg injury early in the campaign that caused him to miss significant time. Nunez-Roches played the last three seasons in a New York Giants uniform, accumulating a career-high 3.0 sacks in 2025.

The Additions of Robinson and Nunez-Roches, along with linebacker Alex Anzalone and outside linebacker Rueben Bain Jr., check the nasty box in a big way. For it to be a true success, it has to manifest itself on the field and in the win column.