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: Which Bucs player needs the biggest bounce-back season in 2026?

Scott Reynolds: Graham Barton Needs To Take The Next Step In 2026

Does Bucs center Graham Barton need to bounce back or just take off? Probably the latter. After a rookie season that had some highs and lows, Barton, the team’s first-round pick in 2024, was poised to take the next step last year and become a more consistent center with more dominance and less blown blocks. But that never materialized for one of the game’s most athletic center. At 6-foot-5, 315 pounds, Barton has enough size and strength to be very effective in the interior point of attack. Yet he was consistently knocked backwards by bigger nose tackles in one-on-one situations in 2025.

Starting the first three games as a stealth substitute at left tackle for the injured Tristan Wirfs likely didn’t help Barton’s 2025 season. After a month moonlighting at left tackle where he played for a couple of seasons at Duke, Barton returned to center in Week 4 against Philadelphia’s terrific tackle tandem of Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter. He recorded an 18.4 pass protection grade per Pro Football Focus in that game as a result. Overall, Barton earned a 61 grade from PFF in 2025, which was up slightly from the 56.3 grade he had as a rookie.

Bucs C Graham Barton – Photo by: Gregory Fisher – IMAGN Images

His run blocking grade went up from 54.6 in 2024 to 65.1 last year, while Barton’s pass protection grade dipped from 64 as a rookie to 52.9 last year. Barton needs to work on his core strength even more this offseason so he can anchor better against bigger defensive tackles in pass pro. I think Barton needs to be moved to left guard and Ben Bredeson should take over at center. Barton reminds me so much of Ali Marpet, who struggled in his lone season at center in 2017, but became a Pro Bowl-caliber guard shortly thereafter once he moved back to his natural position. But so far the team insists that Barton is a center.

Tampa Bay has two Pro Bowl-caliber offensive tackles in Tristan Wirfs and Luke Goedeke. If Barton can live up to his athletic potential and become a Pro Bowl-caliber interior lineman it will only make the Bucs O-line even more formidable. Getting right guard Cody Mauch and Bredeson back at left guard should certainly help Barton try to live up to his first-round draft status as he enters his third season in Tampa Bay.

Matt Matera: Can Chris Godwin Jr. Be His Vintage Self?

It feels like deja vu all over again with Chris Godwin Jr. Back in the 2022 offseason he re-signed with Tampa Bay after coming off of a season ending injury the year prior. He missed all of training camp and the preseason, but eventually wound up breaking Tampa Bay’s single season reception record. Godwin wasn’t nearly himself and was even better in 2023.

The Bucs and Godwin are back in this situation again. This time around, Godwin had a season ending injury in 2024. Tampa Bay gambled that Godwin would recover well enough like the last time he had a serious injury, though this took longer. This time in the 2025 season, he came back in Week 4, played the following week, then had a different injury that kept him several weeks and wound up playing nine games. All in all Godwin finished with 33 catches for 360 yards, two touchdowns and an octopus. It wasn’t stellar, but there were flashes of the old Godwin towards the end of the season, especially with a seven catch, 108-yard and a touchdown performance in Week 17.

Bucs WR Chris Godwin Jr. – Photo by: IMAGN Images – Sam Navarro

Tampa Bay is hoping that Godwin finds his footing again in 2026. When he’s at his best he’s the locomotive that runs Tampa Bay’s offense. He does all the dirty work, is physical, and can lineup inside and outside. There’s no guarantee that Mike Evans is coming back, so more reliance is on Emeka Egbuka, Jalen McMillan and Chris Godwin Jr. If Godwin looks likes his prime self, the Bucs’ offense can get back on track this season.

Adam Slivon: Baker Mayfield Will Determine Just How Far Bucs Go In 2026

While the Bucs need numerous players to bounce back and return to form next season, the biggest one is Baker Mayfield. Mayfield is the engine that makes this team go, and games are won and lost by the play of the quarterback more than any other. Need examples? Look at how his play positively affected the team in the early going by orchestrating late-game comebacks, and then how his inconsistent second half contributed to the losses adding up. It was far from the worst year of Mayfield’s career, but it was a significant step back from 2024 when he threw for 4,500 yards and 41 touchdowns.

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield – Photo by: USA Today

At his best, Mayfield is one of the most exciting players in the league, thanks to his gunslinger ability and fiery personality, which allow him to have stretches where he looks like one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. Throughout the 2024 season, he was, but that year is sandwiched between two seasons where the veteran signal-caller had mediocre performances, proving unable to elevate the rest of the offense. For the Bucs to have any real chance at making a deep playoff run in 2026, they cannot afford that to happen. While injuries played a part in his overall effectiveness, as he and the rest of the offense were not always 100%, there will be no excuses for the group going forward.

Baker Mayfield will have the best four-deep wide receiver room in the league, paired with what should be a healthier offensive line anchored by a “stud” left tackle. Add in an improved Bucky Irving, and all the pieces are there to get the offense back to scoring points. There is a lot on the line this coming season, from Todd Bowles’ job security to Mayfield’s own future in Tampa Bay. Should he bounce back, a large paycheck will be in the cards. There are a lot of questions about which direction to take to get this team back into playoff contention, but none of that happens without a “Better Mayfield.”

Bailey Adams: Bucs Need To See 2024 Bucky Irving Again In 2026

The sophomore slump was real for Bucky Irving in 2025. His rookie campaign in 2024 saw him run for 1,122 yards and eight touchdowns on 207 carries (5.4 avg.) and catch 47 of his 52 targets for another 392 yards on his way to a sixth-place finish in Offensive Rookie of the Year voting. He was a breakout star that year after being a fourth-round pick out of Oregon, and there was some real excitement about what he could do as the Bucs’ RB1 for a full season in 2025.

After all, he did all of that as a rookie while splitting carries with Rachaad White for much of the season. There was bound to be some kind of split again in 2025, but there was no question that Irving was set to be the guy for the Tampa Bay backfield. Unfortunately, Irving’s second NFL season never really got off the ground. He started a bit slow outside of a Week 2 performance that saw him put up 121 all-purpose yards and a 165-yard day in Week 4 that included a 72-yard touchdown catch. He had 237 rushing yards and 193 receiving yards with two receiving touchdowns in the first four weeks, then the injury bug bit.

Bucs RB Bucky Irving and Eagles CB Cooper DeJean – Photo by: USA Today

Irving would miss the next two months, which meant seven games lost, due to foot and shoulder injuries. It was a lot for the 23-year-old to deal with both physically and mentally, and when he returned to the field in late November, he played out the rest of the season. But even aside from the injury issues creating a sophomore slump, Irving didn’t fully look like himself upon his return. He wasn’t the same shifty, explosive runner he was in 2024, averaging just 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 3.7, 2.1 and 3.3 yards per rush in the final six games of the season.

If the Tampa Bay offense is going to rebound from a frustrating 2025 season and rediscover its magic under a new offensive coordinator in 2026, Bucky Irving has to be a big part of that. He was one of the driving forces behind the league’s No. 4 scoring offense in his rookie year, and with a trying 2025 season behind him, it’s time for a big bounce-back in 2026. When you add in the fact that Rachaad White appears to be on his way out upon the expiration of his rookie contract, there’s even more pressure on Irving to be the go-to guy in the backfield.

Josh Queipo: Zyon McCollum Must Revitalize The Secondary

This time last year Zyon McCollum was seemingly a Bucs success story. Originally a raw, but high-upside 5th round pick for the Bucs in 2022, he developed into a reliable starter by the end of 2023.

Bucs CB Zyon McCollum – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR