Can you name one part of the Bucs roster or coaching staff that isn’t letting the team down right now in the team’s woeful 0-2 start? I’m struggling to find one.
Maybe Bucky Irving?
Maybe Zyon McCollum and Benjamin Morrison?
Maybe Josiah Trotter?
But even those four players’ performances come with some warts. And beyond the four of them it drops off quickly. This team looks broken. And there are no simple fixes to be had.
The most maddening part is that there is no single issue that is constantly tanking them. For each negative, there are positives that can be seen. But it’s not enough. And it all starts with the three biggest names associated with the team on the field.
Bucs QB Baker Mayfield Is Not Earning His Big Money
It starts with the quarterback. Especially when Baker Mayfield pushed for his new face-of-the-franchise deal. He has it. And five quarters into that deal the Bucs surely have buyer’s remorse. Mayfield is averaging a turnover every other quarter with just two touchdowns (one rushing and one passing) on his stats sheet. His 6.4 yards per attempt would be a career-low if he keeps up this pace.
Mayfield lost faith in his offensive line about midway through last year. It was understandable at the time. Center Graham Barton was struggling to re-acclimate to center after kicking out to left tackle early in the year. Injuries mounted along almost the entire front, and the Bucs had to trot out the Dan Feeneys, Mike Jordans and Luke Haggards of the world. Eventually, Mayfield lost all hope of pocket integrity and turned fully into hero-ball mode.
Bucs QB Baker Mayfield – Photo by: IMAGN Images via Reuters Connect
Some of that was forgivable considering the context. This year he has his starting five up front. And they have been solid, albeit not world-beaters.
Mayfield has been pressured on about 30% of his dropbacks through the first two games of the season per Pro Football Focus. That sits right in between 2024’s 25% rate and last year’s 35%. But Mayfield is playing like it’s still 2025. At the first sign of trouble he is dropping his eyes and looking to make plays with his feet.
Mayfield is averaging 4.5 carries per game. That is a career high. The quarterback he is getting paid to be is the one who will step up in the pocket to find the receiver coming open late for big plays down the field – not an ill-timed 3-yard scramble like we saw on a costly run on third-and-14 with 33 seconds left to set up a fourth-and-10 at the Cleveland 20 that Tampa Bay would not convert.
The quarterback Mayfield is playing like is the one who doesn’t trust his teammates – or perhaps even himself – to make a play.
The Bucs will not succeed this year unless he finds the 2024 version of himself who is willing to make the pocket throws in structure. Mayfield can’t win out of structure often enough to be consistently successful.
OC Zac Robinson Looks More Josh Grizzard Than Liam Coen – So Far
The Bucs offense felt disjointed throughout this game. There are some concerning trends with how Robinson is calling games that are making things harder on the offensive operation. A staggering 30% of Mayfield’s throws are behind the line of scrimmage. That’s 7% higher than the next closest quarterback who has played two games this year. Despite completing every one of those passes the offense is averaging less than 4.0 yards per play on those attempts.
Those swing passes and screens may have set up the deep shots Robinson called in the second half of the game. But even so, it is stalling the offense, and the Browns were keying it all game. Robinson’s plan of attack is exerting a lot of energy and effort for very minimal gains. Every yard seems like a fight to gain.
This was most evident on second down where his attack was almost always wider horizontally than it was deep vertically.
Bucs OC Zac Robinson and QB Baker Mayfield – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR
Similarly, Robinson hit on a nifty counter out of 21 personnel on the Bucs’ second drive. The handoff to Bucky Irving netted 38 yards and put Tampa Bay in field goal range. It was a fantastic play and a great spot to grab an explosive play. But Robinson came back to that exact look three more times in the game. By the second time the Bucs ran, it the Browns had sniffed it out for negative plays thereafter.
The Bucs offense is frenetic, disjointed and lacks an identity through two games.
Head Coach Todd Bowles Is Squarely On The Hot Seat
The Bucs defense hasn’t been terrible. But it hasn’t shown up in the big moments.
Tampa Bay is 13th in EPA/play, 16th in success rate, and once again top 5 in EPA/rush. All of this shows the 24.5 points per game they are allowing is a bit of a mirage and largely a byproduct of the situations the offense put them in via turnovers.
But it’s just plain not enough either, because the defense has had opportunities in back-to-back games to shut the door on their opponents. And Todd Bowles’ defense has failed to get the job done.
That’s the thing the great defenses do. When given the opportunity to win the game, the defense has bungled the chance.
Tampa Bay led by 10 points at halftime and had a fourth quarter lead in this game, up 19-16 with less than 10 minutes left in the game. Instead, they allowed the Browns to go 68 yards downfield for the go-ahead score. On that drive the defense allowed Deshaun Watson to go 8-9 for 58 yards – 8-of-9! The Bucs didn’t allow anything over the top.
Instead it was death by a thousand cuts.
Bucs HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: IMAGN Images via Reuters Connect
The defense the Bucs want to have is the one that applies pressure. In those situations, the offense is supposed to get tight. Bowles’ pressure is supposed to overwhelm the opponent. The Browns didn’t look to be overwhelmed.
Instead, Cleveland applied the pressure. Bowles tried everything on that drive. He blitzed, but less than his historical rates. He ran Cover 3 and Cover 1 30% of the time, respectively, and sprinkled in both Cover 2 and Cover 0. But his defense still allowed 13 plays and the go-ahead touchdown.
Nothing is going well enough to be considered standout for the Bucs. That’s a problem.
I tend to go out of my way to not overreact, but this team looks broken.
Nothing is working the way it’s supposed to.
The talent is supposed to be upgraded. The stars who opined for new contracts and more money have been paid. The coaches got the weapons that were supposed to unlock their schemes. None of that is happening.
And time is running out.
Only 15% of teams that start the season 0-2 make the playoffs. The Bucs may have more runway than other 0-2 teams of the past, by virtue of the sorry NFC South division. But even that runway is running out.
There aren’t any easy fixes either. If Baker Mayfield can’t trust his teammates … if Zac Robinson can’t find a more balanced rhythm … if Todd Bowles can’t elevate the defense to be the force of pressure rather than the force being pressured then the 2026 season is on life support and the Buccaneers have barely taken a breath.