Pewter Report’s PR Roundtablepresented by PrizePicks
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A brand new Pewter Report Roundtable debuts each Tuesday on PewterReport.com. Every week, the Pewter Reporters deal with one other powerful Bucs query. This week’s immediate: Who would be the Bucs’ greatest distinction maker for the 2026 season?
Scott Reynolds: When Baker Mayfield Is Nice, So Are The Buccaneers
There isn’t a greater difference-maker in Tampa Bay than Baker Mayfield, as quarterback play normally determines staff success in a quarterback-driven league. In his three seasons in purple and pewter the Bucs have seen two good seasons from Mayfield and one nice one. In 2023, Mayfield’s first season with the Bucs, he threw a career-high 28 touchdowns with simply 10 interceptions whereas finishing 64.3% of his passes for 4,044 yards as he established himself as Tampa Bay’s beginning quarterback after signing a one-year, prove-it deal. The Buccaneers went 9-8, received the NFC South and superior to the NFC Divisional playoffs after beating the Eagles at house within the Wild Card spherical.
Bucs QB Baker Mayfield – Photograph by: IMAGN Photos – Nathan Ray Seebeck
Liam Coen changed Dave Canales because the staff’s offensive coordinator in 2024 and took Mayfield’s sport to new heights. He set a brand new profession document with 41 landing passes in opposition to 16 interceptions, whereas setting a franchise document with a 71.4% completion proportion whereas passing for 4,500 yards. That helped the Bucs offense end within the high 5 in scoring offense, averaging 29 factors per sport. Mayfield made back-to-back Professional Bowl appearances in 2023 and 2024, and the staff received 10 video games and captured the division once more in Mayfield’s second season in Tampa Bay.
Final yr noticed one more offensive coordinator change as Josh Grizzard changed Coen, and accidents hit each Mayfield and a number of other key members of the offensive line in addition to star weapons like Chris Godwin Jr., Mike Evans and Bucky Irving. All of that affected Mayfield’s efficiency, as he threw simply 26 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, and handed for 3,693 yards whereas finishing 63.2% of his passes. A lesser yr from Mayfield was a consider Tampa Bay’s disappointing 8-9 season in 2025. Mayfield wasn’t dangerous in 2025, however he was removed from nice like he was the yr prior.
If the Bucs can get one other nice season from Mayfield – someplace within the neighborhood of 4,000-plus yards with not less than 30 touchdowns and a completion proportion north of 67% – that ought to translate right into a successful season in Tampa Bay. And within the NFC South, which is the weakest division in soccer, 9 or 10 wins ought to win it and get the Bucs a Wild Card playoff sport at house once more in 2026.
Matt Matera: An Accessible Bucky Irving Elevates The Bucs Offense
The Bucs offense has been at its finest when the operating sport goes effectively, and significantly when Bucky Irving is flourishing in it. The large receivers get a number of the eye, however being able to run the soccer opens up the whole lot else for Tampa Bay’s offense. Lacking Irving for seven video games final season considerably impacted how the Bucs have been capable of function on offense. Tampa Bay was 5-5 in video games Irving performed in final yr, and 3-4 in video games he missed.
Bucs RB Bucky Irving – Photograph by: Cliff Welch/PR
Irving’s potential to make opponents miss tackles and rip off explosive runs takes the Bucs offense from unit to a terrific one. He’s turn out to be a greater receiving operating again too, giving offensive coordinator Zac Robinson extra to work with coming off a season wherein he had his first three receiving touchdowns. Irving rushed for 1,122 speeding yards and eight touchdowns as a rookie as he had made the All-Rookie staff in 2024.
Final season, these numbers clearly dropped rather a lot whereas lacking seven video games, totaling simply 588 yards on the bottom and solely speeding for one landing. Tampa Bay wants explosive performs from him once more and for Irving to seek out the top zone extra regularly in 2026.
Irving must be the catalyst for this staff on the bottom and permit the offense to open up with heavy play-action utilization. The 2026 season must see Irving turn out to be a high 5 participant at his place within the league. He’s able to doing that, whatever the expertise at different positions of this staff. Irving might use a bounce-back season, and if the Bucs get it, they’ll be in fine condition to win the NFC South as soon as once more and make the playoffs.
Adam Slivon: Rueben Bain Jr. Is Trusted To Lead Bucs’ Cross Rush Enchancment
That is the second consecutive PR Roundtable the place I’ve chosen the identical participant. Admittedly, I do know that is daring contemplating Rueben Bain Jr. has but to play an NFL snap. Nonetheless, I’m excessive on his potential to be extra impactful at exterior linebacker than who the Bucs needed to trot on the market final season. In a vacuum, Bain leads a brand new trio of cross rushers that additionally options Al-Quadin Muhammad and David Walker. I’m rather a lot larger on them than Haason Reddick, Anthony Nelson, and Chris Braswell, who performed vital snaps with paltry outcomes reverse Yaya Diaby. Tampa Bay’s first-round decide provides a extra distinguished and long-lacking swagger again at edge rusher.
Bucs edge rusher Rueben Bain Jr. – Photograph courtesy of: The College of Miami – JC Ridley
Bain can be requested to be a difference-maker from the beginning and won’t be simply one other starter. After the staff recorded simply 37 sacks in 2025, one thing wanted to alter over the offseason. The philosophy of buying meaner, extra bodily gamers is embodied in what the Miami product brings. The Bucs protection wanted an injection of expertise to deliver down the quarterback, and now they acquired it. That leads me to imagine that Bain is not going to solely open issues up for Diaby, Vita Vea, and Calijah Kancey, but in addition get into the combination and tally a pleasant quantity of sacks.
It’s extra than simply sack totals that can make Bain a difference-maker. He’s loads able to being a well-rounded, versatile three-down participant from the beginning, and his potential is sky excessive at simply 21 years outdated. How effectively he does – at the same time as a rookie – will say rather a lot in regards to the trajectory of your complete protection. In flip, that makes him one of many greatest difference-makers to me. Everybody desires to see No. 3 evade the backfield with the outcomes to match. If he does, be careful. Simply as a lot as a totally wholesome Kancey opens issues up, an improved exterior linebacker room led by Rueben Bain Jr. will, too.
Bailey Adams: With Assist Added, Yaya Diaby Will Hit The Subsequent Stage
The Bucs have been searching for that subsequent double-digit sack man since Shaq Barrett went down with an Achilles harm in 2022. And whereas it might grow to be 2026 first-round decide Rueben Bain Jr. in time, what if that “next double-digit sack guy” has really been right here all alongside? I feel it’d simply be Yaya Diaby in 2026.
I’ve thought rather a lot about Diaby’s admission on the finish of the 2025 season that he typically seems like he’s alone on the market on the sector. As a result of I can see the way it feels that method, and it was extraordinarily necessary for Tampa Bay to rectify that this offseason. I feel the staff did that.
Bucs OLB Yaya Diaby – Photograph by: Cliff Welch/PR
Diaby, coming into his fourth NFL season, will profit massively from the additions of Bain, Al-Quadin Muhammad and David Walker to the skin linebacker room. I feel all three of these guys give the Bucs a much bigger menace than they’ve ever had on the other aspect of Diaby, and I feel that’s precisely what No. 0 must hit that subsequent degree that he’s proven indicators of hitting within the first three seasons of his profession.
Diaby has 19 sacks and 162 pressures over three years with out a lot assist from the opposite edge. With a menace on the opposite aspect to enhance him, I feel he turns into a double-digit sacker in 2026. And take into consideration simply how a lot of a distinction it’ll make for the Buccaneers protection to have a man to succeed in that 10-12 sack threshold. It may set the tone for the four-man cross rush and elevate Todd Bowles’ protection to the extent it must be at for Tampa Bay to be taken critically.
Add in the truth that Diaby is in a contract yr and I feel there’s simply that additional little bit of motivation to place all of it collectively, have his finest season to this point — the one he’s been constructing towards all this time — and reap the advantages each when it comes to success and his subsequent contract. I’m all in on Sub-Zero in 2026.
Josh Queipo: Calijah Kancey Unlocks Todd Bowles’ Protection
Since drafting Calijah Kancey nineteenth total in 2023, the Bucs have had a transparent blueprint for producing strain: Vita Vea because the pocket pusher anchoring the center, and Kancey because the gap-shooting disruptor who turns one-on-ones into chaos. When he’s been on the sector, he’s delivered precisely that: 11.5 sacks, 22 tackles for loss, and 66 quarterback pressures throughout simply 29 profession video games. The unlucky caveat is true there in that quantity: 29 video games performed, 22 video games missed. Availability has been the one factor standing between Kancey and stardom.
Bucs DT Calijah Kancey – Photograph by: Cliff Welch/PR
If he logs a full slate of snaps in 2026, the maths will get scary. A 7.5-sack tempo over 12 video games in 2024 initiatives to double-digit sacks throughout a wholesome season, and the inside of the Bucs’ line of defense turns into an issue opposing quarterbacks can’t scheme round. Pair that with a still-ascending Yaya Diaby, who has gotten higher in every of his three NFL seasons and condenses the pocket from the sting, and now Reuben Bain Jr. offering extra chaos off the opposite aspect, and this cross rush has high 5 upside.
Vea attracts the doubles, Kancey eats the one-on-ones, Diaby and Bain collapse the sides. That’s the type of four-man strain that wins video games in each the common season and the postseason.
Latest NFL historical past bears this out. The groups making January noise – the Broncos, Seahawks, Rams, Patriots, and Eagles – have all been constructed round elite inside line of defense rooms, as a result of championship-caliber protection runs via the A-gaps. The Bucs have the personnel to place their title on that listing. The one query, because it has been since 2023, is whether or not Kancey can keep on the sector. If the reply is sure, he’s not simply the largest difference-maker on this roster, he’s the difference-maker in your complete NFC South.
