“I Think They Can Make A Run”
September 8th, 2026
The Bucs’ go-to rookies on defense.
More than 83 percent of Bucs fans look at their 2026 team and see a winner. The most popular vote was 10 wins for Tampa Bay in Joe’s poll yesterday.
Expectations are sky high, as they should be.
The Bucs play in a trash division and every sportsbook known to Joe has Tampa Bay as its favorite to win the NFC South landfill.
The NFL game is still very much about winning in the trenches and having strong quarterback play. And unless Joe is missing something, the Bucs have the most NFC South talent in the trenches and at QB. That’s why so many fans graded the Bucs’ roster with a “B” or better.
But winning the division is nowhere near enough. Winning in the postseason is what matters to a fanbase that was riding a five-season streak of reaching the playoffs before last season’s heinous collapse. The Bucs were a whopping 6-4 in those playoff games.
Just reaching the playoffs isn’t good enough. That’s not where the franchise is in its trajectory. The just-happy-to-be-there mentality was flushed down the toilet with major assists to Tom Brady and Baker Mayfield, and yes, to Bucco Bruce Arians and Todd Bowles.
This isn’t 2016.
Joe heard Green Light podcast host Chris Long, the two-time Super Bowl winner defensive end, detail why he picks the Bucs to win the NFC South and then jump back on the microphone to make sure his co-hosts know he thinks the Bucs are more than just the landfill leaders.
“And I actually think their ceiling is a little bit higher … I think they can make a run in the NFC,” Long said.
That’s what it’s come to for Bucs optimists — clarifying that they believe Tampa Bay can do more than win a dreadful division. In most NFL years, it’s just assumed that every division winner is capable of winning a playoff game.
Are the Bucs good enough to make a run? That’s unclear. But Joe thinks it’s reasonable to say the Bucs will be in need of new direction if this roster can’t win a playoff game.