TAMPA \u2014 When the Tampa Bay Buccaneers took the field Wednesday, something about the start of this year\u2019s training camp just felt different.<\/p>\n
Buccaneers Training Camp 2026<\/p>\n
Franchise greats like Mike Evans and Lavonte David are gone and represented in a different way \u2014 by fans who came to see the 2026 Bucs workout wearing their jerseys. Evans signed a free-agent deal with the San Francisco 49ers, and David retired.<\/p>\n
For players like Chris Godwin, Evans’ absence is noticeable, but it also won\u2019t change his approach to his new role in the wide receiver\u2019s room as the lead vet.<\/p>\n
“What I did and what I brought to the team was completely different than what Mike brought to the team, so it\u2019s not like he\u2019s gone and I got to step up. I just continue to be me, and to me that\u2019s going to be good enough,” said the Bucs’ veteran wide receiver, entering his 10th season with the team.<\/p>\n
Vita Vea was present but not practicing with the team. His trade request won\u2019t affect the team’s work on the field, but it is something the players are aware of.<\/p>\n
Unlike Vea, quarterback Baker Mayfield is here and practicing, and Head Coach Todd Bowles is not concerned about the mindset of his QB 1 for the season.<\/p>\n
“We\u2019re not gonna make this training camp about Baker from a team standpoint,” Bowles said after practice. “If something happens, great, but we’re getting ready for the season and play it out. He\u2019s expecting to have a great season for himself, he loves the guys that he\u2019s around, and we’re building from that, and that\u2019s all we\u2019re going to go with.”<\/p>\n
Bowles made it clear, building team chemistry and staying healthy are two big keys to training camp, and despite the distractions off the field, he has 16 days to get his team ready before the preseason opener on the road against the New York Jets.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA \u2014 When the Tampa Bay Buccaneers took the field Wednesday, something about the start of this year\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1242,1238,28,128567,115,139,110,135,4547,137,136],"class_list":["post-356719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-professional-sports","tag-app-sports","tag-florida","tag-mike-cairns","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-sports","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-bucs","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}