In our latest mailbag, Bucs fans have questions about areas of likely team improvement this season, Emeka Egbuka's prospects in 2026, standout UDFAs and more
Scott Smith
As of this writing, Rueben Bain Jr. is a co-favorite with the New York Jets' David Bailey to win the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year award in 2026. It's not hard to connect the dots on why that national sentiment exists.
First and foremost, Bain is a very talented pass-rusher who has a good chance to make a big impact in his debut campaign. He has a clear path to significant playing time, he was considered one of the three best edge rushers in the draft and he is highly motivated, to say the least, to demonstrate that he never should have lasted to the 15th overall pick. And the position he plays certainly help. Cleveland Browns linebacker Carson Schwesinger was a notable exception last year but the DROTY award usually goes to either a pass-rusher who gets a lot of sacks or a cornerback who gets a lot of interceptions.
For fans of the Buccaneers, Bain winning this award should be a big rooting interest, and not just because it means an award and a bunch of attention for one of Tampa Bay's players or coaches. What I'm here to tell you is that when a Buccaneer wins one of the main Associated Press end-of-season awards, it also tends to portend great things for the team overall.
Again, we're looking specifically at the AP awards, which are considered the official ones that are given out at the NFL Honors show before the Super Bowl. I'm including MVP, Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year, Offensive and Defensive Rookie of the Year, Comeback Player of the Year and Coach of the Year. There have been five instances of these awards going to a Buccaneer, and I'm going to break them down below because I want you to notice a unifying theme.
(There are other outlets that give out similar awards and Bucs have won those on occasion, like DROTY Santana Dotson in 1992, Coach of the Year Tony Dungy in 1997 and Comeback Player of the Year Antonio Bryant in 2008. I'm also not including the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year award, even though it is incredibly prestigious, because it is not an AP award. Derrick Brooks was a co-recipient of that one with the Bears' Jim Flanigan in 2000.)
DE Lee Roy Selmon, Defensive Player of the Year, 1979
Selmon was the first player in franchise history to take home hardware of this magnitude, at the end of his fourth season. The first-overall pick in the 1976 draft, and the first college draft pick in Bucs history, Selmon was a fully-formed star by his second season, when he had 13.0 sacks in 14 games, and '79 was one of the best seasons of his Hall of Fame career. In addition to 11.0 more sacks, Selmon racked up 117 tackles, 60 quarterback pressures, three forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries, one of which he returned for a touchdown.
The 1979 season was also the first one in team history that ended in a playoff berth, as the Buccaneers advanced all the way to the NFC Championship Game in just their fourth campaign.
RB Warrick Dunn, Offensive Rookie of the Year, 1997
Dunn, the 12th-overall selection in the 1997 draft, was an instant hit with a resurgent Buccaneers team that season. Forming the famous "Thunder & Lightning" duo with hard-charging fullback Mike Alstott, Dunn was the electric half of the equation with his dazzling open-field moves. In addition to 978 rushing yards and four touchdowns on the ground, he also caught 39 passes for 462 yards and three more scores on his way to the Pro Bowl.
In 1997, the Buccaneers stunned the NFL with a 5-0 start and went on to finish 10-6, good enough for a Wild Card playoff berth and the first home postseason contest in 18 years. The Bucs beat Detroit in that game, the last one ever played in Tampa/Houlihan's Stadium and put up a good fight in Green Bay in the Divisional Round. A 14-year playoff drought for the Buccaneers had ended.
DT Warren Sapp, Defensive Player of the Year, 1999
It took two more decades to happen again but Sapp repeated Selmon's honor in 1999, his fifth season after being selected in the first round in 1995. Sapp had made the Pro Bowl and been a second-team AP All-Pro in both years as well, but 1999 was when he started to collect the big trophies. In 15 games, he racked up 12.5 sacks, 13 tackles for loss, four passes defensed, four forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries. While Sapp would actually put up his career-high of 16.5 sacks the next season, this was still a very big number for an interior lineman, particularly in that era.
With Sapp at the center of a growing defensive juggernaut, the 1999 Buccaneers advanced all the way to the NFC Championship Game for the second time in franchise history, barely losing a thriller in St. Louis to miss out on the biggest game.
LB Derrick Brooks, Defensive Player of the Year, 2002
Like Sapp, Brooks was selected in the first round of the 1995 draft, creating a historic duo, with both ending up in the Hall of Fame. A Buccaneer defense that was one of the league's best for a solid decade without interruption peaked this year and Brooks was the biggest standout. He scored a remarkable four defensive touchdowns, plus a fifth in the playoffs, while combining 118 tackles with 1.0 sack, five interceptions, 11 passes defensed, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery.
In 2002, behind a defense that allowed only 12.5 points per game during the regular season, the Buccaneers steamrolled through the playoffs, which culminated in the first Super Bowl championship in team history.
RB Cadillac Williams, Offensive Rookie of the Year, 2005
Williams was chosen fifth-overall in the 2005 draft and he began his career with one of the best starts ever for a rookie running back. The Pro Football Hall of Fame came calling for his cleats to make a display in Canton after he set an all-time NFL record with 434 rushing yards across his first three career games. While he would miss two games to injuries in 2005, Williams still managed to amass 1,178 yards, six touchdowns and 1,259 yards from scrimmage.
In 2005, the Bucs finished 11-5 and won the NFC South, just a year after finishing last in the division at 5-11. Though a stunning first-round loss at home to Washington ended their playoff run prematurely, it was still the first time the Bucs were back in the postseason since their Super Bowl win.
The thread connecting all these award-winning seasons together is that they all coincided with some of the most successful overall campaigns in franchise history. Now, you could argue that there are some causation issues here, that perhaps the great team results played into the voting for individual awards, but that hasn't necessarily been a correlation for the award that Bain is upfor. Again, Schwesinger won it last year and the Browns went 5-12. Sauce Gardner won it on a 7-10 Jets team in 2022. Washington finished just 7-9 in 2020 when their rookie edge rusher, Chase Young took home the DROTY trophy. You get the point.
Bain would be the first player in Bucs history to win the AP Defensive Rookie of the Year award if he can indeed finish atop the voting. Perhaps more importantly, if he does so, history tells us it will be a very good year for the Buccaneers as a team, too.
And now, on to your questions.
I'm super excited for the season to start!!! What is one way that the Bucs will be better this year? I know it sounds cliche, but I'd love to hear an answer back.
- Andrew V
Well, if you think the oddsmakers got it right for that whole discussion up there about Bain's DROTY chances, I think the answer is pretty obvious. In fact, it's possible that the Bucs' group of edge rushes will be one of the most improved position groups in the entire NFL in 2026.
The Bucs' pass rush was not where the team needed it to be in 2025. Overall, Tampa Bay's defensed tied for 18th in sacks and ranked 24th in sacks per pass play. According to NFL Next Gen Stats, the Bucs had 75 unblocked pressures on opposing quarterbacks last year, the most by any team in the league and a big chunk of their 251 pressures overall. This suggests that a decent portion of the Bucs' ability to get to the quarterback was the result of scheme over personnel, and it's worth noting that 12.5 of the defense's 37 sacks came from defensive backs and off-ball linebackers.
The Bucs' team-builders went into the 2026 offseason determined to focus on pumping up their edge rush potential. They had tried something similar the previous offseason by signing veteran Haason Reddick and hoping for a bounce-back season, then drafting David Walker in the fourth round, but Reddick's season was plagued by injuries and Walker, who looked very impressive early in camp, was lost for the season with an August knee injury.
The Bucs went even bigger this time around. The first strike was early in free agency, when they nabbed former Lion Al-Quadin Muhammad, who was coming off an 11-sack season in Detroit. Then in the draft, with some good fortune in how the picks fell, were able to use their top asset, the 15th-overall pick, to land Bain, who has already looked like the real deal in OTA practices. Walker is expected to be back to full strength for training camp and suddenly that edge rush rotation looks robust.
The team's returning sack leader is OLB Yaya Diaby, who has 19.0 sacks in his first three seasons but has underlying pressure numbers that suggest a much more effective edge rusher. Diaby tied for eight in the NFL in QB pressures, with 68, and his average time-to-pressure of 2.80 seconds was comfortably above the league-wide average. Not enough of Diaby's pressures were converted into sacks, but perhaps the outcome will be better in 2026 if the Buccaneers have more pass-rushers on the field at all times who are capable of frequently being around the quarterback. I also think the potential of Calijah Kancey being available for more games and providing pressure up the middle will help the edge rushers, as well.
Did any UDFAs standout during Rookie Minicamp or OTAs?
- Alan K. via app submission
Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels drew some early buzz, showing a live arm and the ability to create on the move. But another undrafted rookie who has apparently gotten off to a nice start but without the same ballyhoo is Arizona cornerback Ayden Garnes. Insiders who have watched the Bucs' OTAs so far say Garnes seems to come up with a big play or two in every practice. Of course, the usual caveat at this time of year applies, that this is just football in shorts and t-shirts, but jumping routes and getting picks is still impressive even without the pads on.
Garnes actually had stops at three different schools in his collegiate tenure, beginning with three seasons (2021-23) at Duquesne. After one year with West Virginia in which he missed six games due to injury, he finished his college days in Tucson. Garnes was a first-team all-conference choice and a team captain at Duquesne in 2023, and as a player who became a starter midway through the season with the Wildcats last year he finished with one interception and nine passes defensed. He has a nice athletic profile, running a 4.41-second 40 at his Pro Day along with a 10'9" broad jump and a 36-inch vertical leap, and he has a 74.5-inch wingspan that helps him contend with taller receivers.
I'd also suggest that cornerback is a position where a camp standout has a good chance to make the roster almost any season, even if he start out as an undrafted free agent. The Bucs have a trio of returning cornerbacks who could make up the initial starting group in Zyon McCollum, Jacob Parrish and Benjamin Morrison, but little experienced depth behind that after the offseason departures of Jamel Dean and Kindle Vildor. The other six corners on the roster (if one counts rookie fourth-rounder Keionte Scott among that group, which is somehat undetermined right now) have a combined three NFL regular season starts. All three belong to special teams ace Josh Hayes, who did not play a single snap on defense last year.
Do we know when Training Camp starts?
- Michael W. via app submission
The Bucs haven't announced their official training camp dates yet, but it should be coming soon. I'm not going to play spoiler here, but I'll let you in on a little trick. A change made in the CBA that was agreed upon in 2020 created a new rule that teams cannot have their veteran players report to training camp more than 47 days before their first regular season game if they play on the Sunday of opening weekend. The Buccaneers' first game is on Sunday, September 13, so if you count back 47 days from there, you can probably make the safe assumption that the veterans' reporting date will be somewhere there in the last day of July. Of course, you're probably really asking me when training camp practices start, and that's not the exact some answer, but at least we're in the ballpark. Stay tuned for more official information soon.
What jersey number will Rueben Bain Jr. be wearing? If you were to choose a number to wear on the field, what would you choose?
- Michael M. via app submission
Bain will don jersey number 3 for the Buccaneers, becoming just the third defensive player to wear that number in a regular season game in franchise history. Linebacker David Walker did so for two games last year and safety Jordan Whitehead, in his second stint with the team, did so for 12 games in 2024. Bain didn't get the exact same number he wore in college, but he got close. He was number 4 for the Miami Hurricanes, but in Tampa that number already belonged to kicker Chase McLaughlin, who has been entrenched in it for more than three years.
When draft picks arrive at their new team's headquarters, there are obviously a lot of jersey numbers that are already being worn, sometimes by players who have had them for a long period of time. They are usually presented with a list of options that are open and are in the accepted number ranges for their position. Occasionally, a newcomer who really wants a specific number will see if he can work out a deal to give the entrenched player something in return to give it up. It appears Bain was not nearly motivated enough to go down that road in order to remain number 4.
"I've been told it's already [taken], it's busy right now," he said at his introductory press conference in Tampa. "Honestly, it's whatever they end up giving me. I'm a little frugal, so all that, buying the jersey stuff off people, I probably won't do that. I'll just take what they give me and go play some football."
If this was a universe in which I could play in the NFL and presumably where both pigskins and actual pigs could fly I would hope to get jersey number 21. In this wildly unrealistic hypothetical in which I have NFL-level talent, I would want to play cornerback, my favorite position. And I've always felt 21 was a very cool number for cornerbacks. Maybe I just really liked Donnie Abraham back in the day.
How will Emeka Egbuka step up in the offense after Mike Evans' departure?
- Juan G. via app submission
I believe 'Mek' is going to be put in a very favorable position to succeed and the result is going to be his first career 1,000-yard receiving season. This probably would have been true even if the great Mike Evans was still around, but yes, there are going to be plenty of extra targets to go around and Egbuka should be on the receiving end of a lot of them. Let's throw out last season because of the injuries that limited him to eight games; in the previous 11 years, Evans averaged 130 targets per season. Nobody thinks that one individual pass-catcher is going to replace Evans; rather, it will be a collection of players who step up. Still, Egbuka should be at the center of everything.
In reality, we've kind of already seen this. Egbuka didn't really get an opportunity to ease into his NFL career in 2025. Chris Godwin started off the season late, Evans got hurt early and on multiple occasions, Jalen McMillan was knocked out for most of the year by a preseason injury. And Egbuka stepped up. He was the first player in NFL history with 25-plus receptions, 400-plus receiving yards and five-plus touchdown catches through his first five career games. At no point in that span were both Evans and Godwin also available, and McMillan didn't play until Week 15.
The thing is, Egbuka is in a much better situation heading into his second season. First of all, he's had some time to rest and recover. As part of the Ohio State team that won the national championship at the end of the NCAA's 2024 season, he was still playing well into the new year. After that, the Combine and all the rest of the draft preparation came up almost immediately, and then he was drafted by the Bucs and had to get to work in the offseason program. As noted, he was then thrust into the role of being the team's number-one pass-catcher and he played all 17 games in 2026. It's no wonder that all the wear and tear led to a late-season drop in his production. Egbuka averaged 75.2 yards per game through his first nine outings, but just 32.6 over the last eight games.
Moreover, with Godwin, McMillan and Tez Johnson all healthy and with the addition of Ted Hurst, the Buccaneers and new Offensive Coordinator Zac Robinson can arrange all this receiving talent more specifically to suit each player's strengths. Robinson has already noted that he intends to let Egbuka settle into the "Z" position after he was pressed into playing all the receiver spots at various points last year. That's the outside receiver spot opposite the "X" (what Evans traditionally played), which usually lines up off the line of scrimmage and is more often put in motion. Egbuka's versatility, excellent route-running and ability to work all three levels of the field should allow him to thrive in this role.
Oh, and Egbuka is also insanely talented. If you haven't alreadyseen this, go take a look.
Who is your favorite non-Bucs sports team?
- Eddie. H via app submission
Easiest question I've ever been sent. I am a die-hard, life-long St. Louis Cardinals fan who will never be able to (or want to) get off the roller coaster of emotions that produces. I've got the license plate frame on my car to prove it!
Now, for obvious reasons, the Buccaneers have reached an equal status in the rafters of my sports fandom, but I knew virtually nothing about this franchise before coming onboard in 1992. The Cardinals were my first love and that can never be usurped.
And don't worry: I'm not one of those Cardinals fans. I'm well aware of our reputation as a whole, but I'm not one of those people who believes that we are somehow the "best" fans in sports or different from any other rabid fanbase. I do however, think the Cardinals are one of the most accomplished teams in American sports. After the vile Yankees (who are not quite as vile as the Cubs), the Cardinals have won the most World Series in MLB history. Most recently, they got their 11th in 2011, so I think it's about time for number 12, especially with the current dynasty Dodgers (nine and counting) starting to breathe down our necks.
I was 13 years old when the Cardinals won the World Series for the first time in my lifetime, in 1982. I remember when Game Seven ended I ran out onto our front porch and just screamedand I wasn't the only one in our neighborhood doing so! I suppose today I would be tweeting something with 20 flame emojis instead, but that was how it made us all feel and act at the time. And here's a hint: If you meet a Cardinals fan of a certain vintage and want to quickly get themall riled up, just mention the name Don Denkinger. (The Cards should have TWELVE championships.)
