The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have seen what happens when Baker Mayfield is fully healthy, with a reliable offensive line, and the vast array of play-making weapons the team has had at its disposal for his entire tenure with the team.
Back in 2024, Mayfield enjoyed a career year with 4,500 passing yards and 41 touchdown passes, leading one of the NFL's best and most balanced offensive attacks while taking Tampa Bay to the top of the NFC South for the fourth straight year.
But last year, after a strong start to the season, the wheels fell off for the Tampa Bay offense, and it can all be traced back to injuries in the trenches.
All-Pro left tackle Tristan Wirfs missed five games. Starting left guard Ben Bredeson missed six games. Starting right guard Cody Mauch played through a knee injury suffered in Week 2, finishing the game but ending up on injured reserve for the rest of the season. Starting right tackle Luke Goedeke missed six games. Graham Barton, the Bucs' starting center, was the only member of the starting lineup to play all 17 games along the offensive line last season.
Mayfield weathered the storm early in the season, leading the Bucs to a 6-2 record while playing at an MVP level. But as the injuries piled up in the trenches, they started to spread to the rest of the offense, including Mayfield himself. The Bucs' quarterback started all 17 games in the regular season, but played through multiple nagging ailments down the stretch, and his play suffered greatly as a result. So did the team's record, as Tampa Bay dropped seven of their last nine games, and fell short of the postseason for the first time since 2019.
Heading into the 2026 season, all signs point to the entire starting lineup being back in place for Week 1. Wirfs is arguably the best tackle in the entire league, while Bredeson, Mauch and Goedeke have been solid when healthy. Barton may have been the most durable last season, but he's still chasing consistency after making the transition to center, having played most of his college career at Duke as a left tackle. Even so, he's a huge improvement over anyone else the Bucs have on the roster, and his experience with Mayfield over the past few seasons gives the offense valuable continuity within a vital relationship between center and quarterback.
Yes, there will be a new offensive scheme this time, but new offensive coordinator Zac Robinson comes from the Sean McVay coaching tree, the same one that produced Liam Coen, who was Tampa Bay's play-caller for the Bucs' dominant offensive campaign in 2024. There will be differences between the two, but the bones of the scheme should be similar enough to help with the transition.
Even without Mike Evans, the Bucs are still loaded with talent at wide receiver. Chris Godwin Jr., Emeka Egbuka, Jalen McMillan, Tez Johnson, and rookie third-round pick Ted Hurst III give Mayfield plenty of dynamic weapons to use downfield, and Cade Otton (who re-signed on a new three-year deal this offseason) gives him a reliable presence at tight end.
Tampa Bay replaced Rachaad White with another stellar third-down back in Kenneth Gainwell in free agency, and with a healthy Bucky Irving and the return of power runner Sean Tucker, the backfield should be solid in 2026.
Mayfield himself will be highly motivated to deliver big numbers this season, too, as he's currently heading into the final year of his contract without a long-term extension in place.
All the ingredients are there for Mayfield and the Bucs to field another top-five offense this season. But none of that will matter if the offensive line falls apart again.
