The 2026 Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a very interesting team, because there’s no way to know if what happened in 2025 will lead to a reload or a rebuild.
Starting with Baker Mayfield’s situation.
In his first two seasons with the Bucs after signing a one-year, $4 million contract in 2023, and following that up with a three-year, $100 million deal with $40 million guaranteed in 2024, things went about as well as anyone could expect. In 2023 and 2024 combined, Mayfield finished:
- Third in the league in passing attempts (1,136)
- Third in completions (771)
- Second in passing yards (8,544)
- First in passing touchdowns (69)
- First in interceptions (26 — yes, this is a problem); and
- Seventh in quarterback rating (100.7).
2025 looked like a continuation
of the two prior seasons, until it didn’t — for all kinds of reasons, Mayfield’s season split cleanly in two from an efficiency perspective, as the Bucs finished 8-9 after starting the season 6-2.
The splits, per Sumer Sports:
First Half (Weeks 1-9):
- Attempts: 269
- Completions: 172 (63.9%)
- Yards: 1,919
- Yards per Attempt: 7.13
- Touchdowns: 13 (4.8% TD rate)
- Interceptions: 2 (0.7% INT rate)
- EPA per Attempt: 0.161
- Average Depth of Target: 8.6 yards
Second Half (Weeks 10-18):
- Attempts: 274
- Completions: 171 (62.4%)
- Yards: 1,774
- Yards per Attempt: 6.47
- Touchdowns: 13 (4.7% TD rate)
- Interceptions: 9 (3.3% INT rate)
- EPA per Attempt: 0.057
- Average Depth of Target: 7.5 yards
This was not all Mayfield’s fault. The 2025 Bucs had nine different offensive line combinations, and most of his primary weapons — receivers Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, and Jalen McMillan, as well as running back Bucky Irving — all missed serious time. And Evans, who may be in the Hall of Fame when all is said and done, is of course now with the San Francisco 49ers.
This has led to all sorts of agita regarding Mayfield’s future with the team. His current contract is set to void on February 16, 2027, and right now, talks regarding an extension have stalled. If Mayfield goes elsewhere next season, Tampa Bay will likely need to replace him in either free agency or the draft, as the current depth chart of Jake Browning, Connor Bazelak, and Jalon Daniels probably isn’t going to scare the rest of the NFL anytime soon.
So, a team that hasn’t advanced further than the Divisional Round of the playoffs since Tom Brady and a suffocating defense led it to a win in Super Bowl LV at the end of the 2020 season could be looking at another sea change sooner than later. In the interim, if these Bucs want to get back to the postseason after narrowly missing out in 2025, it’ll take everyone pulling together — not just the stars, but also (perhaps especially) the guys whose on-field exploits have not yet presented them with the national recognition they deserve.
To that end, I’ve identified three Hidden Gems for the 2026 Buccaneers — one underrated veteran, one underrated free-agent signing, and one underrated rookie.
Underrated veteran: DL Yaya Diaby
One player who is on the verge of stardom in this defense is Yaya Diaby, the 2023 third-round pick out of Louisville who has been quite the pressure machine in his NFL career, and is starting to get the sacks to match. Diaby actually had nine sacks with just 30 pressures in his rookie year, and he matched that sack total last season with 62 pressures.
“We thought he was one of our best pass rushers, and the best at the time,” head coach Todd Bowles said of Diaby’s 2025 season in February. “He had more pressures than everybody; he just didn’t finish them. We thought he became a much better player. He wasn’t thinking as much, and some of his sacks, it could have easily turned into being a 15-sack year. He is playing his tail off, and he works at it. So really, the way he played, you didn’t have the result that you want, but the way he played was unbelievable.”
I’d be less likely to split hairs with the nature of Diaby’s play last season — he also had 33 solo tackles, 33 stops, 13 tackles for loss, and a forced fumble — but when you consider that Bowles now has Rueben Bain to add to the defensive front, perhaps Diaby’s efforts will be thusly magnified.
Regardless, if there’s a next level for Yaya Diaby, he appears to be right on the precipice of it.
Underrated free agent: LB Alex Anzalone
Big changes are coming to Tampa Bay’s linebacker corps with the retirement of future Hall of Famer Lavonte David. Second-round rookie Josiah Trotter should get a lot of starting reps, and the Bucs signed former New Orleans Saints and Detroit Lions ‘backer Alex Anzalone to a two-year, $17 million contract with $12 million guaranteed.
Not a bad deal for a guy who, in 2025, had 68 solo tackles, 44 stops, three sacks, 18 total pressures, and four tackles for loss. Perhaps most importantly for what Bowles will want him to do, Anzalone allowed 40 catches on 61 targets for 409 yards, 156 yards after the catch, two touchdowns, one interception, seven pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 88.8.
“He has a more complex system than what I am used to, but it has been pretty easy to pick up and communicate and understand what he is trying to accomplish,” Anzalone recently said of Bowles’ defense, and his role within it. “I think the biggest thing for me as a linebacker is trying to see what he likes to call in certain situations and understanding him as a play-caller as opposed to the actual playbook.
“You look at mismatches that offenses look for, and a lot of tight ends around the league they look at, because of their size. When you get a safety covering them, they obviously have the size advantage. Me being a longer, athletic linebacker, I am able to do that role, and I know now that I am going to be asked to do a little bit more than I have in the past and it is a benefit – God-given.”
The tape doesn’t lie in this case. Anzalone can provide legitimate coverage everywhere from the box to outside cornerback leverage.
Every defense needs a green dot guy in the middle of it, and while Anzalone certainly isn’t Lavonte David in his prime, he has the capacity to make this contract look like a massive bargain when he’s at his best.
Underrated draft pick: DB Keionte Scott
I almost put Georgia State receiver Ted Hurst here, because I became a big fan in the pre-draft process, but when the Bucs took Miami defensive back Keionte Scott with the 116th pick in the fourth round… well, that was going to be my guy. I would have taken Scott a lot higher, based on his play and playing personality, and I really don’t care that he’s 5’11¼ and 193 pounds.
Last season for the NCAA runners-up, Scott allowed 39 catches on 56 targets for 332 yards, 214 yards after the catch, no touchdowns, two interceptions, five pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 69.9. Scott also had five sacks, 20 total pressures, five tackles for loss, two forced fumbles, 51 solo tackles, and 36 stops.
Basically, everything you want a modern cornerback to do, Scott can do it — he just can’t be 6’1”.
“Yeah, we’re going to look at him [at outside cornerback],” Bowles said of Scott in May. “We’ve got to move our guys around, because when you make cuts, you don’t have that many. We’ve got to be able to have some versatile pieces.”
Scott’s five sacks last season were especially interesting, because they all came on blitzes in which he was on the same side of the defense as edge-rusher Rueben Bain… and didn’t the Bucs take that Bain guy in the first round?
“Yeah, I think you’ve got to shout out Rueben Bain there, being on the same side,” Scott said after he was drafted. “You’ve got to kind of worry about him a little bit, so that allowed me to kind of be freed up. We work with each other, and that’s why this is so special to me and so special to him, because we’ve built something already, so getting to build on that…
“But then, ultimately, I would just say understanding that at the end of the day when you get sent on a blitz, your brothers are [back there]. I play defensive back, so I understand how it is when you’re blitzing and you’re waiting, [like] ‘Somebody better get home.’ So, I just take that in mind that I’ve got my brothers back there, and when I get that call to go, I take that with me on the way.”
Bowles has historically sent his defensive backs on blitzes at a higher rate than any other NFL defensive shot-caller, so that’s one more way in which Keionte Scott is a great fit for Tampa Bay’s defense — just as he would have been a great fit for any other NFL defense.
