‘4 Downs’ with Rich: the Buccaneers Biggest Questions Heading into the ‘26 NFL Season

A month ago these four downs would have looked completely different. Then Vita Vea's contract situation surfaced, and it moved straight to the top.

First down is simply how Vea enters the season, and there are three versions of it.

He can show up disgruntled, with a trade request on the table and nothing he wanted, deciding he will not leave teammates in the lurch and playing anyway while making his unhappiness clear. He can get his wish and open the season somewhere other than Tampa. Or he can be a happy camper because somebody paid him.

Nobody knows which, and that is a large question for a large man who plays an enormous role in this defense. It essentially runs off him.

Todd Bowles was asked about it and gave the answer coaches give in early August.

"It's still early. We've only been in pads for two days," Bowles said. "We're not concerned at this point. I think those things take care of themselves. Once you get past two or three preseason games, you start to worry a little bit."

He also pointed out this is the season for it, with contracts getting done all over the league, people holding in, and people nicked up. His verdict on Vea was warm.

"He's been very engaged, and he's been great."

The photographs support that. Vea is standing next to Bowles at practice, out there and engaged. He is holding in rather than holding out, because he does have a contract. He is simply not signed there in a way that makes him happy about it.

Second down is the era change. This is the first Tampa Bay season after Mike Evans and Lavonte David, two players who were there forever.

So who is the guy? Emeka Egbuka gets his chance to shine, Chris Godwin is still around, and there is a pile of young receivers behind them. But it has been the Mike Evans show for a very long time, and David anchored the other side just as long.

The question is less about production than about who the locker room leans on.

Third down asks whether the turnover eventually reaches the head coach. Rich has lost count of the Novembers and Decembers spent hearing that Bowles is on a toasty seat, and yet Bowles is still there, a steady hand who has typically gotten it done defensively down the stretch.

Last year did not follow the script. Tampa Bay started 6-2 and finished 8-9, and Bowles, a man who normally shows no pulse, let it go in a postgame press conference in a way nobody had heard before.

Now he has a young defensive secondary to lean on and a roster everyone is calling thin.

Fourth down is Baker Mayfield, everything everywhere all at once. He is not happy about his contract, every game will have an eye on him, and Rich suspects he prefers it that way, chip firmly in place.

The detail worth sitting with is the churn around him. Zack Robinson arrives as the offensive coordinator, and in Baker's fourth year in Tampa, that makes four different coordinators.

Dave Canales came first in 2023 and left to coach Carolina. Liam Coen ran it in 2024 and left for Jacksonville. Josh Grizzard had it last season, which did not go well enough. Now Robinson. Byron Leftwich had the job the year before Baker arrived.

Go back further and it never gets calmer. Hue Jackson and Gregg Williams shared duties during his 2018 rookie year in Cleveland, then Freddie Kitchens, then Kevin Stefanski, who went 11-5, caught COVID, and watched from his basement while Baker won a playoff game and nearly stole one in Kansas City. Then 2021 came apart, and 2022 put him on two teams, including a Carolina stop where he was running scout team pass rush.

Stefanski remains the last coach to call plays in Baker's helmet two years running.

Rich figured Jalen Hurts might sympathize, having bounced between coordinators since Alabama and Oklahoma, with only Shane Steichen in Philadelphia giving him the same voice twice.

Which leaves the real Tampa question. With this much change, do the second-half fortunes that sank last season turn around this time?