The Buccaneers looked like Super Bowl contenders at their Week 9 bye. Since starting 6-2, Tampa Bay’s championship dreams have evaporated.
So what has gone wrong for the Bucs, who are 1-6 since their week off?
“I don’t know,” running back Rachaad White told JoeBucsFan.com after the latest failure, at Miami. “It boils down to for me, how I look at it, just being honest, we all just got to look in the mirror. We all gotta have a level of pride, a level of care. And right now, we all just, you know, are kind of floating around and blowing in the wind. So I think we need to come out with our piss hot and let’s see what happens.”
The “look in the mirror” line first emerged in the aftermath of the fourth-quarter prime-time collapse against the Falcons, during coach Todd Bowles’s post-game F-bomb fest, which he punctuated with this message: “Look in the fucking mirror.”
Mirror gazing hasn’t worked. Nothing has worked.
Injuries have been a factor. Especially for, we believe, quarterback Baker Mayfield. He has a habit of playing through anything/everything, without ever complaining. But some injuries impact performance. His miscues of late (six total turnovers in the last four games) may trace to the fact that he’s playing hurt.
Mayfield is currently on the report with right shoulder and knee injuries. Limited in practice on Tuesday, he fully participated on Wednesday. He’ll undoubtedly play on Saturday, in a win or go home (and win and maybe go home a day later) showdown with the Panthers.
To his credit, Mayfield refuses to sit. His determination should be infectious. For whatever reason, not enough of his teammates have been sufficiently inspired by Mayfield’s approach.
It all comes down to Saturday. And the end result could entail the entire franchise looking in the mirror (starting with ownership) and making some important decisions about any and all changes that may need to be made in order to get more out of the roster in 2026.
There’s some positive news on the injury front for Tampa Bay’s starting quarterback.
Baker Mayfield was upgraded to a full participant on Wednesday’s injury report after he was listed as limited for Tuesday’s walk-through.
Mayfield is dealing with right shoulder and knee injuries.
Though he’s been listed with different ailments in 2025, Mayfield has not missed a start this year. He’s completed 62.8 percent of his passes for 3,490 yards with 25 touchdowns and 10 interceptions so far in 2025.
Offensive tackle Tristan Wirfs (toe) was also upgraded to a limited participant after he was listed as a non-participant on Tuesday. Cornerback Benjamin Morrison (hamstring) was upgraded from DNP to limited as well.
Cornerback Jamel Dean (shoulder) and outside linebacker Anthony Nelson (knee) remained DNPs.
Offensive tackle Luke Goedeke (ankle) and defensive tackle Calijah Kancey (pectoral) remained limited.
Tight end Devin Culp (knee) remained full.
There’s some good news on the injury front for the Panthers with their Wednesday practice as they get ready for Saturday’s game against the Panthers.
Running back Rico Dowdle was upgraded to a full participant after he did not participate on Tuesday with a toe injury.
Head coach Dave Canales had said that Dowdle was more sore than usual coming out of Sunday’s loss to the Seahawks.
Dowdle leads the Panthers with 1,066 yards rushing this season. He’s also caught 37 passes for 277 yards.
Linebacker Krys Barnes (back) also returned to practice as a full participant on Tuesday.
But cornerback Robert Rochell (concussion), linebacker Claudin Cherelus (calf/ankle), and tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders (fibula) remained DNPs.
Defensive tackle Tershawn Wharton (hamstring), guard Robert Hunt (biceps), and receiver David Moore (elbow) remained full.
Another year, another Week 18 game in which the winner will become the No. 1 seed and the loser will hit the road as a wild card against a team with a lesser record.
In the aftermath of last year’s battle between the 14-2 Vikings and 14-2 Lions, Detroit proposed (at the urging of the league) that the teams be seeded regardless of division championship. No more home game for the best of four bad teams who are assigned to a given division.
The proposal never made it to a vote, because it would have failed. But it’s widely believed the Commissioner wants it. And it’s widely believed he’ll keep pushing for it.
It’s also believed in some key circles that it will happen when the season expands to 18 games.
The timeline for the inevitable addition of another regular-season game isn’t known. But it’s coming, by 2031 at the latest — unless the NFL Players Association successfully staves it off.
For now, the current seeding could result in, for example, the 13-4 Seahawks visiting the 8-9 Panthers in the wild-card round. Yes, despite the five-game difference, the Seahawks would have to return to Carolina, where they won only three days ago, 27-10.
In the AFC, the Ravens (at 9-8, if they win on Sunday night) could be hosting a 12-5 team the following weekend.
Right, wrong, or otherwise, it’s moving in that direction. In time. And while it will create important questions about scheduling equity (really, why play two games against each division rival?), the easy answer is it doesn’t matter.
The man whose signature is on every football wants it. Eventually, he’ll likely get it.
The Panthers have been the NFL’s most consistently inconsistent team this season.
A win over the Jets in Week 7 capped a three-game winning streak and lifted the team to 4-3 on the season, but the last nine games have featured no streaks in either direction. The Panthers lost to the Bills in Week 8, beat the Packers in Week 9 and they have kept alternating between losses and wins since that point.
Quarterback Bryce Young’s performances have followed a similar pattern. Young threw for 448 yards and three touchdowns in a Week 11 win over the Falcons and then threw a pair of interceptions in a loss to the 49ers the next week. He followed that up with a strong game to lead a win over the Rams and things have flip-flopped from there.
Week 17 was a down week for Young, which led to a question on Tuesday about whether he finds it easier to turn the page from a bad outing.
“You’re not going to like the answer,” Young said, via the team’s website. “But it’s really not any different. Again, good and bad come with sports, and I think that’s the maturity you have to have at this level. Coaches challenge us with it, and you really have to take it to heart, good or bad, you feel like things went well or didn’t, you have to flush it the same way. You have to have the same approach. So, I’ve been trying to do that for a while now, so, at this point, it’s the same.”
The big picture for the Panthers would look better if they could stack winning performances, but recent history says that Young and the Panthers are due for a good performance against the Buccaneers in Saturday afternoon’s battle for the NFC South so they’ll sign up for another rollercoaster ride to close out the regular season.
