Coming off of their fourth consecutive NFC South title, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are reloading for 2025 in hopes of getting further in the playoffs than they recently have. There is little reason to believe that the Buccaneers won’t win the NFC South in 2025, but anything can obviously happen. However, from a roster standpoint, the Bucs have the better roster compared to their three rivals.
The Bucs have been doing just fine with quarterback Baker Mayfield under center. Now they just need to find a way to keep filling in the gaps to make a deeper playoff run. Up to this point, the Bucs’ most notable free agent signing was bringing in edge rusher Haason Reddick on a one-year, $14 million deal.
Reddick joins the Bucs after a miserable and forgettable tenure with the New York Jets last season where he missed a good chunk of the season due to contractual issues with the front office. Bringing in Reddick immediately boosts up the pass rush, especially since no Buccaneer last season had more than 7.5 sacks.
In addition to Reddick, the Bucs also signed P Riley Dixon, OL Charlie Heck, and CB Kindle Vildor. Tampa Bay has primarily focused more on bringing back their guys like Chris Godwin, Kyle Trask, Anthony Nelson, and Greg Gaines.
Tampa hasn’t had the biggest losses amongst all NFL teams, but they could have found a way to bring in more notable free agents to really upgrade the roster. Specifically, there are three free agents that would have heavily made the Buccaneers more stable going into 2025.
Which free agents should the Buccaneers have pursued more aggressively?
DE Joey Bosa
After nine seasons with the Los Angeles Chargers, Joey Bosa is on his way up to Buffalo where he will be pursuing a Super Bowl with Josh Allen and the Bills. This was a bit of a shock considering how it would have made more sense for Bosa to join the 49ers to be with his brother Nick, or even join the Dolphins where his father used to play.
Instead, he is choosing cold-weathered Buffalo. At the same time, that gives him the ultimate chance to finally take down the Chiefs and maybe even potentially deliver a Super Bowl to Buffalo.
While the Buccaneers brought in Reddick, the Bills spent less money on Bosa than the Bucs did for Reddick, and Bosa was more productive last season. Both of them are productive when they are on the field, but in financial terms, it would have made more sense for Tampa to go after Bosa instead of Reddick.
CB Kristian Fulton
Another Charger who left Los Angeles, cornerback Kristian Fulton is joining the Kansas City Chiefs on a two-year deal worth $20 million. Fulton spent the first four years of his career with the Tennessee Titans but never managed to play more than 13 games in a season. Yet, he still showed some signs of promise that he could be a solid corner in the league.
Fulton spent just one year with the Chargers and had a little bit of a bounce back year, especially in the first half of the season. Now he will get the chance to help Kansas City’s secondary.
Tampa Bay could have used Fulton as a rotational corner, especially given the fact that the Buccaneers only forced seven interceptions in 2024.
QB Zach Wilson
This might cause a heated discussion, but think about it for a second. We have seen starting quarterbacks go down and be out of action for a long time, and then the season all depends on the backup. Even though Zach Wilson was setup for failure with the New York Jets, he is still young to be a serviceable backup and that’s what the Miami Dolphins saw in him to bring him on a one-year deal.
Wilson, who spent last season with the Denver Broncos learning from Sean Payton, is still going to be looking for a starting job at some point in his career. However, Tampa could have easily brought him in to provide competition for Kyle Trask, or even completely move off of Trask for Wilson. He has a strong arm, he doesn’t cost a lot of money, and he’s a better athlete under center.