The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had the NFC South in their hands in the 2026 season, but a collapse midway through the season allowed the 8-9 Carolina Panthers to take a playoff spot away from them, all while creating some doubt about Jason Licht's ability to build a winner in the future.
Licht will need to get back on the right track this offseason, and the best way he can achieve that goal is to look at some of the dead weight from the 2026 season and clean them out. Tampa isn't able to completely splash the cash everywhere else on the roster, which means they need to be very judicious about how they hand out contracts in free agency.
Based on how these four players performed last season and where the Bucs are from a roster construction point of view, it seems incredibly unlikely that any one of these four players will be retained by a front office and coaching staff who needs a serious bounce-back season.
4 Buccaneers players Jason Licht can't bring back in 2026
4. WR Sterling Shepard
The Bucs were able to resuscitate Shepard's NFL career by making him a part of the Baker Mayfield-led passing game in the last few seasons, but the time has come to move off someone whois a little long in the tooth and let some of the younger additions take center stage here.
3. DT Greg Gaines
Gaines is on this team to be a run-stuffing defensive tackle, and Pro Football Focus shows that he didn't even do a good job of that last season. With the 2026 NFL Draft standing out as a very good class for space-eating tackles, Gaines appears to be a very replaceable player at this time.
2. RB Rachaad White
White has seemingly confirmed that his time in Tampa Bay is done on social media, and it's hard to form an argument that states they should bring him back. White was Wally Pipp'd by Bucky Irving, and his lack of big-play potential puts some limitations on what this offense can be.
1. EDGE Haason Reddick
Reddick signed with the Buccaneers after taking a sledgehammer to his value within the league with his puzzling Jets holdout. After tallying just 2.5 sacks in 13 games, the Bucs' need for a pass rush was amplified by Reddick looking nothing like the player who hit double-digit sacks with regularity in Philadelphia.