The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were one game away from making the playoffs last season. That's sad considering they couldn't finish the 2025 season with a winning record. Then again, neither did the division-winning Carolina Panthers.
Tampa dealt with a lot of injuries, and the Panthers were able to take advantage of it. The two NFC South teams were joined at 8-9 by the Falcons, who could be the team to beat in 2026.
Bleacher Report took a look at several teams that are not considered bottom feeders in 2026 and that were not playoff teams in 2025. They wanted to see which teams are "pretenders" and which are "contenders." Bucs fans would presume they would be the latter.
Bleacher Report believes the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are pretending to be contenders
Sorry, but this just doesn't pass the sniff test. A year removed from their 4th consecutive NFC South division title, the Bucs took a step back last season, but the additions they made this offseason should be enough to win them another game or two.
The addition of Rueben Bain alone stands out as an edge solution. Add in more linebacker help, offensive help at WR, and they have the makings of being better on paper and on the field.
"The Buccaneers haven't won more than 10 games in a season since 2021. The rest of the NFC South improved as much if not more than Tampa did this offseason.Gary Davenport - BR
Unless Baker Mayfield stands on his head, the Bucs look a lot like last year."
Sure, LaVonte David and Mike Evans are both gone, but Tampa wasn't relying on Evans last year, so his loss isn't a statistical loss. David's stats can be replicated by Josiah Trotter, at least to some degree. The bigger factor here is that the Buccaneers are going to be healthier than they were last year, or should be.
BR believes that the Falcons are the true division contender this year for the Panthers. That's hard to fathom given their QB situation. Michael Penix can't stay healthy, and Tua Tagovailoa is one hit away from being out of the league. Even when healthy, he is inconsistent.
The Falcons have great talent on offense outside of the quarterback. They have a top running back and up-and-coming receivers, but they also have just as many questions on defense. Let's face it: their WR room may be promising, but the quarterback play will weigh them down. Did we mention Kyle Pitts is overrated?
It's hard to agree with what BR is selling here, but we can all agree with their assessment of the Saints. They are pretenders, just like the last few years. And they will stay that way.
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