The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will prioritize finding a game-changing pass rusher this offseason.
The team made a splash in free agency last year by signing Haason Reddick, but that move proved to be a massive bust, sending the front office back to the drawing board.
Maxx Crosby could be available, but between the trade compensation the Raiders are expected to command and his $30 million salary, the Buccaneers may be better served exploring other options.
Trey Hendrickson, not Maxx Crosby, is the perfect solution to Bucs’ pass rush woes
Unless the Cincinnati Bengals decide to use the franchise tag on him, star EDGE Trey Hendrickson will hit the open market when the free agency bell rings.
Landing Hendrickson would require a smaller financial commitment than Crosby and, more importantly, wouldn’t cost the massive trade package that would likely include a first-round pick and an impact player just to start the conversation.
Hendrickson is coming off a down year in which injuries limited him to just seven games, and he recorded only four sacks. At 31 years old, coming off an injury-riddled season could hurt his market, and if that's the case, the Buccaneers should take advantage.
Prior to last season, Hendrickson posted back-to-back seasons with 17.5 sacks. He has reached at least 13 sacks in four of the last six seasons. That proven sack production is exactly what the Buccaneers have been missing in their defensive arsenal.
The last two Super Bowl winners, the Seattle Seahawks and Philadelphia Eagles, proved how crucial an elite front-four is to postseason success. Philadelphia didn’t blitz a single time in its Super Bowl victory over the Kansas City Chiefs, while Seattle blitzed the New England Patriots on just 13.2% of dropbacks. Despite that, both teams still created constant pressure and each recorded six sacks on the sport’s biggest stage.
That same ability to generate pressure with four was the defining trait of Tampa Bay’s 2020 Super Bowl defense. According to Next Gen Stats, the Buccaneers blitzed Patrick Mahomes on just 9.6% of his dropbacks, yet still sacked him three times and generated a Super Bowl–record 29 pressures.
Patrick Mahomes was pressured more in this game than any QB in Super Bowl history (29), passing the record of 25 by Jim Kelly in SB XXVI.
— ESPN Insights (@ESPNInsights) February 8, 2021
Tom Brady faced his fewest pressures (4) in any Super Bowl of his career pic.twitter.com/CnRaG7gR5s
This current Tampa Bay team is the antithesis of that proven winning formula, simply being unable to get pressure without relying on the blitz. But a front four made up of Hendrickson, Vita Vea, Calijah Kancey, and YaYa Diaby would immediately become one of the league’s best and transform the Buccaneers’ defensive identity.
Bucs can’t let Haason Reddick failure scare them away from Trey Hendrickson
The Buccaneers may be hesitant to invest in Hendrickson just one year removed from signing Reddick after a similar dip in production, but the circumstances couldn’t be more different.
As a New York Jet in 2024, the season before signing with Tampa Bay, Reddick appeared in only 10 games after initially holding out in search of a long-term contract extension. He graded out as the 106th EDGE defender out of 121 players, according to Pro Football Focus. His pass-rush grade (108th) and run-defense grade (84th) were among the weakest at his position.
In contrast, despite a limited sample size in 2025, Hendrickson still performed at a high level. He ranked 13th at the position out of 115 players and posted the sixth-best pass-rush grade.
The Buccaneers gambled on Reddick based on what he used to be with the Philadelphia Eagles, where he recorded four straight double-digit sack seasons from 2020 to 2023, rather than what his most recent film showed. Hendrickson, on the other hand, has demonstrated that he still has elite production left in the tank.
If the Buccaneers are serious about pursuing another Super Bowl title, adding Hendrickson is the type of aggressive move they need to make.
The team has consistently failed to address the position through the draft, with notable misses such as 2021 first-round pick Joe Tryon-Shoyinka and 2024 second-round pick Chris Braswell.
The two best pass rushers Tampa Bay has had in recent memory, Shaq Barrett and Jason Pierre-Paul, were acquired via free agency and trade, respectively. Given that track record, dipping back into that well to land Hendrickson would be a blockbuster move that could change everything for the Buccaneers in 2026.