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February 19th, 2026

Injury helped doom Bucs.

Joe is not sure the Bucs ever recovered from a hard-fought road win at Houston in Week 2 last year.

Two guys work in the trenches that Joe thought would have really good seasons last year. Yet injuries tanked their seasons.

The obvious one is Calijah Kancey. Like prickly Pete Prisco of CBS, Joe thought Kancey was going to blow up. Instead, a torn pec in Week 2 imploded him. He didn’t return until the final week of the season.

Joe is sure Kancey’s injury hurt the defense.

Then on offense, Cody Mauch blew his knee. He was lost for the year. That really hurt. Joe thought Mauch was going to possibly make a Pro Bowl. Joe has been that impressed with Mauch and his contact-searching mentality.

(Right tackle Luke Goedeke aggravated a foot injury in the same game and was lost for nearly two months.)

So Joe isn’t sure the Bucs ever got over those injuries. They treaded water for a few weeks but Baker Mayfield started feeling the impact, in a bad way.

Mayfield got beat up playing behind a makeshift line and it eventually doomed the Bucs who missed the playoffs for the first time since this decade.

Joe brings this up because Ryan McCrystal of Sharp Football Analysis had an interesting stat on pass blocking for the Bucs in 2025.

Allowed pressure in 2.5 seconds or less on 24.3% of dropbacks, ranked 26th.

No wonder Mayfield got beat up.

And please don’t misunderstand: Joe is not blaming Mauch for the Bucs imploding and Mayfield getting pummeled. Joe is just highlighting how the Week 2 game proved so costly and that the domino effect began with Tristan Wirfs having offseason surgery and before you know it, every starting Bucs offensive lineman other than Graham Barton was hurt.

Not once did Mayfield take a snap behind his projected starting-five offensive line in 2025. That surely did not help.